The Pages Gadget, In A Renamed Blog

We see an occasional blog owner, having renamed a blog to a new BlogSpot URL, reporting in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue that the Pages gadget stopped working.

I changed the URL of my blog, from "myoldblogspoturl.blogspot.com" to "mynewblogspoturl.blogspot.com". All of the links are working fine - except when I click on a pages link, I get

Blog not found.

Sorry, the blog you were looking for does not exist. However, the name myoldblogspoturl is available to register!

Long ago, we observed this to be a problem with static pages. It appears that this is a problem with both dynamic and static pages, for some blogs, when renamed.

The Pages gadget is not always updated, when a blog is re published, under a new URL.

When a blog is renamed, with a new URL, the old URL becomes available. Any reference to the old URL is going to result in

Sorry, the blog you were looking for does not exist. However, the name myoldblogspoturl is available to register!

If this breaks the Pages gadget, the gadget must be manually updated. The update procedure will vary - depending upon whether only dynamic pages are involved, only static pages are involved, or both dynamic and static pages are involved. The "Configure Page List" wizard will be used, in each case.

First, save a reference copy of the Pages gadget with links, using a page source listing.

When only dynamic pages are involved, the update procedure is simple enough.

1. Edit the Pages gadget.
2. Delete each dynamic page, under "List order".
3. Re add each dynamic page, with the updated URL, using "Add external link".
4. Re sequence entries, as necessary.
5. Save changes.

When only static pages are involved, the update procedure is somewhat simple.

1. Edit the Pages gadget.
2. De select all entries, under "Pages to show".
3. Save changes.
4. Edit the Pages gadget.
5. Select all entries, under "Pages to show", as desired.
6. Re sequence entries, as necessary.
7. Save changes.

When both dynamic and static pages are involved, the update procedure becomes less simple.

1. Edit the Pages gadget.
2. Delete all dynamic pages, under "List order".
3. De select all entries, under "Pages to show".
4. Save changes.
5. Edit the Pages gadget.
6. Re add each dynamic page, with the updated URL, using "Add external link".
7. Select all entries, under "Pages to show", as desired.
8. Re sequence entries, as necessary.
9. Save changes.

A blog, newly published to a custom domain, should not require this treatment - since the domain publishing provides a "301 Moved Permanently" redirect from the BlogSpot URL to the domain URL.

Blog Owners Seeing "This Connection Is Untrusted"

We are seeing a few blog owners reporting, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, of inability to use various dashboard functions.

I am seeing

"This Connection Is Untrusted" - You have asked Firefox to connect securely to 7749195048983246407_73be54cd6d1c58526e719a5edd6d94a945570409.blogspot.com, but we can't confirm that your connection is secure.

This prevents me from using various preview features.

We suspect that the problem involves the Firefox browser, possibly following the latest update.

We have a new Problem Rollup topic, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, where we are requesting details from everybody who is experiencing this problem.

Right now, the problem appears to involve Firefox V36, and attempts to use Live Preview (Template Designer), Post Preview, and Template Preview (Template Editor), when updating blogs published to custom domains. The simplest solution, in this case, may be to un install V36.

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(Update 3/6): Mozilla may have fixed this, in V36.0.1.

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Photos, Deleted From Your Phone, May Vanish From Your Blog

We see some blog owners reporting loss of photos, when used in their blogs, and added using Post Editor.

Some blog owners take photos using their camera / phone, upload them to Google+ Photos, and publish their blog posts. Having published their post, they remove the photos from their phones, to save storage space.

And once deleted from their cameras / phones, their photos vanish from their blog.

Cameras and phones, which automatically synchronise with Google+, also synchronise deletions.

When a photo is deleted from a camera / phone, and the camera / phone is set to synchronise with Google. the photo will also be deleted from the Google+ Photos / Picasa photo library. And being deleted from Google+ Photos / Picasa, the photo will cease being visible, when the blog is displayed.

If you wish to synchronise your camera / phone with Blogger / Google+ / Picasa, you should ensure that you treat camera / phone photo storage as permanent - not temporary - for photos used in your blog.

You can delete unused photos. with the understanding that what is deleted from your camera / phone will also be deleted from Blogger / Google+ / Picasa. Photos used in your blog, however, must remain on your camera / phone, to remain in Google+ / Picasa, and display on your blog.

Alternately, disable automatic photo synchronisation, upload photos manually, and maintain all photo libraries separately.

What Is "ghs.google.com" vs. "ghs.googlehosted.com"?

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.

Long ago, with custom domains purchased and setup under "Buy a domain", a properly published blog always targeted "ghs.google.com".

mydomain.com. 3600 IN A 216.239.32.21
mydomain.com. 3600 IN A 216.239.34.21
mydomain.com. 3600 IN A 216.239.36.21
mydomain.com. 3600 IN A 216.239.38.21
www.mydomain.com. 3600 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.

Now, with custom domains purchased and setup under Google Domains, we are seeing a subtle difference.

mydomain.com. 3600 IN A 216.239.32.21
mydomain.com. 3600 IN A 216.239.34.21
mydomain.com. 3600 IN A 216.239.36.21
mydomain.com. 3600 IN A 216.239.38.21
www.mydomain.com. 3600 IN CNAME ghs.googlehosted.com.

What is "ghs.googlehosted.com" - or more specifically, what is the difference between the two?

Let's look at a pair of Dig logs, using the Kloth.Net Dig utility.

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;ghs.google.com. IN A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
ghs.google.com. 404786 IN CNAME ghs.l.google.com.
ghs.l.google.com. 300 IN A 74.125.136.121

and

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;ghs.googlehosted.com. IN A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
ghs.googlehosted.com. 300 IN A 74.125.136.121

Here, we see that "ghs.l.google.com" and "ghs.googlehosted.com" are, essentially, the same host - two names pointing to "74.125.136.121". "ghs.googlehosted.com" apparently omits the extra "CNAME" referral to "ghs.l.google.com", used by "ghs.google.com".

Now, to the original question.

Am I supposed to use "ghs.googlehosted.com", instead of "ghs.google.com"?

