Some Site Enhancements

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 11/15/2007 01:06:00 AM
Dear readers, in my relentless quest to improve your site viewing experience [dramatic flourish], I have added some site enhancements [yay!?] First, I have changed the search engine from the default Blogger search to a Google custom search engine. The new, improved search feature is on the right hand column and is entitled "Search IPE Zone." Try it out. I've even managed to incorporate the IPE Zone logo of a stylized "Z" that took me, oh, about five minutes to make on an icon creator site somewhere. Fun stuff.

Second, I've neglected to mention this for the longest time, but I've added the [pretty, color-coordinated] Snap tool which pops up whenever you hover over a link to somewhere outside of the IPE Zone. It helps you get a sense of where I'm linking to before you go there. Whenever I link elsewhere and especially to large PDF files, I think it's good to let users know what on earth I'm linking to. Also, it comes in handy whenever I link to podcasts (like this summary from the Economist) or video clips (like this one from WEF) which can be played in the Snap bubble without leaving the site. If you'd rather do without the Snap tool, click on the gear icon in the upper right hand corner when the bubble pops up and select "Disable."

Last, I'm still looking for a three-column layout to replace my current two-column layout. I've noticed that most visitors run at better than my 1024x768 resolution, leaving a lot of empty space on the margins for those with higher resolutions. If you have suggestions on where to find a good 3-column Blogger Beta layout, do drop me a note. Thanks!