I Want to Use iWeb for Blogging, But I Won't

iWeb 2 is pretty cool. It is easy and intuitive. Yet, it lacks several desirable features. Its commenting system is not very good. Its archive is unpleasant. Google can't crawl it because it saves all text as images. I thought about using it and set up a template for it, but I determined it wouldn't be worth it. I would have to give up Blogger's comment moderation, labels, archives, and search. I would also have to resize and edit the new blog post template every time I want to write a post. Posts have their own template in iWeb, but the default size is smaller than what I desire. I don't want the hassle of having to do all that work for a short post (or a long one).

Maybe when iWeb doesn't make text into images, it receives better comment moderation, a better archive, and labels, and it can save templates I will switch over to iWeb. Until then, I am sticking with Blogger.

Why Google Reader?

I began to use Google Reader recently to organize and read my RSS feeds. I used to use Safari, and I thought I would use Mail 3 when I got Leopard to view my feeds. Nothing was wrong with Safari, and Mail worked good too. But then I thought, "I could check these throughout the day while on my iPhone if I use Google Reader."

As a result, I switched to Google Reader. I can check them all throughout the day on my iPhone. Something interesting comes up, and when I have a moment to read, I check it out. I don't have to wait until I get home. Plus, Google Reader enables me to set up a blog roll, which you see in the right column of this blog. This comes as an advantage, for I used to have to manually update my own blog roll when I would add feeds to Safari, but now Google Reader does it for me.

Google Reader is nice also because it can be accessed anywhere--from any computer, phone, or gadget, provided the device is connected to the internet.

Overall, Safari and Mail have good RSS capabilities, but in terms of my own needs, Google Reader suits the job quite nicely.

Ready to Switch to Leopard

I am ready to switch to Apple's latest operating software, OS X Leopard. I would love to be able to do it right now, but I need to wait due to funding.

I am looking forward to a better Spotlight, from which I can launch applications and will no longer need Quicksilver, a third-party application. I am looking forward to the cool iChat and Mail features for viewing chat sessions and emails. I am looking forward to Quick Look. I am looking forward to a lot of stuff in Leopard, but most of all, I am looking forward to doing a trial run with Mail and Google Mail's IMAP.

So far, in Tiger, as I already reported, I am having issues with Mail and Gmail's IMAP. Mail does not update correctly. I will look at an email in my inbox on my iPhone, and the IMAP should show the email as already read, but when I get home, Mail has not updated and the message appears unread. A minor issue, but a pesky one still. I am hoping that Leopard will operate similarly as the iPhone, so that I won't give up on Mail altogether.

The 300+ features that come with Leopard will be nice. But most of all I am looking forward to testing out Mail and Gmail.

Goodbye, Mail, Hello, Gmail Notifier

I relented and decided to give up using Apple Mail in order to strictly use the browser-based Gmail.

The decision was based on the frustrating inconsistency of Apple Mail's handling of IMAP for Gmail. I have three places that I receive email--my PowerBook, iMac, and iPhone. They all check the same IMAP Gmail account. The reason why I use IMAP is so that I do not have to read a message as "unread" on all three mail viewers. Well, the iPhone use is perfect, but the Apple Mail's use on the PowerBook and iMac is far from it. They inconsistently update the connection with the Gmail server so that the emails are not synced. With Gmail Notifier I no longer have this problem, and I can use Gmail as my default email program.

Sorry, Apple. Until you can figure out how to get a better system working with Gmail's IMAP, I won't be using Mail. Perhaps you did fix the issue in Leopard, but I do not have that system yet. Bummer.