Google Previews Blogger Updates

Google is giving users a glimpse of some updates coming to Blogger this year, as well as providing a retrospective of the platform's growth in 2010.

"2010 was a big year for Blogger," the platform's product manager Chang Kim wrote in a blog post. "Blogger users published more than half a billion blog posts, which were read by more than 400 million active readers across the globe."

Google is previewing Blogger's new user interface this week at SXSW.

"The design is not only cleaner and more modern, but it also uses Google Web Toolkit, delivering the latest in Web technology," Kim wrote.

He revealed some screen shots of the Blogger update, including a glimpse of the new dashboard and the revamped post editor. An accompanying video cited some impressive stats; for example, half a trillion words were written on Blogger in 2010.

Kim said the listed new features are just a part of what's to come to Blogger this year.

Last year, Blogger achieved the status as one of the biggest blogging platforms, Kim said. Citing Alexa's list of the top 500 sites, Kim said Blogger became the sixth most-visited Web site in the world. Google.com is number one, followed by Facebook, YouTube, Yahoo, and Windows Live.

Kim referenced some impressive stats about Blogger's growth last year. In 2010, more than 400 million pairs of eyes read more than a half a billion blog entries posted by Blogger users. New features including a template designer, real-time stat counter, improved spam filtering, upgraded mobile experience, Web fonts, and other bells and whistles were added