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August 14, 2006

The New Blogger


Blogger finally gets an update and stops being neglected. Here are the new features of Blogger Beta, a new blogging platform:

Dynamic pages

"The biggest change of all is perhaps the least immediately visible, but it affects the entire underlying structure of Blog*Spot. What used to happen was that Blogger would create static HTML files on your Blog*Spot account every time you published, and those files would remain there unchanged until your next update. In the new version, adding a new post simply updates your information in our database. Then, when someone wants to see any of the pages on your blog, those pages are created for them dynamically, on the fly.

This makes the process of updating your blog much simpler and faster. You don't have to remember to republish anymore, or decide whether to do a republish index only or republish all. The instant you save a new post, template design, or settings change, your blog is updated. No more waiting for the publishing indicator to creep its way up to 100%."

Access control

You can make your blog private so you'll be the only one to read or you can let only certain people view it. Just enter their email addresses in the settings. This is useful if you create a blog for your friends or family.



Labels

Organize the posts with labels (categories), so it's easier to read related posts.



Layouts

You don't have to deal with HTML and CSS when you edit your template. Using the new layouts feature, you can drag-and-drop to move parts of your page around, and choose new fonts and colors with just a few mouse clicks. When you change colors and fonts, you'll see a preview of the blog in real-time, so it's easier to decide what's the best choice.



More feeds

"In addition to the usual feed of your blog posts, you can have a feed for all the comments on your blog, and even individual feeds for all the comments on each separate post. Your visitors can use these feeds to find out if someone responds to their comments, or to follow discussions on your blog. The default format of the feeds will be upgraded from Atom 0.3 to Atom 1.0. Also, for you die-hard RSS fans out there, you'll be able to optionally get all feeds in RSS 2.0 format instead of Atom."



Cleaner dashboard

The dashboard looks better and it has more links to useful places like the template or your blog. Blogger also changed the "Edit Posts" page and has removed some of the icons.



Migration to Google Accounts

Blogger moves to Google Accounts, so your account will be more secure and you don't have to remember extra credentials. You'll be able to migrate your Blogger account soon, or you can create a new blog from your Google Account.



The new Blogger version will be available as invitation-only for the moment. "The Blogger in beta program is going to start out small, so only a low percentage of people who log in to Blogger will see the option to switch over. If you're one of them, you'll see a blue box in the sidebar of your dashboard highlighting the new Blogger in beta."

If you want to test the new Blogger by creating a new blog you can do that at beta.blogger.com. Here's a test blog created with the new platform and a tour that shows the new features.

I must say it's much faster to publish posts and upload pictures. Blogger also looks much better and it's more responsive. Although the advantages of the dynamic pages are obvious, it will be interesting to see if they will handle the traffic the same as the static pages. There's one area where I don't see improvements: the comment form is still on a separate page. All in all, the much expected Blogger update is one of the biggest Google news of the year.

120 comments:

  1. There's one area where I don't see improvements: the comments are still on a separate page.

    That's easily changed (and always has been) by simply editing your template so that they're not in the conditional [ItemPage] tag.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The labels thing is the equivalent to the categories from wordpress.com?

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  3. I don't see why it was labeled beta though. Kind of feels like it's a set back. Why not something as Blogger 2.0?

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  4. Maybe Blogger 3.0 Beta. Or maybe more. Anyway, the beta is a sign of a new beginning.

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  5. Why the new version doesn't prodive the function -- "RECENT COMMENT"?

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  6. There's no need for that. You have feeds for comments, so it's easy to implement "Recent comments" with a feed-to-JavaScript (HTML) service like BuzzBoost from FeedBurner.

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  7. and no backlinks improvement ?

    but so far this is awesome !! ^^
    been waitin for this, after all the servers bein down, bloggers cant logged in, some people missing their template, etc.

    but i guess this will make it up ^^

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  8. Nice to hear new update. Can't wait to test it.

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  9. To implement the function "Recent Comments", you even don't need to use 3rd-party services. There is a block named "Feeds" in the new layout, which helps to filt out the author and date of comments.Just fill in the URL of Comment Feeds, and it's very simple.


