Unveiling || Satyameva Jayate || 2.7 with (lots of) *new* features!

As some of you know, I completed a major upgrade last week of my self-hosted blog. In a perfect world, this is hardly a cause for celebration…but those of you who deal with tech issues know that nothing is ever certain with software upgrades – especially when one has tinkered with the original version!.

So I am taking a moment to congratulate myself (and thank my stars!).

Most of the changes (and optimisation) that happened as a result of upgrade will not be *visible* to you as a reader but I hope at least some of you have noticed faster loading of pages and smoother navigation.

I also took this opportunity to try out and introduce a number of new features. This is still on-going but there are a few major changes that I would like to mention here.

1. Improved “Subscribe” button: Clicking this offers you a range of options to read my blog in your RSS reader. The major downside of RSS feeds is that you may miss the comments and the very interesting discussions that happen after a post is published. You can also choose to “Subscribe by email” by typing your email address in the box below the button.

2. Introduced ReSnooze: This is a “reminder” feature mainly for those of you who either travel a lot and/or are not online most days. What this does is to send you an email reminder to visit the blog once every week . By the way, you can use this service ti set up a reminder for other things too.

3. Introduced Google Friends Connect: At some point in the near future, I want to turn this blog into a full-feature social community site. Friends Connect is a step in that direction. Please do join.

4. Introduced Comment Notification: This is a feature that was long overdue and several readers had requested this in the past. I am very pleased that from now on, you can follow comments on any post of your choice (this assumes that you have mentioned your correct email address in the box! Email addresses are of course not visible when your comment gets published)

5. Introduced Google Custom Search Box: Just below the Friends Connect box. I have found this to be very useful to locate specific posts. Please do use this to find the relevant thread when posting a comment. You can also use the “Categories” drop down menu to find posts related to a specific category.

6. Introduced Suggestions Tab: You can use this tab to suggest a topic/subject on which you would like to see a post.

Please do try these features and let me have your feedback.

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In addition, I would highly appreciate any specific feedback you may have regarding the following:

Google Ads and Links: What do people think of ads? Do they intrude on your reading experience? I am quite happy to remove them…They do not make any serious contribution to my finances…but all the money that I get (via these ads) goes to charity. So I might decide to continue…Comments/Thoughts welcome.

Recent Posts: I highlight the last 15 posts in the right side bar. Is this useful or you generally ignore it?

Recent Comments: At the moment, the right sidebar shows 18 recent comments (limited to the 3 most recent for any single post). This is a markedly different practice from most other blogs which usually only show the 5 recent comments. Again, Is having these many comments on the page useful?

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The blog is nearing its fifth anniversary and there are a number of other features that I would like to introduce over the next few months… Looking forward to your feedback and thoughts on this and other changes.

Thank you for your support, patience and encouragement…as always.

Jai Hind, Jai Bharat!