The Real Blogger Status

The literal cause of the error "Another blog or Google Site is already using this address." is that the Google Sites service is mapped to the address in question, in the Google domain services mapping database. Some help articles published on the Internet imply that Sites mappings are the only cause of this error. This misconception creates some of the confusion associated with the error. Sites is not the only service in the services mapping database - but it is the only service with web address mappings. The Sites service contains both service address, and web address, mappings - and both mappings can cause this problem. This oddity creates complexity, and makes a linear check list impossible, when using Google Apps to clear the error - as well as diagnosing the error, in a typical dialogue in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken .

Ever since Blogger finally restored the custom domain publishing feature , blog owners have been asking about the addition to the domain setup process - the new "CNAME". Do I really need this? My old blogs don't have it, and they are fine. and My registrar won't let me add a second "CNAME" - they allow one "CNAME" / domain (my "www"). and My registrar won't allow long addresses, such as what you have for "Destination" / "Target" / "Points To". And we are learning that this requirement is going to be a problem for blog owners using some registrars, who can't provide this "CNAME" in their customers domains.

After a very stressful week , Blogger Engineering has restored the custom domain publishing option . Last week we encountered an issue that could affect Blogger users in the process of configuring a custom domain, during the verification of ownership of domains between the provider and Blogger. Blogs with previously configured custom domains were not affected. With the reason for disabling custom domain publishing being security, Blogger Engineering has added a step in the publishing process , to add a random token as a "CNAME", and verify your right to publish to your domain, from Blogger. You get the random token from the "settings instructions" document, " How do I use a custom domain name for my blog? ".

We've been exploring the issues of Custom Domain Publishing for many years. The problem of custom domain database corruption , also known as Another blog is already hosted at this address. is one of the most commonly observed symptoms, with custom domain publishing problems. The most common cause of the "Another blog ..." symptom is broken database pointers. In the past, the broken pointers have been associated with various Google Apps controlled services. Ad Services. Google Sites. Start Page. Now that Custom Domain Publishing is a mature feature in Blogger, there's a newly seen trend, in problems reported in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken . Blogger Blogs.