Tag Archives: Blogspot

A better Blogger experience on the web


Since 1999, millions of people have expressed themselves on Blogger. From detailed posts about almost every apple variety you could ever imagine to a blog dedicated to the art of blogging itself, the ability to easily share, publish and express oneself on the web is at the core of Blogger’s mission. As the web constantly evolves, we want to ensure anyone using Blogger has an easy and intuitive experience publishing their content to the web.  

That’s why we’ve been slowly introducing an improved web experience for Blogger. Give the fresh interface a spin by clicking “Try the New Blogger” in the left-hand navigation pane. 


     
 Click the “Try the New Blogger” button to see Blogger’s refreshed look and feel.


In addition to a fresh feel, Blogger is now responsive on the web, making it easier to use on mobile devices. By investing in an improved web platform, it allows the potential for new features in the future. 



Blogger’s new responsive design makes it easy to manage your blog on-the-go.



Learn more about the page-specific updates we’ve released to make your Blogger experience even better: 


Stats
The redesigned Stats page helps you focus on the most important data from your blog by highlighting your most recent post.    

Comments
A fresh Comments page helps you connect with readers more easily by surfacing areas that need your attention, like comment moderation.  

Posts
We’ve improved support for Search Operators on the Posts page to help you filter your Blogger posts and page search results more easily. 

Editor
The newly enhanced Editor page introduces table support, enables better transliteration, and includes an improved image/video upload experience. 

Reading List 
Even if you don’t create from your phone, it’s now easier than ever to read blogs from other creators while you’re on the go.

Settings 
We’ve streamlined the Settings page to help you manage all your controls from one place.  


We’ll be moving everyone to the new interface over the coming months. Starting in late June, many Blogger creators will see the new interface become their default, though they can revert to the old interface by clicking “Revert to legacy Blogger” in the left-hand navigation. By late July, creators will no longer be able to revert to the legacy Blogger interface.  

We recommend getting ahead of the transition by opting into the experience today. Be sure to let us know what you think about the new design by tapping the Help icon in the top navigation bar. We can’t wait to see how Blogger creators use the latest updates to share their voice with the world.


Posted by Fontaine on behalf of the Blogger team

A better Blogger experience on the web


Since 1999, millions of people have expressed themselves on Blogger. From detailed posts about almost every apple variety you could ever imagine to a blog dedicated to the art of blogging itself, the ability to easily share, publish and express oneself on the web is at the core of Blogger’s mission. As the web constantly evolves, we want to ensure anyone using Blogger has an easy and intuitive experience publishing their content to the web.  

That’s why we’ve been slowly introducing an improved web experience for Blogger. Give the fresh interface a spin by clicking “Try the New Blogger” in the left-hand navigation pane. 


     
 Click the “Try the New Blogger” button to see Blogger’s refreshed look and feel.


In addition to a fresh feel, Blogger is now responsive on the web, making it easier to use on mobile devices. By investing in an improved web platform, it allows the potential for new features in the future. 



Blogger’s new responsive design makes it easy to manage your blog on-the-go.



Learn more about the page-specific updates we’ve released to make your Blogger experience even better: 


Stats
The redesigned Stats page helps you focus on the most important data from your blog by highlighting your most recent post.    

Comments
A fresh Comments page helps you connect with readers more easily by surfacing areas that need your attention, like comment moderation.  

Posts
We’ve improved support for Search Operators on the Posts page to help you filter your Blogger posts and page search results more easily. 

Editor
The newly enhanced Editor page introduces table support, enables better transliteration, and includes an improved image/video upload experience. 

Reading List 
Even if you don’t create from your phone, it’s now easier than ever to read blogs from other creators while you’re on the go.

Settings 
We’ve streamlined the Settings page to help you manage all your controls from one place.  


We’ll be moving everyone to the new interface over the coming months. Starting in late June, many Blogger creators will see the new interface become their default, though they can revert to the old interface by clicking “Revert to legacy Blogger” in the left-hand navigation. By late July, creators will no longer be able to revert to the legacy Blogger interface.  

