Blogger Is Streamlining Copyright Violation Handling

Cyberspace conflict, using Blogger blogs, is becoming a commonly reported problem in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken. To keep up with the problem, Google is streamlining their processing of copyright violations, and of copyright violation appeals.

Size Your Jump Breaks, Properly

The most important single part of any post is the first sentence, and the first paragraph. Jump break, the auto summarisation feature for Blogger blogs, helps you focus your readers attention on the first sentence / first paragraph of your posts, while offering each reader a personal choice - to read more of any individual post - or to scan the entire main page.

Distinguishing Between The Classic GUI And The New GUI (2011)

The New Blogger GUI (2011) has been publicly available for less than a month, and we are seeing signs of confusion, in various queries in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?. People asking for help are not always sure which GUI version they are using - and many answers needed are dependent upon the version in use being known, for proper help to be provided.

Automatic DNS Setup Is Now Available, For GoDaddy Purchased Custom Domains

Blogger is now making it easier for people who purchase a domain, hosted by GoDaddy, and need your DNS setup to support custom domain publishing. Just go to the Blogger / GoDaddy "Update your DNS records" wizard, and provide your domain URL.

You Are Responsible For The Actions Of AutoSave, As You Publish A Post

All too often, we see a naive and plaintive request for help in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken

I spent hours composing my post. Just before I published, I hit Ctrl-Z - and at that very same moment, AutoSave kicked in, and saved my empty post! Please get my post restored!!

This is yet one more request that can't be easily fulfilled.

Referer Spam Is Annoying - And, It's Persistent

Recently, we've seen a few blog owners who are curious about odd trends in their Stats displays.

My numbers seem to go up steadily for a while, then drop. Then, they go up again, for a while, then drop again.

Rises and falls in traffic are normal. You'll never have the same number of people, viewing your blog, constantly. During some days and some hours, our readers are going to be elsewhere, and not viewing our blogs.

The Frustration Of Bloggers Caught In A Login Loop, When Trying To Comment Or Work On Their Blogs

One problem that we see a lot, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, comes from people who claim to have problems "staying logged in to Blogger".

I can't comment on anybody's blog! I get in an endless loop to sign in!

and

I can't stay logged in, to post on my blog! I login, but when I click on "View Blog", it logs me out!!

The frustration compounds itself, as people with one symptom see reports of the other symptom, confuse the two, and complain about the problem that Blogger never fixes.

Transliteration Option Restored To Availability

After several anxious weeks of uncertainty, many people who publish blogs that use non Roman characters are happy to see that the Transliteration feature has been restored to availability. From the Classic Blogger GUI, Settings - Basic - Global Settings, we see a full array of supported languages. Alternatively, from the New Blogger GUI, the menu is at Settings - "Language and formatting".

Follow A Blog, Using A FeedBurner Email Subscription

Some time ago, we discovered how to use a FeedBurner Email Subscription, to provide email access to our blog content. The FeedBurner Email Subscription was noticeably better than the previously offered Google Groups Email Distribution.

Now, FeedBurner is offering a gadget to provide their email subscription service, along with the previously offered FeedBurner Email Subscription.

Linking Your Blog To Google+, Using Mail-to-Blogger

As Google+ increases in public visibility, we're seeing suggestions how to integrate it into our lives. You can, for instance, publish directly to your blog, using a Google+ stream, and Mail-to-Blogger.

New Blogger GUI 2011 Confusion: Post Editor Mode

The New Blogger GUI (2011) is newly available to the public - and many blog owners are, gradually, getting used to it's peccadilloes. One source of confusion is the post editor mode. As you publish posts, you can be in either Compose or HTML mode - and there's no obvious indication of which mode you're in.

Google+, And Blogs Containing Picasa Hosted Photos

As Blogger blog owner interest in Google+ grows, we're seeing occasional reports in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, about problems involving photo hosting and Picasa. Some Blogger blog owners, who have previously uploaded images or photos in post editor, setup their Google+ accounts, and notice that their photos are disappearing.

I just setup Google+, and now all of my photos are gone from my blog!

Browser Support, For Virginia USA

Even as they develop and support the New Blogger GUI (2011), Blogger is making changes in the background. With new versions of the many browsers, used by everybody, being made available - and support issues such as those common with the newly released Firefox V16, and with Internet Explorer V9, Blogger Support is redefining their browser support policy.