I do not use Blogger Help: How do I use a custom domain name for my blog? casually - particularly since they insist on trying to tell us that the domain root DNS addressing is optional.

Optional: You can also enter A-records, which links your naked domain (example.com) to an actual site (www.example.com). If you skip this step, visitors who leave off the "www" will see an error page.

That "Optional" causes too much confusion. In this case, however, I'll suggest that they can provide a guideline.

Where it says Name, Label or Host simply enter "www" and list ghs.google.com as the Destination, Target or Points to.

If I were to get up tomorrow, and observe a change, I would probably react, as convenient.

Where it says Name, Label or Host simply enter "www" and list ghs.googlehosted.com as the Destination, Target or Points to.

Until that day, or until I see an announcement in Blogger Buzz, I might tweak any new domains, or new domain host, that I were setting up - when convenient.

myblog.nitecruzr-test.net. 3600 IN A 216.239.32.21
myblog.nitecruzr-test.net. 3600 IN A 216.239.34.21
myblog.nitecruzr-test.net. 3600 IN A 216.239.36.21
myblog.nitecruzr-test.net. 3600 IN A 216.239.38.21
www.myblog.nitecruzr-test.net. 3600 IN CNAME ghs.googlehosted.com.

or possibly

myblog.nitecruzr.net. 3600 IN CNAME ghs.googlehosted.com.

I probably won't be tweaking this blog, immediately.

Adding to the confusion, when treating some problems, Google Domains Support may advise you to use a "CNAME" to "ghs.google.com", instead of "ghs.googlehosted.com",

As always, I'll thank you for paying attention to detail - when publishing your blog - and when redirecting the domain root. And always, please retain control of your Blogger account.

New Google Domains Need Time To Propagate

We're seeing an increasing number of problem reports, mentioning Google Domains.

Google Domains is becoming a popular registrar for new custom domains - and this leads to more problems, reported in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue. Many reports look like timing problems, from long ago.

The most common symptom is the mysterious Redirect Warning.

I purchased a Google Domains site, and connected it to Blogger so it redirects my blog to my domain, no problem.

The problem is now when accessing the BlogSpot URL, it now shows a redirect warning message, which is killing my web traffic.

This blog is not hosted by Blogger and has not been checked for spam, viruses and other forms of malware.

How do I publish my blog, and keep my readers, with this confusion?

When a Redirect Warning is reported, we'll check the DNS addresses, and do an HTTP trace.

• Base DNS addresses are righteous.
• The domain is published to the blog - and the blog uses the domain URL, internally.
• The BlogSpot URL redirects, to the warning notice, as noted.

The problem here is DNS propagation, combined with Blogger anti-malware classification.

New custom domains, long ago, had a built in "Transition" period.

Long ago, when Google "Buy a domain" was used for domain purchases, people would see a different "redirect notice" on their blogs, after a domain purchase.

Your blog is in transition

This notice would appear on the dashboard, when "View Blog" was clicked. Blogger would advise the new domain owner to wait "2 to 3 days", while the new domain would propagate to the worlds DNS servers, before publishing the blog to the domain.

Domains published through Google Domains must be watched for spam hosting.

Just as there is no way to prevent hackers and spammers from publishing Blogger blogs, there is no way to prevent them from using Google Domains to purchase and setup domains - that redirect to non Google websites, and serve malware and spam. Domains purchased through Google Domains must be subject to the same scrutiny, as domains purchased through eNom or GoDaddy - or any registrar in China, India, or any other country.

To detect malicious redirections, the Blogger anti-malware classification process must simulate our readers, viewing under real world conditions.

Part of the Blogger anti-malware classification involves checking for blogs containing redirects, that would cause our readers to load malicious or spammy websites, instead of a promised blog. The redirection checking has to include using DNS servers that are subject to real world DNS propagation delay - even when Google Domains is involved.

We "allow 48 to 72 hours" as a worst case scenario.

The stated "48 to 72 hour" delay is a worst case scenario - and in most cases, a few hours should suffice. When a blog owner reports the mysterious redirection notice

This blog is not hosted by Blogger and has not been checked for spam, viruses and other forms of malware.

If we verify righteous DNS addresses, we advise re publishing the blog to the domain.

Publish the blog back to BlogSpot, then re publish to the www host in the domain.

And when the dashboard Publishing display shows successful publishing, an HTTP trace will generally show the BlogSpot URL, properly redirecting to a published blog at the domain URL.

If republishing does not produce results, the domain publishing database may be corrupt. This is a long known problem, with custom domain publishing, and worldwide DNS timing. Use the "Contact support" link at the bottom of the Google Domains dashboard, and request that they reset the domain.

In some cases, the "48 to 72 hour" latency period will need to continue - but as Google Domains becomes more popular, this possibility will slowly decrease.

The "Contact Me" Form, And EMail Delivery

Some blog owners install an email based "Contact Me" form on their blogs - then worry if the contact attempts are getting to them, when sent by their readers.

Occasionally, blog readers may wonder if their contact forms, which they submit, are actually being read. In both cases, besides the chance that the messages are not being read because of a full email Inbox, there is the chance that the messages just are not getting to the email Inboxes.

The Blogger supplied "Contact" form uses email for contact delivery - and this is where many contact delivery problems start. Whether you are a blog owner, or reader, these are issues which involve you.

Email Filtering
Contact Form email, like all other email, is subject to email filtering.

The best known filtering involves our email clients, which examine the content of incoming email, and route what looks like spam into a "Bulk" or "Spam" folder. GMail uses a 3 level (or possibly more, depending upon how we set it up) delivery sequence.

1. "Important" / "Personal", for email obviously intended for the recepient.
2. "Inbox", for group email.
3. "Bulk" / "Spam", for malicious and spam email.

Recently, I've been discussing a different email "filter" - "Spoofed" email. Spoofed email filters differ from spam filters.

• Spam filters examine email body content; spoof filters examine email header content.
• Spam filters route spam email into the "Bulk" / "Spam" folder of the intended recipient; spoof filters bounce spoof email back to the sender.
• Spam filters generally can be trained; spoof filters generally cannot be trained.