    The most problem, however, is that the URL of Comment Feeds is not obvious!!! At least I CANNOT find it anywhere in the Settings or Template Layouts.

    But it is easy to generate one. The URL of per-post comment feed is like
    http://beta.blogger.com/feeds/0000000000000000000/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/comments/full
    You can find it from the per-post page.
    just cut the 'xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/' in the URL, then that's just the Comment Feed.

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  10. How is this going to affect blogs that are hosted off of Blogspot?

    ReplyDelete
  11. To implement the function "Recent Comments", you even don't need to use 3rd-party services. There is a block named "Feeds" in the new layout.

    You're right. It's available at Template / Page elements / Add page element and you can use it to show the last titles from any feed. Unfortunately, you can't show a snippet from each item, so the FeedBurner's solution from one my comments above is better.

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  12. How is this going to affect blogs that are hosted off of Blogspot?

    Well, Michael, I think they'll implement all the features, except for the dynamic serving. For the moment, the sites not hosted on Blog*spot can't switch to the new platform.

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  13. I've updated my test blog with the recent comments and it looks pretty well. What Google should do is create a good spam detection system for comments, to remove the annoying captchas (verification text).

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  14. I would like to see it possible to let team members add their profile pics to their posts with a simple tag. With the current version you have to do it all with javascript or something.

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  15. So, when are all these shiny new features getting migrated over to the older blogs? I don't want a new blog, I want my old blog to have the new features. Gimme gimme gimme!

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  16. You beat me to it e-r-o-x. I've wanted tagging on blogger for a long time, but I'm not creating a new blog to use that feature.

    The other features are nice for NEW blogs or in terms of scalability, but labels is the only thing that would really be of immediate use for existing blogs.

    How long until it's rolled out to old blogs? 7 months?

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  17. Ironically the weakest feature I find from a google built interface is it's so darn hard to search them. I'd love to see all the blogs from Denver or something along those lines.

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  18. If you're lucky, you'll see an invitation link in Blogger's Dashboard. Basically, you'll be sent to this place, but you'll actually migrate to the new platform if your username is in the testing's database. I'm not that anxious to switch, as there are still many bugs and the process is NOT reversible.

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  19. Hey, Google, how about adding a feature that allows you to change the ORDER of posts? I can't stand it that my posts are published in the order they are CREATED as opposed to PUBLISHED.

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  20. What's the different between CREATED and PUBLISHED? You mean updated? It would be nice to have a flag that makes a post reappear on the homepage if the update is important.

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  21. Well, Michael, I think they'll implement all the features, except for the dynamic serving. For the moment, the sites not hosted on Blog*spot can't switch to the new platform.

    That's terrible. Are you planning on providing a way to migrate completely to the new system?

    Another thing that would be useful is a way to do usable "more" posts. I've never seen one that works.

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  22. Will the labels be available for the older templates? Or is there a way to put them on my current template and I just missed it...?

    I also agree with devrock....that's something I've had trouble with too.

    I upgraded...liking it so far :)

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  23. Does the new version of Blogger do FTP? I noticed that my migrated blog does, but not a new one I just set up.

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  24. Does the new version of Blogger do FTP?

    Not yet. See the previous comments.

    ReplyDelete
  25. What I was wondering is How do we migrate.
    An why can't we use the beta, with my the current blog...
    I don't want to create a new one.

    another thing, I already have a Google Account, if use it to create a beta.blogger account will be still able to migrate my actual bogger account?

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  26. How do we migrate?

    If you're lucky, you'll see an invitation link in Blogger's Dashboard. If not, you'll have to wait. The platform is still in testing, so they can't accept everyone. Would you use a buggy Vista Beta or would you wait for the final version?

    I already have a Google Account, if I use it to create a beta.blogger account will I still be able to migrate my actual blogger account?

    Of course.

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  27. How long before blogs hosted elsewhere are updated?

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  28. I don't like the idea of dynamic blog pages. One of the main reasons that I like Blogger's output is that the pages are static. Which means that if the Blogger service is offline, my blog is still available (just not updateable).