We recommend getting ahead of the transition by opting into the experience today. Be sure to let us know what you think about the new design by tapping the Help icon in the top navigation bar. We can’t wait to see how Blogger creators use the latest updates to share their voice with the world.


Posted by Fontaine on behalf of the Blogger team

An update on Google+ and Blogger

Following the announcement of Google+ API deprecation scheduled for March 2019, a number of changes will be made to Blogger’s Google+ integration on 4 February 2019.

Google+ widgets: Support for the “+1 Button”, “Google+ Followers” and “Google+ Badge” widgets in Layout will no longer be available. All instances of these widgets will be removed from all blogs. 



+1 buttons: The +1/G+ buttons and Google+ share links below blog posts and in the navigation bar will be removed.




Please note that if you have a custom template that includes Google+ features, you may need to update your template. Please contact your template supplier for advice.

Google+ Comments: Support for Google+ Comments will be turned down, and all blogs using Google+ Comments will be reverted back to using Blogger comments on 4 February 2019. Unfortunately, comments posted as Google+ comments cannot be migrated to Blogger and will no longer appear on your blog.



Google+ Profile: In March 2019, Blogger will revert to only having Blogger profiles. Users that have selected a G+ profile in the past will appear as unknown authors until they next login to Blogger and supply a new display name and avatar.



We are sorry for the inconvenience these changes may cause, but we look forward to delivering fresh functionality to Blogger in the coming year. Thanks for your continued loyalty.

If you have questions about any of these changes or need help navigating them, please visit our Blogger Help Forum.

It’s spring cleaning time for Blogger

To make room for some exciting updates coming soon to Blogger, we’re simplifying the platform to enhance the blogging experience for all of our users.


Changes to existing features in Blogger (rolling out over the next few months):

  • Google+ Integrations: Throughout the next few months, Blogger will transform Google+ widget integrations into HTML widgets to give you more flexibility in how you share and see your followers.
  • OpenID: Blogger previously allowed users to comment on blogs using an existing third party OpenID identity provider and has also acted as an OpenID identity provider when interacting with other systems on the internet. Due to the low usage of this feature, Blogger will no longer support OpenID as a provider or for making comments, and all comments that previously used OpenID will be anonymized. New comments can be posted either from a Google account or labeled as “Anonymous” on blogs that allow it.
  • Improved Localization and Blogspot ccTLDS: Your location determines your country services. Historically, these services have been labeled and accessed via country code top level domain names (ccTLD), such as blogspot.com.au for Australia. We’re updating the way we label country services on Blogger - now the choice of country service will no longer be indicated by domain. Instead, blogspot.com will serve you the country service that corresponds to your location, and all existing blogspot ccTLD domains will redirect to blogspot.com. This will help simplify URLs for international audiences.


Along with the above updates, the following features will soon be retired from Blogger (over the next few months) due to low usage and to allow the Blogger team to focus on developing new features:

  • Third Party Gadgets: You will still be able to add custom HTML or Javascript via the “HTML/Javascript” gadget.
  • Next Blog: This is the feature that allows you to visit another blog similar to the current one. Blog owners can still use the Blog List widget to share their favorite blogs directly!
  • Polls Widget: Current Polls results will still be available in Google Takeout (more details below) until later in 2018.
  • Textcube: www.textcube.com will be decommissioned. Existing Blogspot blogs imported from TextCube will continue to serve on their blogspot.com address, while files originally hosted in Textcube will be available via Google Takeout (more details below).


Aside from the above changes, we’re excited to highlight some new features we’ve been working on.


New features you may have noticed recently:

  • HTTPS for Custom Domains: Internet security is very important to Blogger. Custom domains now support encrypted connections with HTTPS, making sure connections maintain integrity and the contents are confidential. For more information on HTTPS, check out the Blogger Help Center article here.
  • Multilogin: Multiple accounts? No problem! Multilogin allows you to switch between your different Google accounts without signing out. For more information on multilogin, check out the Blogger Help Center article here.
  • Spanner: We’ve been doing some serious tinkering under the hood of Blogger! We finished a multiple-year migration of all blogs to Spanner, a new storage system. For more information on Spanner, check out the Google Cloud Spanner site here.