Profile Settings
Besides the different filter possibilities, "Contact Me" forms are subject to another source of confusion - which email addresses are used, for delivery, and for return contact? Both the delivery address (the blog owner), and the return address (the blog reader) are not completely understood - and both are subject to secrecy decisions, and mistakes.

• The blog reader has 3 possible email adresses.
  • Blogger account name ("Username").
  • Blogger account backup email address ("Email address").
  • Email address on the form.
• The blog owner has only 2 possible email addresses.
  • Blogger account name ("Username").
  • Blogger account backup email address ("Email address").

Both the "Username" and "Email address" Blogger profile entries provide email addresses that are used (and confused) for address change, login, password reset, and other activity. People who use Google or Google+ profiles have these values also - possibly without realising this.

Since the "Contact" form is designed for all Blogger blog readers, including those with no Blogger account, the senders address, as entered on the form, must be used for return email. The form has a weakness, though - no reliable email address validation.

The Contact Form
Look at the "Email" box in my sample "Contact Me" form, in the sidebar of my recipe blog. Outside of rejecting a blank "Email", and checking the format, how is the return address validated?

A valid email address is required.

It's possible that some Blogger account owners, making a Contact entry, deliberately enter a bogus email address, hoping that their accounts provide the contact address.

The Blogger supplied "Contact" form has another weakness - lack of options. With comments, one can provide multiple email addresses, for both comment moderation, and notification, in the blog dashboard.

Ignoring contact form moderation, it would be useful to have contact form entries sent to designated, multiple, addresses. The Contact form has no email options. Where do team blog contact form emails get sent?

Address Confusion
Both the blog owner and reader may have profile related email addresses, both subject to confusion and omission. The "Username" provides one email address (when not obfuscated because of confusion, or for secrecy), and the "Email address" (when not omitted because of carelessness) provides another. The two won't always be the same.

The owner of a successfully anonymised Blogger account may not be able to use the Contact form, on her / his blog, with any success.

Besides having an unsuitable Blogger account, we have one more case where an unavailable Blogger account, involving overly restrictive cookie / script filters, may be a problem. A blog reader may never be properly identified, even if he / she is using a Blogger account.

All of these issues considered together, it's possible that using a Google Docs spreadsheet driven contact form may be a better choice, for some blog owners.

What Is Different Between Copying And Scraping?

We see a few spam blogs, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, that are classified for having scraped content.

Some nervous blog owners, who routinely copy content as part of their blog posts, want to know if their blogs are vulnerable to "scraped content" spam classifications.

I suspect that there are several issues to consider, regarding use of copied content in your blog.

To discuss "copying" vs "scraping", IMHO, you need to look at at least 3 details.

1. Intent. Do you intend to do something useful with the copied content - or are you just looking to "bulk up" your blog?
2. Permission. Do you have permission to copy (or is the content public)?
3. Ratio. Does the original content in your blog vastly outweigh the copied content?

Intent.

You can start with copied content - but a blog with any future has to have some source of its own content - unique, plus informative and interesting.

If you are going to copy another blog or website, use the copied content to illustrate or to reinforce a key point in your blog post. Don't build your post around somebody else's content - start with your own content, and add relevant samples of other blogs and websites.

You can design a blog like a high school term paper, if you wish. Just remember, if you can Google it, and scrape into your blog, Google can find it - as can your teacher.

Permission.

If you copy content, make sure that you have permission of the owner. Be careful who you get permission from.

The blog or website that displays the content may not actually be the owner. Find out the legal owner of the content that interests you, and get permission from that person.

And if the owner is kind enough to give you permission to copy, and provides guidelines, observe the guidelines. Be polite - not presumptuous, when you interpret someone's permissions.

Ratio.

In 2013, Matt Cutts of Google estimated that somewhere between 25% to 30% of the content on the web is duplicative. That does not mean that your blog should use 25% copied content.

If you have a small blog, and are just starting out, a 10% (copied) to 90% (original) is a much better goal. In this blog, I would like to think I have more like 5% to 95%.

I, personally, don't mind if people copy my content - as long as they include the links in the posts.

You will get better search engine reputation with your own content. If you copy content from blogs and websites with better reputation, guess which blog / website has better chance of being linked? More original content == more content to index == better reputation == better chance of being listed, with duplicated content.

The more original content you publish, that gets indexed, the better chance you have of getting readers. The less original content in the blog, the greater the chance the blog will be classified, as a spam host. It's that simple.

Bounced Email May Not Show Up In "Bulk" / "Spam"

We've been discussing the problem of email filtering, and missing email, for some time.

Some blog members / owners are certain that their missing email isn't caused by filters.

I looked in "Bulk" / "Spam"! The email isn't there, either - it simply does not get delivered!!

These people are certain that Blogger just is not sending the email.

In some cases, the problem is not with "Bulk" / "Spam" filters - it is with anti-spoofing filters - and email detected as spoofed, generally, is "bounced".

Bounced email never makes it as far as the "Bulk" / "Spam" filtering - it is simply rejected, and possibly returned to the sender (if identifiable).

Most - but not all - unwanted email is dropped into "Bulk" / "Spam" folders.

Most undesirable email will be delivered to the recipient - and dropped into the "Bulk" or "Spam" folders. This lets the recipient train the filters, when necessary, by marking some email as "Not Spam".

Spoofed email, on the other hand, is blocked upstream from the spam filters. Spoof filters do not need to be trained - email, detected as spoofed, is simply rejected.

Not all "spoof" classified email is fraudulently originated.

Unfortunately, not all "spoofed" email is being fraudulently mis addressed.

• Account / blog recovery, from "Forgot?", and other recovery processes.
• BlogSend post published notification
• Comment moderation / notification
• FeedBurner feed distribution
• Private / Team blog membership invitations

To name but a few - are being rejected by many email spoof filters.

Mail is detected as "spoofed", simply because it is addressed to, or originates from, a Blogger account with a non GMail email address, yet mentions "blogger.com", "gmail.com", or "google.com" in the email headers. The spoofing filters examine email header content - not email body content - and are not trained by the addressees.

Important email, sent to you, may be bounced - without your knowledge.