    Even better, static pages made it easy for me to make a backup of the content of my blog.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Appearently the system wants me to use the beta from now on, and will not let me access the old ones anymore. Argh!

    ReplyDelete
  30. New Templates?? when?

    is more simple now, and that's right =)...

    We can Change the HTML of the template??

    ReplyDelete
  31. Will we ever be able to have our own UNIQUE URLs on Blogger without "BlogSpot" being part of the address? I would be willing to pay for that.

    ReplyDelete
  32. I agree with the other poster that wanted to control the posting order. Currently it is in CREATED order but I would like it to use POSTED order. The work-around is to change the date of your post but it was hidden in a part of the editor that doesn't show up automatically.

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  33. Excellent Updating...

    Is a grant idea!

    From Mejico, a friend more for yours.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Why do I need to sign in to Blogger everytime I post or edit a blog?
    Can't there be a setting to "remember" me?

    ReplyDelete
  35. Known issues for Blogger in Beta says this:

    "The "Remember Me" login option will not work correctly in Internet Explorer 6.0. The best workaround is to simply use Firefox. However, if you prefer IE, you can add google.com to the list of allowed sites under Internet Options > Privacy."

    I'm using Firefox, but I have to sign in each time I edit. I think I've signed in about 30 times already today, just getting my new Blogger Beta set up the way I want it! I never had to sign in with the old Blogger because it always "remembered" me.

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  36. Do we finally get a system that recognises the .eu top domain?

    Some years in the making, months in operation, Blogger still insists that .eu does not exist.

    This is a very US-centric stance that we do not expect of truly global operations like Google. We all know that the USA thinks it owns the internet, but this is ridiculous.

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  37. Great system. It has created a new user-account for me on the new beta, without asking me if I wanted to switch, and without even migrating my old blogs - They are locked behing my "old" Blogger-account.
    Only way I can access my old blogs are through clicking my nickname here on this blog, or through doing a password-retrieval (which only works once when I log in right afterwards)

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  38. Some people like drag and drop, but what about for those of us who spent a long time coding in html & css and want to keep it that way? What happens to our existing blogs? Can we maintain the code using wordpad, and not deal with drag and drop?

    ReplyDelete
  39. Of course you'll be able to edit the template's code. But some of the new features are really great: for example, changing the color of a page element like title with an instant preview.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Can I hide the NAVBAR?
    if somebody knows how on this version let me know please.

    ReplyDelete
  41. [ Tags + Customizable HTML + Adsense ] for free accounts!

    Did Blogger just trump Wordpress?

    -Joshua K.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Finaly - No publish, re-publish, index...

    I hope it will be updated on a more frequent basis from now on.
    Did anyone notice a change in performance in the new version?

    ReplyDelete
  43. I have two problems with the new version of blogger.

    1 - I'm using the lastest version of both IE and Firefox and I have to login every single time I attempt to use blogger. Will this be repaired soon?

    2 - The BlogThis feature in both browsers is not functioning. Will this be repaired soon?

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  44. the beta doesn't support chinese characters in the comments section yet.

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  45. this is nice.

    but errr how to hide the toolbar??

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  46. Hi,

    About the recent comments, i fill the Comments Feeds into the sidebar as you did, but it doen't work! My latest comment was made at 8/22/2006 9:48, but the sidebar only show the comments ot 12/09/2004.

    Du you know how to fix it?

    My comments feeds:

    http://beta.blogger.com/feeds/9410513/comments/summary

    Many thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  47. are there any enhancementes for mobile posting (by email) like images?
    Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  48. You can already do that from your mobile phone.
    Blogger mobile

    You can post pictures with Picasa.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Ionut, thanks but you can´t email a pic in blogger classic

    ReplyDelete
  50. Do you know if I can find a solution to this problem:

    After switching to beta-blogger, I received an e-mail saying that:
    "You can now access your dashboard at http://beta.blogger.com using your Google Account and start using the new features right away."

    This was 4 days ago. But since then, every time I try, I get this message:
    "Your account is currently moving to Blogger in beta. You will get an email when your move is complete."

    The help section does not provide help.
    I have emailed support and am still waiting.

    Thanks and regards.

