LiveWriter update, KML and Google Maps, Google Maps API and AJAX, Google SearchWiki.

• Writer Zone: September, 2008

  Windows Live Writer Beta: Now Available for Download

Windows LiveWriter is a brilliant offline webblog tool that allows you to edit your blog entries for all the popular blogging tools, including blogger and wordpress.

This latest version adds many features – including

Image and video publishing enhancements

• Insert videos from Soapbox and YouTube
• Upload videos to Soapbox and YouTube
• Image cropping and tilting
• Additional border styles for images (such as reflection and rounded corners)
• Support for LightBox and other image previewing effects (like Slimbox, Smoothbox, and others)
• Support for centering images

There are some other nice to haves such as wordcount and auto-linking that makes this the must have for serious bloggers.

(tags: livewriter windows wordpress blogging microsoft editor offline live writer)

• Adding KML Google Maps overlays to WordPress posts | reviewmylife

  Adding KML Google Maps overlays to WordPress posts

  Embedding basic KML Maps into your blog post. This blog entry explains in easy steps how to embed KML data into your blog post. KML is a file format used to display geographic data in an Earth browser such as Google Earth, Google Maps, and Google Maps for mobile. KML uses a tag-based structure with nested elements and attributes and is based on the XML standard. All tags are case-sensitive and must be appear exactly as they are listed in the KML Reference. The Reference indicates which tags are optional. Within a given element, tags must appear in the order shown in the Reference.

  There is an easy way to include Google Maps KML overlays in your WordPress blog if you are willing to have all the size and style information hardcoded into each post. All you have to do is to go to http://maps.google.co.uk/ type the KML location into the search box and then click on ‘Link to this page’.

(tags: maps google embedding howto tutorial kml wordpress overlays)

Working with Google Maps – .net magazine

/AJAX/ Working with Google Maps

10/10/2006 | Filed under Develop > AJAX

Rik Lomas shows you all the techniques you need to incorporate AJAX into your site and use the Google Maps API to best effect

Whoever would have thought that Microsoft could devise something that reignited interest in web development again and started a whole new wave of Web 2.0 sites? AJAX, which stands for Asynchronous JavaScript And XML, is a technique (rather than a technology) that exchanges small amounts of data with servers that are working behind the scene. Basically it means that web pages don’t need to be reloaded for them to receive new data. AJAX relies heavily on the XMLHttpRequest object, originally a Microsoft ActiveX object, which is used for establishing a connection between the client side and the server side.

(tags: xml webdevelopment google maps howto tutorial web2.0 programming)

Multimedia Australia: Customized Google searches: what they mean for you as a website author

Customized Google searches: what they mean for you as a website author

This month Google launched a new service called Google SearchWiki, which lets users customize their Google search results by adding, deleting, re-sorting or commenting on webpages. The feature is available to all users with a Google account [Watch a demonstration video produced by Google here…].

Watch a video about the new Google WikiSearch

Changes that users make only apply to their own search results and not those of others. However, comments can be shared with other users, and aggregate data of how other people have moved, added and deleted pages can be viewed.

Since Google is the dominant search engine, it is important to consider how the new Google SearchWiki feature will effect you as a Web author.

(tags: google wiki search wikisearch)