If you are looking for important email from Blogger, you have looked in vain in "Bulk" / "Spam", and either you or the person originating the email uses non GMail based email, you may have to work very patiently with the network administrator who maintains the email service where your email is missing.

Find out if DKIM / DMARC / SPF email filters are used, to keep you safe - and try to persuade the email system administrators to filter "blogger.com", "gmail.com", and "google.com" more appropriately.

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We are analysing this problem, and related problems. If you are missing important email - or if non delivered email has been reported to you - please read and heed the next article. The solution may start with your report.

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FeedBurner Requires EMail Subscription Verification

One devious way of attacking people, before the Internet, was to drown them in mail, such as unwanted magazines.

Long ago, people with too much available time would fill out forms in their victims name - and subscribe her / him to assorted unwanted magazines. Nowadays, one might do that with email, to people unwise enough to publicise their account name or email address.

Blogger has similar options that may let us annoy people, also - possibly, inadvertently.

One way to protect yourself, and your blog, from unwittingly being used to annoy people, is to setup FeedBurner email distribution - then redirect the blog feed to the FeedBurner URL.

The first email received will be a verification request.
When somebody's email address is entered, to subscribe to a FeedBurner feed, the first email that a new subscriber gets is a subscription verification request.

Any person, receiving a verification request, and not having intentionally requested a subscription, can ignore the request - and will receive no more email for that feed.

There is a downside to the verification, though. If you do intentionally request a subscription - and fail to respond to the verification request - you won't get any email for that feed, either.

Verify the status of the subscriptions, for the feed.
If your blog uses FeedBurner Email Distribution, and you have unhappy would be readers reporting that they are not getting their anticipated subscription updates, check the FeedBurner Subscription list, using "View Subscriber Details".

Subscribers with a Status of "Unverified", if complaining to you, should search their email Inbox (possibly, "Bulk / Spam"), and look for an unanswered subscription verification request. If the verification request is old enough, they may need to subscribe again - possibly, after you remove the Unverified entry by clicking on the "X" under "Action".

Advise your would be subscribers that they should verify the subscription.
Simply advise your would be subscribers to look for, and answer, the subscription verification request - if they did intentionally subscribe. And apologise to those who did not intentionally subscribe.

And instruct them to check any email filter settings.
And if either you - or your would be subscribers - use non GMail based email, have them check their email filters. Some email - but not all - may be found in the "Bulk" / "Spam" folders. And some may need to check for "bounced" email notices.

Don't Confuse Simplicity, And Easy Installation

One naive attitude, about publishing a Blogger blog, involves adding features to one's blog - and the observation that every Blogger feature or modification is not uniformly available, with entry level instructions.

We see the complaints, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, too frequently.

I can't get this feature to work! Why is Blogger so complicated?

and

I have no idea what I need to do. Please guide me, in simple language - as if I were 6 years old!

Both attitudes show lack of understanding about technical projects in general - and Blogger features, and modifications, in particular.

Just because Blogger help documentation is written in English - and various other languages - and many Blogger features are easy to use - this won't mean that every possible Blogger feature will be equally well designed and documented.

Even when your neighbour has setup a blog with a given feature, that does not mean that your blog requires that same feature to be installed - before you publish, with some content. And even if the feature of your choice is truly useful, for your blog, please don't complain if the documentation provided is not completely understandable, to you.

Some Blogger features require some background experience with Blogger - and even with technical principles in general.

If the process of getting the feature of your choice installed, or working, on your blog, is unsuccessful, please don't complain

Blogger is so easy to use. Why do some features require geek speak?

Much of Blogger is easy to use, because of incredibly complicated background system design.

Many features are not at all simple, in reality. What you see, on your blog or in the template, may be just a tiny iceberg tip.

Some Blogger features will always require some blog owners to do some research, and read more documentation. Please, don't demand help.

I don't speak techie! Please explain this to me, as if I were a six year old!!

You may have to accept some issues as your responsibility, and politely accept the advice provided. And then, read the articles behind the links.

Importing Content Will Use Computer Resources

The ability to copy comments and posts into a blog - and even between blogs - is a useful option in Blogger.

Some blog owners take the "Export Blog" / "Import Blog" wizards too casually. Most computer owners enjoy multitasking - and multitasking, between various online activities which involve your personal involvement, can increase productivity.

The process of importing comments and posts, into a Blogger blog, does not involve your personal involvement - and does not work well during multitasking. Multitasking will actually slow the import process down - and what might take mere minutes can take hours, or days.

Too many computer owners, accustomed to doing several things at once on a given computer, may casually add the process of importing a set of comments and posts into a blog, as just one more task.

Most Internet tasks - such as chatting with family and friends, reading and sending email, and web surfing in general - run at your speed. If you're busy chatting, the email task sits idle in the background. Likewise if you are reading email, you may not be doing a lot of web surfing.

The task of importing comments and posts into a blog, on the other hand, runs without your involvement. On a well maintained computer, with nothing else to do, a moderate sized ".xml" file can take just minutes to upload to your blog. The key here is "nothing else to do".

There are various computer activities.

• Reading and writing content, locally ("disk" activity).
• Reading and writing content, using the Internet ("network" activity).
• Processing content read, into content written ("CPU" activity).

The Export / Import tasks involve all 3 activities heavily, plus require a fourth crucial resource - memory. Export / import tasks do not require your involvement - and are limited by the least available of the 4 above resources (which is still faster than with you being involved).

Since you do not have anything to do while a blog is being exported to a local file - or a local file is being imported to a blog - you may be tempted to spend your time chatting, reading / writing email, or surfing the web.

If you have only one computer, this may be a bad decision. Anything that you may do, which involves your action on the computer - chatting with family and friends, reading and sending email, and web surfing in general - is going to require CPU, disk, memory, and / or network resources.

Anything that competes with an export or import task, for resources, is going to make the export / import task run slower. In extreme cases, a task that should take minutes can end up taking hours - or even days - to complete.

One other way to make the import process run slower is to publish posts, as you import. This will, at best, cut import speed in half - and probably have a worse effect. Resist the temptation to select "Automatically publish all imported posts", when importing.

