Google found an interesting trick to defend Blogger blogs against local laws: redirect readers to country-specific domains and only remove those URLs if required.
"Over the coming weeks you might notice that the URL of a blog you're reading has been redirected to a country-code top level domain, or 'ccTLD.' For example, if you're in Australia and viewing [blogname].blogspot.com, you might be redirected [blogname].blogspot.com.au. A ccTLD, when it appears, corresponds with the country of the reader's current location," explains Google.
"Migrating to localized domains will allow us to continue promoting free expression and responsible publishing while providing greater flexibility in complying with valid removal requests pursuant to local law. By utilizing ccTLDs, content removals can be managed on a per country basis, which will limit their impact to the smallest number of readers. Content removed due to a specific country's law will only be removed from the relevant ccTLD." That means [blogname].blogspot.com will continue to exist, but it's not clear if the users from that specific country will still be able to access it.
Blogger will start to use country-specific domains, just like many other Google services. If you're in Australia and visit google.com, you'll be redirected to google.com.au, but you can opt-out by clicking "Go to Google.com" or visiting google.com/ncr. The same option is available for Blogger: "Blog readers may request a specific country version of the blogspot content by entering a specially formatted NCR URL. NCR stands for 'No Country Redirect' and will always display [blogname].blogger.com in English, whether you're in India, Brazil, Honduras, Germany, or anywhere. For example: http://[blogname].blogspot.com/ncr – always goes to the U.S. English blog."
Google doesn't mention the list of countries that are affected by this change, but Techdows.com reports that India is one of them. Obviously, blog owners can use custom domains if they don't like the new feature. Even if Google made sure that the duplicate URLs are properly handled by search engines, it could be annoying to see so many URLs that send people to the same page.
{ Thanks, Venkat and Herin. }
Showing posts with label Blogger. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blogger. Show all posts
1/31/12
1/12/12
Blogger Adds Threaded Comments
Blogger's comment system has been updated and it now supports threading. You can now reply to a comment and read the entire conversation. "It is now much easier to differentiate between whether someone is making a general comment on the thread, or responding to another comment on the thread," informs Google.
The threaded view is only available for embedded comments and it requires to enable full-text blog feeds.
If you've manually customized your blog's template, you may not see the new feature. One way to solve this issue is to reset widgets. In the new Blogger interface, go to the Template tab, click "Backup/Restore" and download your template, then click "Edit HTML", "Proceed" and "Revert widget templates to default". If something doesn't look right, you can always go back to the old template by clicking "Backup / Restore" and uploading the template you've saved.
The threaded view is only available for embedded comments and it requires to enable full-text blog feeds.
If you've manually customized your blog's template, you may not see the new feature. One way to solve this issue is to reset widgets. In the new Blogger interface, go to the Template tab, click "Backup/Restore" and download your template, then click "Edit HTML", "Proceed" and "Revert widget templates to default". If something doesn't look right, you can always go back to the old template by clicking "Backup / Restore" and uploading the template you've saved.
10/24/11
Blogger to Integrate With Google+
When you edit your Blogger profile, Blogger shows a message at the top of the page that says: "Connect Blogger to Google+: Use your Google profile and get access to upcoming Google+ features on Blogger". Unfortunately, the links seem to be broken, but both URLs reference profile switching.
It's obvious that Blogger profiles will be discontinued and replaced by Google Profiles, but it's not clear how Blogger will integrate with Google+. Maybe Blogger posts will automatically trigger Google+ posts and Blogger/Google+ comments will be synchronized. Friend Connect will be discontinued and Google+ could replace it. Friend Connect's goal was to "help site owners easily provide social features for their visitors. Users gain the ability to sign in to, make friends on, and interact with your site, making it more social and more dynamic". It wasn't successful, but Google+ has a better chance to make Blogger more social.
Update: Blogger's blog informs that this option is available if you use Blogger in Draft and it will be released in the regular Blogger interface in the coming weeks. For now, the only changes are that the Blogger profile redirects to the Google profile, the author's name is now obtained from Google Profiles and Google's snippets for the blog posts include information about authors: name, thumbnail and link to the profile. "If you blog under a pseudonym and do not want your blog to be associated with your real name, you should not migrate from a Blogger profile to a Google+ profile," suggests Google. If you change your mind after switching to the Google+ profile, you can revert to the Blogger profile.
