Webware

Despite increasingly better software, blogging on phones is still a real pain compared with doing it on a regular computer. However, credit is due to WordPress, which has gone to great lengths to make the latest version of its iPhone app much better for users to both create and manage their blogs on a small screen (and without a keyboard).

Besides a new look, one of the biggest changes is that the app remembers exactly what you were doing between sessions, so that if you quit it, or get a phone call, it will take you right back to the page or menu you were looking at. This also keeps you from losing anything you hadn't saved if you're interrupted--even if you were in the middle of a writing a sentence when your phone rang. This should change the beginning of such a conversation from "I am so mad at you right now" to a simple "hello."

In addition to remembering what you were doing, the app does a much better job at letting you manage user comments. The approval screen itself looks almost identical, but the app now lets you quickly switch between the ones that have been approved and the ones that still need to be looked at. It also displays each users' Gravatar (user icon) next to their username and URL, which ends up taking up a little more space than it did in the previous iteration of the app but adds a sense of familiarity with its desktop sibling.

Other small changes include the app remembering which order you uploaded the photos in so that they display in that same order in your post. Although the app still hasn't been updated to include videos, which means 3GS owners will have to add whatever video they shot through WordPress' Web interface instead. The app also now stores passwords in a user's keychain, which means those credentials could be accessed by other applications you may want to give access to later on down the line--like, say an app that lets you post videos to a WordPress blog.

Oddly enough, the new WordPress app is completely different from the original, which still exists but will no longer be updated. The company attributes this to having switched between having an outside contractor make the first version, whereas this new one was built in-house.

The new look makes it simply to hop between comments, posts and pages. User Gravatars are now visible too.

(Credit: WordPress)

Google announced on Tuesday that its Google Analytics Web site-tracking tool has been improved with a slew of new features for enterprise-class users.

To start things off, Google announced that it has added the option for users to measure user engagement and branding success. The company said users will be able to "to set thresholds for Time on Site and Pages per Visit."

With the help of a new feature called Advanced Table Filtering, Analytics users will now be able to filter content more effectively and view that content in a table. According to Google, users can "filter thousands of keywords" to find, for example, "just the keywords with a bounce rate less than 30 percent and that referred at least 25 visits."

Going mobile
Google is also looking towards mobile phones. Analytics will track traffic to the user's mobile Web site. According to Google, whether or not the device visitors use to access the mobile site has JavaScript running won't matter, which means most mobile phones will be supported. That said, users who want to track mobile traffic will need to add "a server-side code snippet" to their mobile site. Google said the code will be made available in the coming weeks.

Continuing on its mobile focus, "iPhone and Android mobile-application developers can now also track how users engage with apps, just as with tracking engagement on a Web site," Google said.

For those users who want more capable usage data than simple page views and unique visitors, Google has added a Multiple Custom Variables option. Users can now "define and track visitors according to visitor attributes, session attributes, and by page-level attributes. This feature isn't currently available to Analytics users. It will be making its way to all user accounts "in the coming weeks," Google said.

Intelligence, anyone?
Perhaps the most interesting announcement coming from Google is the company's contention that Analytics can now "tell you what to pay attention to."

Dubbed Analytics Intelligence, Google's new tool will analyze traffic data and alert users when there is a "significant" change in data patterns. Although the company didn't define "significant," it did say that if it sees a "300 percent surge in visits from YouTube referrals" or "bounce rates of visitors from Virginia dropped by 70 percent two weeks ago," users would be alerted.

Since so-called "intelligent" tracking can get a little annoying at times, Google has also implemented a Custom Alerts feature, allowing users to tell the service what to watch for. According to Google, users can set "daily, weekly, and monthly triggers on different dimensions & metrics, and be notified by e-mail or right in the user interface when the changes actually occur." Like many of the other features Google announced, Analytics Intelligence will make its way to Analytics accounts in the coming weeks.

If you're interested in learning more or seeing some of these features in action, click here.

WPtouch from Wordpress.

(Credit: Wordpress)

In an attempt to make its blogs more mobile-friendly, Wordpress has launched two themes that will automatically be displayed when a Wordpress.com blog is accessed from a cell phone, the company announced Tuesday.

The type of mobile phone a user employs dictates what the different blogs will look like, the company said in a blog post. A modified version of WPtouch will be displayed on phones with "modern Web browsers like those on the iPhone and Android phones," the company wrote. A second, unnamed theme from an old version of Wordpress Mobile Edition will be displayed on all other mobile devices.

The themes will be displayed automatically, regardless of the themes used for normal browsing.

According to Wordpress, those who access Wordpress.com blogs from their iPhone or Android-based devices will be able to access the particular blog's "posts, pages, and archives." WPtouch will also support AJAX-based "commenting and post-loading." Header images will be scaled to fit the device's screen.

Those accessing blogs on other phones won't be treated to all the bells and whistles. According to the company, those visitors will see a simple page that focuses mainly on loading blog content as quickly as possible.

