Blogger Magic - Custom Domain Publishing And Search Engine Reputation

There's a lot of confusion seen in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, about our blogs, and how they are treated by the search engines, after being published to a custom domain URL.

Does the Page Rank transfer to the new domain?

and

Is the blog automatically indexed after the change?

and

Will my readers be able to find my blog after the change?

Each of those questions has a simple answer - but each simple answer leads to interesting detail.

The basic facts to consider are quite simple.

• Search engines index our blogs, and calculate page rank, by domain / subdomain URL. Better search engine reputation leads to better search listing placement, and more traffic.
• When you publish the blog to a custom domain, you are giving it a new URL.
• With the blog published to a new URL, it has no page rank, and is not indexed.

So, the immediate answer is quite simple.

Like a new blog, and like a blog renamed within BlogSpot, a blog newly published to a custom domain has Zero page rank, and is not indexed.

Now, look at the details.

• Unlike a completely new blog, a blog newly published to a custom domain has reputation, in the minds - and links in the blogs - of the readers.
• Unlike a completely new blog, there is an existing BlogSpot blog that is indexed, and has search engine reputation.
• Unlike a blog renamed within BlogSpot, a blog published to a custom domain has a DNS based redirect, from the BlogSpot URL, to the domain URL.

And here is where the magic starts.

When you combine the assets, held by the BlogSpot URL

• Links, in our readers blogs.
• Reputation, in our readers minds.
• Reputation, in the search engines.

with the DNS based redirect - applied against a properly setup domain, and using a proper complement of sitemaps - you get a blog which acquires indexing and page rank from the existing reputation of the former BlogSpot URL, as that BlogSpot URL, and our readers blogs, are being re indexed. And, there is the magic.

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Account Recovery, Authentication, Contact, Privacy, And URL Availability Are Related Issues

Every day, we get various impassioned pleas from blog owners (active, former, and would be), in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, requesting assistance.

How do I get access to my blog, that I published 10 years ago?

and

How do I keep my blog from being visible in Google?

and

How do I contact the owner of a blog that was published 10 years ago (and never updated)?

All of these are valid concerns - and answering one question sometimes involves referring to various other concerns.

Blogger Support, some time ago, confirmed our right to privacy, as blog owners.

Our policies aren't pro-stalker, they are pro-respecting the privacy of user information. We simply can not release information without due process.

The concept of Internet privacy in general, and blog owner privacy specifically, has legendarily been part of some major world political events. If we as blog owners are going to retain our rights to privacy as blog owners, we have to be aware of the limitations, and the repercussions.

Not all blog owners are aware of the complex natures of Blogger authentication. We have two long used authentication options - account name / password (primary), and backup email access (secondary). Some owners routinely ignore the primary option, and use the secondary, regularly. When their email host changes because they change employer, graduate from college, or change ISP, we see the plaintive cry from former owners

I need Blogger to send the recovery email to my new address!

or

I can't use my previous email account!

To prevent the latter issue, Blogger / Google recently introduced a tertiary authentication option - SMS / Voice Recovery. This allows us to use a text message (SMS transmitted), or a voice message ("home" phone transmitted), to the "cell phone" or "home phone" of our choice. This approach, not universally popular, causes another privacy concern.

• It requires advance action. People currently unable to use the primary or secondary authentication options are not going to find a solution here.
• It requires the blog owner to register a "cell phone" or "home phone" number. People with privacy concerns don't appreciate this.

  I'm not giving Google my phone number!

  as if Google intends to add us to another phone spam database.

Another privacy issue involves people who think that blog ownership involves some minimal publishing activity, and who require use of the Blog URL to match their blog subject and title.

I need contact to the owner of blog xxxxxxx!

Here, the would be blog owner ignores the owner's right to privacy, in requiring contact information.

Some people request that Blogger monitor posting level, and contact inactive blog owners.

Can Blogger just email owners of blogs with no posts for a year, and ask them to confirm their intention to continue? Those who don't respond can have their blogs taken away, so somebody else can make better use of the URL.

These would be owners seem to think that all Blogger accounts are based on active and valid email addresses, and that all URLs should be universally monitored.

The bottom line here is that there are several limitations, that we may have to learn to live with.

• Blogger won't disclose blog owner details, gratuitously.
• You, and you alone, are responsible for maintaining control of your blogs.
• If a given URL is not available, find one that is available now, and start your blog, today.

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Why Can't Blogger Just Tell Me The Email Address, When I Ask For It?

We see the pain, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, of blog owners who do not understand the need for keeping the name of their Blogger account a secret.

I forgot the email address that I was using. Why can't Blogger just tell me the address??

and some ask

How did this unknown person "xxxxx xxxxx" get control of my blog?

Years ago, the local police would have to convince home owners

Please, stop leaving a spare key under a rock, near the door!

Both many blog owners (today) - like some home owners (years ago) - had the same basic problem - naivete.

Like the home owners of years ago, who kept a spare key under a rock near the front door, for emergencies, blog owners will use tricks to remember their password. One favourite technique, for remembering the password, is so obvious.

Pick a password based upon something that you can remember.

For a blog owner who is married, the answer is obvious.

What is my spouse's name?

and there's your password. If you forget that, you have worse problems, that cannot be addressed here.

If the name of one's spouse was a secret, using the name would not be a problem. But knowing that many blogs either contain the name (and picture, even) of the whole family - or lead to a Profile page with similar information - how secret is the spouse's name going to be?

Knowing both the Blogger account name (email address) that owns any blog of interest, and the URL of the blog, any hacker has a simple enough task.

1. Scrape blog content, into a text analyzer.
2. Extract a few hundred details (spouse's name, and others) from the blog content, as analysed.
3. Run the known details through a password generation program.
4. Now, the hacker has a database, containing "10,000 good possible passwords", specifically relevant to this blog.
5. Go to "www.blogger.com", plug in the account name, and try out the 10,000 passwords, one by one.
6. That's a simple brute force password attack.
7. Sit back, and watch any botnet, controlled by the hacker, go to work.
8. Given enough time, the hacker very likely gets access to the Blogger account, and to the blogs owned by the account.
9. Note that steps 1 - 8, for any experienced hacker, will be summed into one step.

   Plug in the URL of the blog.

   Everything else is just more programming.

Besides using a "strong" password (which carries it's own risks such as forgetting the password - and now we're here, again), the best way to prevent a brute force attack is by preventing step 5.

Keep the account name / email address a secret.