The next time that you export your blog to a local file - or import from a local file to a blog - try using a second computer - or take the afternoon off from any Internet activity. And close all browser tabs and windows, excepting the one where you are actually running the export or import.

If you lighten the load, of all non essential tasks, you may find that the export / import task runs faster than you expected - and you may be able to get back to your chatting with family and friends, reading and sending email, and web surfing in general, a lot sooner than you would have expected.

Blogger Support Balances Recovery Against Security

We continue to see complaints, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, from people not receiving acceptable help in recovering account / blog control.

Some supposed blog owners accuse Blogger of unlawfully denying them access to their blogs, when refused personal attention.

Theoretically, everybody should be able to recover control of their Blogger account, and their blogs, any time that they want.

Automated tools, provided by Blogger, enable a blog owner to recover access.

The automated tools, provided by Blogger Engineering, can provide account / blog access at a moments notice - without requiring use of any forum or other human involvement.

Unfortunately, everybody who claims to require forum assistance, in recovering control of their account, is not always doing just that. Some people are actually asking for help in stealing somebody else's account / blog.

For best ownership experience, remember the account name and password.

The best policy, for successful account / blog ownership, involves retaining control of your account - by always remembering the account name and the password. There is really no excuse for forgetting the account name / password - and routinely logging in to Blogger using the backup email account.

Blogger has to support blog owners who remember account name and password.

Blogger support for forgotten / lost account login details has to be properly balanced, against the need for all Blogger blog owners to retain ownership of their blogs. Blogger Support can only provide so much advice and assistance about account recovery.

Google is a business - and Google staff make proper business decisions.

Dynamic Templates, And HTML / JavaScript Gadgets

The dynamic templates, magical as they may be, may not suit everybody.

Some blog owners eagerly publish a blog to a dynamic template - then ask

WHere are all of the sidebar gadgets?

One of the downsides of the dynamic templates is that gadgets have to be specifically written to work with them. Not all of the accessories, available in "Add a Gadget", have been re written to support dynamic templates - and some may likely not ever be re written.

One of the most versatile entries, in the "Add a gadget" library, is the "HTML / JavaScript" shell.

So many useful accessories start with

Use "Add a Gadget", and add an "HTML / JavaScript" gadget.

Unfortunately, the HTML / JavaScript gadget is one which probably will not ever be written to work with the dynamic templates.

If you insist on having a pretty gadget, added to the convenient pop out dynamic template sidebar, you will probably be waiting for a good while. If you can settle for having a gadget accessible as a page menu entry, on the other hand, you may be able to provide some accessories as HTML / JavaScript code, embedded in a static page.

• Add a static page, containing the necessary HTML / JavaScript code.
• Edit the pages menu, using "Configure Page List", and make your new static page visible.

As earlier, I will recommend that you get the new page - and page menu entry - working, while temporarily using a non dynamic template - then re publish back to a dynamic template.

I'm not convinced that all "HTML / JavaScript" code can be successfully embedded in a static page - nor will all gadgets be ergonomically acceptable as provided to your readers, if accessed using a pages menu entry. But some gadgets should work this way - and this may allow some blog owners to continue to use a dynamic template with their blogs, and have the needed HTML / JavaScript gadgets available for their readers.

Report Locally Offensive Blogs Using The Courts

Some blogs offend their readers - and the readers are legitimately concerned about viewing inappropriate content.

Instructed in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, to report offensive blogs using the right complaint form, they may reply

I did - several times, but with no result!

In some cases, the blogs in question may be offensive only to a local audience. Though distasteful, blogs should not be unfairly censored.

Blogger wants to allow us to publish our blogs - and does not want us to publish offensive blogs - but also cannot needlessly interfere with blogs that are only offensive to a small reader population.

If you report a blog for offensive content - and the content does not actually violate Blogger / Google Content or TOS standards, Blogger / Google may be legally unable to properly react to your complaint.

Blogger / Google wants all Blogger blogs to follow standards - but they also do not want to needlessly interfere with blogs that do not violate their standards. Google Corporate Headquarters are in the USA - and the population of the USA believes in due process of law, and in innocence until proven guilty.

If you feel strongly that the content of a specific Blogger blog violates local standards, and is offensive in your country, your best recourse would be to get a court order from a judge in your country. Then submit your court order to Google.

Blogger can block specific blogs in specified countries, upon receipt of a properly supplied court order, by using country code aliasing. This will provide the blog owner proper treatment, in the world, in general - and people in your country can avoid viewing a culturally or religiously offensive blog.

Free Domain Registration By "co.vu" Is Fraudulent

Blogger blog owners, like everybody else, like to save money.

Some blog owners prefer to save money when registering a custom domain, for their blogs. We've seen several free domain registration services, providing what is claimed to be a two level Top Level Domain "co.xx" (where "xx" == various country codes).

The latest in this ongoing story appears to be "co.vu".

This year, we're seeing problem reports from blog owners who have published their blogs to domains registered as "co.vu" - and later, their blogs go offline.

"co.vu" is not a TLD, but a domain.

Like its predecessor "co.cc" long ago, and others since, "co.vu" appears to be another case of devious spammer ingenuity. The "registrar" for "co.vu" is actually the owner of the domain "co.vu", which is registered by Amazon Technologies in Virginia USA.

Blog owners who register their blogs using "co.vu" are actually publishing as a subdomain / virtual host to "co.vu". Their publishing efforts help to provide traffic to "co.vu", and to the undesirable content hosted there.

The "registrar" is simply a domain holder, who gives out free subdomains.

The provider of "co.vu", Nura Ramuk of Bangalore, India, like previous scam artists, is cashing in on the naivete that many Internet users have, in thinking that some registrars, for countries that use a 2 level Top Level Domain, will register domains for free.

How many domains can i register it for free?

You can register upto 2 domains for free. If you want more domains you can upgrade to pro and register up to 200 domains

This sounds like such a great deal - except what you "register" is not a domain - it's a virtual host, in the "co.vu" domain. And all of the search reputation, from the blog owner hard work, goes to "co.vu".

"co.vu" is actually a domain, registered by Amazon Associates.