    ReplyDelete
  51. I'm looking for some information on the beta blogger and attaching this account to the go.blogger.com blog setup for my mobile phone. I received my MMS message with my token and blog name. But when I put in my token and verification, I have the option to attach this new blog account to an existing "blogger.com" account, but when I put in my username and password I am receiving "User account not found" Is this not possible at the moment to attach my mobile blogging to my new @gmail.com beta.blogger.com account?

    ReplyDelete
  52. How do I get the RSS feed from the beta version of Blogger? There is a difference in the Site feed settings compared to the classic version.

    ReplyDelete
  53. currently in original blogger
    you can easily create a podcast by sending your blogger feed to feedburner, apparently this doesn't work with blogger beta yet. I hope this is something that will be addressed as many users create their podcasts using the ease of the blogger system.
    Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  54. The nature of blogger pages is that they are infrequently published pages of (generally) low complexity, and they are frequently demanded.

    "Produce content on demand" is completely the wrong policy for this, it is the wrong tool for the job.



    I predict massive problems that scale directly with load, which may or may not be revealed during beta.

    When that happens, blogger will go through a familiar sequence of attempted remediation steps.

    First, the database connect cache settings will be played with. Then whatever the underlying system's object caching hoojie is will be turned on, and messed with extensively.

    After that, they'll start messing with cluster settings for the server farm, and scratch their heads trying to scale out and cluster the backend data servers. During this phase, the overal size and configuration of the server farm may or may not be altered dramatically.

    Somewhere along the line, someone smart will say, "AHA! Edge Caching for relatively static components!" and Akamai sales reps will get in on the game.

    Finally, the development team, who hasn't been home in weeks, will be taken out back of the barn and shot, but they won't mind too much, death is preferable to the hell they live in. Perhaps whoever decided to go dynamic, based on someone's grad school project white paper will be shot with them, but more likely, he or she will be promoted to a position where he can do more damage.

    {been there, done that. A significant part of my career was spent cleaning up this exact mess.}

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  55. I'd like to see Blogger or the new Google use Trackback features. Because this option has not been available it limits bloggers who want to go to the next level as bloggers.

    ReplyDelete
  56. very helpful...I’ve recently switched to beta and i think it's a lot faster, however,not being able to post from websites such as Youtube is a drawback!
    Do you have any idea if I can just switch back to blogger, and how?
    Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  57. Could I please get an invite? I'd really do something to contribute to testing. Thanks, John (at) jghoward (dot) com

    Blogger user:bmag

    ReplyDelete
  58. No Such Function!
    I signed up with Blogger Beta yesterday and set up my blog, but do not see any such function as the Layout section, for visual layouts. Where woudl I find it? It is not one of my menu options.

    ReplyDelete
  59. How do I get back to the old blogger. I cant use html in profile, I have to login every time, I cant find any new features and worst of all I cant even post a comment here with my username because it says I have got a beta account. Ouch!

    ReplyDelete
  60. NAVBAR. Does anybody know the code to hide the NAVBAR? The old one doesn't work anymore :( help.

    ReplyDelete
  61. To hide the navbar, you have to add this code in the style section of your template (search for the tag b:skin and add this at the end):

    #navbar {
    display:none;
    }

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  62. None of my archives work anymore, so presumably I should republish, but this doesn't appear to be possible in the new blogger. What shoudl I do?

    ReplyDelete
  63. you need either MORE blog templates (by more I mean 100+ more) or let us have the option to stay with the old system... the old system was easier to design custom blogs.

    ReplyDelete
  64. Is it possible to have some 3 column templates on layouts section? And a button for put things from Amazon.com in a easy way?

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  65. how do i get an invitation to switch to blogger beta.i want one.

    ReplyDelete
  66. Officially, you need to see a "switch" link in the dashboard, but you can also try this page.

    You can't migrate yet if you have a blog with a lot of posts / comments (>1000) like I do or a team blog.

    ReplyDelete
  67. I got a message saying I was eligible for conversion and when I try to use the existing Google acct. function all I get is a blank screen. I don't get the option to click anything. I already have an existing Google account, as a matter of fact I use it as the email contact for my blog. I am using Firefox 2 and IE 7 and both are having the same issue.