If you need to recover access to your Blogger account, don't expect to use the Blogger "Forgot?" wizard, plug in your blog URL, and get a reply

Email was sent to your address xxxxxxx@yyyyy.zzz

And, if you post in the forum.

Please email me advice, to "xxxxxxx@yyyyy.zzz"!

expect to get a stern warning

Please, do not post Blogger account names, or email addresses, in the forum.

And people objecting to the recent Blogger policy of masking email addresses, in Blogger commenting and similar services, as "no-reply @ blogger . com", may also need to consider this very real issue.

And, if your Blogger / GMail / Google account is disabled - and you get a mysterious notice about

Suspicious / Unusual activity on your account

this could well be the other side of a brute force attack against your account, intercepted by Google.

None of this is fiction or paranoia - it's based on some very real, recent events - and causes some very real conundrums.

You will get no sympathy, when you post into Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, and complain how unsupportive Blogger is. You have to make some effort, and remember some basic information, if you are going to maintain a Blogger blog.

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The Comment Notification Option Is Subject To The Realities Of Authentication, And Cookie Filtering

Some blog guests cannot understand why they can't get notifications, when someone leaves a comment after them, attached to a post comment form.

Why don't I see the option to "Email follow-up comments to xxxxxxx@yyyyy.zzz"?

or maybe

I selected the option to "Email follow-up comments to xxxxxxx@yyyyy.zzz", but I don't get any reply notifications. Why am I being mistreated by Blogger?

These people do not realise that comment follow-up notifications are subject to the same problems as the embedded comment form.

Many people, preparing to post a comment on their favourite blog, look forward to reading replies from other blog guests - and become confused when they do not see the option to

Email follow-up comments to xxxxxxx@yyyyy.zzz

They don't realise that they will only see that option when they are logged in using a Blogger account - and when their login status is available to the code behind the comment form. Like the desire to post a comment, using one's Blogger / Google account, this option requires availability of the Blogger login cookie, identifying the commenter as being logged in.

An incorrectly set cookie filter can either prevent availability of the comment notification option, when using the embedded comment form (if "third party cookies" are blocked) - or can prevent availability of the option on any comment form (if cookies, in general, are blocked). In either case, the commenter will be treated, by the comment form code, as not being logged in - and no option will be provided.

Also, if the commenter is successfully logged in, but is not using a Blogger account that's attached to an active email address, he / she can select the notification option, but will never receive a notification. This is a typical problem, with a Blogger account setup using a bogus email address, whether accidentally or intentionally.

So, if you don't see the notification option when you post a comment - or if you select the option but never get any email, don't immediately and unilaterally blame the Blogger commenting feature. Do some research, before reporting your problem.

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Getting Traffc To Your Blog Involves Getting The Blog Properly Indexed

This post has been renamed, as Getting Traffic To Your Blog Involves Getting The Blog Properly Indexed.

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Getting Traffic To Your Blog Involves Getting The Blog Properly Indexed

We continue to see evidence of frustration about getting a blog indexed, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

I can find the blog using the URL - but my visitor log shows nobody is reading the blog!

People who report this problem do not understand that getting traffic to the blog involves more than getting the blog indexed, using the URL of the blog.

Getting your blog indexed, so you get useful traffic from the search engines, requires effort.

1. You have to get the blog indexed.
2. You have to get the blog indexed, in searches where people actually read.
3. You have to get the blog indexed, with good position, in searches where people actually read.

Getting the blog indexed, so you can find the blog by searching for the URL, gets the blog indexed by the URL. Use Google Webmaster Tools, and look at the "Search queries" list on the dashboard. How many Impressions do you see, which reference the blog by Title or URL? How many Impressions are from people, other than you, checking to see if the blog is indexed?

If you want new viewers, you need to get the blog indexed, appearing in a search engine results page that people (besides you) are using - and appearing in a good position on that page. Examine the observations, referencing SERP Page One, from Click Distribution & Percentages by SERP Rank.

Position #1: 45.46% of all clicks
Position #2: 15.69% of all clicks
Position #3: 10.09% of all clicks
Position #4: 5.49% of all clicks
Position #5: 5.00% of all clicks
Position #6: 3.94% of all clicks
Position #7: 2.51% of all clicks
Position #8: 2.94% of all clicks
Position #9: 1.97% of all clicks
Position #10: 2.71% of all clicks
Total: 95.91% of all clicks occur on Page #1 of SERPs

Your blog, linked from SERP Page One Position One, stands an equal chance of getting a new viewer, than appearing in All Other Positions, combined. And only 1 in 20 viewers will even look beyond SERP Page One.

Remember that this is a double edged sword. No matter what the subject - or search terms - there can be only one blog linked from Page One Position One.

• The more popular the subject and search terms, the more readers you have a chance to get.
• The more popular the subject and search terms, the more other people will publish blogs to that subject.

Would you prefer being a small frog, in a large pond - or a large frog, in a small pond? A pond without other frogs can be a lonely place.

Finally, if you want new viewers who will return, and who will send you other new viewers, you'll need content, regularly added.

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Publishing Your Blogger Blog Post To FaceBook Fails

During the past weekend, we started seeing a number of reports in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, from blog owners who participate in FaceBook, and who can't publish their blog posts to their FaceBook Wall. The problem appears to be common to both publishing using the "Share to FaceBook" button in the blog post (within Blogger), as well as the Wall posting wizard (within FaceBook).
We have a problem rollup in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, where we are collecting details from the blog owners reporting.

1. What's the URL of your Blogger blog?
2. What's the URL of your FaceBook Wall?
3. Were you posting from your blog post (using the "Share to Facebook" button), or directly to your Wall (within FaceBook)?
4. Is the email address associated with your Blogger account GMail, or non GMail?
5. Is the email address associated with your FaceBook account GMail, or non GMail?
6. Is the email address associated with your Blogger account the same as the email address associated with your FaceBook account?
7. Were you logged in, as the blog owner, to Blogger?
8. Were you logged in, as the Wall owner, to FaceBook?
9. What post did you try posting, to FaceBook?
10. How recently were you able to, successfully, post to FaceBook?
11. Does your Blogger account use a Blogger profile, a Google profile, or a Google+ profile?
12. If you were posting to your Wall, did you solve the CAPTCHA successfully?
13. What browser (name, and version) are you using?

If you are observing this problem, with your Blogger / FaceBook accounts, providing as many details as possible may help Blogger / FaceBook Support staff to focus on your problem, by identifying a pattern.