Ramuk is claiming that you get a domain - when you actually get a virtual host in his own domain, "co.vu".


"co.xx" is used, in a number of countries. Vanuatu uses ".vu", not "co.vu".

There are a number of known "co." 2 level Top Level Domains - such as "co.in" (India), "co.nz" (New Zealand), and "co.uk" (United Kingdom).

Each genuine 2 level TLDs can provide a domain - when registered by a legitimate registrar. None of these will provide a free service, for their product that requires their resources.

The country of Vanuatu owns ".vu", as a TLD. They do not own, or provide ".co.vu".

GoDaddy will (did) register "nitecruzr.co.uk", for $6.99. Not free.

"nitecruzr.co.uk" is (or was) an available domain.


GoDaddy will (would) not register "nitecruzr.co.vu" - because "nitecruzr.co.vu" is not a domain - and "co.vu" is not a TLD. But "co.vu" did register my personal "domain", for "free".

"nitecruzr.co.vu" is not a domain - and "co.vu" is not a TLD.


Publishing to "co.vu" will not get your blog a good reputation.

"codotvu.com" appears to be advertising their services most heavily in FaceBook and Tumblr. One Tumblr publisher has observed that publishing to "co.vu" is not a good idea

"But I can have a cool personalized name with .co .vu!" Yeah, you know why? Because most people don’t use it so names aren’t taken. Why?

Because it’s covered in adware and spyware.

Once again:

You don't get something for nothing.

Alternatively, as various sages have historically suggested,

There's a sucker born every minute

A "domain" registered as ".co.vu" may be worth exactly what you paid for it.

Avoid "Next Blog" Fixation

We see occasional reports in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, about the "Next Blog" link in the navbar, and undesirable behaviour.

Long ago, "Next Blog" was used to link to the most recently published blogs, to encourage blog publishing, using the now dead "Recently Updated Blogs" database. Since multiple Blogger blogs are published each second, this gave a pseudo random effect to "Next Blog".

Blog owners disliked the pseudo random effect. Some wanted to view blogs only published in their language, others wanted blogs geographically similar - and some demanded relevant subjects.

The pseudo random effect was abused by spammers, who would setup spam blog farms, then publish each spam blog repeatedly, to attract victims. "Next Blog" hacking was a popular spammer technique.

In an effort to reduce the spam - and to make the "Next Blog" link relevant by geography, language, and subject, Blogger developed "Next Blog" relevance.

When you hit "Next Blog" now, a Blogger script analyses the blog which you are currently viewing - and attempts to identify similar blogs. The script then randomly picks a blog from the "similar" collection, for viewing.

The "similar" collection has to be fuzzy - and requires compromise. All blogs will not necessarily have large collections of other blogs similar in geographical location, in language, and in subject matter simultaneously. In some cases, a "Next Blog" viewer may be forced to view a blog which is irrelevant in geography, language, and / or subject.

In extreme cases, a "Next Blog" viewer may end up viewing a very limited group of blogs. Repeatedly hitting "Next Blog" may display one or more blogs repeatedly. With a small enough collection of similar blogs, "Next Blog" may appear fixated, and display the same set of similar blogs, repeatedly.

To avoid "Next Blog" fixation, a viewer may need to start from a different blog before hitting "Next Blog", and after clearing cache, cookies, and sessions, and restarting the browser. This will reset the "Next Blog" relevance database for the user - and provide a new, and hopefully more diverse, set of similar blogs for viewing.

Don't Make Your Blog Vulnerable To Strategic Malware

In 2009, Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue had various reports about blogs mysteriously redirecting to "blogoholic.info".

Later that year, and into 2010, we saw new reports mentioning "smashingfeeds.com", then "sendptp.com". When we investigated the redirections, we found people with blogs that used a picturesque animated decoration known as "falling snow" - and later, as Valentines Day 2010 approached, "falling hearts".

The victimised blog owners, too frequently, admitted to having installed various gadgets provided by helpful non Blogger website owners. Diagnosing the problem, however, was frequently obscured by the claims.

But I installed that gadget months ago!

In some cases, diagnosed in December 2009 - February 2010, the misbehaving gadgets had been installed as far back as Summer of 2009.

Many misbehaving blog accessories were found available from various non Blogger websites, from helpful third party developers.

In Winter 2011 / Spring 2012, we discovered new classes of malware - gadgets being provided using "Add a Gadget", and served from Google sanctioned third party contributed libraries. We had redirectors like "pagesinxt.com", targeting websites such as "ripway.com".

We have actually observed four waves of hijack attacks upon Blogger blogs (the above two are the best documented), which appear to provide commercial or financial reward to the hackers maintaining the malicious and misbehaving gadgets. Some websites served from the "pagesinxt.com" redirection were found to be serving very deviously packaged malware - that helped to enslave various reader computers, as botnet members.

This year, we're observing more victims, who have installed gadgets from "blog-hit-counters.com", and "free-blog-content.com" - with redirectors such as "searchingresult.com". We also see problem reports from owners of blogs with NeoCounter and other NeoWorx products - and similar complaints from readers of the blogs.

When advised to remove identified gadgets, many blog owners again complain.

I installed that gadget months ago, and it's been working just fine! Surely, that is not my problem!!

But based on the other problem reports - and later by the admission of the blog owners - the gadgets removed will prove to be the source of the problem.

The lessons from all of this? You need to be very selective about where you get accessories and advice - and you need to accept skeptically - if at all - the casual evaluation.

It's working fine today, after I installed it last month - so it must be a good gadget! Now, I can recommend it to my friends!!

If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

You get readers from informative, interesting, and unique content - not from free content and shiny gadgets.

Remove Archive And Main Pages From Search Lists

A few blog owners become concerned about how their blogs are indexed - and why the search hit lists, that point to their posts, point to archive or main pages - instead of the individual post pages.

"www.mydomain.com/2015_01_01_archive.html" , "www.mydomain.com/2014_12_01_archive.html", and similar URLs are part of the same URL structure as "www.mydomain.com" - and as "www.mydomain.com/2015/02/whatever.html". They aren't harmful to the blog search engine reputation.

