The Real Blogger Status

We're seeing a number of reports from blog owners, claiming their blogs are now subject to security alerts - and blocked when sharing. Frequently, the reports involve blogs published to "blogspot.com" (not custom domains) - and using the "www" alias. Some services, such as FaceBook, are now requiring "https" for shared URLs - and the "www" alias of "blogspot.com" ("www.whatever.blogspot.com") can't be used, with the "https" protocol.

We've been dealing with a minor recent deluge of reports, from blog owners reporting mysterious redirection of their blogs. The original typical report, which started like any report involving a respected Internet service going out of business, was annoying - yet benign. Today, the status changed to malicious. Right now, "w i d g e t s e r v e r . c o m" is redirecting to "l i b o s t u d i o s . com" . Please enter your email address to continue. Many gadgets, long known for redirecting, are again redirecting - recently to "w i d g e t s e r v e r . c o m" - and now to "l i b o s t u d i o s . c o m". As some were diagnosed, a few owners advised that the misbehaving gadget had been installed long ago . We've seen, so far, a few old (not!) friends. M a u k i e , N e o C o u n t e r, and "S u n a n d M o o n P h a s e" can be seen, in some topics . A brief sample of forum topics involving "w i d g e t...

Recently, we've been seeing queries from some anxious blog owners Why should I have to sign out a total of three, four, or more times? With blogs that use a template that shows the navbar, the owner may logout, using the "Sign out" link - but the navbar may continue to suggest that they remain loggedin. This problem may start with how we connect to Blogger, as part of the mysterious Internet cloud .

Ad blockers are popular Chrome add-ons, which let us manage various websites abilities to serve ads in our browsers. Many ad blockers include a script blocker. Like NoScript in Firefox, ad blockers may interfere with various Blogger features - such as the "Don't track" script, in the dashboard.

We see an occasional report in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , about custom domain publishing. My readers can't view the blog - they get a redirection count error! DNS analysis shows a properly setup domain . When we try to examine the blog, we see a private blog notice - or we are required to login. But why a private blog, using a custom domain?

If you use a computer that runs Microsoft Windows, you may have been affected by Microsoft supplied updates , distributed 3 weeks ago. May 10 was the day termed "Patch Tuesday" - the day when Microsoft releases important security related patches , to its various Internet updated products. During the 3 weeks after May 10, we've seen a significant number of security related discussions, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . It appears that Microsoft updates, for May 2016, affect use of Blogger.

The rollout of SSL, for "blogspot.com" published blogs, continues. All "blogspot.com" published blogs will now offer HTTPS connectivity , to the reader. The choice, offered to the blog owner, is now whether to force every reader to use SSL - and the dashboard option is now labeled "HTTPS Redirect".

Some blog owners and readers prefer to ignore recommendations in Chrome - and block cookies and / or scripts. Blocking cookies can cause problems with many Blogger features - and blocking scripts will cause problems with both Blogger and with Google , and with various other websites. If you want to use Blogger and Google effectively, you need to allow cookies to be installed , and to allow scripts to be run , on your computer.

Some blog owners create a post, with content that should be visible, only when required. The post contains a question - accompanied by the answer to the question. The question should be viewed, without the answer being visible, to make the reader think about the answer. This is called, by many, a "spoiler". Not everybody knows how to construct a spoiler. Some blogs use JavaScript - painful to construct, and maybe not effective for every reader. Security conscious blog readers may block scripts from Blogger blogs - and either your spoiler is visible, immediately - or never becomes visible. Neither of the latter scenarios make the post a lot of fun to read.

Some Google products contain features that have limited usefulness, when applied to Blogger blogs. FeedBurner has a feature, "Password Protector", which may be useful, to newsfeed readers that support HTTP authentication. Within FeedBurner, we have the "Email Subscriptions" service - which does not support feed authentication. Your readers will be required to use newsreader or aggregator software that supports authentication to view your feed. Some Google, and non Google, services will have a problem, with a FeedBurner protected feed.

The Blogger dashboard, and blog displays, is less of a pair of websites - and more of an application with code that runs on our computers . The Blogger code on our computers requires cookies and scripts , which are installed as we use the various Blogger dashboard pages. The cookies and scripts are susceptible to interference, from overly restrictive layered security . If you have a problem with Blogger - either accessing / using the dashboard, or using / viewing a blog - one of the simplest things to check, complementing script filter settings , is the browser cookie filter settings.

A few blog owners, who publish blogs published to custom domains, are becoming impatient , waiting for Blogger Engineering to finish the Blogger upgrade to support HTTPS / SSL. If I get a domain through Google Domains, will I be able to get HTTPS? Unfortunately, no. HTTPS / SSL is simply not available, to blogs published to custom domains .

Blog owners do not always understand the reasons behind the mysterious blog security check (following "suspicious" / "unusual" activity account lock). We see periodic complaints about deleted blogs and locked accounts - and the inconvenience involved, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue . I get the security and all - but I don't get how a blog is just deleted. This blog owner, like so many, does not understand how Blogger is trying to keep our blogs under our control - even after detection of "suspicious" / "unusual" activity.

We see too many problem reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue , about locked accounts and deleted blogs. My Google account was suspended because of 'suspicious activities'. Last month, I realized that my two connected blogs, to that account, were also put offline! Somebody else was unable to use the supplied account / blog recovery tools - and tried guessing what could not be remembered .

Everybody who uses a computer - and expects to use their computer for any amount of time - has one or more protective products on their computer. Anybody who publishes a blog, with an audience that has any need for security , is going to receive occasional reports from would be readers. I can't read your blog! My computer displays an "Unsafe website!" warning! All computer security products, unfortunately, will occasionally generate false positives. Analysing false positive malware reports is as much a part of every security product, as identifying the actual malware.

Blogger recently redesigned the Stats "Don't track ..." option - and removed third party cookies from the picture. The "Don't track ..." wizard is now accessed from the blog URL. The wizard still produces cookies - but they are ordinary first party cookies , which are much less feared than third party cookies. But, every silver lining has a cloud.

The new Stats "Don't track" option is an improvement, to many blog owners. "Manage tracking your own pageviews", as before, starts from the Stats dashboard page. The wizard now runs from a sub directory of the blog managed by the dashboard - and uses a normal (first party) cookie. Now, blog owners no longer must enable third party cookies , to make Stats ignore their page views. This is an improvement - but it can still present a challenge, for some blog owners.

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.

We see odd abuse issues reported in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue - like blog owners reporting a blog with recycling abuse status. My blog was locked one day, unlocked the next, then locked again the following day. Help! Generally, this will be a simple case of borderline abuse / spam content or techniques . Sometimes, the cause of the recycling status is more subtle, than being solely the fault of the owner.

For blog owners who have forgotten the Blogger account name or the password, the "Forgot your username or password?" wizard is an essential tool. You can try to recover account or blog control, by using either a BlogSpot URL or an email address. Both options work only under specific circumstances. Both options are blind recoveries. You enter a blog name or email address, with no assurance that what you enter will lead to a blog. Only when you enter a valid blog name or email address will you receive a recovery email.