---

(Update 2012/01/94): It appears that most people are now able to post to FaceBook. Some people are now reporting a new annoyance

You are attempting to post a link that has been marked as abusive and/or spammy.

---

(Update 2012/01/01): After having examined the many diagnostic reports provided in the rollup discussion, and having done some testing, I am suspecting that the problem does not have a simple cause, that's solely the responsibility of Blogger. Blogger Support appears to support this conclusion.

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Switching Back To The Classic Blogger GUI, And "400 Bad Request"

Those Blogger blog owners who continue to use an older browser, and who have decided to check out the New Blogger GUI (2011), may be familiar with the ominous advice

Your browser is no longer supported by Blogger. Some parts of Blogger will not work and you may experience problems.
If you are having problems, try Google Chrome.

Some of you have opted to check out the New GUI, even when faced with the warning - and have been faced with a cold reality.

I mistakenly clicked on the "Try the updated Blogger interface" link and now I just have a blank screen because my computer is outdated.

Having seen a steady flood of the latter complaint, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, Blogger recently released a non GUI Recovery process.

www.blogger.com/opt-in-new-ui.g?useNewUi=false

The latter URL, and its mirror image

www.blogger.com/opt-in-new-ui.g?useNewUi=true

can be used by anybody, as a non GUI procedure to move back and forth between the Classic and New Blogger GUIs. Unfortunately, not everybody can do this.

Now, some of the people who previously reported the latter problem.

I mistakenly clicked on the "Try the updated Blogger interface" link and now I just have a blank screen because my computer is outdated.

are reporting a new problem.

The webpage cannot be found HTTP 400 Bad Request

when they try to use the above non GUI solution.

The "400 Bad Request" error has been with us for a while - and it comes and goes. I, personally, saw this symptom - once - when I was using the non GUI Recovery URL. In my observation, it was transient - I simply hit F5 to Refresh, and my Blogger login display popped back up. And having then logged in again to Blogger, I found myself back on the Classic Blogger dashboard.

Not everybody is so fortunate, however. Some blog owners report seeing the "400 Bad Request" display repeatedly, when trying to recover from having opted for the New Blogger GUI. It's possible that the old nostrum

Clear cache, cookies, and sessions, then restart the browser.

may provide relief from the latter problem.

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Removing Blogs From Your Reading List

One of the strangest cases of confusion, exhibited in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, comes from people who only want to remove a blog from their Reading List, using the "Manage Blogs I'm Following" wizard.

I can't remove a blog from the Reading List - there is no trash can in the Manage wizard!

Here, I'll advise you, simply, to not look for a trash can icon.

To remove blogs from your Reading List, start with the blue Manage button (Classic GUI) or the gear icon (New GUI). The "Manage Blogs I'm Following" list contains an inventory of all Followed blogs, by blog title.

If you don't see the title of the blog that you are trying to remove, in the Manage list, don't look at "All blog updates" (Classic GUI) or "All blogs" (New GUI). Go to the Reading List and look at each individual blog in the list, one by one, until you find the problem content - then look at the title used by the problem blog. Always start with the correct title.

Once you know the correct title, go back to the Manage wizard, and find that title in the list. Click on "Settings", next to the title.

When you click on "Settings", you may have to login to Following / "Friend Connect". If you have to login, select "Google" - then use the correct Blogger account name and password.

In the popup window for the correct title, you'll find the Basics tab selected, with your profile displayed. Beneath the display of your profile, you'll find the title of the blog again - and to the right of that (possibly requiring that you stretch the width of the popup window), you'll find the link "Stop following this site". Click on the link, hit "Stop Following" to confirm, and you're done.

Just don't waste time looking for a trash can icon.

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Blog Owners Reporting Inability To Update Various Template Gadgets

The dynamic templates have been available for just over 3 months, and for all their usefulness, there are a number of identified deficiencies. We see, every week, naive questions about one well known deficiency.

How do I add a bloglist (Followers gadget, labels index, popular posts, what have you...) gadget to my blog, with it using a dynamic template?

Adding gadgets to a dynamic template display just won't be a simple project. Not to be facetious, but there is really no space on the screen, for an accessory bar (also known as a sidebar). The dynamic views dynamically fill all horizontal space.

Lack of popular gadgets, like Followers, are a major shortcoming for many blog owners, who are considering using a dynamic template for their blog. Many blog owners like the Followers gadget - and can't bear the idea of having their blog without its ability to build their reader community. Other gadgets, similarly unavailable, cause disappointment also.

It's possible that Blogger is hard at work redesigning the dynamic template display, and creating a space for an accessory bar. Until they do that, though, you may be able to have gadgets like Followers - if not on the first page of a dynamic template, possibly on a Pages link.

If you create a Pages gadget, using the New GUI Pages editor, you can add a link to any URL in the blog, in the Pages gadget. If you can do that, you can add a pair of links to the home page - one explicitly targeting the non dynamic URL, a second targeting a dynamic URL (your chosen default view). The first links your blog, using a dynamic view, to a page containing all of your missing gadgets; the second links back to the dynamic view.

The Layout menu entry is not available, when the blog is published to a dynamic template. If not already present, you'll have to add the Pages gadget, with the blog published to a non dynamic template.

As an alternate to the two links, you can force a new tab / window, for the non dynamic link. With the non dynamic view opening in a new tab / window, there's no need to link back - so you need only one link.

Here's a link to my test blog.

http://nitecruzrtestnew.blogspot.com

Here's a link to the home page of my test blog, non dynamic, added to the Pages gadget.

Home (Non Dynamic)

Here's a link to the home page of my test blog, dynamic, added to the Pages gadget.

Home (Dynamic)

Here's how the latter two links were constructed.

Here's a link to the home page of my test blog, non dynamic, added to the Pages gadget.

http://nitecruzrtestnew.blogspot.com/?v=0

Here's a link to the home page of my test blog, dynamic, added to the Pages gadget.

http://nitecruzrtestnew.blogspot.com/view/sidebar

Here's a link to the home page of my test blog, non dynamic, opening in a new tab / window, added to the Pages gadget.

http://nitecruzrtestnew.blogspot.com/?v=0 target="_blank"

Click on any of the links, and see what you get. It was simpler to do it, than to write about it.

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The New GUI Template Editor, And Removing The "Blog Posts" Gadget

Since the most important part of almost all Blogger blogs is the posts, the "Blog Posts" gadget is an essential element in the template. Sometimes we have to remove the gadget though - maybe the gadget is corrupt - or in odd cases, we may have a duplicate "Blog Posts" gadget.
In either case, the solution is known, and is quite simple.

