Wordpress and Blogger: both have good news for bloggers!

Let me share that both, Wordpress and Blogger, have come with some interesting features on their blogging platforms.

Wordpress has been working on Gutenberg project, one of whose main aims is to make posting of rich text easier on the blog editor. The other one is to migrate the web-design of blogs/ websites to be created using Wordpress to a more customizable 'block' based design of websites. This has already been on offer as a plugin, but the formal release is expected with Wordpress 5.0.

Wordpress promises that users will be very satisfied with these new features. It also says, 'it is just the beginning'!

You can download Gutenberg and learn about its features here: Gutenberg by Wordpress

Coming to Blogger. This platform had announced in May about some cleaning more than new features. That included discarding OpenID and third-party widgets. 

But recently, Blogger has issued a new app, Blog Compass, for blogging. On both Android and iOS, this app is presently available only in India and is reported to have some bugs such as not being able to find existing blogs. 

Blogger says, it is migrating all the existing blogs to a new cloud-based storage system called Spanner that is very robust and has 99.999% uptime. 

happeningheads

Happening Heads
http://www.happeningheads.com

 
"We blog across various categories because we just can't stop ourselves from sharing the happening experiences we have while exploring the beauty of world through traveling, drooling in the lusciousness​ of delectable food, keeping a close eye on latest fashion trends, revealing a part of our luxurious lifestyle, sharing our expertise on technology, bringing you all the action from leading events of the country, interacting through personal articles and more."

- Priyanka RP, Prathamesh Avachare

3 top blogs by expatriates in India

When you live in a country other than where you spent your young age, you observe everything with a curious mind. It leads to great human discoveries. When you share them with others, in person, those many people know about that country from a new perspective. When you run a blog or website where you share your insights, that becomes an invaluable resource.

I share below three beautiful and resourceful blogs by expatriates in India. Indians as well as outsiders would find their worldview interesting.

1

The White Hindu is Ambaa's blog, in existence since 2012. In the last six years, she has written in her blog on Indian culture and society, and Hindu religion and philosophy. The blog is part of Patheos portal, which is devoted to religion and spirituality. 

Ambaa describes herself and the blog thus: An American woman of European ancestry who practices Hinduism. She has been involved in Indian philosophy since 1982 and Indian culture since 2004. She loves to learn about people’s spirituality and how they find meaning in their lives.

2

Antonina, Ukrainian by birth, has been maintaining a nice blog, India Palette, for the last four years.

Her take about how her initial years in India were, in one sentence: I’m amazed, horrified, puzzled, fascinated, irritated, pleased, flattered, intrigued, furious and happy. If it makes any sense at all. 🙂
Now things are much calmer, she says. 

About the blog, she says, it deals only with travel and not inter-cultural talk.

3

Madh Mama is a 7-year old well-maintained blog by Alexandra, a Canadian by birth. 

I fell in love and married my soulmate... and then I inherited a big fat South Indian family. Here is my unfiltered view of what it's really like... to be a finarngi bahu*, is how she sums up her blog and her living in India. 
*= foreigner daughter in law