I just realized that while you must have obviously noticed the new page design, I haven’t explained any of the new features in the sidebars. So here’s a quick note about each one starting with the left sidebar:
- First, you’ll see a search bar that acts like any search engine
- Below the search bar, you’ll see this month’s calendar with some dates hyperlinked in red. These are basically links to the posts written and posted on those dates. Again, simple and direct…
- The archives links let you pull up the entire listing of my posts by month and year
- The RSS link My Pictures takes you to an external page where all my photo albums are stored. The feed on this page pulls up the three most recent albums.
- The next column down contains links to current news articles I’ve enjoyed reading. Most articles I share with you here will be from the The New York Times website.
- Finally, the recent posts column is pretty self-explanatory.
The right sidebar:
- The first widget is by Meebo, which allows you to see my online status and either chat with me if I’m online, or leave me a message if I’m offline
- Next up is a map widget which, for now, has been customized to show you where all I’ve lived so far. If you click on the diamond-shaped placeholders, a bigger map showing more detail will pull up with notes left by me about my connection to that city/town. I’m thinking of other cooler ways to use this widget, so if you have any ideas, leave me a comment!
- The VodPod widget allows me to share my personal videos as well as others I find on the net (like YouTube) with you
- And last, the hit-o-meter lists the number of page hits since this new design went public.
That’s it with the stuff on the new page for now… happy exploring!
