Periodically, we see complaints about "Next Blog" content, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue.
Originally, "Next Blog" was simply a link to the most recently published blog.
"Next Blog" started out as a feature to encourage blog owners to publish.
"Next Blog" was, long ago, a tool that encouraged blog publishing. Anybody clicking on "Next Blog" was sent to the most recently published blog - based on links in the "Recently Updated Blogs" list.
"Recently Updated Blogs" was a rolling list of the immediately previous 10 minutes of blog updates - which was observed to contain anywhere from 4,000 - 8,000 entries. At an average of 6,000 entries in 10 minutes, this gave each published blog .1 second of fame.
Anybody clicking on "Next Blog" was sent to the blog at the top of "Recently Updated Blogs" - which would generally be the blog updated in the most recent .1 second of time.
The blogs published more often would get more "Next Blog" traffic.
Blogs that were published more often ended up at the top of the list more - and got more readers, surfing "Next Blog". This became a great motivation factor, for publishing - based on such a simple concept.
Spammers found how to use "Next Blog" to get traffic to their blogs.
Then spammers found out about "Next Blog", by observing the referer link in any visitor log. They started publishing blogs in mass quantity, simply to collect readers, and send them to payload blogs - filled with hacking, porn, and / or spam.
Eventually, Blogger stopped using "Recently Updated Blogs", as the sole referring factor. Based on suggestions from many blog owners, they now analyse blogs based on multiple factors - such as geographical location, language, and subject - and match the blog currently visible in the browser, with blogs targeted by "Next Blog".
All subjects, in all languages and locations, are not uniformly popular.
Unfortunately, the matching concept - popular though it should be - is not uniformly applicable. Consider how many blogs might be published, about recipes, in English, in New York City. Will there be the same number of blogs about nuclear physics, in Greek, in London?
Greek nuclear physicists, in London, would have a minimal number of similar blogs - and would be more likely to see the same group of blogs, over and over. English housewives in New York City, on the other hand, would have a rich neighbourhood of blogs to read.
And that's reality. If you live in New York City, and want recipes in English, you're likely to see a non ending cornucopia of blogs, constantly updated. If you live in London, and want blogs in Greek about nuclear physics, you're going to see a smaller number of different blogs, updated less frequently.
If you surf "Next Blog", and see blogs written in a "foreign" language, about subjects that don't interest you, seldom updated, try to not blame Google, exclusively. There won't ever be the same number of blogs in every language, published as often, from every city worldwide, about every different subject.
When I click on the "Next Blog" link, I get sent to blogs from many, many different languages. Can I set this to send me to primarily blogs published in English?or
"Next Blog" sends me to blogs about "xxxxxxx". My blog is about "yyyyyyy". Why can't I get more blogs about "yyyyyyy"?What these blog owners do not understand is that using "Next Blog" involves compromise.
Originally, "Next Blog" was simply a link to the most recently published blog.
"Next Blog" started out as a feature to encourage blog owners to publish.
"Next Blog" was, long ago, a tool that encouraged blog publishing. Anybody clicking on "Next Blog" was sent to the most recently published blog - based on links in the "Recently Updated Blogs" list.
"Recently Updated Blogs" was a rolling list of the immediately previous 10 minutes of blog updates - which was observed to contain anywhere from 4,000 - 8,000 entries. At an average of 6,000 entries in 10 minutes, this gave each published blog .1 second of fame.
Anybody clicking on "Next Blog" was sent to the blog at the top of "Recently Updated Blogs" - which would generally be the blog updated in the most recent .1 second of time.
The blogs published more often would get more "Next Blog" traffic.
Blogs that were published more often ended up at the top of the list more - and got more readers, surfing "Next Blog". This became a great motivation factor, for publishing - based on such a simple concept.
Spammers found how to use "Next Blog" to get traffic to their blogs.
Then spammers found out about "Next Blog", by observing the referer link in any visitor log. They started publishing blogs in mass quantity, simply to collect readers, and send them to payload blogs - filled with hacking, porn, and / or spam.
Eventually, Blogger stopped using "Recently Updated Blogs", as the sole referring factor. Based on suggestions from many blog owners, they now analyse blogs based on multiple factors - such as geographical location, language, and subject - and match the blog currently visible in the browser, with blogs targeted by "Next Blog".
All subjects, in all languages and locations, are not uniformly popular.
Unfortunately, the matching concept - popular though it should be - is not uniformly applicable. Consider how many blogs might be published, about recipes, in English, in New York City. Will there be the same number of blogs about nuclear physics, in Greek, in London?
Greek nuclear physicists, in London, would have a minimal number of similar blogs - and would be more likely to see the same group of blogs, over and over. English housewives in New York City, on the other hand, would have a rich neighbourhood of blogs to read.
And that's reality. If you live in New York City, and want recipes in English, you're likely to see a non ending cornucopia of blogs, constantly updated. If you live in London, and want blogs in Greek about nuclear physics, you're going to see a smaller number of different blogs, updated less frequently.
If you surf "Next Blog", and see blogs written in a "foreign" language, about subjects that don't interest you, seldom updated, try to not blame Google, exclusively. There won't ever be the same number of blogs in every language, published as often, from every city worldwide, about every different subject.
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