Creating an expanded posts or a post summary which is known as “Read More”, “Continue Reading”, “Read the rest of this entry”, in blogger.com / blogspot used to be a tedious task. You need to read and implement this article in order to have a “Read More” in a blogspot post.

Not anymore. With Google Sidewiki, what you need is just put the code <!– more –> in a blog post whenever and wherever necessary. Precisely like “Read More” in wordpress.

Here’s the simple guide:

1. Login to your blogger.com
2. Click “Setting” -> Basic.
3. Scroll down to Global Setting -> check the “Update Editor” -> Save Setting. Done.

Now, try to write an article.
1. Click Posting -> Click COMPOSE (if the post editor not already in a Compose mode)
2. Click tab “Insert Jump Break” the tab on the right side.
3. Now, click the “Edit HTML”. There will be a code <!– more –>
4. Write above the code something you want to show on the front page, and below the code the post you want to hide and will be shown only after a reader click the “Read More” button.

Other functionalities of Google sidewiki and an intro

Sidewiki is a new Toolbar feature that lets you add helpful information alongside any page. These entries are visible to any Sidewiki user and can easily be posted to your blogs on Blogger.

Functionalities:

Improved Image Handling

When you upload an image to the new post editor it will appear as a thumbnail in the image dialog box. That way, you can upload several images at once, and then add them into your post at your convenience. The thumbnails will be available until you close the post editor.

When you add an image from the dialog into your post it will be placed at the insertion point instead of at the top of the post.

In wordpress, this function has already been there. In blogger / blogspot the picture we want to insert used to be placed on the top by default, we have to move to where we want it to be. With this new editor the problem is gone.

If you don’t like where an image is in your post, you can drag it around to another spot. If you drag it towards the left side of the editor it will float to the left, likewise for the right, and if you leave it in the center it will be centered. You can drag the image between paragraphs and other block elements. Unlike in the current editor, dragging in the new editor preserves the link to the full-size version of the image.

This one is even better than wordpress can do

You can easily resize or remove an image with the image size “bubble.” Click on the image (Firefox 3 users may need to double-click) to bring up the bubble, and resize the image instantly. You can resize any image, including ones added by URL, but if you resize an image that was uploaded through the post editor we resample the image on our servers to keep the download size small.

Other New Features
# Add your location to your posts with geotagging
# Posts are now timestamped at the date and time they are published, not when they were orignally created.
# Vertical resizing. You can now change the height of the post editor by dragging the resize handle in the lower right (near the labels field). The size is saved in a per-user, per-blog preference.
# Easy link editing in Compose mode. Just click a link and you’ll have the option of changing its URL or removing the link
# Full Safari 3 support on both Windows and Macintosh. The old editor is pretty quirky on these browsers, but the new editor works as you’d expect.
# New Preview dialog that shows your post in a width and font size approximating what you’d see on a blog.
# Placeholder image for tags (such as those from video embeds) so that you can see and drag them around Compose mode.
# New toolbar. This toolbar looks better, loads more quickly, and has undo and redo buttons. By popular demand, the full justification button has returned. We’ve also added a strike through button and improved the color palettes.

See and learn more here and here.

It drives me crazy whenever I create a blog in blogger.com just to find out another day that that blog has been marked as spam with this warning message:

This blog has been locked due to possible Blogger Terms of Service violations. You may not publish new posts until your blog is reviewed and unlocked.

This blog will be deleted within 20 days unless you request a review.

Request Unlock Review

When you follow the “Request Unlock Review” link, you’ll be redirected to fill out a secret code and send it to who-knows-where. It promises to send you a email response which usually never comes. Blogger.com notoriously famous with its deft-ear support team which never comes back to you.

That’s why when you got such warning, you as though talk to robot which is the case:

Your blog is marked as spam

Blogger’s spam-prevention robots have detected that your blog has characteristics of a spam blog. (What is a spam blog?) Since you are an actual person reading this, your blog is probably not a spam blog. Automated spam detection is inherently fuzzy and we sincerely apologise for this false positive.

On behalf of the robots, we apologise for locking your non-spam blog. Please be patient while we take a look at your blog and verify that it is not spam.

It’s in this area–user support team– where wordpress.com has far outperformed blogger.com and that’s why many people ready to volunteer for it.

We need a wordpress plugin to make a SEO  title in our self-hosted wordpress blog and along with it a price. Since we cannot make it until we have our own domain, which is not free. For those blogger / blogspot users, however, you can do it just by a little tweak in the edit-html admin panel.