    ReplyDelete
  68. Only people that have large blogs (>2000 posts / comments) are not eligible for migration. Everyone else can migrate.

    Google promises that in a couple of weeks everyone will migrate to the new platform.

    ReplyDelete
  69. My blog isn't that large and I still can't migrate. I typed the invitation's url and a denial page appeared.

    It might have to do with the blog/account language or home country. I'm speculating though.

    ReplyDelete
  70. I'm really worried about the part where editing the template and fonts come in. I worked hard to create my blog exactly how I want it by just editing the template. That's why I chose blogger over a year ago over other blog services. I am a total control freak when it comes to css and html. I understand everyone doesn't need to know code, but I do, and I don't want shortcuts. Are they going to force us to change? Is there any place in the new blogger to have total control over the entire page elements? xD

    ReplyDelete
  71. After you upgrade to the new Blogger, you'll have the same template. If you want to upgrade to the new layout system, that lets you manage your template using drag and drop, there's a button that says "Upgrade". Google converts your template, but you can always go back to the old system. There's also a "view HTML" tab that lets you edit the template manually, but the syntax has changed so you have learn something about it before coding.

    So to answer your questions:

    * Are they going to force us to change?
    You'll be forced to change to the new Blogger, but not to the new templates.

    * Is there any place in the new blogger to have total control over the entire page elements?
    Yes. You can edit the code manually.

    ReplyDelete
  72. I have an FTP published Blogger blog and am trying to figure out how to set up a comment feed. I've searched the Blogger help files but haven't been able to find out how. Can you direct me to a help file on the subject or give me some pointers on how do this?

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  73. Feed for your blog:
    http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

    Feed for a label:
    http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default/-/[labelname]

    Feed for all the comments:
    http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default

    Feed for post comments:
    http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/[postid]/comments/default

    Some references from the help:
    Template tags for site feeds
    Show recent comments in the sidebar

    ReplyDelete
  74. Thank you for your reply. Unfortunately, since my blog is FTP published, not hosted by blogspot, those URL's won't work for me. I'm trying to figure out how to set up a comment feed for a non-blogspot-hosted Blogger blog. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  75. I have noticed when I use the html/javascript element I have no problem as long as there are only a few lines of code.
    When I want to add code that has many, many lines I get the message it
    is saving, I don't get any errors, but it never finishes saving,it just hangs.

    I am using Firefox on Mac OS X with a cable internet connection.

    Are there limits to some of these page elements I don't know about? If
    so how can I add what I want?

    Thanks in advance for any help.

    ReplyDelete
  76. Words cannot express how I feel right now._
    The troubles with Blogger all began on January 10th, 2007
    (that's January 09th, in the U.S.A.) when the bottom half of the TEMPLATE disappeared from the editing section._Strange, but true.
    In fact, the page refused to scroll any lower than the word
    'Layout'.
    At first, I thought it was just a computer glitch...but after thirteen hours, I realized that the bottom half of the SCRIBE Template was just not
    gonna show.
    So, I elected to SWITCH to the NEW Blogger. _It was a huge mistake; and one which I will live to regret._
    On January 11th, 2007, the fonts began to overlap, so I tried the
    UPGRADE YOUR TEMPLATE button._
    But that only caused even more problems, so I tried to sign in using the Old Blogger. Of course, by this time, all the pages had been moved to the New one.
    `
    Well, there is now...no "
    Republish Index Only"; Clicking on the RECENT Pages will not "go backwards in time", as only the TEN most Recent Pages will show up on the left hand side; I cannot retrieve any of the music nor videos which I had placed at the bottom (outside) the actual post pages...and every html thing (plus my profile pictures) which were on my online diary from December 2004 until now...Are All Gone.

