Three Columns Rounders Template

This article is specifically catered to those using the “Rounders” template and wish to add a third column or another sidebar to their current template.If you are using other templates, please refer to our articles and guides on:-1. Three Columns Denim Template;2. Three Columns Dots Template;3. Three Columns Minima Template;4. Three Columns Rounders 2 Template;5. Three Columns Rounders 3 Template

Links - Hover and Rollover Effects

Add an identity to your Blog by customizing the text links in your post and sidebars with nice rollover effects, colors and highlights. Learn how to remove the underline under the links. For the purpose of this article, we have changed our template such that you will see a different text color when your cursor is over the links, and a highlighted background color when the cursor is over the

Links, Labels open in New Window

In our previous articles, we discussed the code for making the text and image links in your Posts open in new windows or tabs when clicked. However, to have the links in a Link List and Labels that are normally in the sidebar widgets open in new browser windows or tabs, you would need to change the HTML code in your template. Here, we shall talk about the hack that you can put into your

Star Power

Posted by: Jay Davies, Community Manager


If you've created a Custom Search Engine you've likely encountered the term 'URL patterns': the method for specifying sites and pages to include in a search engine. You can create a Custom Search Engine without ever giving URL patterns much thought, but there's added control that comes with understanding how they work and how best to use them. To that end, here are a few tips on creating useful URL patterns.

The simplest type of pattern is the URL of a specific page. You can use an asterisk (or star, in techie vernacular) as a wild card in your pattern to specify a swath of URLs by identifying their common characters. Here's how it works: rather than add each page of www.site.com to your search engine, you can merely add www.site.com/* and we will include every URL that begins with www.site.com. Similarly, rather than individually adding each subdomain of site.com, you can use the star to include them all: *.site.com will apply to www.site.com, server.site.com, etc.

Because most users adding sites to their search engines expect the subpages to be included, we've made the addition of the star the default behavior. This is what we mean in the Sites tab of the control panel when we say 'Include all pages whose address contains this URL.' If you leave that option selected, we will add a star to the end of whatever URL you provide. Additionally, if your URL is just a domain (like site.com/), not including a sub-domain (like www.site.com/ or server.site.com/), we will add a star at the beginning. This means:

• site.com/ becomes *.site.com/*
• server.foo.com/ becomes server.foo.com/*
• othersite.co.uk/ becomes *.othersite.co.uk/* (yep, we handle two level top-level domains correctly)
  

If you'd like to control exactly where stars get added, you can select 'Include just the specific page or URL pattern I have entered.'

Another way to use patterns is to identify and distill common characters among a set of pages you'd like to include in your index. For example, if I know that all car review pages on my favorite consumer reviews site contain the words 'car' and 'reviews' in the URL, I can create the pattern www.reviewsite.com/*reviews*cars and include these pages. (I just need to be careful that only the pages I want contain these terms, or I may include more than I bargained for.) These types of patterns are especially useful when creating search refinements.


There is also one more application of the star, which is before a top-level domain like .edu or .ca. One use of this pattern is for when you'd like to refine a search by country: for example, you can create a pattern like *.ca and refine your search to Canadian web sites only. That said, you cannot otherwise insert a star into the second-level domain, such as www.*.com or www.dogs*.com. For a few more concrete examples of URL patterns check out our documentation.

The careful creation of URL patterns allows you greater control over the content of your Custom Search Engines, and can be particularly helpful when breaking up a site's content for refinements. Patterns may also help reduce the overall number of sites in your Custom Search Engine account, so look for redundant URLs that can be included more economically by the use of, shall we say, a little star power.

Blog Widgets, Gadgets and Add-ons (I)

In this series, we shall list the free, popular, and interesting web widgets and gadgets that you can consider adding to your Blog. Widgets are elements that extract the services or content from other sites. Some of these widgets are useful, providing your readers with news, information, and reference tips. Others may be just fun and games which make your Blog a little more interesting and

Blog Widgets, Gadgets and Add-ons (II)

This is a continued list of Blog Widgets, Gadgets and Add-ons which you can include into your Blog. If you have not read the first part, please check out Blog Widgets, Gadgets and Add-ons (I). You may also consider having a chatbox, shoutbox or message board on your Blog. We ended with AuctionAds which can earn you some extra revenue. We begin this second part with a fun widget that you can

Background Image for Blogger Header (New)

We had recently noticed several changes and additional features to the Blogger layout. One of the notable and much welcomed change is the ease of adding a picture banner or image to the Blogger Header, as highlighted by our reader, dumper. The new steps covered in this article will supercede the previous articles titled “Background image for Blogger Header” and “Add Picture Banner Link to

Random Header and Background Images

A reader CeElle asked how the Header banner and Blogger background picture can be rotated so that they show a different image every time the page is refreshed or reloaded. While we could use the format of a slide show, the timing of rotation would be fixed. We think we have a simple enough JavaScript that randomly calls for a new Header banner or Blog background image whenever the Blog is

Remove Older Post and Posts (Atom) Links

In the new default Blogger templates, you will see at the bottom of the page the words “Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)”. On every other page, you there are the words “Newer Post”, “Home” and “Older Posts”. These serve a good purpose. Nevertheless, some people may like a neater layout by removing these links and this guide will discuss the simplest method that involves minimal change to the

AdSense Code in Blogger Post Body

One of the known tips for improving the performance of your Google AdSense ads is knowing where to place the ads. In this guide, we shall discuss the modification you can make to your Blog template to have your Google AdSense ads appear between your post title and post body, or between your post body and post footer. Also, we shall have the AdSense ads appear on every individual post.Choosing a