{ Thanks, Herin. }
It's obvious that Blogger profiles will be discontinued and replaced by Google Profiles, but it's not clear how Blogger will integrate with Google+. Maybe Blogger posts will automatically trigger Google+ posts and Blogger/Google+ comments will be synchronized. Friend Connect will be discontinued and Google+ could replace it. Friend Connect's goal was to "help site owners easily provide social features for their visitors. Users gain the ability to sign in to, make friends on, and interact with your site, making it more social and more dynamic". It wasn't successful, but Google+ has a better chance to make Blogger more social.
Update: Blogger's blog informs that this option is available if you use Blogger in Draft and it will be released in the regular Blogger interface in the coming weeks. For now, the only changes are that the Blogger profile redirects to the Google profile, the author's name is now obtained from Google Profiles and Google's snippets for the blog posts include information about authors: name, thumbnail and link to the profile. "If you blog under a pseudonym and do not want your blog to be associated with your real name, you should not migrate from a Blogger profile to a Google+ profile," suggests Google. If you change your mind after switching to the Google+ profile, you can revert to the Blogger profile.
{ Thanks, Herin. }
10/14/11
Disable Blogger's Dynamic Views
If you don't like Blogger's Dynamic Views, but your favorite blog enabled one of them, there's a way to go back to the previous template: just add &v=0 to the URL. For example, here's the URL for Gmail's blog: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/?v=0.
Unfortunately, the change is not persistent and you need to add the parameter every time you visit the homepage or one of the posts. You can also bookmark the URL.
Unfortunately, the change is not persistent and you need to add the parameter every time you visit the homepage or one of the posts. You can also bookmark the URL.
10/13/11
How to Disable Blogger's Lightbox
Last month, Blogger's team launched a Lightbox-like feature which was quickly removed after users started to complain. Blogger's Lightbox was automatically enabled for all the images from a post and blog owners couldn't disable it.
The feature is now back, it's still enabled by default, but you can disable it from Settings > Formatting by selecting "No" next to "Open images in Lightbox". If you use Blogger's new interface, the setting can be found in the "Post and comments" section. As Google explains, "If Yes is selected, when a reader clicks on an image in a post, it will be displayed in a slideshow-like overlay instead of leaving your page and navigating to the image."
The old interface:
The new interface:
{ via Blogger Buzz. Thanks, Petros. }
The feature is now back, it's still enabled by default, but you can disable it from Settings > Formatting by selecting "No" next to "Open images in Lightbox". If you use Blogger's new interface, the setting can be found in the "Post and comments" section. As Google explains, "If Yes is selected, when a reader clicks on an image in a post, it will be displayed in a slideshow-like overlay instead of leaving your page and navigating to the image."
The old interface:
The new interface:
{ via Blogger Buzz. Thanks, Petros. }
9/28/11
Dynamic Views, New Blogger Templates
Blogger launched in March five blog views that used cutting-edge technologies to transform a blog into a Web app. Back then, visitors had to enter a special URL like gmailblog.blogspot.com/view/sidebar or install a Chrome extension to switch to one of the new interfaces. Six months later, Blogger created two new views (classic and magazine) and added the list of dynamic views to Blogger's template editing section so that blog authors can replace their template with one of the seven views that are now available.
There are three kinds of dynamic views: photo-oriented templates (flipcard, mosaic, snapshot), text-oriented templates (classic, sidebar) and magazine-like templates (magazine, timeslide). If you don't have a photoblog, classic, sidebar and magazine are the best dynamic views for your blog. Blogger's new templates bring a lot cool features and change the way readers interact with a blog. Infinite scrolling replaces pagination, blog posts are loaded using AJAX, Blogger caches blog posts so they load faster, images are downloaded as you browse, you can use keyboard shortcuts (j/k or n/p) to go to the next or previous post just like in Google Reader. There's also instant search that shows the list of results as you type.
