Comments on Blog functionality

While many of the new features provided by Blogger make the upkeep and arrangement of a blog much easier it would be nice if a few complementary elements were also added.

I guess in particular I am thinking about the ability to add cross references (x-refs) in the label section, though this may just be a library student bias.

X-refs allow two things, referral to additional, possibly relevant, information or to the location where the location where the desired information is actually stored. The first type of x-ref is call a ‘see also’ reference while the second type is called a ‘see’ reference. In the days of the card catalogue these were quite common, and in some ways are still quite common in the world of indexes.

A ‘see also’ reference would be good when related information would be filed under two or more distinct terms. One example might be that a items relating to George Bush would be filed headings related to his position as President, as well as his position as Governor, and as a private citizen.

A ‘see’ reference might indicate that instead of information being filed under ‘Dubya’ it is instead filed under ‘Bush, George W.’ In other words, it directs the user to the authorized form of the heading.

With our current level of programming skill these references can typically be made available to the use in a very easy fashion. ‘See also’ references might be made available as a note with the label, while a ‘see’ reference might even be done automatically.

Some form of controlled vocabulary, or list of available labels, might be nice. Unfortunately, given the circumstances of the blogging world I don’t think that this is yet possible, though Neil and I could work on one for ourselves, though this would be aided by the ability to use the x-refs that I mentioned above.