New features coming soon (over the next few months):

  • Video Management: With our new management interface, you can easily download and remove videos you’ve uploaded.
  • Google Takeout: Your blog - your data. With our upcoming updates to this tool, you’ll be able to access more information when you download your data from Google Takeout.


We know change isn’t always easy, but we thank you for your patience as we continue our commitment to helping you publish your passions into 2018 and beyond.


Stay tuned,
Kelly on behalf of your Blogger team

Share your unique style with new Blogger themes

If you’re one of the millions of people who uses Blogger to share your views on current affairs, teach the world how to make sushi, or just offer a peek into your day, then you know how important it is to be able to put your personal stamp on your blog. After all, your blog isn’t just a place you share, it’s a reflection of who you are and the impression you’d like to leave with your readers.

To make it easier for you to express your unique style, we’ve created a new set of blog themes for you to choose from. Each theme comes in a variety of colors, is fully customizable, and can be added to your blog with just a few clicks.

These themes aren’t only designed to look great, they’re designed to work great too. Each one has been built to automatically adjust to any screen and load quickly, so you can rest assured that your readers will be able to easily see your work whether they’re on a computer, phone or tablet.

Here’s a quick look at the new designs:


Contempo
As good for a photo as it is for a story, Contempo puts a fresh, modern spin on life’s many adventures.
(view sample blog)


Soho
Spare and simple, Soho is a gallery built to showcase your latest photos, designs or musings in their best light.
(view sample blog)



Emporio
From projects to objects, Emporio can take any array of posts and display them in a neat and tidy way.
(view sample blog)



Notable
Whether you’re feeling pithy or profuse, Notable is your notepad for scribbles, stories, and so much more.
(view sample blog)



To see all of the different theme variations, and to try on a new one for your blog, visit your blog dashboard and select the Theme tab. 

We hope this latest update makes it even easier to publish the things you’re passionate about in a way that fits your style. Let us know what you think and stay tuned for more updates for Blogger.

Happy blogging!

Posted by Guy Ronen, Product Manager

A first few tweaks toward a better Blogger

From New York to Jakarta, Blogger is one of the most popular ways to publish the things you’re passionate about. Still, we’ve heard that there’s more we can do to make the platform a better place to have your unique voice be heard. So we’ll be making some adjustments over time to bring you a faster, easier to use and more beautiful Blogger.

To kick things off, we’ve taken a crack at simplifying Blogger’s dashboard so that it’s easier for you to get right to the tools you need. Now, whenever you open Blogger, you’ll be taken right to your blog with the most recent post, putting you one click or tap closer to drafting something new.


We’ve also updated Blogger’s header bar, making it consistent with what you’ll find in other Google products. And as part of our commitment to building products that are accessible for all, we’ve adjusted Blogger’s colors to make things easier to see.

We’re starting small with these adjustments, but hope they help you create more amazing work. Please send any feedback our way and stay tuned for more updates to come.

Happy blogging!


Posted by Guy Ronen, Product Manager

More custom template flexibility


More custom template flexibility

Last May, we added some expressions to our templating language to make it easier for you to customize your blog’s look and feel. These new expressions proved popular with those of you who enjoy advanced blogging tools, so we wanted to offer you even more flexibility. 

Starting today, we’re introducing a new set of operators, which we’re calling lambda expressions, that allow you to apply rules to whole sets of data (think posts, comments, or labels), rather than just individual instances. 

Let’s say you wanted to add a flower image to all posts with the label “Flower,” for example. With lambda expressions, simply define a variable name that each item in the set will take, and then refer to the variable name as though it were each item.

