A simple test

I have created this blog by using a default (Blogger supplied) template.

The gadgets in the sidebar were selected one-by-one from the Blogger most popular gadgets (at the time), using the default settings supplied in the setup (Pretend I'm a beginner .. how would I know what to select for the "advanced parameters"?).

hmm.. that looks strange.. now what? 6 out of 6 have bad widths!!

Can someone please tell me how I should fix this problem (without editing the template file)? Comments Anyone?

When I upgrade to a new template, how do I keep these gadgets (or will they adjust correctly)?

BTW this simple test took less than five minutes.. including typing the content (above this line)!!

Combine these + the top one + the seven I found before.. 14 out of 14 BAD GADGETS.. Sure I can make them work other ways (direct from GFC, iGoogle) or by editing template files to fix them.. but think about the new user or the competition. Here is a "scary" conversation where I defended Blogs! Most of my sailing friends are starting to move to FaceBook for everything.

Bloggers need/want easier solutions

Most novice bloggers have never seen HTML let alone published "their own blog". To them it's a personal reflection on their style and stories. They'll pick the Blogger way because they think it will be the easiest way to accomplish the task. When the basics fail, they feel like they've failed.

Imagine if this blog was the result of your efforts, success or failure? Blogger needs to do more to help the user become successful and do the right thing!! Image scaling is a perfect example, I just noticed I can drag the image to scale it.. but it doesn't adjust the url of the underlying photo for size. If the user blows it up too big, it looks grainy, too small and it can cause performance issues. This could easily be addressed it the code that provided the functionality, instead it gets passed downstream to become a user and a customer support problem. What about photo captions? Try doing that without HTML!!

Your tag line Push Button Publishing.. is really what they want!!