BlogTivo

Okay, we've got a confession. As writers, editors and publishers of the Walktopia blog, we play it pretty loose-and-fast with edits and dates. In fact, we post and edit blog entries at all hours, sometimes 4 or 5 times in a 24-hour period.

It's terrific to be prolific but in Google's Blogger (programmer and host of this cost-free blog), the practice has two interesting effects. First, there are multiple copies of the same entry in the blogsphere. Second, entries composed on the same day are lumped together within the blog.

While we can't change the edit trail RESEARCHERS will find in blogsearch, we've quickly learned how to improve the blog's look, flow and usability for VIEWERS by using Tivo-like date-shifting.

For example, over time we notice that some of our entries are variations on a theme. When it's logical to place them together, we do so by shifting their date. Likewise, we go ahead and edit any entry that needs it or that can be improved by inserting new info.

Constructive critics may say we should simply use the "Draft" button more. Our theory is that it's better to publish entries as works-in-progress than have a cache of drafts waiting to be polished before publication.

Lucky for us, Google's Blogger makes it super-easy to continuously improve Walktopia blog. We're eternally grateful for this resource.