The Real Blogger Status

The Internet is diverse and large - and the Internet directory system, aka the DNS Infrastructure, supports the diversity and size. When we setup a new domain, the registrar frequently advises us to wait patiently, before continuing. Congrats on your new domain! Now, we suggest that you wait 24 - 48 hours for the new domain to propagate, before trying to publish to the domain. When we update a domain - and add or delete a single DNS address - we won't always get advice about waiting, from the registrar.

Custom domain setups continue to confuse blog owners - and lead sometimes to frustration, expressed in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . When I am trying to set up a custom domain for my new blog, I'm not getting the 2nd CNAME Record, but the settings get saved. In some cases, the domain may be operational - and other times, the domain will be broken, and no corrective instruction is provided.

We're seeing a few blog owners, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , reporting new custom domains that don't work - or that worked for a while, then stopped working. Domains purchased through Google Domains, and other registrars, need ownership email verification. When you buy a domain, you get various email messages - from your registrar, and your bank, for instance. Some, you file without opening.

All good things must come to an end. So did the first year of my Google Domains registered domain. Fortunately, renewing took but a few minutes.

Every domain transfer - from one owner to another, or one registrar to another - starts with obtaining then providing the EPP code for the domain. The EPP code is an ownership certificate, similar to the mysterious second "CNAME" , used by Blogger to verify domain ownership. You get the code from the current registrar - and pass the code to the new owner or registrar. Whether you are moving your domain registration from Blogger to another registrar . or maybe moving from another registrar to Blogger , passing the EPP code to the new registrar is essential, in having the potential registrar accept registration.

Similar to concerns about using a Google custom domain outside Blogger , we have concerns about using an existing non Google custom domain with Blogger. One of the advantages of the Blogger custom domain feature is that it gives you the option to publish a Blogger blog to an existing domain . The existing domain can be part of a WordPress hosted website, a website hosted by your ISP, or by any registrar - as long as you have access to a domain dashboard (aka "zone editor"), and can add the required DNS addresses. If the need to use the Blogger blog in the domain is strong enough - and if the existing registrar does not provide dashboard access, or the necessary addresses - you may be able to transfer domain hosting, to a more suitable registrar.

After too many years of Blogger blog owners struggling with setting up their custom domains, Google is now selling domains - though right now, in a select number of countries . Having ended "Buy a domain", and its problems - and now dealing with blog owners setting up domains purchased through numerous registrars, and those problems - Blogger / Google has cleaned up the domain purchase and setup process . This year, we see Google Domains - where Google actually registers domains , and can control the DNS hosting. And, they have developed a clean and lean dashboard / zone editor, for maintaining their domains.

Some Blogger blog owners, having overlooked the reality of custom domain renewal , discover their mistake too late. We see various queries, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I? , about domain registration, after it's too late. My blog now displays a search page! Have I been hacked? or maybe My blog is showing content that my kids should not see!

Some Blogger blog owners, having experienced the anxiety of custom domain setup , intend to carefully maintain their domain registration. We see a few queries, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I? , about domain registration renewal. How do I make sure my registration gets renewed? or How do I renew registration before it expires? or, possibly My blog now displays a search page! Have I been hacked?

The power and majesty of the trinity has been a part of mankind for years, before the Internet. From religion (the Christian nature of the supreme being - The Father, The Son, and The Holy Ghost), to properly robust systems, using triple redundancy (as in Robert Heinlein's science fiction - "I now tell you, three times, to do this!"), the number three has always had almost mystical significance. And with your web site, there is a trinity too. You are using, and may be paying (directly or indirectly) for 3 different services. Registration . DNS Hosting . Content Hosting .