New Developer's Release Available

We've been working hard over the past two months on our next beta release of the Zoundry Blog Writer. Before we release it to the general public, I wanted to let readers of our blog try it out first. You can download it here from our forum. Note that it is a developer's release so you should review the release notes on the forum download page.

There are a number of new improvements:

1. Easier tagging: We now provide an easy way to add tags for Technorati, Flickr, Buzznet, del.icio.us, and 43 Things. Just type out a list of tag words and the Blog Writer will automatically add them to the bottom of the post when you publish to your blog. Tags can help you broaden your readership by adding your posts to these social bookmark services that are becoming a preferred starting point to find content on the Web.

2. Weblog pings: Now you can ping Technorati, Weblogs, Blo.gs, Ping-O-Matic, and My Yahoo! when you post to let them know that you have new content at your blog. Your post will then be indexed more quickly.

3. Trackback support: This allows you to inform other bloggers when you write a post about their post. Your trackback will be shown below the originating post and can help drive more readers to your blog.

4. Merchant storefront product links: In addition to creating individual product links, you can also create affiliate links for an entire product category, like digital cameras, that will result in a listing of all matching products offered by a merchant. If a reader purchases any of the products listed, you earn a commission on the sale.

5. Quick Links: You can easily link to a variety of web services, including the tagging services mentioned above; reference services like Answers.com, Wikipedia, and the Merriam-Webster Dictionary; and search engines like Google, MSN Search, Technorati Search, and Yahoo!

6. We now have limited support for Movable Type and WordPress using XML-RPC. A lot of you have written in requesting this, so we're counting on you to help us test!

7. And we have added many UI improvements and features based on user feedback, including a more streamlined publishing dialog, easier selection of categories, image resizing and rethumbnailing, post properties, and many more.

Our goal continues to be to hide the complexities of web publishing so you can do more in less time. And as always with the Blog Writer, you'll never have to bother with editing HTML. Thanks for your valuable feedback and please continue to send us your suggestions via email or posting to our forum.

Technorati : Blog Editor, Blog Tool, Blogging, Wordpress, Zoundry
Del.icio.us : Blog, Blogging, Tool, Wordpress, Zoundry