Google polishes up Blogger site

Google plans to introduce on Monday a redesigned Web site for its personal publishing tool, Blogger. The new features are aimed at making it easier for average people to run their Web site. Still a free product, the Blogger revamp will enable people to publish to the Web via e-mail, a personal digital assistant or a cell phone; to create simple "About me" pages that can be linked to multiple Web logs; and to enable readers to post comments to their sites. It also provides more than 30 templates for "blog" layout, according to Google.

"As blogging has taken off, it's started to reach more mainstream users," said Evan Williams, founder of Blogger parent company Pyra Labs, which was bought by Google last year. "Our focus has been to bring it to a wider audience."