They are annoying, though. When I setup this blog, long ago - and would find my posts listed in index pages, they used to annoy me, too.

Archive and main page indexing is a normal result of Blogger blog structure.

If you publish your blog, with the complete post visible on the main page, the complete post will also be visible on an archive index page.

People will read your blog - and read the posts - from the main page. And search engines will index the blog, from the main page content.

As the posts get old, and newer posts displace older posts into the archive pages, the posts get indexed as part of the archive pages.

The archive and main pages contain multiple posts, so they are larger - and they have more weight with the search engines. More weight makes main and archive indexes show up ahead of, or instead of, the individual post pages, in a search hit list.

The answer, to that confusion, is to use Jump Break. Make your readers click once, to read a complete article.

The search engines will index less content on main and archive pages - and more content on the post pages. And the post pages will come in ahead of, or instead of, archive and main page indexes.

Also, if you want your blog read reliably, add search descriptions to the blog and to the posts, to attract more readers from the search engine result lists.

Problems With Google Domains Purchased Domains

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.

Google Domains has been in Beta status just about a month - and integrated with Blogger, for about half that.

We're seeing various problems reported, with domains using righteous DNS addressing - which look reminiscent of symptoms common to "Buy a domain", before the legendary "Transition" period was introduced.

• Blogs won't publish to a purchased domain, with mysterious error messages like "code CONFLICT".
• Blogs will publish, but show "404 Not Found" for the BlogSpot, domain root, and / or "www" alias.
• Blogs will publish, but the BlogSpot URL displays a long remembered oddity

  This blog is not hosted by Blogger and has not been checked for spam, viruses and other forms of malware.

• Blogs will publish, but the domain root cannot be redirected - and again, show mysterious error messages like "code CONFLICT".

We have a new Problem Rollup topic, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, where we are requesting details from everybody who is experiencing this problem.

While we wait for action by Blogger Engineering, everybody experiencing this problem is strongly urged to contribute their details to the Rollup Discussion. Problem diagnosis being as it is, any one person, contributing their details, might contribute the one essential detail that leads to successful diagnosis of the problem.

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(Update 3/20): With the discovery that Google Domains offers real time, on line contact, several blog owners have contacted them. In some cases, they have suggested simply changing the target DNS address from "ghs.googlehosted.com" to "ghs.google.com"; in other cases, a more complicated remapping exercise.

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Filters Interfere With Private / Team Blog Membership

We see occasional reports of people unable to accept membership in a private or team blog.

Even when an invitation is sent repeatedly, and accepted properly, some prospective blog members can't achieve membership.

This blog is open to invited readers only

http://myownbloggerblog.blogspot.com/
It doesn't look like you have been invited to read this blog.

We see this periodically, when trying to view a private blog - or access a team blog as an administrator. Even after accepting membership, some people may see this message.

Like problems with posting comments, with Reading List access and maintenance, and with restricting and viewing Stats, accepting and maintaining membership in a private or team blog requires identification.

Identification requires the Blogger / Google authentication cookie. And as with other Blogger applications, access to the Blogger login and blog membership cookies is affected by cookie and script filters.

There are 3 essential tasks, in accepting membership in a private or team blog.

1. Locate, and open, the email message.
2. Accept the invitation.
3. Access the blog, after accepting the invitation.

Each of these tasks is vulnerable to filtering, in some way.

Locate, and open, the email message.
Email messages are vulnerable to filtering, by the various email systems. Even GMail is known to filter email from other Google hosts, inappropriately.

Accept the invitation.
The invitation is a time sensitive certificate, which offers membership to one person. Aggressive script filtering may prevent proper execution of a membership acceptance.

Access the blog, after accepting the invitation.
Access to a private or team blog requires a membership cookie. Aggressive cookie filtering may prevent identification of the new member, similar to one problem with the Reading List.

Cookie and script filtering components can be found in ad blockers, in malware / spam filters, in performance optimisers, and in every security suite that can be added to any computer. And filters can become a problem because of updates, and various other reasons.

None of those problems will be foreseen by the computer owner, who will complain

I didn't change a thing! It was fine last week - but it's broken, now!!

And in this case, the owner will be correct - but will still have a Blogger account, unable to access the blog when invited.

Like the latest Reading List problem, if the account owner can't be identified, he / she may not be able to join a private / team blog - or even if able to join, may not be able to use the new membership.

If the account is broken on one computer, it may still be usable on another. If this is true, the computer owner needs to take the responsibility for identifying the errant filter, on the problem computer - and configure it properly.

Use Search Description Meta Tags, In Your Posts

Some blog owners want to emphasise the nature of the blog content, to the search engines.

Given a properly developed blog, you can add meta tags, on a per blog, per page, and per post basis. The tags can indicate, to your prospective readers, what the blog - and each page and post - is about.

You add meta tags, describing the blog, and the individual pages and posts, using the Blogger dashboard wizards.

Add a blog description, before you add the page and post descriptions.

Add the description for the blog, first.
Start with the description for the blog. Use the "Meta tags" option in the dashboard page Settings - Search preferences. Edit the Description, and enter the blog description.

What Blogger won't (or can't) tell you. Blogger features and problems explained, using real life examples.

Then add the page and post descriptions, one page or post at a time.

Once the blog description is entered, the page editor "Page settings" and post editor "Post settings" menus will have a new option - "Search Description". Open that, and add the search description, for each page and post, one by one.

Then add each page and post description, one by one.


Template code needs proper references to search description.

With some meta tags, there is a discrete and separate pair of tags - there will be one tag that contains the per blog content - and a second tag that contains the individual per post content. With the Search Description, both the per blog and per post content is passed in one tag.

When you add template code, you won't need any conditionals to determine whether you are in main page or post page display - the same tag will be used for both displays.

Make all descriptions brief, and descriptive.

For both the blog, page, and and post descriptions, just enter one or two brief, descriptive phrases or sentences. Don't bother with meta keywords - they don't help, and may hurt, search reputation.

Blogger creates the XML code, from the appropriate description - and inserts it in the right location, in the template header section.

