IE9 User? You’ll Love ‘Pinning’ Your Blog

If you use the new Internet Explorer 9 beta (IE9) on Windows 7 and have a blog on WordPress.com, you should definitely check out some cool new features.

First, not only do the charts on your stats page load faster — thanks to new canvas element support in IE9 — but each WordPress.com site also includes a high-res icon for your browser, taskbar, or shortcuts. Once you start using IE9, you’ll find this icon comes in handy when you want to “pin” a blog.

Pinning? Yes, Pinning!

Wait, just what is pinning, you may be asking? It’s actually quite simple and a lot like bookmarking but on your computer instead of in the browser. Once pinned, you can launch your blog right from your Windows taskbar. A handy context menu lets you access some of your most common tasks such as adding a new post or moderating comments, with a single click. You also can pin a friend’s blog to stay up-to-date on their latest posts.

To get started, the first thing you need to do is download Internet Explorer 9 while using Windows 7. Let’s take a look at how things unfold from there:

Pinning Your Blog

When you sign in to your blog, you can pin your own site and get extra tasks that make blogging easier and faster. A logged-in user can quickly access links to their dashboard to write a new post, moderate comments, upload a new file, or view blog statistics. (Each task only appears if the user has that task’s capability, such as site administrator’s.) A custom list also displays up to 5 latest posts for the current blog context.

You can pin someone else’s blog, too. When you do, an icon appears that lets you subscribe to the blog feed, signup for a free blog, read Freshly Pressed, and access WordPress.com Support and forums.

How to Pin

This is simple:  Just visit a blog in a IE9 tab, grab the tab, and drop it onto the taskbar at the bottom of your desktop. When you pin a site it will either show up as a large WordPress logo or as your own Blavatar if you’ve uploaded one.

P.S.: You can learn more about IE9 on Microsoft’s Internet Explorer blog (hosted on WordPress.com!).