Remove (the / one) "Blog Posts" gadget.

Unfortunately, not everybody, needing such advice, is able to do this. People using the Template Editor in the New Blogger GUI (2011) may find, to their frustration, that removal of a "Blog Posts" gadget isn't permitted.

Sometimes, when we advise someone to remove a "Blog Posts" gadget, we find the advice not well received.

It won't let me do that!

or

I get a bX code, when I try to save the change!

Apparently, somebody who designed the New GUI Template Editor decided that removing "Blog Posts" just isn't a necessary option.

Right now, if you're going to remove "Blog Posts", you have to switch back to the Classic GUI.

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Use A Dynamic Template, To Display The Blog In One Single Main Page Display

Ever since Blogger installed auto pagination. Blogger blog owners have been asking

How do I disable auto pagination?

and

Why can't I display my blog on the main page, without my readers having to use "Older Posts?

The response, up to this year, has been simple.

You cannot disable auto pagination. You have to allow sharing of network resources.

Though technically correct, the latter response has not always been met with appreciation.

The solution, for avoiding auto pagination, is now simple. Install a dynamic template, on your blog.

With a dynamic display, an entire blog is presented in main page view, with no archiving needed. You get one display page at a time - either the index, or blog content, depending upon which view you select. To see earlier content, you simply scroll downwards, and wait a few seconds while the display refreshes.

The display is still segmented - the segments are simply selected fluidly. When the display is scrolled to the bottom, the dynamic display code (running on the personal computer of the reader) simply requests another page of content, from the Blogger server.

Since the content is coming from the blog feed, your other readers, using a non dynamic view of the blog, are not affected. Your individual reader, who cannot see any more than one page of content at a time anyway (current monitor technology provides limited sized displays) never knows, or cares (subject to bandwidth and processor limitations) that the entire blog is not downloaded to the local computer, immediately.

If you want to let your readers use a dynamic view (non paginated), or a non dynamic view (paginated), depending upon personal preference, you can link the dynamic and non dynamic views.

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Account Recovery, Evaluated Using Return On Investment

Too many Blogger blog owners, seeking recovery of a long dormant account, overlook the realities of the Blogger business relationship.

I started the blog 10 years ago, I have forgotten the password, the email address is long gone - and I need the blog deleted now.

When told that deletion is not possible, if you cannot provide proof of ownership, they next ask for personal assistance.

But isn't there a person to whom I can explain my problem? Surely we can reach some understanding!

The reality is that Blogger wants to help their customers - when helping their customers provides them some business benefit.

Any business, that hopes to remain a business for any amount of time, has to understand the realities of Return On Investment, combined with Risk Management.

One basic calculation of ROI is (Sum of benefits) / (Sum of costs). Both benefits and costs can be tangible (income, expense, etc) and non tangible (inconvenience to customers, increased / decreased reputation, etc). Projects which provide more ROI can be considered with more urgency - and projects which provide less ROI with less urgency.

In problem management, problems which affect many people, when solved, produce some benefit. Problems which affect few people, when solved, produce little benefit.

A project which involves account recovery requires individual assistance, and benefits only the account / blog owner, thus very little benefit. It will require considerable research, to verify the identity of the person who setup an account or blog, and to verify the identity of the person asking for assistance, thus much cost. Additional cost would be the risk of encouraging more Blogger blog owners to overlook the necessities of blog ownership, and to not bother with remembering account name and password - thus ensuring more of the same, later. ROI for most account recovery projects is very low.

A project which requires blog deletion (when ownership cannot be proven by the
owner) provides even less benefit than simple account recovery, as the only result is the removal of one dormant Blogger account / blog. And it involves the same cost - both the same amount of research - to verify identities - and the same risk of encouraging more, similar thoughtlessness. ROI for blog deletions is even lower than for simple account recoveries.

Both account recovery and blog deletion, when accepted as activity in the Blogger Support action queues, will, out of necessity, not receive high priority. The memory of impatience, from previous blog owners, will motivate many Blogger experts and Blogger Support staff to simply quote the Google Help advice.

At Google, we take your privacy and security very seriously. Therefore, we're committed to returning accounts only when we're sure we're giving them back to the accounts' owners. Because Google doesn't ask for much personal information when you sign up for an account, we don't have many ways to verify that you own an account.

Some advice given will be somewhat perfunctory.

Please, read the FAQ, and objectively consider the bigger picture.

This attitude, too, is an expectation of low ROI - special service demanded by people who never did anything with their blogs - and now, plan to simply move their blogging activity to WordPress.

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Some Confusion Over Use Of The CC TLD Aliases, By Search Engines And Visitor Logs

Some blog owners, possibly unaware of the recently added Country Code Top Level Domain Aliases, are seeing the aliases in their visitor logs / meters, and various non Google search engines - and are afraid that their blog has been hacked.

My SiteMeter logs show that I've had incoming traffic from "mybloggerblog.blogspot.in". Clicking on one of the links in SiteMeter, I see my blog, "mybloggerblog.blogspot.com". Has somebody cloned my blog?

In reality, the scenario is not so ominous.

Those of us aware of the CC aliases, and how they are being used by Blogger, will understand that simply seeing a non canonical alias in our referer lists, in any search engine or visitor log / meter, is not an indication of malicious activity. People long used to seeing only "blogspot.com" and "google.com", and not yet experienced with the CC aliases, may become confused, however.

Blogger blogs owners with long established blogs that have audiences outside the USA are probably used to seeing all references to their blogs based on the canonical URL, such as "mybloggerblog.blogspot.com". Now that BlogSpot published blogs are being served using the CC aliases, in many countries outside the USA, the readers of BlogSpot published blogs are seeing each blog under non "blogspot.com" URLs in some search engines, and in many visitor logs and meters.

Most major search engines, which reference the "canonical" tag in the blog header, are aggregating all SERP entries to use the "blogspot.com" URLs. Our important search reputation is not being fragmented, such that readers in Australia provide reputation to "blogspot.com.au", readers in India provide reputation to "blogspot.in", readers in New Zealand provide reputation to "blogspot.co.nz", and so on. Every hit from every reader in every country still provides reputation to the canonical alias, "blogspot.com".