While dynamic views have many cool features, there are also many downsides. They're not very customizable: you can only upload a header image and customize the background colors. When you pick one of the views, all the gadgets you've added will disappear. It's also annoying that blog posts no longer open in separate pages: they open either in lightbox-like panes or in a homepage-like interface, next to other posts (here's an example). Just like the mobile template, dynamic views only work with Blogger's commenting system, so you won't be able to use Disqus. It will be interesting to see how search engines handle the new templates, considering that blog posts are loaded using JavaScript and HTML pages are almost empty.
I don't intend to switch to one of the dynamic views, but my favorite templates are sidebar and magazine. You can always bookmark these links or use Google's Chrome extension, which needs to be updated to add support for the two new dynamic views. Some Google blogs have already switched to the new templates: Blogger Buzz, Gmail Blog, Google Docs Blog and LatLong.
There are three kinds of dynamic views: photo-oriented templates (flipcard, mosaic, snapshot), text-oriented templates (classic, sidebar) and magazine-like templates (magazine, timeslide). If you don't have a photoblog, classic, sidebar and magazine are the best dynamic views for your blog. Blogger's new templates bring a lot cool features and change the way readers interact with a blog. Infinite scrolling replaces pagination, blog posts are loaded using AJAX, Blogger caches blog posts so they load faster, images are downloaded as you browse, you can use keyboard shortcuts (j/k or n/p) to go to the next or previous post just like in Google Reader. There's also instant search that shows the list of results as you type.
While dynamic views have many cool features, there are also many downsides. They're not very customizable: you can only upload a header image and customize the background colors. When you pick one of the views, all the gadgets you've added will disappear. It's also annoying that blog posts no longer open in separate pages: they open either in lightbox-like panes or in a homepage-like interface, next to other posts (here's an example). Just like the mobile template, dynamic views only work with Blogger's commenting system, so you won't be able to use Disqus. It will be interesting to see how search engines handle the new templates, considering that blog posts are loaded using JavaScript and HTML pages are almost empty.
I don't intend to switch to one of the dynamic views, but my favorite templates are sidebar and magazine. You can always bookmark these links or use Google's Chrome extension, which needs to be updated to add support for the two new dynamic views. Some Google blogs have already switched to the new templates: Blogger Buzz, Gmail Blog, Google Docs Blog and LatLong.
9/17/11
Blogger's Slideshow Feature
Blogger added a feature that makes it easier to view multiple photos. When you click on an image from a Blogger post, a LightBox-like overlay shows a bigger version of the image and lets you view the other images in a slideshow. The feature was borrowed from Google+, it's enabled by default and can't be disabled from the settings page.
If you want to open an image in a new tab, middle-click on the URL displayed below the image or right-click the link and select "open link in new tab". The slideshow supports keyboard shortcuts: left/right arrows, j/k, n/p to navigate, Esc to close the slideshow.
{ Thanks, Petros and Cougar. }
If you want to open an image in a new tab, middle-click on the URL displayed below the image or right-click the link and select "open link in new tab". The slideshow supports keyboard shortcuts: left/right arrows, j/k, n/p to navigate, Esc to close the slideshow.
{ Thanks, Petros and Cougar. }
9/8/11
iPhone App for Blogger
Blogger has an app for iPhone and it's better than the corresponding Android app, which has improved a lot in the past months. Both apps let you edit your existing posts and create new posts, add images to your posts, include labels and geolocate your posts.
They're pretty basic, but the iPhone app has a better interface, it's easier to use and pays attention to detail. For example, the iPhone app includes the URL of the blog next to the name when you switch to a different blog, so that it's easier to identify a blog. The Android app only shows the names. To publish a post in the iPhone app, you need to tap the "Publish" button, which is always displayed at the top of the screen. In the Android app you need to scroll to the bottom of the post to find the "publish" button.
"With the Blogger app, you can write a new blog post and publish it immediately or save it as a draft right from your iOS device. You can also open a blog post you've been working on from your computer and continue editing it while you're on-the-go. Your blog posts are automatically synced across devices, so you’ll always have access to the latest version," informs Google.