    Yippee Dee Doo Dahh, Yippee Dee Dayy, my oh my what a wonderful day!
    - - -
    I've learned a serious lesson. _ Not everything NEW should be considered good.
    _ Come to think of it...if this old / new Blogger was an aircraft in the process of developing technical malfunctions (since half the Template disappeared)...Well...by now it would've crashed.
    ///

    ReplyDelete
  77. Anybody know a way to change the default feeds advertised by blogger? I would rather advertise my feedburner feed since it has statistics about subscribers, but in the page headers it still lists the default blogger ATOM feed, and I can't seem to change it. Same with the "Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)" link at the bottom of the page.

    ReplyDelete
  78. Here's how to edit Blogger's template to replace the address of Blogger's feed with FeedBurner's feed (in the header).

    For the "Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)" link, you should try to find
    < b:include name='feedLinks'/ >
    in the template (expand widget templates) and replace it with a link to your FeedBurner feed.

    ReplyDelete
  79. I can't acces my Old Blog, How I could login to my Old blog and Migrate it to the new One?please help me
    thx
    Gunawan
    Very Important-Baby First Year

    ReplyDelete
  80. How do I seperate my posts so that you click on another link to read the rest of the post? For example, I create my post but then how do I get the CONTINUE READING THIS POST link?

    ReplyDelete
  81. To have a snippet from a post on the homepage, followed by a "read more" link, try this trick.

    ReplyDelete
  82. I switched to the NEW Blogger & they keep deleting the YOUTUBE videos I have embedded. I have placed them in again & they work for a little bit, then gone again....whatzup?

    ReplyDelete
  83. It's improving..slowly. I finally figured out the password to mine after about a year..so I'm happy.

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  84. Migrating to new blogger was not a good idea at all. If I knew that all my blogs had to be merged into one user name i would have never changed from old blogger. Some odd people still prefer to have different profiles in each blog, can you imagine? Is this too hard to understand to the brains inventing and upgrading these wonderful tools? It can also be the case that they are compelled by WHO or CIA to do all this in order to prevent the spreading of double personality/identity problems in world population...

    ReplyDelete
  85. My biggest issue is that I can't find a way to manually republish my blog. I have several pages that have been massively edited, but they still have the url with the old title. Even though the title has updated on the page itself, the unique url still works off of the old title. In other words, "Camping Trip on Sunday" was the old title. The url ending with camping-trip-on-sunday.html. That was in error, so I changed the title to Camping Trip on Saturday. However, the url remains the same :(.

    ReplyDelete
  86. For the latest anonymous, who said: "I edited the title, but the URL remained the same":

    That's one of the best FEATURES of the new Blogger. The address should remain the same after creating a post (it's called a permalink, or a permanent link). People put that link in their sites, so it's a good idea to have the same URL, even if you change the title.

    Maybe Blogger shouldn't use the title to build the URL. They could use numbers: blogname.blogspot.com/?p=123.

    ReplyDelete
  87. Great stuff, I'm converting all my blogs right now. But I can't find a new version of the blogthis! bookmarklet that supports labels. Does anyone know if this exists?

    ReplyDelete
  88. The forced switch over to New Blogger screwed up my newly designed custom template. Anyone know how this can be fixed?

    ReplyDelete
  89. Lately, the new blogger has given me alot of headache. I wanted to have a change of blogskin, however, the code that i got from blogskins.com could not function when i pasted them in the "edit HTML" page.Besides, it refused to upload the code, stating that there was an error.HOwever, i tried this same code in the old blogger, and it could work. It would be great if you could tell me why this is so.

    It did work when i pasted the code in the "page elements" underhtml/Java.

    911 big time. really.

    ReplyDelete
  90. I don't want to switch! Is there any way I can continue on blogspot without linking my blog to my gmail account? What on earth do you do with anonymous blogs? Create anonymous Gmail accounts?

    ReplyDelete
  91. You don't have to create a new Gmail account, you can just create a new Google account and migrate your blogs to that account.

    There are a lot of ways to keep your blog anonymous: you can disable the profile (uncheck "Show my profile" at blogger.com/edit-profile.g) or remove the author name in the template.

