A Quick Test of the Blogo 2 Blogging Application

Blogo 2

Update: After using Blogo 2 for a while I decided to use Marsedit 3 instead. It’s a much more mature product right now. 

I decided I wanted to try a new blogging application and stumbled onto Blogo 2. After installing it I had problems at first because I could only see the first 16 pages of content on my blog. But after contacting their support, they  found out the problem (a weird character in one of my posts) and even logged in and fixed it. So my initial impression of the support for the application is very good. I just wished that the application supported Markdown and have a way of synchronising to Dropbox so I can switch between my computer and my iPad. But for quick posts like this (and if everything works because I haven’t pressed the Publish button yet) this could be a useful application. And there is sync with Evernote so that might work in a pinch.

Quick thoughts

When uploading images, the application renames them into a cryptic number instead of the original filename. For example 1410822474.jpeg instead of blogo_icon.jpg which was the original name for this entry. That’s not good for SEO because Google takes the filename of the image into consideration as well when indexing your content.

Image size

When adding a picture, you can set the image size. Unfortunately it doesn’t work when you use a WordPress plugin for displaying images in Retina quality. I’ll hack around and see if I can find a solution to this problem. Otherwise the image handling seems ok.

I like the minimalistic interface when writing. No distracting things are displayed while editing (even images are shown as gray boxes, unless you preview or hold down the Alt-key) that keeps you concentrating on doing the actual writing. I like that.

Evernote

There is a sync function for syncing your blog posts to Evernote, This gives you the ability to edit on your iOS devices or on another computer. I tried both ways and the sync worked as advertised. Nifty little feature.

Safari Plugin

There’s a Safari plugin so you can post images, videos or quotes directly from Safari which is a nice touch.

HTML

There’s no HTML editor. I can understand the reasoning behind not including it, making the program less intimidating, but let’s face it, you still need to be able to write HTML when blogging. So pretty please with sugar on top, please add it. You can even hide it as a setting in the Advanced section of the preferences.

I’ll have to give this program some time and see if I like this way of blogging. I’ll be back with a more comprehensive walkthrough later on.