The Real Blogger Status

Google Domains describes their view of the domain transfer process, in Google Domains Help: Transfer a domain out . The transfer process supports different transfers. From a person with an account at one registrar, to another account at that same registrar. From a person with an account at one registrar, to an account at a different registrar. From one person, to a different person, at that same registrar. From one person, to a different person, at a different registrar. As a project, I found it best to define, size, and assign the complete transfer process in 6 tasks. The project can be adjusted for a domain served by any sending registrar - and targeting any receiving registrar - based upon formalities required by each registrar.

A blog, published to a custom domain, is like magic. It involves smoke and mirrors - and a bit of redirection . And, it helps to follow directions.

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.

Periodically, we see questions about email delivery, in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger . How do I setup email delivery, for my domain? Long ago, this was fairly easy to setup. It won't be so easy for everybody, however. Email delivery starts with the required DNS addresses - which are domain and registrar specific. Email for BlogSpot URLs is not possible - and email for custom domains will require specific domain services. Not all DNS hosting services will, automatically, provide email.

As domains registered by Google Domains become more popular, we're seeing more problem reports, referencing broken domains, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . If I try to load my blog, I get the error An error occurred (code CONFLICT). Please try again. I bought my domain through Google Domains. We're enjoying the personal support options provided by Google Domains - online chat, email, and voice chat. It appears that Google Domains now provides a domain reset procedure, that may resolve the "code CONFLICT" error, on a domain by domain basis.

One of the features of custom domains, when purchased using " Buy a domain ", was the Transition period. Transition was Blogger, allowing that even with Blogger / Google controlling the domain authoritative servers (which they did, indirectly, by using eNom / GoDaddy as the registrars), and the initial DNS address setup (offered for GoDaddy purchased domains ), the stability of custom domains only starts with the domain authoritative servers, and the Root Name servers . Custom domain published blogs, to be consistently stable, can only rely on the DNS addresses being available on the local DNS servers, on a worldwide basis, 48 to 72 hours after the DNS addresses are added. This built in latency period has nothing to do with how custom domains are designed - and it's an issue over which Blogger and Google have no control.

One of the more promising features of Google Domains - besides the ability to access the Google Domains dashboard using a normal Google account - may be a recently discovered option. I could not make my domain work, so I contacted Google Domains Support. They provided a simple adjustment, that actually worked! Google Domains Support appears to be available, to anyone who purchases a domain, using Google Domains.

With Google Domains registered custom domains becoming more normal, we are seeing one odd attention to detail, expressed as confusion in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger . My website uses "ghs.google.com" - am I supposed to use "ghs.googlehosted.com", instead? It's good to be attentive to detail, particularly with custom domain publishing . This is one detail that may not require immediate attention, however.

The Google Domains feature, possibly developed as a replacement for the long discontinued and well missed "Buy a domain for your blog", appears to have problems similar to "Buy a domain" when first developed. We're seeing a small, but steadily increasing, flow of problem reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . Problems being reported look similar to those typically seen with domains purchased long ago using "Buy a domain", before the "Transition" period was introduced to Blogger custom domain publishing.

Some would be domain owners are reporting the sad truth about Google Domains . I tried to use a Google Domains invitation, and got a refusal. We're sorry. You appear to be in a country where Google Domains is not yet available. You may search for domains, but you will not be able to purchase a domain unless you have a U.S. billing address. Learn more Get notified when Google Domains is available in your country. So thanks anyway! Google Domains is currently a beta product - and as of December 2017, it is available in 14 countries.

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.

We periodically see signs of naivete, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , about registrar dashboard access. How do I add addresses to my domain? or How do I move my domain, to Square Space (Tumblr, WordPress)? or How do I terminate my automatic yearly domain registration? Too many blog owners treat their registrar accounts as other blog owners treat their Blogger accounts . When it becomes time to access the registrar's dashboard (or zone editor) too many blog owners are unprepared. Having not bothered to access the zone editor previously, they have no idea how to start - and since they now have a real need to change registration options, change DNS, migrate the domain, ... they panic. And after panicking, they blame Blogger for not telling them, long ago, to setup and maintain the registrar dashboard access account. In some cases, neither Blogger or Google had anything to do with a domain purchase. Identifying domains purchased directly from a registrar, some tim...