The Real Blogger Status

We're seeing a few questions, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , about new Blogger / Google accounts - and choice of profile. Do I have a Limited account? This account owner just setup a new Blogger / Google account - and wants to avoid the confusion of Google+ - but sees his only alternate choice involving creation of a "Limited" account.

We have several blog owners, trying to use Blogger - and seeing warnings from McAfee WebAdvisor. When I try to log out, I am getting a risky connection warning. Whoa! Are you sure you want to go there? I cannot log out of blogger.

If you've been publishing a Blogger blog for any amount of time, you'll eventually discover the need to use a second (third, ...) Blogger account. Maybe you want the benefit of publishing blog posts using two different names, or maybe you need to obscure your identity and publish a new blog - the reason is not relevant. The need for a second account is what matters. And you start new account creation, as any Blogger session, from Google "One account" login .

Your Blogger profile is the public part of your Blogger identity , that can be seen by others. You will want your profile to provide the best representation of you - but do not display too many details. Revealing account names and email addresses , for instance, can put your blogs at risk of theft.

One of the most intriguing subjects, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , is about account access - and the dashboard menu. My menu only gives me Posts, and Settings! How do I manage my blog? This blog member (owner?) may be simply logged in to the wrong Google account.

Changing your Blogger account name is like changing your birth name - it can't be done, without legal complications. You can have a nickname - I have several, depending upon who's calling me. But when a cop stops you , you're going to need your government issued vehicle operator certificate - and there's no nickname there. Just your birth name. If you don't like your current Blogger account name, you transfer control of the blog - using two browsers - to an account that you like.

We're seeing reports from people who claim to be traveling, and who can't login and access their blogs. Google appears to now authenticate us using current location, as well as account name / password . We see occasional reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , about new security procedures. I am traveling, and I need to access my Blogger account from another country. I know my account name and password - and I logged in successfully. But after logging in, I am still being asked to prove my identity!! This blog owner is finding a problem, with Google taking extra measures to protect our accounts and blogs.

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

Long ago, Blogger Following (aka Google Friend Connect) was part of a non Google community of social networks. If you wanted to Follow a blog, you had to login to the Followers gadget, but separately from your login session with Blogger . This let you login to Blogger to maintain your blog, and to Follow other blogs, using any desired Blogger or Google account that you wished. You do not have to Follow other peoples blogs, using the same Blogger or Google account that you use to maintain your blog - nor do you have to logout from your Blogger account that you are using to publish to your blog, so you can Follow somebody else's blog. This lets you separate blog ownership identity from blog Following and surfing activity.

I've written a few times about protecting your Blogger / Google account, when you use public / shared computers. Generally, any concern about use of public / shared computers discusses cookies, which are simply invisible traces that you might leave behind when using any computer. If you only use your own computer - and never share your computer - this issue is probably of no concern to you. If you use a computer that someone else, who you know, also uses, cookies are a small concern. If you use a computer that other people, who you don't know, also use - as in a public computer in a coffee shop or library - this should be a larger concern.

We've known, for a while, the dangers of logging in with the wrong Blogger account . My dashboard has no blogs!! or My Reading List is empty! Blog owners and readers, alike, have been reporting this problem, for years. With the new Google multi account login , this problem has become more noticeable, for some blog owners and readers. My Blogger account was merged, to an an account with an empty dashboard. Sometimes, the dashboard lacks blogs - at other times, it lacks menu items, or reading list entries. In either case, the account owner needs to login to a different Blogger account .

Ever since the new, integrated 2014 Google login was provided for us, several months ago, some Blogger blog owners have been losing access to their blogs. Problem reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , illustrate the confusion. I can't login to my blog! and I can only use my GMail, not my Blogger, account!! These are typical examples of the problems which come from misunderstanding the new login process .