The Real Blogger Status

One question, that I have never seen specifically asked, is about our following, reading lists, and blog subscriptions in general. Why do I have to login to Blogger, to maintain my Reading List? The blog follower / owner has asked a question that is involved in various problems, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue - but with this question so easily overlooked.

Earlier this week , we saw numerous reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken , about problems with Google Friend Connect, on some Blogger blogs. Once we realised the variety of the symptoms being experienced by blog owners and guests, it was not too difficult to report the problem, providing sufficient details, to Blogger Support. In less than 2 hours after the problem was reported, Blogger Engineers identified and resolved the problem. Unfortunately, every problem with Blogger - and with Google Friend Connect - is not always going to have a similarly happy ending.

Those of you who have been Following this blog, in the past, may have recently noted a new gadget in the sidebar. Just below the "Follow Me" gadget, you'll see "+Follow Me". The latter gadget looks similar to the former - but has some subtle differences. Some differences are visible, others not so visible. And some differences are not visible to the eye - but will still affect your access to this blog.

We are observing owners of a few Blogger blogs reporting that the popular Google Friend Connect accessory, as suggested last year , recently stopped working, on their blogs. I have a Blogger blog but I'm using a custom domain (not purchased through Blogger though) - and my Google Friend Connect is gone now, just like they announced it, concerning the other non-Blogger blogs. From a brief check of several blogs reporting this change, it appears that blogs published to non BlogSpot URLs, using custom domain publishing with incorrect DNS setups , are being treated as non Blogger blogs. The Following / Google Friend Connect accessory, on those blogs, is now stopped.

This week, Google announced the end to its website based community building accessory, Google Friend Connect, for non Blogger based websites . We're retiring the service for all non-Blogger sites on March 1, 2012. The announcement notes its replacement with Google+. We encourage affected sites to create a Google+ page and place a Google+ badge on their site so they can bring their community of followers to Google+ and use new features like Circles and Hangouts to keep in touch. Blogger blog owners can continue to use the Followers gadget, can use Google+, or can build their communities using both features.

Some time ago, we discovered how to use a FeedBurner Email Subscription , to provide email access to our blog content. The FeedBurner Email Subscription was noticeably better than the previously offered Google Groups Email Distribution . Now, FeedBurner is offering a gadget to provide their email subscription service, along with the previously offered FeedBurner Email Subscription.

The monolithic "Operation Aborted" error , seen with blogs being viewed through Internet Explorer, has been with us for many months. Last week, the problem took a much more serious turn, and affected many blogs - such as many of the blogs in Nitecruzr Dot Net . After several days, and some intense work by Blogger engineers, the problem seems to have diminished significantly - yet it continues to be reported sporadically in the forums. As of yesterday 5/27, Nitecruzr Dot Net is still affected. Right now, it appears to be seen, primarily, by bloggers using Internet Explorer V8. Removal of the Following and Friend Connect gadgets, where present in a blog owned by a viewer of the problem, helps eliminate the symptom many, but not all, of the times seen. Some bloggers have stated that changing from the inline comment form, to a popup or separate form, has helped eliminate their version of the problem. Presumably, the problem, if this is going to be effective, will be seen onl...

The problem with Blogger Follower and Google Friend Connect gadgets causing the ever increasing volumes of problem reports about "Operation Aborted", in Internet Explorer , continues. Bowing to public pressure, I have removed the Following and Friend Connect gadgets from my blogs at Nitecruzr Dot Net. Note that I still have my Followers, my blog simply lacks the Followers gadget in the sidebar. Anybody wishing to Follow my blogs (or yours, if you do similarly) can find the "Follow Blog" link in the navbar. I made the navbar visible on all blogs, to enable this tactic to work. And the people who Follow my blogs will continue to Follow them. I look forward to an update by Blogger Support , so I may restore the Following / Friend Connect gadgets, when this snafu is resolved - may it be soon. (Update 5/29): Noting several comments that this blog is still issuing "Operation Aborted" to some readers, I have also changed my comments form placement, from ...

We see confusion occasionally from bloggers trying to use Following or Friend Connect I want to Follow this person, but when I click on the Follow button I'm asked to sign in. I'm already signed in to my blog, am I being hacked? or I clicked on the users picture. Where is the button to Block the user? Both questions come from someone who isn't aware that Following / Friend Connect are applications separated from Blogger, and separated intentionally.

Have you surfed the AppsSpot Product Ideas for Blogger database yet? Lots of bloggers have submitted quite a few suggestions, including a few for new templates, and for more gadgets to install in the templates. Do this quickly, as time is limited . Don't wait too long, we will be closing this series to new questions and votes on May 14, 2009. If your blog has a classic template, you won't benefit from either new templates, nor XML based gadgets - you'll need gadgets written in HTML. An example of an HTML gadget is Google Friend Connect . Here's what I installed on my home blog, Nitecruzr Dot Net . (Note as always, I have inserted a few gratuitous line breaks , to make this readable.) <!-- Include the Google Friend Connect javascript library. --> <script src="http://www.google.com/friendconnect/script/friendconnect.js" type="text/javascript"> </script> <!-- Define the div tag where the gadget will be inserted. --> <div...