The Real Blogger Status

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.

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.

If you're a repeat customer at some restaurants or shops, you may notice that your return status is appreciated by the staff. Maybe the coffee shop will make your coffee extra strong, or the waiter will bring you your meal a little more promptly, because they recognise you - and want you to know that they appreciate your patronage. As you surf your favourite blogs and websites, you may notice similar treatment. Being recognised as a return "customer" is frequently flattering, and may encourage you to return yet a third, fourth, ... time. Out of the millions of Internet "customers", your favourite blog or website recognises you - and makes your visit a little less impersonal. But how does this happen?

Blog owners who live in Europe have a recently added regulation with which you need to comply. If you publish a blog, and host AdSense ads, you already have part of the requirement - the properly written Cookie Advisory. If you live in Europe, and view this blog, chances are that you have been offered the chance to view the Nitecruzr.Net Privacy Policy , which includes my Cookie Advisory. If your blog displays the Blogger Navbar, you have a compliant Cookie Advisory Banner which is provided by Blogger, in the navbar. If you have disabled the navbar - or if the blog uses a dynamic template (and has no navbar), you can add a Cookie Advisory Banner as supplied by Google Cookie Choices.

The controversy over "third party" cookies, and filtering, continues daily. Today, a blog owner suggests that solving the problem of inability to comment, by "requiring" each reader to un filter "third party" cookies, is unacceptable - because each reader has to take action, to solve the problem. Another blog owner, asking why Blogger won't ignore his pageviews when visiting his blog, takes only a couple hours to read and to diagnose the problem, then dismisses the advice That didn't really help. Both blog owners are ignoring the actual problem. Blogger did not create a requirement called "third party cookies" . Blogger, like Google, and like most Internet services, use cookies to retain information, from each of us, as we use Blogger.