    ReplyDelete
  92. Spicy Chai, here’s the only way I have found to avoid changing. Set yourself up as a second author on your blog, and post from that exclusively from now on. Blogger only bugs the blog owner, not any second authors.
       I made the mistake of switching and hate it. It takes miles longer to wait for a simple change to publish, because it has to go through the whole blog (I want the “publish index only” option back), it is less efficient, and now, I am still signed in when I search Google, etc., as well, so the buggers can spy on me. Oftentimes, Blogger forgets I am logged in, even when I do not log out of it or out of Google, so I have to type in a longer username (my email address) for the new account.
       Load of rubbish, really, Don’t know why they bothered with annoying users. They should have held any changes back till they improved Blogger.

    ReplyDelete
  93. Actually, unlike the old Blogger, any change is instant. If you make a change in the settings or in the template, you don't have republish all the posts to propagate the settings because the new Blogger serves pages dynamically (no more static pages).

    Google moved Blogger users to Google Accounts for more reasons:

    -> they want a single username/password for all Google services

    -> Blogger moved all the databases on Google servers, so they had to integrate the authentication system. Besides, Google says they have a much more secure system than Blogger's, so it's more difficult for someone to crack your account

    -> because you use a Google Account for your Blogger blogs, it's much easier to integrate with other Google properties: for example, in the future you could add photos from Picasa Web Albums or your public calendar by clicking a button.

    They should have held any changes back till they improved Blogger.

    Google bought Blogger in 2003 and made a lot of changes since then: they removed the paid accounts (Blogger Pro), added photo uploading, comments, labels, drag-and-drop template editing, permissions, widgets.

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  94. I like the new blogger - BUT, PLEASE ADD A WAY TO CHANGE THE ORDER OF THE POSTS. I DON'T KNOW ABOUT YOU, BUT HAVING THE NEWEST POST AT THE TOP IS FREAKING WEIRD. A STORY STARTS AT THE BEGINNING AND THEN YOU READ DOWN - NOT UP.

    PLEASE CHANGE THIS!!

    Tom Ulcak
    http://tulcak.blogspot.com/

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  95. Hate the forced changeover. I don't want to use my email as a username and I don't trust Google to safeguard my privacy. I had a Google account for yonks, but have so far successfully avoided having my blogs lured across. Alas, it's too late for the 'second author' option now. Grrr.

    I wonder--if I don't comply, will my existing blogs be deleted? For now I've stopped posting, but what's rich is that I can't moderate/publish comments anymore!

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  96. If you don't comply, you won't be able to post anything. I doubt that your posts will be deleted, as there's no policy for deleting inactive blogs.

    About the second account, here's what you can do:

    * migrate to the new Blogger

    * add yourself as a collaborator (use a new email address)

    * open the invitation message and create a new Google account for that email address

    * after you accept the invitation, you can become administrator using the second account as well and use the second Google account only for Blogger.

    Does it make sense to you?

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  97. Yeah, but I don't want to create a new email address just for this crap.

    It's reassuring to hear that there is no policy of deleting inactive blogs. Hope that doesn't change. And I'm still annoyed that I can't publish a very informative comment on one of my older posts which has landed in my inbox without re-registering (grrr).

    Google is taking liberties and annoying users. I'm turning off it.

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  98. i have problem everytime i wanna sign in to the new version of blogger. the word " loading....." is always there but still i cant get in.what is wrong????????

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  99. An alternative way to log in to Blogger is this page:

    www2.blogger.com/login.g

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  100. I have a blog but can't remember my user name and my e-mail address is not being accepted. Is there no contact e-mail address so I can contact the administration to get the information?
    I am a senior "blonde"...lol... and these things happen but there must be some way for me to get through to them. I don't want to lose access to my Blog. HELP???
    Joni

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  101. I like the new blogger. Love it in fact. But only for the new blog that I've launched. I can't get my old blog to actually use the new templates. Perhaps this is because its a hosted blog? I had no problem moving an old blog that is hosted at blogspot.com onto the new template (you just have to pick a new template, then do "update template"). But that option still doesn't appear for my hosted blog, www.expreference.com.

    The template for that one is all messed up by the new blogger system, so any advice would be awesome!


    Thanks!


    Ryan

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  102. So far the new Blogger is a total nightmare, since it won't "accept" any of my new blog templates. It keeps refusing to let me create anything new, claiming that they don't like my HTML.

