INTRODUCING: Our newest way to keep in touch

The Birch Street Web continues to expand and to evolve. Since its founding in March 2007 it's format and design have changed a few times, and now it's time to rearrange the furniture once again.

The plans by Google to phase out its "googlepages" system -- where the Birch Street Web began and has grown into a network of more than 125 linked pages -- prompted me to look for alternatives. I tried out the new "Google Sites" system but didn't like it as much. Then I tried Google's "Blogger" system and realized it has a lot of advantages as an organizing tool for our family web site.

One benefit is that readers -- meaning you -- can add comments to the posts, so we can can have discussions among as many family members as care to join in. As you scroll through this blog please try out the comment feature and add your remarks to any posts you'd like.

This blog system also allows me to "label" each post, grouping them into whatever categories I choose. Now if you click on a label, such as "Birthday" or "Travel," you'll get a display of all the articles that carry that label. In addition there's a Search window at the top of each screen where you can type in any keyword - such as someone's name - and call up all entries that include that word. Yet another index allows you to select articles by year and month.

So my plan now is to use this blog as the entryway to the Birch Street Web, replacing The Front Page as the starting point for accessing all our content. At least temporarily, I'll keep The Front Page up-to-date as well, but eventually it will point you here.

Although I just launched this blog a few days ago, I've already copied many Birch Street Web entries here, and put in entries with links to just about every old article on the original site. If you notice anything missing, please let me know.

I welcome your ideas on how to use this new section of our family web. You can add comments to this post, or e-mail me at birchstreetweb@gmail.com

--Webmaster Dan