They're pretty basic, but the iPhone app has a better interface, it's easier to use and pays attention to detail. For example, the iPhone app includes the URL of the blog next to the name when you switch to a different blog, so that it's easier to identify a blog. The Android app only shows the names. To publish a post in the iPhone app, you need to tap the "Publish" button, which is always displayed at the top of the screen. In the Android app you need to scroll to the bottom of the post to find the "publish" button.
"With the Blogger app, you can write a new blog post and publish it immediately or save it as a draft right from your iOS device. You can also open a blog post you've been working on from your computer and continue editing it while you're on-the-go. Your blog posts are automatically synced across devices, so you’ll always have access to the latest version," informs Google.
7/8/11
Try Blogger's New Interface
Google promised a new Blogger interface back in March and started a limited test in April. "The new design is not only cleaner and more modern, but it also uses Google Web Toolkit, delivering the latest in web technology."
The new interface is now available in Blogger in Draft, but it looks quite different. "Over the last couple of months, we've made significant improvements to our new user interface. First and foremost, we've incorporated your feedback and made numerous fixes based on that feedback. Also, we've updated the look and feel of our new design, inspired by Google's newest design evolutions," explains Google. Blogger uses Ajax, so all the pages load a lot faster, including the post editor. Unfortunately, Blogger is still very slow when you perform a search and try to display posts or comments.
Blogger's new UI is cleaner and it offers additional information about your posts: the number of pageviews. Tabs have been replaced by a vertical menu and the list of labels is now a drop-down. The post editor is much better, especially if you use the default view. Blogger's new editor takes up most of the page and post settings are now included in a sidebar.
There's a lot of white space in the new interface, buttons aren't big enough to be readable and Blogger includes too much information that's not very useful: the total number of published comments and the total number of pageviews. The new interface is a mixed bag: it's modern, clean, faster and more powerful, but there are many things that need to be changed before replacing the existing interface.
You can try the new UI at draft.blogger.com and you also have the option to make it the default interface.
The new interface is now available in Blogger in Draft, but it looks quite different. "Over the last couple of months, we've made significant improvements to our new user interface. First and foremost, we've incorporated your feedback and made numerous fixes based on that feedback. Also, we've updated the look and feel of our new design, inspired by Google's newest design evolutions," explains Google. Blogger uses Ajax, so all the pages load a lot faster, including the post editor. Unfortunately, Blogger is still very slow when you perform a search and try to display posts or comments.
Blogger's new UI is cleaner and it offers additional information about your posts: the number of pageviews. Tabs have been replaced by a vertical menu and the list of labels is now a drop-down. The post editor is much better, especially if you use the default view. Blogger's new editor takes up most of the page and post settings are now included in a sidebar.
There's a lot of white space in the new interface, buttons aren't big enough to be readable and Blogger includes too much information that's not very useful: the total number of published comments and the total number of pageviews. The new interface is a mixed bag: it's modern, clean, faster and more powerful, but there are many things that need to be changed before replacing the existing interface.
You can try the new UI at draft.blogger.com and you also have the option to make it the default interface.
7/5/11
Blogger and Picasa Web Could Be Rebranded
Mashable reports that Blogger and Picasa Web Albums could change their names and become Google Blogs and Google Photos. "Google intends to retire several non-Google name brands and rename them as Google products. The move is part of a larger effort to unify its brand for the public launch of Google+."
While Google Photos makes a lot sense, replacing Blogger with Google Blogs is not a great idea. When people say "Google Blogs", they refer to the long list of Google's corporate blogs. "Google Blogs" is already used for Google Blog Search, but only on the homepage.
On the other hand, Blogger could be redesigned and use interface elements from Google+, Blogger's profiles could be replaced by Google Profiles, the commenting system could be revamped and integrated with Google+.
One of the reasons why Picasa Web Albums didn't improve too much is that it has always been perceived as Picasa's online extension. It wasn't a standalone photo sharing service and many of its features required Picasa. You couldn't upload more than 5 photos, download albums or edit photos without installing Picasa. Google considered changing Picasa Web's name back in 2008.