The decision to automatically display two themes was rooted in the success of mobile devices, Wordpress said in the blog post. So far, the company said, mobile devices have helped its Wordpress.com blogs generate 60 million page views per month. But content was loading slowly or, in some cases, not at all. By automatically displaying these two themes, Wordpress can limit those issues.

If you're a Wordpress.com blogger and you want to learn more, click here.

Since I spend so much of my time writing on the Web, I've come across some tools that have helped me become more efficient. Of course, there are lots of resources available to bloggers, so I should note that I don't expect this roundup to be the "be-all, end-all" of blogger helpers.

Everyone has at least a couple tools they find extremely helpful. Share your favorites in the comments below. And if you're a Firefox user, consider trying out these 15 add-ons, designed specifically for bloggers.

Get more productive

After the Deadline If you want to make sure that your blog post is properly edited, using After the Deadline might be your best bet. The app, which can also be downloaded as a WordPress plug-in, analyzes your blog posts to ensure that your spelling and grammar are correct.

I first came across After the Deadline when it was acquired by Automattic. Since then, I've been quite impressed by the service. It's almost invariably accurate and useful. After the Deadline is available as a WordPress plug-in so it automatically analyzes your posts, but the site also provides a "demonstration module" for those who don't use WordPress.

After the Deadline is for anyone looking to improve their writing.

(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

Copyscape If you're concerned that there are sites on the Web stealing your content, Copyscape is worth checking out. The service allows you to input a URL into the search field. Once you do so, it finds sites that may be copying your pages for their own gain. From there, it provides a links to those sites, so you can see what exactly is being copied.

If you're concerned that your content is being used for purposes you don't approve of, Copyscape is a site worth checking out.

Find out if someone is copying your site with Copyscape.

(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

So many blogs, so little time. If you feel like the blogosphere is passing you by, check out Regator, a new app that culls the Web's best posts.

An offshoot of the eponymous Web service, Regator (agg-regator, get it?) differs from traditional RSS feed readers in that it doesn't rely on you to choose the blogs you want to follow.

Instead, the app employs "qualified human editors" to bring you "topical, well-written, frequently updated, and relevant" posts. In other words, the cream of the blogosphere crop, at least according to these guys.

You can browse the posts any number of ways, starting with "popular" items from the Web at large or looking within a couple dozen specific topics (from Academics to "What the?").

Regator also provides a full directory of more than 500 topics, so you can really drill into the areas that interest you most. (Beekeeping? Check. Museums? Check.)

Metaplace is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, or MMORPG, that runs in Flash. It doesn't have nearly as many users as Second Life, nor the cult following of World of Warcraft.

But in an announcement that could go a long way in helping the service expand beyond its 6,000 active users, Metaplace worlds can now be embedded into a blog.

Once that embed is complete, Metaplace users can play in the world right on the blog. If the blog author adds multiple embeds of different worlds, the gamers can be in each of them simultaneously.

Is Metaplace really the kind of service that would make you want to create a world and embed into your blog?

Metaplace worlds can now be embedded in blogs.

(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

I had the chance to try out Metaplace. And although it has some issues, for the most part, the service is well worth a gamer's time.

Given that Generation Y is often pegged as narcissistic, lazy, having high expectations, craving the limelight, and other such flattering characterizations, one might expect we'd be Twittering as if it were breathing. After all, Twitter is known as a place where people expose the most minute details of their lives--missing the bus, stubbing a toe, toasting an English muffin.

But a recent survey from Pace University and the Participatory Media Network shows that only 22 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds use Twitter, while 99 percent have profiles on social networks.

This may seem surprising on the face of it, but as a member of the Millennial Generation myself, I have some theories as to why it might be true. To see why we're not into Twitter, I'll have to revisit the start of the social-networking timeline: MySpace.

We Gen Yers spent hours on MySpace customizing our profiles and making them perfect representations of us (or rather, who we wanted to be). We couldn't wait for our friends to comment a new photo: "New pic, please comment!" MySpace made many of us feel popular, or even famous. I remember posting a new profile picture and refreshing the page in anticipation of responses.

Jean Twenge, psychologist and author of "The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement," calls this phenomenon "self-branding." People use MySpace as a portal for creating their own personal brand, Twenge says, complete with photos, custom banners, gossip, and fans (friends). One of the most successful self-branders is Tila Tequila, who tactfully used MySpace to achieve status as one of the users with the most friends on the site, and later parlayed that fame into a career as an MTV reality star.

My status is better than yours. Neener!

(Credit: Sharon Vaknin/CNET)

Though we weren't international superstars, my friends and I were content on MySpace. But fast-forward a couple years to Facebook. It proved to be a difficult transition: where were all the flashing graphics, purple fonts, and exhaustive, multimedia-laden About Me sections? Why weren't the number of photo comments shown? Every user's profile looks the same, and at a glance, it seems self-branding is not easily attained.