<!-- Show a Flower image if the post has the label flower -->
<b:if cond='data:post.labels any (l => l.name == "Flower")'>
 <img src=’/img/flower.jpg’ />
<b:if/>

An example of adding a flower icon to posts labelled 'Flower'


There’s lots more that you can do using lambda expressions, like only showing posts in your feed with a given label or quickly calculating how many posts you have with a given number of comments. For a full list of the new lambda expressions available, check out the help forum.

Happy Blogging! ?

Posted by Luke, Software Engineer

Keep your readers interested with the AdSense Guide to Audience Engagement

Today, information is at our fingertips and we can access it from anywhere on any device. Just a few taps pull up millions of websites all competing for our attention. For bloggers, engaging with your audience has never been more important or more challenging. To help lay the foundation to a winning engagement strategy, the AdSense team created the AdSense Guide to Audience Engagement.




Research shows that 29% of smartphone users will immediately switch to another site or app if it doesn’t satisfy their needs.


To help keep your audience engaged, get your free copy of the AdSense Guide to Audience Engagement.
In the guide, you’ll learn:
  • How to help your audience become familiar with your brand
  • Best practices to design user journeys
  • How to develop content that resonates with your audience
  • Ways to make your content easy to consume
  • Why you should share the love with other sites by referring to good sources


If you’re interested in more updates from the Google AdSense team, follow us on  Google+ and Twitter. We’d love to hear what you think.

Posted by Jay Castro, the AdSense Team.

Bringing HTTPS to all blogspot domain blogs

[Cross-posted from the Google Security Blog]

HTTPS is fundamental to internet security; it protects the integrity and confidentiality of data sent between websites and visitors' browsers. Last September, we began rolling out HTTPS support for blogspot domain blogs so you could try it out. Today, we’re launching another milestone: an HTTPS version for every blogspot domain blog. With this change, visitors can access any blogspot domain blog over an encrypted channel.
The HTTPS indicator in the Chrome browser
As part of this launch, we're removing the HTTPS Availability setting. Even if you did not previously turn on this setting, your blogs will have an HTTPS version enabled.

We’re also adding a new setting called HTTPS Redirect that allows you to opt-in to redirect HTTP requests to HTTPS. While all blogspot blogs will have an HTTPS version enabled, if you turn on this new setting, all visitors will be redirected to the HTTPS version of your blog at https://<your-blog>.blogspot.com even if they go to http://<your-blog>.blogspot.com. If you choose to turn off this setting, visitors will have two options for viewing your blog: the unencrypted version at http://<your-blog>.blogspot.com or the encrypted version at https://<your-blog>.blogspot.com.
The new HTTPS Redirect setting in the Blogger dashboard
Please be aware that mixed content may cause some of your blog's functionality not to work in the HTTPS version. Mixed content is often caused by incompatible templates, gadgets, or post content. While we're proactively fixing most of these errors, some of them can only be fixed by you, the blog authors. To help spot and fix these errors, we recently released a mixed content warning tool that alerts you to possible mixed content issues in your posts, and gives you the option to fix them automatically before saving.

Existing links and bookmarks to your blogs are not affected by this launch, and will continue to work. Please note that blogs on custom domains will not yet have HTTPS support.

This update expands Google's HTTPS Everywhere mission to all blogspot domain blogs. We appreciate your feedback and will use it to make future improvements.


Posted by Milinda Perera, Software Engineer, Security

An update to the Blogger post editor to help with mixed content

Back in September, we announced that HTTPS support was coming to blogspot.com, making it possible for you to encrypt connections to your blog; since then, many of you have enabled HTTPS for your blogs. In some cases, not all of your blog’s functionality has worked over HTTPS due to mixed content errors often stemming from your template, gadgets, or blog post content.


To help spot and fix some of these errors, we're releasing a mixed content warning tool that alerts you to possible mixed content issues in your posts, and gives you the option to fix them automatically before saving.





To use the tool, turn on HTTPS for your blog, open the Blogger editor HTML view, and click Save or Publish. If the editor detects any errors they will be shown above the editor, along with the option to fix the errors found.


Happy blogging!

Posted by Shweta Karwa, Software Engineer, Security.