Go Ahead... Search My Blog!

Every so often, I get the urge to leave Blogger and move on to greener pastures. I wish it was easier to categorize blog articles, for example, as it is with some of the other hosts. The majority of the blogs I read regularly, in fact, seem to use other hosts.

But there are workarounds for most of Blogger’s deficiencies. And it does have some redeeming qualities, not the least of which is that it’s free. And Blogger continues to improve, even in the few months since I began blogging in earnest. I wonder if this has anything to do with the takeover by Google.

But there is one apparent advantage that may also be related to the Google connection. It is very easy to search a Blogger blog. I was only vaguely aware of this benefit until recently. It was up there in the Navigation bar, but who really looks at navigation bars? Then one day, I was trying to find one of my own articles where I used a certain phrase, and it wasn’t at all obvious from the title. So I typed the phrase into the “Search My Blog” box, and lo and behold, there it was. This is quite handy, even within Platinum Years, because I am astonished to say that this is my 105th article. Who knew that I could prattle on and on about so many topics that I know so little about :-)

I don’t know why this little search feature amazed me because I search the whole internet all the time. But it did, and now I use the blog search feature all the time, and not just on my blog, but on my regularly visited Blogger blogs, like GRACEFul Retirement and Insureblog. Has Grace ever written on social security? Just search on it. Was it Hank Stern who wrote that article on annuities? Find out in a snap.

I’m like a kid with a new toy, the same as I felt when I discovered the “Find on this Page” feature of Internet Explorer … Never heard of that? Just hit Control-F. Right now... Go ahead... I'll wait.

Oh and here’s one more trick with search. When you link to a specific article in Blogger, it’s not easy to get back to the “beginning” (the most recent article) in that blog. You can go up to the address bar and remove the reference to the specific file, leaving just the blog’s name. But another easy way is to just enter the word “a” or “the” into the search box, something every article would have. Yep there they all are.

So I think I’ll stay with Blogger, at least for now. And maybe I’ll work on that “categories” workaround. Maybe, but not tonight. - Bob

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