Some specialised search engines like Alexa, DMOZ, etc - and most visitor logs like SiteMeter, StatCounter, and Stats, may not be designed to reference the canonical tag. It's also possible that visitor logs, by their nature, should not aggregate CC aliases to the canonical URL - as the country code, relevant to the individual readers, may be important to some blog owners.

Until the use of the canonical tag, and the CC aliases to our readers, becomes mature, it's possible that we will see various oddities like a perceived problem with Alexa, SiteMeter, or StatCounter. It's likely that not all Internet services will ever reference the canonical tag consistently, and aggregate all statistics and visitor demographics, canonically.

Given the latter probability, this may be yet one more reason why Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken may never go out of business.

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Dynamic Templates Becoming More Usable

 Possibly encouraged by less than positive reviews, Blogger has recently enhanced their dynamic templates.

Dynamic Views are a set of templates that make it easy and fun to explore a blog. As you might expect, we’ve made the gadgets interactive too. Instead of appearing in a panel that consumes valuable real estate on your blog, gadgets now appear in a dock that slides in and out as you move your cursor over them.

Now, at least some of the gadgets in the sidebar will be visible to your readers, when they visit your blog, as viewed using a dynamic view.
The shiny new dynamic views are now more usable for us - with our readers able to see some of the sidebar gadgets which we may accessorise our blogs.
You may now read this blog, using a dynamic view.
If you're in non dynamic view, look above. See the link in the linkbar, "DYNAMIC"? Click on that, and you'll see the "home" page post, for this blog - today, you'll see this post. If you're already in dynamic view, you'll be here.

                                                      
Click on the picture, to see more detail. See the vertical bar, in the right margin, just left of the scroll tab?

Don't bother clicking more than once, though.














As you view a blog dynamically, you'll see the "docked sidebar" artifact, the vertical bar, there in the right margin of the display. Hover the mouse right over the vertical bar, and see what pops out at you.
Watch the CPU and memory displays on your computer, too. This shiny new feature is not for marginally overloaded computers - but for those who can use it, the dynamic views just became shinier.

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Retrieving The PostID, To Recover A Deleted Post

One of the challenges of using the Blogger "Edit Posts" menu (in the Classic Blogger GUI) or the "Posts" menu (in the New Blogger GUI) is the too easy ability to delete posts, if you are not thinking about what you're doing. Fortunately, under the right circumstances, accidental deletion of a single post won't cause a terrible catastrophe - though you (the blog owner) will need to react properly.
There are several ways to recreate or recover a post, after it's accidentally deleted from your blog. Only one way will let you recover the contents, published to the same URL as before.

• Recover from the blog feed, using scraped text.
• Recover from search engine cache, using scraped text.
• Recover from search engine cache, using the PostID.

The PostID, similar to the BlogID, is a non publicised identifier, which is attached to a post, when it's published to the host blog.

If you delete a post that's been cached by the search engines, you can retrieve the PostID from the cached content. Combining the BlogID and the PostID, you can directly access the Post editor display for the post itself, and re publish the post.

First, retrieve the BlogID. Next, do the same with the PostID.

The previous post in this subject, Recovering A Deleted Post, was cached by the search engines some time ago. Doing a search engine cache search, I can find a cached copy of that post.

Looking at the source code for that page, as cached, I look for (some line breaks inserted, here)

<div class='post hentry'>
<a name='8899607620317019913'></a>
<h3 class='post-title entry-title'>
<a href='http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2012/01/recovering-deleted-post.html'>
Recovering A Deleted Post</a>
</h3>

There's the PostID

8899607620317019913

Adding the PostID and the BlogID, I can now access the post editor, using the Classic Blogger GUI, as

http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=24069595&postID=8899607620317019913

With the New Blogger GUI, the URL is just slightly different.

http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=24069595#editor/target=post;postID=8899607620317019913;

From there, I simply

Publish Post

or

Publish

or

Save

or

Update

depending upon what the Post Editor offers -
and my post, with all content and with the original URL, comes right back online.

If you have this problem, just do the same with your blog and page / post - and (hoping that your blog is cached) you should get similar results. I'll note that the post editor session, for a given blog, can only be used by a blog author or owner - this is not a security risk. Try editing my post, using the URL above, if you don't believe me.

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The Problem, With Publishing Our Blog Posts To FaceBook, Does Not Apparently Have A Simple Cause

The problem of publishing our blog posts to FaceBook, initially observed several days ago, has generated some controversy - and much confusion, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken. Suggestions about its base cause are numerous - and variant.

• Initially and at first glance, it appeared to involved posts containing lots of pictures.
• Some folks have suggested that it involves use of the New GUI Post Editor.
• Other folks insist that it's the result of a FaceBook decision, that may have targeted Blogger as a spam host.
• Still others insist that it results from use of the Share button in the blog, vs the "Update Status" wizard in FaceBook itself.
• One blog owner gave a very interesting explanation involving FaceBook, and Open Graph.

The problem has been reported to Blogger Support - though no response, to my report, has yet been seen. My asking, a few times, whether anybody has successfully reported the problem to FaceBook Support, has either been ignored or vigourously rejected, by all involved in the arguments.

The one sure thing, that I've observed so far about this problem, is that there is not apparently one sure thing causing this problem. I've done several tests, and published a few posts into my FaceBook Wall, successfully - using both the Share button, and "Update Status". Perversely, I was able to reproduce the problem reported by one blog owner.

My immediately previous post - Choose Your Registrar, When Buying A Domain - was composed using the New GUI Post Editor, contains pictures, and was published to my Wall using "Share to Facebook", with no problem. I just published this post, using The New Blogger GUI Post Editor and "Update Status", onto my Wall. If you examine my Wall, you'll see earlier posts, composed using the Classic GUI Post Editor, also.

I will continue to keep my rollup discussion open, for reporting diagnostic details - and respectfully request that only diagnostic details be posted there. Until either Blogger Support and / or FaceBook Support take ownership of the problem, and promise a resolution, no objectively provided diagnostic detail is unnecessary. Your observations, whenever provided, could provide the final, necessary clues, and lead to the diagnosis of the problem.

If anybody would like to discuss my diagnostic efforts to date - and especially if there are any FaceBook Support personnel reading this, I have a second discussion in progress, with one helpful blog owner.

Please, be objective. Observe both the etiology of Blogger problems, and the epidemiology of forum discussions.

---

(Update 2012/01/94): It appears that most people are now able to post to FaceBook. Some people are now reporting a new annoyance

You are attempting to post a link that has been marked as abusive and/or spammy.

