Things I want to add to my blog in 2026

I’ve lately been enjoying playing with my blog and adding new features.

Over the last week, I added an analytics tracker, icons for post categories on the home page, a dark mode and a reading-time estimate at the top of each post.

Before that, I had added a recipe section with its own layout, and a weeknote with a couple of charts.

None of these are hude changes, but they make the blog feel more like my own space to me. And I’d like to keep that momentum going this year by adding more small features.

So, here’s a few more things I’ve had on my mind:

1. A comments section - I get a few comments on Substack when I repost there. I’d rather have that on the actual blog. Plus, maybe there’s a way to experiment with what comments look like when I do that? It could possibly be something less like a traditional thread structure, and more like a wall of sticky notes (which is a pattern I remember from my early days on the internet).

2. Likes and other quick reactions - A lower-effort way to respond without having to commit to writing a comment.

3. A search bar - With time, the archive will grow, and finding older posts will get harder. A search bar is a basic affordance. (I have no idea how to go about implementing this though.)

4. Add links to random posts at the end of each post - So that readers have a chance to accidentally stumble upon other things.

I don’t really have a grand plan for what I want to do with the blog at the moment. It’s too early for that. For now, I’m satisfied with just messing around and seeing how it evolves.

It already feels way cooler than anything I could have imagined 3 months ago. (Huge thanks to the people of IndieWebClub Bangalore for the inspiration!)