While Google Photos makes a lot sense, replacing Blogger with Google Blogs is not a great idea. When people say "Google Blogs", they refer to the long list of Google's corporate blogs. "Google Blogs" is already used for Google Blog Search, but only on the homepage.
On the other hand, Blogger could be redesigned and use interface elements from Google+, Blogger's profiles could be replaced by Google Profiles, the commenting system could be revamped and integrated with Google+.
One of the reasons why Picasa Web Albums didn't improve too much is that it has always been perceived as Picasa's online extension. It wasn't a standalone photo sharing service and many of its features required Picasa. You couldn't upload more than 5 photos, download albums or edit photos without installing Picasa. Google considered changing Picasa Web's name back in 2008.
3/31/11
Blogger Views
Blogger added five dynamic templates that transform blogs into interactive apps. Just add /view to the URL of a blog that offers full feeds (for example: googlesystem.blogspot.com/view) and you'll be able to try the new views: flipcard, mosaic, sidebar, snapshot and timeline. Blogger's templates offer features like infinite scrolling, progressive image loading, smart search, filtering posts by date, author or label. "These new views use the latest in web technology, including AJAX, HTML5 and CSS3," explains Google.
In the near future, bloggers will be able to customize the templates and use them without having to change the URL.
In the near future, bloggers will be able to customize the templates and use them without having to change the URL.
3/14/11
Upcoming Blogger Features
Google rarely preannounces new features, so I was really surprised to see a video that highlights some upcoming Blogger features. Google's video does a great job at enumerating the latest Blogger improvements, while asking people: "Have you looked at Blogger lately?".
Google plans to unveil a completely new Blogger interface, mobile templates for blogs (which are already available at Blogger in Draft) and a feature that lets you find related posts and videos.
Here's the video:
Google plans to unveil a completely new Blogger interface, mobile templates for blogs (which are already available at Blogger in Draft) and a feature that lets you find related posts and videos.
Here's the video:
2/3/11
Blogger's Android App
Blogger is catching up with the times: Android users can finally post timely updates to their blogs using a native app. You can always use Blogger's site or even write your posts in a mail client, but a mobile app is more user friendly.
Blogger's Android app is really basic and doesn't offer too many features. It's mostly useful if you want to write a new post, since you can't edit the existing posts. The editor only lets you enter text and include one or more photos. You can add some labels and geotag your posts, taking advantage of your phone's GPS. If you haven't finished a post, you can always save it as a draft, but you won't be able to publish it from a computer because it's only saved locally.
Blogger's blog mentions that Blogger is a new sharing option, so you can easily share a photo from the Gallery or a web page. "By switching to the List View, you can view all your drafts and published posts that you wrote using the app." Unfortunately, you can't edit existing posts.
All in all, Blogger's Android app offers very few features and I would only use it to write short posts or to share photos from a trip. Maybe Blogger's team should also develop a mobile web app which could be updated faster.
Android Market link: Blogger's app.
Blogger's Android app is really basic and doesn't offer too many features. It's mostly useful if you want to write a new post, since you can't edit the existing posts. The editor only lets you enter text and include one or more photos. You can add some labels and geotag your posts, taking advantage of your phone's GPS. If you haven't finished a post, you can always save it as a draft, but you won't be able to publish it from a computer because it's only saved locally.
Blogger's blog mentions that Blogger is a new sharing option, so you can easily share a photo from the Gallery or a web page. "By switching to the List View, you can view all your drafts and published posts that you wrote using the app." Unfortunately, you can't edit existing posts.
All in all, Blogger's Android app offers very few features and I would only use it to write short posts or to share photos from a trip. Maybe Blogger's team should also develop a mobile web app which could be updated faster.
Android Market link: Blogger's app.
12/18/10
Mobile Blogger Templates
This year, Blogger's team added so many new features that it's difficult to count them: dynamic templates, comment spam filtering, a new way to manage comments, real-time stats, better post preview, static pages and so much more. Blogger is one the few Google products that have improved dramatically this year, after many years when it was neglected.