---

(Update 2012/01/02): Blogger Support was aware of the problem last week, tried to contact FaceBook then, and has heard nothing in return. Their analysis of the problem, made last week, is that the problem is outside their control.

---

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Deletion Is Not An Alternative, If You Cannot Authenticate Yourself Or Recover Access

Some supposed blog owners, unable to login to their Blogger accounts because they forgot the Blogger account name or password (or never bothered to remember either), try to compromise. They figure that, if they can't regain access to the blog, then Blogger will be willing to simply delete the blog - and everybody will be happy. They appear to have overlooked the repeatedly stated policy, which promises us that our blogs will be ours, as long as we wish to own them.

The problem is, blog deletions are as sensitive to illegal action as account recovery - and illegal actions are a very real threat to our blogs.

Just as Blogger exercises due diligence in requiring proper authentication for Blogger account recovery, any requested deletion of any supposedly owned blog should be no less controlled.

Blogger promises us

Blogger accounts and Blog*Spot addresses do not expire.

This means that our blogs will not be deleted, or transferred to the control of another person, without careful validation of the person requesting the deletion or transfer. If the other person cannot prove rightful ownership of the blog in question, Blogger is not legally entitled to delete the blog, any more than they are entitled to transfer control of the blog.

We are permitted to own and publish our blogs, without any minimal required activity, and without any required proof of our real life identity. We are entitled to publish our blogs when we see fit - and are entitled to come back to our blogs after any length of time - if we are able to authenticate ourselves.

Blogger will not harass us when we are inactive, whether or not anybody else intends to publish to our URL with more vigour. Neither will they give anybody else control of our blogs, either to publish - or to delete. Similarly, they won't give me - or you - access to somebody else's blog, or harass somebody else.

If you find yourself unable to access your blog, and delete it on your own, try using the improved Google account recovery wizard, before asking that Blogger delete your blog for you. In limited cases, the Google tool Removing Content From Google may be useful. Finally, concentrate on making your blog or website more useful, and organically improving your reputation.

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Setup An Audit Trail For Your Team Blog

Ever since Blogger gave us the ability to have team blogs, blog owners have been asking

How do I track what my authors are posting?

as if Blogger blogs have an audit trail option. The unfortunate truth is that Blogger is a website publishing platform - it is (or was, at one time) called

Blogger One Button Publishing

Blogger, quite simply, is not a Content Management System.

However, even if Blogger does not provide a packaged audit trail, which would be a standard feature in any CMS, this does not mean that we cannot set one up, with very little work. If you publish a team blog (or a single owner blog), you already have this option.

The display medium, for a Blogger blog audit trail, is quite simple - your email Inbox. Both Comments and Posts, when published, can post to your Inbox. How to generate the audit trail depends upon whether the blog is public, or private.

Any blog, public or private, can provide an audit trail using email from comments (aka "Comment Notification"), and from posts (aka "BlogSend").

A public blog, which publishes a blog feed, can alternately provide an audit trail using FeedBurner email distribution. Formatting options for FeedBurner email distribution are much more flexible.

Whether your audit trail starts from BlogSend / Comment Notification, or FeedBurner email, just setup a few email filters, and store all Blogger audit trail email in a properly named folder. And there's your audit trail.

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Identifying And Removing Deviously Engineered And Marketed Blog Hijacks

We saw the symptoms of the first carefully engineered blog hijacks, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, two years ago. During each succeeding holiday season, each attack has apparently become more and more deviously engineered.

This season - each season starting in Fall of one year and lasting until Spring of the following year - we are seeing a hijack complement which appears to be devious in both marketing and installation technique, and which requires a complex search of the affected blogs. If you are receiving reports from your readers

Your blog starts to load - but is quickly replaced by a page full of advertisements!

you may need to exhaustively examine your blog for any third party code - and as always, the problem code may have been installed at any time in the past. When discovered, the hijacks are not consistently found in recently installed code.

The blog hijacks, being examined during this holiday season - appear to be deviously planned and marketed.

• The hijacks use a variety of host accessories and gadgets.
• The hijacks use a variety of distribution libraries.
• The hijacks are being marketed to a diverse audience, which causes different installation techniques - and necessitates the complex search of affected blogs.

To find and remove a hijack from an affected blog, you'll need to start by viewing the blog in question, using a text only browser, or proxy service. I, personally, use several products.

• hpHosts vURL is a text only browser, that runs as a stand alone application locally on your computer.
• Notepad-Plus-Plus is an offline text editor, which provides a variety of search tools for text files. You can sometimes avoid use of your browser completely, by copying page source code directly from vURL.
• Rex Swain's HTTP Viewer is a standard online text proxy that I use.
• Lingo4you HTTP Web-Sniffer is an online alternative to Rex Swain.

All of these products may be more or less useful in identifying the source of your specific hijack. The Rex Swain and Web-Sniffer text proxies each have their effective differences.

If anybody uses alternative products, and cares to share information about the tools used, I will most gratefully add them to my library here.

The approach here is complex.

1. Of course, backup the template, before starting.
2. Load the blog, in question, in the text browser / proxy display of your choice.
3. Do a simple text search for the identified host / target name in the URL, such as "adiwidget", "pagesinxt", or "ripway".
4. You'll see several different possibilities.
   • The search may reveal the hijacking code in an HTML gadget. You can use the "Pages Elements" / Design tab (Classic GUI), or the "Layout" wizard (New GUI), and remove the offending gadget.
   • The search may reveal the hijacking code in the template HTML. You'll have to use the Template Editor, and remove the offending lines of code.
   • The search may not find any identified host name, in a text search. You'll have to do an extensive text search, looking for unknown HTML / JavaScript gadgets / snippets of code, and evaluate each gadget / snippet, on the fly.
5. You may need to bypass the Blogger menu structure, to directly access the Blogger wizard needed, if trying to use the Blogger menus is also a problem.
6. Clear browser cache, before checking for success.
7. And always backup the template, again, after completing this task.

And hopefully, having found and removed a hijack from your blog, you will learn to be more discrete, in your choice of accessories and gadgets, in the future.

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Custom Domain Publishing - Moving Back To BlogSpot, Using The New GUI, Isn't Obvious

The New Blogger GUI (2011) has been available for just over 6 months - and we see new confusion about using it, daily, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?.

How do I cancel my custom domain redirect, in the New GUI?

This is one specific question, that's been asked, recently.

The answer to that specific question is actually right there, in front of us - we just don't see it.