Note that you will index individual posts - and you write search descriptions for individual posts. You may, if you wish, index individual pages - and you may write search descriptions for individual pages.

You can add descriptions for post pages, and static pages.

You won't write search descriptions for archive retrievals or label searches - because neither archive retrievals nor label searches are (should be) indexed by the search engines.

Read Webmaster Tools Help: Review your page titles and snippets, for details about how to create good meta tags - and see my examples, in the screen prints, above. Use the SERP Snippet Optimization Tool, to make your search entries both compact and readable.

Write the descriptions carefully. Make each single character count.

A search description can be a maximum of 140 characters (give or take a few, and this is important, too) - you will see the concept in the Optimization Tool. Make your 140 characters count - this is what your prospective readers will see, when they must decide whether to read your blog / page / post, or another.

Allow 10 - 15 minutes to write a good, tight description, for each post. If you can spend a couple hours (or how many days?) writing a good post, you can take 10 - 15 minutes, to write a description of the post.

Description, Title, and URL get limited space, in a search entry.

Learn to describe your blog, and the posts, to the search engines - and increase traffic from people viewing the search listings.

Just remember that search descriptions complement content - they don't replace it. Properly developed blogs start with informative, interesting, and unique content.

A possible alternative / complementary technique, popular with some blog owners, is to put the post title ahead of the blog title.

However you do it, don't add meta tags before you have a blog that people will read - and that search engines will index.

Content Review Is Not As Simple As Spam Review

We've been providing advice for blog owners, unhappy about unfair spam classification, for a few years, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue.

Some blog owners have similar questions about unfair objectionable content classification.

Content Warning

Some readers of this blog have contacted Google because they believe this blog's content is objectionable. In general, Google does not review nor do we endorse the content of this or any blog. For more information about our content policies, please visit the Blogger Terms of Service.

These blog owners, seeing how objectively we are able to evaluate spam classifications, request similar service for content classifications.

I like to summarise spam guidelines by using excerpts from my FAQ, What Types Of Blog Content Are Considered Abusive, By Blogger Spam Mitigation Policy?.

I provide advice, using multiple sources which quote Blogger policy.

My FAQ is a compilation from Blogger Content Policy, from Google Terms of Service, and from practical experience with interpreting verdicts delivered by the Blogger Policy Review team.

When it's useful to triage spam appeal requests - or to advise non self aware spammers of their unrealised starus - we can generally do that.

Some content classification may not be based solely on Blogger policy.

Advising blog owners why their blogs have been unfairly accused of hosting objectionable content is not so simple. Objectionable content classification is not based solely on TOS guidelines - it is generally based on objections by the readers of a given blog,

Here I will note that the easiest way to avoid an Involuntary Content Warning being placed on your blog, is to accept a Voluntary Content Warning. Also, we need to remember that neither the "Voluntary" or "Involuntary" Content Warning is absolute, and will not protect your blog against malware or spam classification.

"Some readers of this blog have contacted Google because they believe this blog's content is objectionable."

The more readers you get, with diverse opinions, the more likely a controversial blog is to get this classification.



Objecting to blog content is not complicated.

Start with the navbar "More" drop down menu.

From the blog as displayed, click on "More", then "Report Abuse".



"Report Abuse" links you straight to Blogger Help: Report inappropriate content.

And you have "Report inappropriate content".



Click on "Child safety, nudity, or adult content", then on "Report child safety, nudity, or adult content" - and you get "Blogger Help: Child safety, nudity or adult content".

Please provide the URL of the blog in question (e.g. http://example.com). *

Just enter the URL of the blog - and Blogger takes it, from there.

There are several possibilities, leading to reader induced classification.

Objections by the readers of a blog can be caused by several mistakes, by the blog owner.

• Adding blatantly objectionable content into a blog.
• Unwisely advertising a blog where mildly objectionable content is not appreciated.
• Unwisely provoking readers with unwanted opinions.

Blatantly objectionable content.

Blogger / Google Content and TOS guidelines do not describe all unwanted content. Some content is "legal" by Content / TOS guidelines, but still inappropriate for a medium such as Blogger blogs, which may be viewed by underage children.

Blatantly objectionable content is almost guaranteed to receive objections, for any blog with a normal reader population.

Mildly objectionable content, unwisely advertised.

Some blogs may contain material that is perfectly reasonable, to the majority of a normal reader population. If advertised unwisely, to a population which does not appreciate the content, a blog may still receive content objections.

Unwanted opinion, inappropriately objected.

Some blogs may merely offer advice or opinion that is unwanted by the readers. To a reader population which is large and vocal, such a blog may still be objectionable.

Content warnings are collaborative, and relevant to level of offensiveness.

Blatantly objectionable content may be placed behind a Content Warning, given only a few complaints. Mildly objectionable content may require more complaints - and unwanted advice / opinion, when receiving large volumes of complaints, may still be placed behind a Warning.

Some blogs may be placed behind a warning. Other abuse reports, depending upon the severity of offense and report volume, may result in the blog being deleted or locked - and even the owner's Blogger account being deleted or locked.

White listing is not an option.

A blog, receiving an unfair Content Warning, may be examined by Blogger Policy review - and the Warning may be removed. If the blog owner continues adding similar content - or unwisely advertises the blog where it is not appreciated, more complaints will be placed by the readers. Such a blog will probably be again placed behind a Warning.

Content classification reflects opinion.

Spam classification and review is based upon relatively mature and objective guidelines, and is not subject to public opinion. Content classification is based upon opinions of the reader population - and review must be based upon opinion of Blogger Policy Review.

Spam classification is based upon automated, heuristic filters, which are trained by the review process. Since content classification is based upon opinion, training is not an option. People can be capricious, and persistent.

Blogs with a liberal and small reader population may get away with hosting content, that would be quickly objected, for blogs with a conservative and large reader population. Blogger Policy Review may take these details into consideration.

The bottom line.

Whereas spam classification and review is based on published rules, content classification and review is based upon opinion. Blogger / Google corporate philosophy, headquarted in the USA, may be different if it was headquarted in China or Iran, for instance.

Some classification may be unavoidable, with a blog owner unwilling to compromise.