Since a lot of people use phones to browse the Web, it makes a lot of sense to add a mobile interface for Blogger and to create mobile versions for Blogger's templates. There's no mobile Blogger yet, but all Blogger blogs have a mobile version optimized for WebKit browsers. Just add ?m=1 to the URL of any Blogger blog, and you'll get a simplified version that works well on an iPhone, Android phone and probably other phones that use a browser based on WebKit. Here's an example: http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/?m=1.
Bloggers can enable the mobile version of their blogs, so that visitors are automatically redirected to this version when they're using a supported mobile browser. This option is only available if you go to Blogger in Draft, click on "Settings", switch to "Email & Mobile" and enable "Yes, On mobile devices, show the mobile version of my template." This didn't work for me, so you'll still see the regular mobile version of this blog that uses a custom stylesheet.
Google says that the new feature only supports 12 existing templates (6 variants of the Simple template and 6 variants of the Awesome template) and that all the other templates will be rendered as the Simple template. The mobile version drops the sidebars and most of the gadgets, shows small excerpts from the posts on the homepage, hides the comment form (but you can still post comments), resizes images and videos, adjusts fonts and converts AdSense ads into mobile ads. Unfortunately, you can't customize mobile templates, at least not yet.
Since a lot of people use phones to browse the Web, it makes a lot of sense to add a mobile interface for Blogger and to create mobile versions for Blogger's templates. There's no mobile Blogger yet, but all Blogger blogs have a mobile version optimized for WebKit browsers. Just add ?m=1 to the URL of any Blogger blog, and you'll get a simplified version that works well on an iPhone, Android phone and probably other phones that use a browser based on WebKit. Here's an example: http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/?m=1.
Bloggers can enable the mobile version of their blogs, so that visitors are automatically redirected to this version when they're using a supported mobile browser. This option is only available if you go to Blogger in Draft, click on "Settings", switch to "Email & Mobile" and enable "Yes, On mobile devices, show the mobile version of my template." This didn't work for me, so you'll still see the regular mobile version of this blog that uses a custom stylesheet.
Google says that the new feature only supports 12 existing templates (6 variants of the Simple template and 6 variants of the Awesome template) and that all the other templates will be rendered as the Simple template. The mobile version drops the sidebars and most of the gadgets, shows small excerpts from the posts on the homepage, hides the comment form (but you can still post comments), resizes images and videos, adjusts fonts and converts AdSense ads into mobile ads. Unfortunately, you can't customize mobile templates, at least not yet.
8/13/10
Blogger Adds Spam Filter for Comments
Blogger's commenting system still needs a lot of work. Even though you can now display the comment box below the post, you can subscribe to comments by email and sign in using OpenID, the authentication procedure is still clunky, you can't reply to a message, read other comments from the same user or edit a comment after posting it.
The good news is that Google finally solved two big problems for Blogger authors: comment spam and managing comments. If Gmail has a great spam filter, why Blogger can't use a similar technology to detect spam comments?
"Blogger now filters comments that are likely spam comments to a Spam Inbox, much like the spam folder in your email. When someone leaves a comment on your blog, it will be reviewed against our spam detector, and comments that are identified as possible spam will be sent to your blog's Spam Inbox, found at Comments | Spam," explains Blogger's help center.
Blogger's spam filter works well and you can improve it by clicking on "Not spam" next to a false positive or mark as spam a message that hasn't been filtered.
Now it's easier to manage the comments from your blog even after they're published. The new Comments tab lists all the published comments and lets you delete them or mark them as spam. You no longer have to visit each blog post and manually remove spam comments.
Blogger's help center says that the Comments tab should be displayed even if you don't enable comment moderation. Unfortunately, the tab disappears when you disable comment moderation. As Blogger's blog admits, comment moderation can be annoying. "To fight spam, some of you enabled moderation of all comments or required word verification or login. While somewhat effective, these checks limit real-time conversations around your blog."
For now, I've enabled comment moderation for posts that are older than 30 days. Hopefully, you'll no longer see spam comments.
The good news is that Google finally solved two big problems for Blogger authors: comment spam and managing comments. If Gmail has a great spam filter, why Blogger can't use a similar technology to detect spam comments?
