This Changes Everything

Version 0.6 of Comet is out.

In a word: Wow.

The new features that the Comet team has added in this latest release are certainly eye- (and ear-) opening. To a writer like myself, who has enjoyed the fact that blogging has helped lead a renaissance of the written word, it's with a tinge of sadness that I realize that, um, video and audio basically blow words away.

Swinging

I'm not saying that we won't be able to eloquently express ourselves in writing. Certainly, that's not going away. But seeing uploaded video and YouTube clips and hearing audio posts and songs streamed straight from blog posts is nothing short of exhilirating.

Rich media is so much, well, richer, and now that Comet lets members upload video and audio (in those same categories that previously only held Amazon links to Movies and Albums) and sports a brand new conduit to YouTube, it will be very exciting to see the kinds of expression and communication that Comet's little community will start to publish. (You can even email audio and video from your mobile phone!)

Sure, words + photos is great, but words + photos + audio + video is really something special.

Another nice update you'll see in version 0.6:

Design styles are now organized into categories, making managing the look of your published blog a lot easier. Right now, we've divided the styles into Bold, Pastels, and Illustrated sections, but you can also choose to view All the available styles at once, for those of you who like to see the whole picture. Check the "Design" tab within the Comet editing pages for this radically revised interface.

There's more, but we'll touch on some of the other features a little bit later. Until then, check out all the audio and video, and post some yourself!

-- Harold