New web blocks and more!

November 17 2010, 5:26am

Yesterday we released an update to the Web Pages app that adds some great new features and gives it a fresh coat of paint. The biggest change is in the page editor. You'll notice that the web blocks menu has recieved a makeover and there are now some new Facebook and Google web blocks to try out as well.The big reason for the change in the menu layout was to make room for even more blocks while still keeping everything simple. We've added a new category at the bottom called "plugins". This category contains all the web blocks that integrate with other 3rd party sites like twitter, google, facebook, and others. New Google BlocksSite Search - With the new site search block you can add a Google Custom Search box to any of your pages to allow visitors to easily seach your website. Google Translate - This block allows you to add a Google Translate box on any of your pages that will automatically translate the text on that page into a different language. Awesome.New Facebook BlocksLike Button - You can now put those Facebook Like buttons that you see all over the place anywhere on your website. This is a great way for visitors to share your content with friends over Facebook. By default it will "like" whatever page the button is on, but you can even set it to a different URL like your own Facebook Page if you want.Like Box - If you have a Facebook page setup for your company or organization, you can use this block to display information about it. This will show a stream of all your Facebook Page updates as well as who else has already become a fan of your page.Other New FeaturesIn addition to the new blocks, you might notice that the whole look and feel of the app has been slightly reworked to feel a little more modern. You might ask "What was wrong with the way it looked before?". Good question. Nothing really, but I'm obsessed with UI design and I'm always looking for ways to make it better so that's why I did it. Hope you enjoy it.Also I've updated the save button so that it no longer needs to ask you "Are you finished editing?" after every time that you save a page. Small detail but trust me, it really helps. Oh, and I almost forgot. I've fixed it so that the mouse wheel should now properly scroll the pages while you are editing them.That's it for now. On to the next project. As always if you have some suggestions on things you'd like to see added, let us know!