Blogger, like Google, likes to use overlay panels for some displays, such as how you see the picture below - when you click on it.

In the new GUI, if I look at the Blog Address settings for this blog, in Settings - Basic - Publishing, I see
      

                     
   See the "X"?
    (Click on the picture, to better see the details.)
              









 "Edit" is a link, that lets me "Edit" my custom domain settings. The "Edit" wizard (which simply pops up in the same display, when I click on "Edit") does not let me change the URL of the blog back to BlogSpot - and this is the start of some confusion.

To remove the custom domain redirect, one must click on the "X" in the top right. With the publishing shown as

blogging.nitecruzr.net                Edit               X
bloggerstatusforreal.blogspot.com     redirects

clicking on the "X" lets me remove the custom domain redirect. Clicking on "Edit" only lets me change specific custom domain settings, such as selecting the "naked domain" redirect option.

When you click on the "X", you will get a verification popup.

Are you sure? This will remove the current custom domain.

And you'll want to hit "Yes".

So, click on the "X" (it's actually in black - I show it in red, above, to make it more obvious), to clear the custom domain redirect and publish back to the original BlogSpot URL. If you don't see the "X", click in the upper right corner of that window - to the right of "Edit" and just left of the window border. Apparently, not all browsers display the "X" properly. 

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The Involuntary "Adult Content" Warning Is Collaborative

Some blog owners find evidence of opinion from their viewers, but cannot accept the opinions expressed.

Why is there a "Content Warning" on my blog?

They don't understand the collaborative opinion being expressed, when this warning is displayed.

Long ago, the "Flag Blog" link, in the navbar, was a misunderstood feature. The "Flag Blog" button was later replaced by the "Report Abuse" link, with multiple classifications of offenses.

The text of the warning is somewhat self explanatory.

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

The conclusion here is simple.

1. The opinion is collaborative - multiple readers have expressed this opinion.
2. The blog content is offensive - the readers object to this content.

If you are seeing this warning displayed in front of your blog, there are several possible causes.

• You are accepting contributions from other people, and not carefully checking what you accept.
• You are pushing the limits - a bit too far.
• You are marketing your blog, inappropriately.

You have several choices.

• Objectively examine the content in your blog, and remove anything objectionable.
• Market your blog more carefully, to a more appreciative audience.
• Set the voluntary "Adult Content?" option to "Yes".
• Accept the involuntary warning.

You publish your blog to educate or entertain your readers, right? Why spend time providing content that your readers don't appreciate?

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What's The Canonical URL Of My Blog?

This blog is (for those of you not familiar with it) "The Real Blogger Status". The URL of this blog is currently "http://blogging.nitecruzr.net". As long as I publish the blog properly (as "blogging.nitecruzr.net"), I am allowed to advertise the blog using any combination of lower case and upper case letters, that I like. This blog can be accessed as "blogging.nitecruzr.net", "Blogging.Nitecruzr.Net", or even "BlOgGiNg.nitecruzr.net". We say that Blogger URLs are case insensitive.

Even with my readers allowed to use any combination of lower and uppercase letters, to access this blog, I don't want the search engines to index (and determine page rank) my blog using the exact URLs, as typed by each different reader. Even with this blog being addressed as "blogging.nitecruzr.net", "Blogging.Nitecruzr.Net", or even "BlOgGiNg.nitecruzr.net", the search engines index this blog as "blogging.nitecruzr.net". To help this happen, Blogger provides the "canonical" tag, in the blog header.

Every Blogger blog, which has a standard and up to date header, contains a "canonical" tag. The tag provides the base URL of the blog, in all lower case letters, so the search engines know how to ignore various syntax variations.

• Case variations.
• CC TLD aliases.
• Any other reader generated variations.

All links are indexed under one unified URL, providing better SERP positioning, and more search engine generated traffic.

Look at the source for this blog home page, in the header. Note that you have to look at the online "source code" - not at the raw HTML, using the Template Editor!

Here's an excerpt of the header for this blog, with a few line breaks added - and some lines removed - to make it more readable.

<head>
<meta content='IE=EmulateIE7' http-equiv='X-UA-Compatible'/>
<meta content='width=1100' name='viewport'/>

...

<link href='http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/favicon.ico'
 rel='icon' type='image/x-icon'/>
<link href='http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/' rel='canonical'/>
<link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml"
 title="The Real Blogger Status - Atom"
 href="http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/feeds/posts/default" />
<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"
 title="The Real Blogger Status - RSS"
 href="http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss" />
<link rel="service.post" type="application/atom+xml"
 title="The Real Blogger Status - Atom"
 href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/24069595/posts/default" />
<link rel="EditURI" type="application/rsd+xml"
 title="RSD" href="http://www.blogger.com/rsd.g?blogID=24069595" />
<link rel="openid.server" href="http://www.blogger.com/openid-server.g" />

There it is.

<link href='http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/' rel='canonical'/>

My test blog, "Nitecruzr New Template Laboratory", is still published to "nitecruzrtestnew.blogspot.com".

<link href='http://nitecruzrtestnew.blogspot.com/' rel='canonical'/>

These records are essential, for blogs published to "blogspot.com", now that Blogger is aliasing our blogs using country code TLD URLs. My test blog, for instance, published to "nitecruzrtestnew.blogspot.com", will be accessed as "nitecruzrtestnew.blogspot.in" in India - but the search engines, which observe the Canonical tag, will still index any links as "nitecruzrtestnew.blogspot.com".

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BlogSpot Published Blogs Being Accessed Using Country Code TLDs

Recently, some blog owners outside the USA have been asking about mysterious redirects which they (or their readers) are seeing, when accessing their blogs.

Why is "xxx.blogspot.com" now redirecting to "xxx.blogspot.com.au"?

and

Why was my blog address recently changed from ".com" to ".in"?

Blogger will host our blog content using country code relevant aliases, according to the unique laws of each different country. The relevant CC alias will be accessed automatically, according to the network location of the reader in question. These aliases are being added on a country by country basis, with Australia ("blogspot.com.au") and India ("blogspot.in") apparently recently deployed.

This will let Blogger remove content, that's illegal in one country, without having to remove that same content for all of your readers, worldwide. You benefit, because your blog won't go offline, for the entire world, when you publish something that's illegal in one single country.

With any BlogSpot published blog containing a standard Blogger header, the blog will have a canonical reference to the "blogspot.com" alias. The search engines will index the blog, using the "blogspot.com" alias - even when following a country code specific link.

