Attention Canadian Blog Owners: The URL Of Your Blog Is "BlogSpot.com" - NOT "BlogSpot.ca"

We have a number of blog owners, apparently located in Canada, who have been sharing their "blogspot.com" published Blogger blogs, using the "blogspot.ca" alias. This week, two major services - FaceBook and McAfee Anti-Malware, have decided that links mentioning "blogspot.ca" are not trustworthy.

Use of the Country Code aliases - of which "blogspot.ca" is simply one of many - has provided potential for confusion, for some time. What some blog owners may not realise is that only the online viewers of the blog (and the owners, viewing their own blogs) see the "blogspot.ca" alias - and only when they are located in Canada. At the same time, people in Malaysia see their blog (and other blogs, published to "blogspot.com") as "blogspot.my", people in Mexico see their blog as "blogspot.mx", etc.

Concentrate On Your Readers, Not On The Spammers

We've been exploring the nature of referer spam for over a year now. I've provided various suggestions about the problem - what you should not do, the observation that it does not actually show traffic to your blog, and even why Stats is vulnerable to this abuse.

To the most frequently asked question

What do I do about it?

the answer is generally

Don't click on the links.

And that's just half of the answer, if we think about it.

CAPTCHA Verification Required For Excessive Posting Volume

Occasionally in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, we see a query from a confused blog owner.

I made a large number of posts today, and Blogger is now requiring me to solve a CAPTCHA, for every post. I tried to find the form to submit, so that my website could be reviewed, but I could not find it. What do I do, now?

This blog owner, like too many, does not understand the spam mitigation policy.

Setting Options In The Post Template

Every person who maintains a Blogger blog (or other web site) has his or her own idea about what features she or he wants to present, on his or her blog / web site. Under Classic Template Blogger, this need was provided only by editing the blog template, using HTML.

With a Layouts / Designer template, besides letting us add and move template objects all over the display page, Blogger also provides us the ability to add and move objects all over the post layout. This, too, is done without even opening the "Edit HTML" Template wizard.

Dynamic Templates, As Part Of Blogger History

Recently, we've seen signs of people who want to use a dynamic template on their blog, but are unwilling to put up with the limitations.

Why can't Google make its Dynamic View Template easy to customize?

and

Why can't I choose who I want reading my blog, and let my readers use a dynamic view?

and

Why should I publish my blog to a "Dynamic Template" - which appears to be Google speak for "It doesn't work at all."?

Not every Blogger blog owner realises why the dynamic templates work as they do, yet offer as few options.

Confusion Over Newer Browser Versions Not Being Accepted By Blogger

Occasionally, we see confused blog owners reporting a problem with using Blogger, because of their browser version.

I am seeing an error when I try to use Blogger.

Your browser is no longer supported by Blogger. Some parts of Blogger will not work and you may experience problems.

I just upgraded, last week, to the latest version of Internet Explorer! What now?

And this is one blog owner who does not understand Blogger, and their browser support policy.

Follow Blogs, Without A Followers Gadget

Recently, Blogger cleaned up the Navbar somewhat - and removed the "Follow" link. This left some blog would be Followers inconvenienced.

How do I Follow blogs, that don't have a Followers gadget?

There has always been a third way to Follow a blog, provided by Blogger - though not everybody may be aware of it.

The New GUI (2011) Is Here - And Is Not Going Away

Last month, Blogger took the next step in making us use the New Blogger GUI, and started migrating our accounts, aggressively. This change did not please a lot of people.

Why won't Google admit the new interface is an utter failure, and scrap it?

This is an example of misguided optimism. Blogger is not simply going to scrap it.

Creating A New Blog

In terms of questions which seem, to me, to be on the level as the legendary question

Who is buried in Grant's Tomb?

the question, asked by some folks in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?

How do I setup a new blog?

would seem to be at the top of the list. But, it's not necessarily so, for everybody.

Blogger Magic - Publish Posts To Pages

Ever since Blogger gave us the option to add pages to our blogs - and provided the complementary Pages index gadget - blog owners have asked, periodically

How do I publish my posts to pages?

This is a pretty simple procedure, too - once we understand the complementary nature of dynamic and static pages.

The New Blogger GUI Is Still Not Ready For Prime Time

This month, we're increasing aware of the approaching day when The New Blogger GUI (aka the "New Interface") will become The Blogger GUI. As suggested last year,

In about two weeks from today, all Blogger accounts that haven’t yet made the switch will be upgraded to the new user interface. You will be able to opt-out at any time by clicking the “Switch back” link; however, all accounts will eventually be permanently upgraded.

The aggressive upgrade was experienced by many last month - not enjoyably. Personally, I went through several days when I had to, repeatedly, revert to The Classic GUI.

The permanent upgrade is yet to be scheduled - possibly, because of continued opposition - and several very noticeable omissions.

Improved Stub Blog Using Search Preferences Features

I've been advising people to use a stub blog, when renaming (changing the URL of) a blog, for a few years.

Hey folks, this blog has moved to http://mynewblogspoturl.blogspot.com.

That's a stub post - and a blog, containing only a stub post, is a stub blog.

A stub blog is a compromise, based on the Blogger anti-spam policy which prevents Blogger blogs from automatically redirecting from an old URL to a new URL.

• The stub post replaces the main page - not the individual post pages, not archive retrievals, label searches, etc.
• The stub post contains a minimum of information.

The stub post is simply better than nothing.

But now, maybe you can provide something a bit better than a simple stub post, to let your readers know that your blog now has a new URL.

Confusion Between Draft Blogger And Production Blogger, In Various New Blogger GUI Problems

Occasionally, in answering a problem report in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken which involves custom domain publishing, or the Post Editor, or maybe template editing, we'll start by simply advising the blog owner to revert to the Classic GUI.

Click on the Gear icon, and select "Old Blogger interface".

Even when reverting to the Classic GUI is an acceptable - and effective - solution, we may not always get a positive response.

Where is the Gear icon?

or

I don't have a selection for "Old Blogger interface"!

Sometimes, this is not purely from the blog owner, balking at the unwanted change.

Confusion Between The New Blogger GUI, And Dynamic Templates

Recently, we're seeing some possible confusion between the design of our blogs, and the design of the menus and utilities used to maintain and publish our blogs.

I like my blog, as it is! Please, Blogger, don't make me change my blog!

Not everybody, posting in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, understands the changes that Blogger and Google is making.