The clean design of Facebook deemed decked-out profiles and artsy photos passe, but the site provided us with a new form of self-expression--"What are you doing?" status updates, which became the new platform for what Twenge describes as my generation's narcissistic need for attention.

What Facebook intends as a forum for sharing, Gen Yers see as a game of show-off. A quick look at my news feed and I see "Melissa" (name changed to protect the innocent) is having "one of the funnest nights of her life," and "beer and vodka make a interesting combination oww." 'Nuff said.

Brendon Nemeth, a 22-year-old San Franciscan whom I met this spring, says he updates his status to "keep family and friends informed on what's going on that's interesting in my life."

We no longer impress our friends with profiles that represent us through our creative flourishes, but rather with profiles that spell out what we're doing. (Out of fairness, our status updates don't always revolve around happenings at the local bar; plenty of us want to share our work promotions or volunteer activities, too.)

When Facebook implemented its news feed, users formed groups to oppose the feature. Now our status updates are ... Read more

Community members of Six Apart's Movable Type platform (MT) are launching a new blogging service on Tuesday. Dubbed "Melody," it's an open-source version of MT that community members are free to build on and change.

Unlike previous open-source efforts though, this one is the first to break off (or "fork") from the main product, allowing for much faster and drastic changes. In many ways it's an answer to WordPress, a competitor of Six Apart that began as an open source project and has benefited from rapid development because of it.

Even though it's going in a different direction as MT, the group of users that are creating it hope that many of its community-created features will make their way back into that product. "The word fork is a very charged word," says Byrne Reese, who has been one of the leading contributors to MT, and was its product manager at Six Apart for two years. He's now helping to head up the Melody project and organization that will manage it, the Open Melody Software Group.

In a call with CNET News on Monday, Reese said that everyone who is participating in the project has a love for MT, and that Melody is simply a way to get some new community-driven features into it at a faster pace than what's previously been possible. "When you are an enterprise product it comes with a lot of overhead," he said. "Change in the enterprise world can be dangerous. So that's been one of the great challenges, and where a lot of the pent up desire to contribute comes from."

Reese and the other community members behind Melody aren't trying to get rid of MT though. "What we really hope to do is build on top of what Six Apart has done, and what it's actively doing," he said. "When you have a commercial product, I think your priorities as far as feature development goes, are naturally going to gravitate towards the features that make the paying customer happy."

That also means a faster progression of new releases. While MT is getting a new major release every six months or so, Reese is expecting Melody's to be much faster. "We want to create features that stem from real need. But we also don't want to do that at the expense of being able to draft off the experience of Six Apart. The company is often the first to create new standards. When there's a new service that comes on the market you can expect that Six Apart will be one of the first to have it. If we didn't draft off that we would fail."

Instead, Reese wants Melody's feature set to become the "bleeding edge" of what the MT platform is capable of by implementing community-driven features that can coexist peacefully alongside the work of Six Apart. Although he admitted that doing that while making sure that changes can migrate over to the other platform will be a challenge. "What melody hopes to do is to merge those two sides of the coin. We hope to exist somewhere in the middle," Reese said.

Melody is being released as an early alpha version on Tuesday, with a version 1.0 release later this year. Reese says that this initial version is less "sexy" as much as it is a re-architecting of the core of the existing MT service to more easily integrate code from third parties. "I don't know what the right metaphor is...but I like to think of Melody as a leading edge of a knife. A very long, thin knife. Hopefully we can start to make these little changes, and features that amount to something much bigger."

Correction at 7:15 a.m. PDT: The spelling of Byrne Reese's first name has been fixed.

Well, here's an innovative way to get some buzz: FBHive, a new blog devoted to the discussion of all things Facebook, has debuted with the revelation that its creators have discovered a hack that can expose some crucial profile data.

No, it won't expose your personal photos or wall posts. But, FBHive says, it can bring up all the "basic information" that you have entered into your profile, even if you've elected to keep that information private. This is the section that includes location, gender, relationship status, relationships (significant other, parents, siblings), political views, religious views, birthday, and hometown. That's enough to be a problem in the identity theft department, as it could easily expose frequent password hints like dates of birth and mothers' maiden names.

Security holes are nothing new to social networks: last year, Facebook plugged a leak that exposed members' protected photos via the Facebook mobile site, and another hole was discovered about a year ago that exposed members' birth dates.

Admirably, FBHive has not shared the details of the newly discovered hack; more disconcertingly, it said Facebook has done nothing since it alerted the social network to the issue earlier this month.

"We are not malicious hackers, by any means, and our skills are far from advanced," the post read. "We here at FBHive are fans of Facebook, but when a security hole as big as this is discovered and brought to (Facebook's) attention, it shouldn't take 15 days to fix."

A Facebook representative said the company is currently "looking into" the matter and will have more information soon.

UPDATE at 11:14 a.m. PT: "We have identified this bug and closed the loophole," an e-mailed statement from Facebook read. "We don't have any evidence to suggest that it was ever exploited for malicious purposes."