The search engine ranking of your blog won't be affected - except that a blog, left online in most countries, will get more traffic than one taken offline worldwide. When you check the Page Rank, you should continue to check the "blogspot.com" URL, because all search engine reputation will accumulate under the "blogspot.com" alias.

Owners of older or uniquely developed blogs, possibly using Classic or highly customised templates, may want to check the headers in their blogs, and make sure that they have a "canonical" tag referencing their "blogspot.com" alias.

Blogs published to non "blogspot.com" URLs, using properly setup and fully operational "custom domain" publishing, will not be affected - as the default "blogspot.com" URL is already redirected to the domain URL. While a newly purchased custom domain is "In Transition", the domain redirect will not be in effect - and the "blogspot.com" URL will be subject to CC alias redirect.

Any reader using a browser or computer that's affected by domain based filters will need to check all filters. Add "blogspot.com.au", "blogspot.in", "blogspot.jp", or any other relevant country, wherever "blogspot.com" is specified.

Note that the redirect uses geolocation, to identify a relevant country code. Readers in small countries, or located near the border of other countries, may be using an ISP located in a different country, and may find their personal redirect reflecting the other country.

Any reader wishing to bypass the local alias can access a "no country redirect" alias using the URL of "blogspot.com/ncr". Similar to the "ncr" URL modifier used to bypass local language redirects of "blogger.com", this will give access to the U.S. English alias of the blog of your choice.

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Make A Custom Pages Index For Your Blog

Even before Blogger added static pages as a blog feature, blog owners have been asking how to make hidden or separate pages for their blogs. When static pages, and the Pages index gadget, were added, people started asking about indexing label searches and external links in the Pages gadget.
There are several solutions to the need to have a Pages gadget that indexes archive / label searches, and external URLs. Each solution has its advantages, and disadvantages.
If you want a Pages gadget for your blog, that indexes more than just static pages, you have two basic choices, with each choice having different possibilities.

1. Replace the Pages gadget with a linklist. You can index any URLs that interest you, in a linklist.
2. Use the Pages editor, in the New Blogger GUI, which lets you add URLs of your choice, directly to the Pages gadget.

I've been advising people for several years, how to make a horizontal index bar for the blog. With Designer templates, the Tabs section contains CSS that displays any linklist positioned there, horizontally. This gives you the choice of using "Add a gadget", and creating a linklist as an XML based "Linklist", or one created as an HTML based "HTML / JavaScript" gadget - and both choices have advantages.

If you look at the menu bar on this blog, you'll see how the active menu button "lights up" when selected. This feature is a CSS tweak, and requires that you use a linklist that's XML based. I created the menu bar here, using "Add a gadget", and tweaked the template code. The default Pages gadget is XML based - and does not require the latter tweak.

As an alternate, you could use the Pages editor in The New Blogger GUI - if you want to use The New GUI. If you use the New GUI Pages Editor, and you select the Pages gadget to "Show pages as" "Top tabs", your blog, when displayed using a dynamic template, will populate the black menu bar with your Pages list. When that happens, the dynamic view menu will be displayed as a drop-down list, at the far left of the menu bar.

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Make A Custom Pages Index For Your Blog

Even before Blogger added static pages as a blog feature, blog owners have been asking how to make hidden or separate pages for their blogs. When static pages, and the Pages index gadget, were added, people started asking about indexing label searches and external links in the Pages gadget.

There are several solutions to the need to have a Pages gadget that indexes archive / label searches, and external URLs. Each solution has its advantages, and disadvantages.

If you want a Pages gadget for your blog, that indexes more than just static pages, you have two basic choices, with each choice having different possibilities.

1. Replace the Pages gadget with a linklist. You can index any URLs that interest you, in a linklist.
2. Use the Pages editor, in the New Blogger GUI, which lets you add URLs of your choice, directly to the Pages gadget.

I've been advising people for several years, how to make a horizontal index bar for the blog. With Designer templates, the Tabs section contains CSS that displays any linklist positioned there, horizontally. This gives you the choice of using "Add a gadget", and creating a linklist as an XML based "Linklist", or one created as an HTML based "HTML / JavaScript" gadget - and both choices have advantages.

If you look at the menu bar on this blog, you'll see how the active menu button "lights up" when selected. This feature is a CSS tweak, and requires that you use a linklist that's XML based. I created the menu bar here, using "Add a gadget", and tweaked the template code. The default Pages gadget is XML based - and does not require the latter tweak.

As an alternate, you could use the Pages editor in The New Blogger GUI - if you want to use The New GUI. If you use the New GUI Pages Editor, and you select the Pages gadget to "Show pages as" "Top tabs", your blog, when displayed using a dynamic template, will populate the black menu bar with your Pages list. When that happens, the dynamic view menu will be displayed as a drop-down list, at the far left of the menu bar.

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Problems With Dynamic Templates And The Menu Bar / Pages Index

We're getting a few reports today, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, from blog owners who publish blogs with static pages, that use the new dynamic templates, and that now have no ability to index the pages in the dynamic views. We're also seeing reports mentioning some blogs which have no menu bar visible, in dynamic views. Both problems were, reportedly, first observed mid morning today, Pacific time.

Earlier this week, if you looked at this blog in dynamic view, you could see two static pages, from this blog, indexed in the menu bar. Both Commenting Policy and Leave Comments Here were, at one time, indexed. Today, they are not.

Interestingly enough, neither page is indexed in the static template menu bar, which you can see just above. Other static pages, which were indexed in the static template menu bar, were not observed in the dynamic template menu bar.

We have a rollup discussion, where we are collecting details about your observations of these problems. If your blog is affected, please provide details in the discussion, as best as you are able.

1. What is the published URL of the blog?
2. Is the blog explicitly setup to use the dynamic templates?
3. If the blog is setup to use the dynamic templates, which view is the default?
4. Does the blog, in the non dynamic view, display the navbar?
5. Does the blog, in the non dynamic view, display a Pages gadget / menu bar? If no, where are the pages indexed?
6. Did you setup the Pages gadget using the Classic Blogger GUI, or the New Blogger GUI?
7. Have you enabled the Mobile Template, for this blog?

---

(Update 2011/11/14): It appears that this problem originates with blogs using a custom Pages gadget. Blogs that use a standard Pages gadget, created in the New Blogger GUI Pages editor, seem to be OK. Here, you may view my test blog - both using a dynamic view, and similarly using a non dynamic view - which has a standard Pages index, positioned in the sidebar.

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