The Real Blogger Status

Some blog owners setup their new custom domain, check all settings carefully (and correctly) - then find that it does not work. We see the confusion, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . The addresses were right - and all the DNS servers updated correctly. But when I open the website, it does not open. It continuously reloads for 5 minutes and after 5 minutes it shows an error. It's frustrating, when everything is setup properly - but still no results.

Not all blog owners can successfully add a conditional display of a template object, to their blog. Some owners carefully copy the conditional code that I provide , add it to their blogs - and it does not work (for them). In some cases, it may work, for me, when I check their work. Conditional code, that involves people in countries subject to the country specific domain redirect, won't always be comparing against "blogspot.com". People in the UK may see their blog as "blogspot.co.uk", for instance.

Country specific domains were launched by Blogger almost 3 years ago . Even this month, we see people with doubts about their benefits. Is using a script, to prevent blogger country redirection, a violation of Blogger or Google TOS? And the proposed script is the same one that is being used by spammers, to abuse the Blogger service .

We've had the Google CookieChoices banner in our blogs - thanks to the European Union cookie privacy issue - since April 2015. Not all blog owners - even those in Europe, where its presence may be required by law - appreciate what Google provided for us. The banner clutters up many templates, making our blogs more busy looking. In some cases, it may hide - or be hidden by - important blog components. There are several ways of customising the banner, to make it more acceptable - that are not too difficult to use.

Blogger recently expanded a key feature in their infrastructure - country local domain redirection . Like all Blogger features, every time they expand the scope of aliasing, they cause problems. Some of the problems that were caused by the recent expansion of country local domain redirection - where they added over 2 dozen countries , in one project - are damaging vulnerable Blogger blogs. Incidental damage to any blogs, however, should not justify stopping - or impeding - the implementation of redirections, on a worldwide basis.

Having spent time during July 2015, setting up the EU Cookie Notice Banner - and more time during August 2015, verifying operation of the banner , some blog owners are curious about banner regulation. Would the cookie notice have to be visible to the visitor as soon as they click onto the blog? or Since I don't live in Europe, should I care about the notice? Both are valid concerns, from blog owners who don't blindly follow the leader, with no reason.

The European Union cookie privacy issue became urgent, early this year - and Google provided the CookieChoices cookie advice banner , as a blog / website accessory, in April. The CookieChoices banner required manual installation, on a blog by blog basis - and some amount of effort, using the Template Editor. Not every Blogger blog owner needs to use the Template Editor - and some should not have done so. It's possible that some complaints of template corruption, and similar malfunctions, seen recently in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , or Blogger Help Forum: Discuss Layouts & Templates , might not have been necessary, without the owners having to dig into "Edit HTML" when not qualified to do so.

In April 2015, Blogger blog owners first were faced with the requirements of the European Union , and their problem with cookies used by our blogs and websites . Google released the CookieChoices website, and some useful tools which some blog owners used, to add a cookie notice banner , to their blogs. In July 2015, Blogger added a cookie notice banner, to save blog owners the trouble of using the CookieChoices website tools.

We've seen a few recent reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , about problems getting StumbleUpon to accept Blogger blogs. Every time I try to put a blog into StumbleUpon, it replies that it does not accept Blogger site submissions. And the URL, when stated, will be a non "BlogSpot.com" country code alias .

Some blogs offend their readers - and the readers are legitimately concerned about viewing inappropriate content. Instructed in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , to report offensive blogs using the right complaint form , they may reply I did - several times, but with no result! In some cases, the blogs in question may be offensive only to a local audience. Though distasteful, blogs should not be unfairly censored.

One of the more perplexing problems, in Blogger owner / reader life, involves layered security issues , and filter changes. Many Blogger features are vulnerable to security filters. The ability to use Blogger commenting , the EU cookie advice banner won't display or won't go away, the infamous Reading List , the Blogger Stats "Don't track ..." option - all require cookies and scripts , that are subject to filtering.

Recently, we've seen signs of confusion, from people who have problems with their Internet service, which shows them moving around their geographic region. I logged in to Blogger, with no problem, yesterday. Today, after logging in successfully, I am asked for more details, to prove my identity!! This blog owner has a problem with location based security. Not all Blogger blog owners or readers understand that Country Local Domain Redirection , and the ability to access one's Blogger / Google account (and prevent others from accessing it), both depend upon the ability to determine the geographical location of each blog reader.

Thanks to the recently added Google "One account" login , all Blogger features are now vulnerable to "third party" cookie filters. Long ago, many people who used Blogger would login to Blogger using a link in the navbar - or a similar Blogger login wizard. http://www.blogger.com Now, that login redirects to the Google "One account" login. http://www.google.com When referenced from a Blogger login, the latter URL becomes magnificently complex. https://accounts.google.com/ServiceLogin?service=blogger&passive=1209600&continue=https://www.blogger.com/home&followup=https://www.blogger.com/home&ltmpl=start

Along with problems with comments and unwanted CAPTCHA forms, we're seeing some reports about problems with persistent and unwanted interstitial displays, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . The interstitial display, and its use of cookies, is similar to the new mandatory anonymous comments CAPTCHA form . If your identity can't be determined, or your decision to view a blog can't be remembered, an interstitial warning is displayed - just as the CAPTCHA form is displayed, when your readers are preparing to comment.

The new, mandatory CAPTCHA form , for blog readers wishing to comment anonymously, has been in service for just under a week. We're seeing a variety of problems , reported in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , by blog owners and readers alike.

One long known mystery, reported from time to time in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , involves the dashboard Reading List, and panic from disappearing entries. Where are the blogs, in my Reading List? Some Blogger blog owners and readers can spend days setting up their Reading List complement - and see their work vanish, in seconds. One of the reasons why this problem has not been solved is that it is not reported in consistently high volume, and has no obvious pattern. Another is that many people who use the Reading List - as opposed to a third party NewsFeed Reader - are not of the highest in technological skill level, and do not have the patience to provide coherent and relevant details about the problem.

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".

Some Blogger features are so subtle, and so simple, that everybody takes them for granted - and nobody thinks about them, until they stop working. One example of this is the Quick Edit option that lets us edit a post, or tweak a template feature, without having to access the Blogger dashboard. Sometimes, the icon is just not there - or maybe it's there, but when clicked on, nothing happens. Quick Edit, like many Blogger features, is affected by both cookie and script filters - and many filters are domain based. Any domain based filter needs to allow cookies and scripts - both from "blogspot.com", and from any non BlogSpot domain that may be relevant.

Some blog owners, having endured the frustrations of custom domain publishing , may later discover new problems with using Blogger - or with using / viewing some features of the blog. For people who are security minded, as well as people who are conscientious about what is permitted on their personal computer, a few domain based filter related problems should be obvious. Where are the pencil / tool icons on my blog? and Why can't my readers comment on my blog? and Why can't I use Stats, on the Blogger dashboard? are just examples of the various questions being seen in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , for domains that have completed Transition , and having righteous DNS addressing .

Occasionally, we see signs of confusion, from people who understand Country Code Alias Redirection , in general. I live in Hungary - but I am reading blogs with the ".sk" suffix! This blog reader knows about alias redirection - but does not understand why he is seeing redirection for Slovakia (".sk"), instead of Hungary (".hu"). Not all Blogger blog owners or readers understand that Country Code Alias Redirection depends upon the ability to determine the geographical location of each blog reader.