Blue Dot releases features for Bloggers and Video Viewing and More

We've been rolling out some new features over the last couple of weeks. In case you hadn't noticed, I'd like to highlight a few for you:

• Full Size Video Player - You can now watch full sized videos without leaving Blue Dot. Just click on the player image of the dot you want to view, and a player will automatically pop up.
• Save to Favorites - Many users have asked for a light weight way to remember their friends dots, or highlight their favorite dots. Just click on the Save to Favorites link, and it's immediately added to your favorites list. All your favorites are displayed on your user profile (My Dots page) in the right column. Click View All to see a whole page of your favorite Dots.
• View Counts - Want to know how many times people are clicking on the Dot you create? We now show you at the bottom of each dot (Viewed: N times). Your dot is seen many more times than this, but this tells you how often people wanted to click through to see the original web site (or how many times the video is played).
• More Buzz - You'll notice widgets at the bottom of your home page that show you popular content from other users on Blue Dot that is related to the recent Dots you and your friends have created. It's a great way to find popular content from the whole Blue Dot community - so remember to scroll to the bottom of the page once in a while to take a look.
• Yet More Buzz - Blue Dot is unique in creating a page of all the popular dots about virtually any topic. We've created a comprehensive directory of all the most popular Buzz pages at http://bluedot.us/YetMore.aspx. (or just click on See All Topics... and the bottom of the More... page).
• Auto-Blogging - Many of us use Blue Dot as an easier way to blog about topics we care about. We've created an experimental feature that will post your Dots back to your blog each night. See some samples at My Blog and The Puget News. You can try this out for yourself by visiting our Auto Blogging page (we support Blogger, Typepad, Wordpress, and Moveable Type).

Export your Faves [aka Dots]

Many of our users have asked for a way to export their dots so they can:

1. Backup their data.
2. Feel comfortable that they are not locked-in to Blue Dot while they are in "trial" mode.
3. Can take their data to other bookmarking services.

We've implemented an export feature so you can now get all your dots downloaded into a single file. We use the standard browser Bookmark File format (supported in IE and Firefox, e.g.). You can use this file to read your Dots offline (it's just an HTML/Web page you can save on your local machine), or import this file to other bookmarking services (including del.icio.us).

To find the export tool, just click the Tools link at the top of the page, and look for "Export Dots". Here's a direct link:

Export Your Bookmarks

Of course, you can also import this same file format to get started with Blue Dot by bringing any links you have created in your browser (or exported from another Bookmarking service).

Import Your Bookmarks

As usual, please let us know how this works for you or if you have suggestions or problems by posting to our feedback page.