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FaceBook Is Aggregating BlogSpot CC Aliases

We're seeing a few questions recently, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, about FaceBook, and their treatment of Blogger URLs that are subject to local country domain redirection.
When I share a post on FaceBook, the URL used for my blog ends with "blogspot.in" instead of "blogspot.com".
Some people in Europe observe a variation.
When I share a post on FaceBook, the URL used for my blog ends with "blogspot.nl" instead of "blogspot.com".

We've been observing, for a long time, that FaceBook and other Internet services should start using the canonical tag - and aggregate BlogSpot URLs, that are subject to local country domain redirection.

With aggregation done properly, all BlogSpot URLs would be listed as "blogspot.com" - and all Likes, and similar references to a given Blogger blog, would be later counted under the proper "blogspot.com" URL - regardless where a given blog reader gets Internet access.

Apparently, FaceBook is now aggregating BlogSpot URLs - but they are not successfully using the canonical URL, as provided by the tag in the blog header. FaceBook now uses "blogspot.in" - or maybe "blogspot.nl" or "blogspot.pe" - as the final URL for some Blogger blogs, when shared.

If you share your blog to FaceBook and observe this problem, try using the FaceBook Sharing Debugger. Select "Scrape Again", when you see "blogspot.pe", or another alias, in the debugger log.

Selecting "Scrape Again", enough times, may lead to the Debugger displaying "blogspot.com" - and your actual canonical blog URL will be cached. This will provide a work around until FaceBook corrects their sharing feature.

When Blogger first started using local country domain redirection, only Google services such as Google Search would reliably aggregate all local country domain references, to "blogspot.com".

Many non Google services did not use canonical aggregation, immediately. Like every other newly developed Internet feature, it takes time for every web service to update their code.

With only Google using canonical aggregation, every Blogger URL subject to country code alias redirection would be shared using the country domain, as seen by the person doing the sharing. People in France might share a Blogger URL as "blogspot.fr", people in India as "blogspot.in", and so on.

People in the USA, of course, would share a Blogger URL as "blogspot.com". The USA, and various other countries, is not subject to country code alias redirection.

FaceBook is now aggregating BlogSpot URLs - but they are not using the canonical tag, in the blog header. They are aggregating to "blogspot.in", "blogspot.nl", or "blogspot.pe" for some or all BlogSpot URLs, shared to their service.

Maybe, FaceBook is resolving "blogspot.com" from various countries that are subject to local country domain redirection - and generates the redirection themselves?



Right now, for some blog owners who share a BlogSpot URL to FaceBook, the URL will be modified, to "blogspot.in", "blogspot.nl", or "blogspot.pe". Every Like, and similar activity against that URL, will then be counted under the "blogspot.in", "blogspot.nl", or "blogspot.pe" alias. This is probably slightly better than having every different URL shared by country code alias - but only slightly better.

Blogger blogs published to custom domains are not subject to URL modification, because custom domain URLs are not subject to local country domain redirection.

Some Blogger blogs will continue to appear to have at 3 URLs - "blogspot.com", "blogspot.in", "blogspot.nl", or "blogspot.pe", and any others under which FaceBook was sharing, originally. The search engines may index blog content, accessed from FaceBook shares, as "blogspot.com", "blogspot.in", "blogspot.nl", or "blogspot.pe".

If this is not acceptable, you may need to report this to FaceBook Support. Please, resist the temptation to install malicious code on your blog, that will later leave you asking for advice on having the blog unlocked, cleaned and reviewed.



https://productforums.google.com/d/topic/blogger/2UXBv3Q21YY/discussion

Comments

I have noticed that too, will that change? Also I am .com but when I log in another country, my Url switches to the country's name ..
Nitecruzr said…
Mon ika,

We are hoping that FaceBook Support will learn of their problem - either from this post, or from the millions of member complaints, which they are no doubt getting - and will fix the mistake, pronto.

You are describing the confusion, experienced by some USA citizens, who see the problem, first hand.

If you live in the USA, or another country not subject to Country Code Alias Redirection, you simply don't see the variety of confusion in readers all over the world, in countries subject to the redirection.

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2013/02/country-code-aliases-are-not-in-use-in.html

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2012/06/confusion-over-reason-for-and-effect-of.html
Thanks, Chuck!

I used to live in the US, and am no longer there, so my Url changes to the given country, depending on where I am. Weird.
But thank you

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