"Blogger now filters comments that are likely spam comments to a Spam Inbox, much like the spam folder in your email. When someone leaves a comment on your blog, it will be reviewed against our spam detector, and comments that are identified as possible spam will be sent to your blog's Spam Inbox, found at Comments | Spam," explains Blogger's help center.
Blogger's spam filter works well and you can improve it by clicking on "Not spam" next to a false positive or mark as spam a message that hasn't been filtered.
Now it's easier to manage the comments from your blog even after they're published. The new Comments tab lists all the published comments and lets you delete them or mark them as spam. You no longer have to visit each blog post and manually remove spam comments.
Blogger's help center says that the Comments tab should be displayed even if you don't enable comment moderation. Unfortunately, the tab disappears when you disable comment moderation. As Blogger's blog admits, comment moderation can be annoying. "To fight spam, some of you enabled moderation of all comments or required word verification or login. While somewhat effective, these checks limit real-time conversations around your blog."
For now, I've enabled comment moderation for posts that are older than 30 days. Hopefully, you'll no longer see spam comments.
7/2/10
Blogger Stats
Two years ago, Google started to test an analytics service for blogs. MeasureMap, the service acquired by Google to improve the interface of Google Analytics, was still available and MeasureMap users were invited to convert their accounts to Google Analytics. At that time, Google Analytics experimented with integrating MeasureMap features like showing information about comments, blog posts, links from other sites. For Blogger blogs, Google also added a "stats" tab on the dashboard.
It's not clear if the Google Analytics experiment is still available, but Google released Blogger Stats, a Blogger feature that lets you see real-time data about a blog: the most popular posts, the number of pageviews for each post, the total number of pageviews, a list of traffic sources and search keywords, a breakdown of pageviews by country, browser and operating system. Blogger Stats is only available if you use Blogger in Draft, a playground where Blogger tests many new features.
"The coolest thing about the new Blogger Stats is that it monitors and analyzes your visitor traffic in near-real-time. You can see which posts are getting the most visits and which sites are sending traffic to your blog right now," says Google. Blogger Stats doesn't use Google Analytics, which offers more complex reports, but they are updated every hour and sometimes even less often.
It's not clear if the Google Analytics experiment is still available, but Google released Blogger Stats, a Blogger feature that lets you see real-time data about a blog: the most popular posts, the number of pageviews for each post, the total number of pageviews, a list of traffic sources and search keywords, a breakdown of pageviews by country, browser and operating system. Blogger Stats is only available if you use Blogger in Draft, a playground where Blogger tests many new features.
"The coolest thing about the new Blogger Stats is that it monitors and analyzes your visitor traffic in near-real-time. You can see which posts are getting the most visits and which sites are sending traffic to your blog right now," says Google. Blogger Stats doesn't use Google Analytics, which offers more complex reports, but they are updated every hour and sometimes even less often.
1/21/10
Blogger Static Pages
Blogger in Draft, Blogger's version that includes experimental features, added a frequently-requested feature: static pages. "Blogger Pages lets you to publish static information on stand-alone pages linked from your blog. For example, you can use Pages to create an About This Blog page that discusses the evolution of your blog, or a Contact Me page that provides directions, a phone number, and a map to your location."
You can create up to 10 static pages and they're automatically added to the blog's sidebar. Blogger uses the same editor for editing posts and pages, but pages have a different URL format and they're displayed in a separate list.
I tried to create a static page for this blog, but it uses a custom template and I couldn't find the "Edit Pages" section. Even when I manually entered the URL: http://draft.blogger.com/pages.g?blogID=<BLOG_ID> and tried to create a page, Blogger returned an error message and couldn't create the page.
You can create up to 10 static pages and they're automatically added to the blog's sidebar. Blogger uses the same editor for editing posts and pages, but pages have a different URL format and they're displayed in a separate list.
I tried to create a static page for this blog, but it uses a custom template and I couldn't find the "Edit Pages" section. Even when I manually entered the URL: http://draft.blogger.com/pages.g?blogID=<BLOG_ID> and tried to create a page, Blogger returned an error message and couldn't create the page.
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