The Tranliteration Feature Is Disabled

Owners of Asian language blogs have been recently asking, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken

Why can't I publish in Hindi (Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, ...) any more?

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(Update 2011/07/20): The Transliteration feature has been returned to availability.

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Get Into The New GUI, While There's Time

The new Blogger GUI (2011) has been in full availability for a week, and we're seeing various questions about it, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

Like all Blogger features, newly launched, it's got flaws and design omissions. However, it's got a few improvements too. Right now, it's available in Draft Blogger, with the familiar Classic GUI available in Production Blogger.

Google Friend Connect Is Slowly Replacing Blogger Following, On Blogger Blogs

This week, several confused blog guests have asked

How do I Follow blogs that I'm interested in? I only see Google Friend Connect on the Follower gadgets.

and, alternatively

I am Following "xxxxxxx.blogspot.com" - but I don't see my picture on the blog!

and

My FeedBurner Following count is xxx. My Friend Connect Following count is yyy. Why the difference?

Apparently, the Blogger Following feature is becoming more tightly connected to Google Friend Connect, possibly as part of the coming rebranding of Blogger, as Google Blogs.

Don't Just Delete The Spam Comments - Label Them, First

We've had the new comment moderation system for slightly under a year, and some people are just a bit confused by the filter training process. We see signs of confusion, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

I've been deleting the spam, but it keeps coming. How do I get the spam filtered?

You get the spam filtered by moderating, and training, the spam filters. That's the short answer.

Confusion And Panic Over Private Profiles Being Deleted

A recent article in Mashable about elimination of private Blogger profiles, and use of Google+ to selectively share personal information, has confused many Blogger blog owners.

Mashable has been told to expect the public debut of Google+ on or before July 31. The date is important because it's the day all private Google Profiles will be deleted.

Some owners believe that their Blogger accounts will be deleted, others are concerned that private Blogger blogs won't be allowed.

Publicising Updates To Your Blog, Using FeedBurner And Twitter

If you publish both a FeedBurner blog feed and a Twitter feed, and you have people Following your Twitter feed, then you have a ready audience for your blog updates.

At your option, FeedBurner now publishes directly to Twitter. All that you need to do is to allow Twitter to access your FeedBurner feed - from your blog, or from any other feed that you publish.

Getting Back To The Classic GUI

With any new feature, the main concern many folks may have is, when experiencing changes for the first time, is

How do I get back the old version?

I don't think the new GUI 2011 will provide any different emotions.

The Blogger New GUI 2011 Is Here

Several months ago, we were promised a new look to the Blogger GUI. For the past couple months, a select few trusted testers had access to a preliminary version of the new GUI. This evening, they made the new GUI, 2011, available to everybody.

Just go to http://draft.blogger.com, and you'll see it.

There are lots of changes - some improvements, and other changes. They've solved a few problems - and possibly caused some others.

Some Unsuccessful Custom Domain Purchases Involve Credit Card Authorisation Problems

We've recently seen a few reported custom domain problems diagnosed as unsuccessful domain purchases, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

Now, we have a good possibility for diagnosis of many common purchasing problems.

Following: Privacy Vs Transparency

In the subject of Blogger blogs and use of Following, we periodically see conflicting queries in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?.

How do I Follow my favourite blog, without being seen?

and

How do I get a list of my private Followers?

These queries are mutually contradictory - and possibly come from people who don't get the concept of Following.

Unfilter The Web - Selectively

Very few computers, owned by Blogger blog owners, members, and guests, are only used for participating in Blogger blog based activity. Almost everybody here publishes - or at least surfs - to other websites. Occasionally, when surfing to an unfamiliar blog or website, we may see an odd bit of advice.

Your browser has cookies disabled. This may present a problem, as you surf this website. Click here to learn how to enable cookies, so you may use this website best.

or

We see that you are blocking JavaScript. If you want the full benefit of this website, you'll need JavaScript enabled.

These are signs of computers that are properly protected, to prevent unwanted access by undesirable individuals or websites. Unfortunately, what is protecting us is also preventing us from using the blogs and websites in question.