Blogger is one of the top sites on the web, largely because so many bloggers host their blogs on a sub-domain of blogger.com itself. There’s little doubt that Google made a wise choice when they purchased Blogger in 2003. Since that time, the interface, functionality, design possibilities, and far more have been updated. Recent changes have been more focused on making blogs accessible via mobile to both readers and publishers. The next set of changes, however, is focused on revamping the blogger design.

At a certain level, the design is hardly recognizable as the same site. The Blogger logo, orange and white color scheme, and your own blogs present in the dashboard are likely to be giveaways, but nearly everything else has been retouched. The layout itself sports a much cleaner look, with a lot more open space, highly visible buttons, graphic icons, and quicker access to Blogger Help are all key changes.

There’s a lot more, though. For example, Google Analytics will show your visitor data in a quick snapshot beneath each of your blogs. You can also visit an Overview page that gives more detailed analytics information. Comments, statistics, templates, layout, and earnings are all quickly accessible through a new left-hand navigation bar. The “New Post” screen also gives a lot more space and focus for actually writing. It also gives a strong visual representation of what the entry will look like, and lets you modify the post schedule and other advanced settings.

You can check out this new version yourself by visiting Blogger Drafts, the “lab” site where users can check opt in for experimental features. It’s plain to see that the new version is meant to reflect the cleaner look being seen on Google+ and other revamped Google properties.