    Why should the heck should they care? It worked just fine before on my old Blogger templates, which have been "grandfathered" into the new blogger. Why can't my new templates be accepted, then, since they're just slightly changed cut-and-paste versions of my old code anyway?

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  103. First, Ed, consider starting with an original, unmodified copy of your template and reintroduce your modifications one at a time, this way you might be able to determine exactly what part of your template is breaking.

    Second, I've seen several questions asking how to reorder posts. Although complex reordering will be difficult, I have a quick solution for moving an old post to the front of the queue:

    - In the 'Posting' -> 'Edit Posts' tab, click the 'Edit' link corresponding to the post. This will open the editor for that post.
    - Copy and paste the content into a text editor
    - Next, create a new post
    - Paste the content into the new post editor and save it.
    - If everything in the new post looks good, you can choose to remove the old post or leave it to preserve your history. The new post should appear at the top of the page.

    James
    Open Source Opportunities

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  104. Ever since I upgraded from Old Blogger to New Blogger, I've been unable to search for old posts from the edit page. Every time I do, I get an error message.

    At first the error code was bX-kurmnp. Then when I cleared my cache and cookies, the error code changed to bX-i1habf.

    I sent Blogger Support an email about the problem on April 20, but haven't yet had a response. I posted the problem to the Blogger Help Forum a few days later and so far have had only one response (suggesting that I clear my cache and cookies, which didn't solve the problem).

    It's very frustrating. I can't call up old posts for revision, correction, or updating.

    Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

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  105. Ever since I upgraded from Old Blogger to New Blogger, I've been unable to search for old posts from the edit page.

    You can enable quick editing (go to Settings / Basic / enable "Show Quick Editing on your Blog"). Use Google to search your site.

    site:blogname.blogspot.com your query

    Assuming you're logged in, you'll see a link at the end of the post that lets you edit the post.

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  106. You can enable quick editing (go to Settings / Basic / enable "Show Quick Editing on your Blog"). Use Google to search your site.

    site:blogname.blogspot.com your query

    Assuming you're logged in, you'll see a link at the end of the post that lets you edit the post.


    That's a neat work-around. Unfortunately I can't make it work either, perhaps because I don't use Blogspot. I've had "show quick editing" enabled for a long time and have never seen the edit link in a post.

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  107. Then use the comment link from each of the posts. Usually it looks like:
    blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=ID1&postID=ID2

    Replace comment.g with post-edit.g.
    blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=ID1&postID=ID2

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  108. Then use the comment link from each of the posts. Usually it looks like:
    blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=ID1&postID=ID2

    Replace comment.g with post-edit.g.
    blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=ID1&postID=ID2


    Thanks again. Unfortunately I don't use comments (long story) and don't have the comment.g code in my template.

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  109. New Blogger seems to be ok now. At start when it was beta it was a pain but now seems to be running ok.

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  110. i have my own blog and want to create more pages,i have tried doing for ages..imhaving a blond moment ...again lol can anyone help me please,kmkog@hotmail.com

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  111. I just upgraded my main blog to use the Page Elements thing. I didn't upgrade the 1st time around because I was going to lose my customizations. Since I have a bit more free time now, I decided to recustomize from scratch. So far so good for the new Blogger format. Definitely much more user-friendly and easy to use, yet still allowing user HTML customization(s). With a little bit of testing and twisting here and there, I think we can make most out of it if you know what you're doing. If not, just Blingo it!

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  112. When will we have new layouts to pick from?

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  113. Kudos yaar. I am a popular blogger from Tamilnadu, India . The great thing about this new blogger is the modular elements. great tweaks are possible even for a new bee. I can practically change the ELEMENTS in a minute to give a new feel. As a usabality consultant this is great guys gals. Too see it in action have a look at my blog, though it is in my mother tongue Tamil.. HERE

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  114. I havent been on blogger since this summer as my life got super hectic. I am now ready to get back into it and yet on my old blogger all the posts are gone! Is there anyway to retreive them

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  115. I don't like the new version. How do I go back to my older blogspot? The HTML page in Template was easier to modify than the new one. thanks

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