Use Two Browsers, When Working With Multiple Google Accounts

Google has been providing single login access, to (almost all) Google services, for many years.

Properly maintained, we can have one Google account, which lets us access all services, using one login. The single login approach is a convenience, when all of the services, which we use, are part of the same Google account.

The single login approach becomes a challenge, when some of the services, which we use, are part of different Google accounts. As owners of Blogger blogs, there are some scenarios, where we have to deal with two different Google accounts simultaneously.

• Accessing non Blogger applications, like Google Apps.
• Recovering account / blog control.
• Transferring control of a blog.

When we have to deal with two Google accounts, simultaneously, the single login approach becomes a problem.

Frequently, when you request assistance with a problem which involves your Google account, we'll start by advising you to

Clear cache, cookies, and sessions (yes, all 3) - then restart the browser.

This advice is neither ceremonial, nor pedantic - it's practical. And, it solves more problems than you would believe.

That simple advice works - because many problems are caused by the Google account login cookie, which is used to retain login status from application to application, within the various Google services which we may use. This is how Google provides single login to their various services.

That simple advice works best when we care only about the Google service immediately visible - and it requires careful maintenance of cookies filters. In cases where two services - or two Google accounts - are involved, you'd need to switch between account / service, rapidly and repeatedly. Rapidly logging out of one account, to login to another account, is both exhausting and technically unsafe.

Rapidly logging out then back in, to various Google accounts, creates odd symptoms, like the well known monolithic error

You have logged out from another location. Do you want to log in again?

Who among us has been able to correctly answer this simple query properly, without undue rise in blood pressure?

Another problem with clearing cookies, routinely, is that not all browsers allow selective clearing of cookies. Many have observed problems with non Google websites, after solving a Google problem which involves

Clear cache, cookies, and sessions (yes, all 3) - then restart the browser.

Yes, there are websites outside the Googlesphere!

If we need to work with two Google accounts, simultaneously, the only safe technique is to use two browsers, simultaneously. Since the Google login cookie is created separately, in each different browser, use of two browsers lets us maintain two Google sessions, simultaneously, without interaction between the two.

Since no two browsers are alike, we know realistically, that using two different browsers should not be done routinely. Many blog owners have a most favourite, and a least favourite, browser - and won't willingly use a different browser except when absolutely necessary.

Fortunately, many modern browsers, to retain their own customer base, allow for multiple sessions - where cookies and other preferences and settings can be maintained separately. Chrome has the "Incognito Window", and Firefox has "Private Browsing" - both of which let you, temporarily, setup a second browser session, with separate cookies, preferences, and settings.

In most cases, then - and if you are using Chrome or Firefox - when we advise you to

Clear cache, cookies, and sessions (yes, all 3) - then restart the browser.

you should be able to, alternately,

Activate a second browser session, when you are not currently using a second session.

In cases where you are currently using a second browser session, the advice would be more correctly phrased

Close the current second browser session, then start a new second browser session.

This advice would flush all current cookies, preferences, and settings which could possibly involve multiple Google accounts, and avoid various problems with Blogger and non Blogger applications.

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Blogs That Interest Inhabitants Of A Specific Country May Use The Webmaster Tools "Geographical target" Setting

People who publish blogs which are relevant to a specific country may be able to focus search engine attention, for their blog, and better target readers in the country in question.

Google Webmaster Tools provides the "Geographical target" setting, which lets a blog owner select a single country. The setting increases search engine attention, for their blog, in the country selected.

If you are logged in to Google Webmaster Tools, for a given blog, find the "gear" icon in the upper right corner of the dashboard display.

From the drop down menu behind the "gear", select "Site Settings" - and "Geographical target" will be right there, in front of you. Click on "Target users in:", then select the appropriate country, in the pull down menu.

The list of countries, presented to you, appears to be rather complete. The list appears to be alphabetically sorted in the English language, as most of Webmaster Tools appears to be presented.

It's likely that your potential readers will be located using geolocation, so you should allow for some inaccuracies, in targeting specific readers. Readers who are located in regions close to national borders may appear to be located on either side of the border. Only one country can be targeted.

Note that this setting is not related to any Blogger dashboard settings, such as "Language" or "Time Zone", in "Language and formatting".

Also, note that the usefulness of this setting, like other search engine features, will depend upon your efforts in properly publicising the blog. Publicising the blog is still dependent upon your efforts - this setting, when used, simply focuses your efforts towards a single country.

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What Are The Differences Between Pages And Posts?

Occasionally, we see a naive question about pages (static pages), and posts (dynamic pages), requesting a value comparison.

What are the advantages of using a page, instead of a post?

That question, worded in that vague way, cannot be answered. The various differences between pages and posts can provide advantages, or disadvantages. To evaluate a page or a post as an advantage, one must know the specific needs of the blog in question.

Long ago, Blogger blogs consisted simply of posts, displayed using the static Classic template. The "home" page of each blog was merely the most recently published post. Each post was published with an optional index, "Previous Posts", which listed merely the 10 posts previous to the post displayed. There was no

• Archives gadget (Date sequenced post index).
• Labels gadget (Topic sequenced post index).
• Main page display (Date sequenced aggregated post display).

Other posts could be located, only one post at a time, by following the top link in "Previous Posts", from post to post - or directly, from any links in the posts.

With blogs published to Classic templates, important posts were directly accessed using in post links, intentionally added as the posts were composed.

In 2007, Blogger added the dynamic Layouts templates.

Instead of displaying the most recent post as the blog home page, they gave us the main page display, to display a sequential array of recent posts. Instead of the "10 Previous Posts" index, they gave us a true "Previous Posts" index, renamed "Archives", which indexed all posts in the blog.

All posts could be accessed, using either the Archives index - or by following the main page display links ("Newer Posts" / "Older Posts"), located at the bottom of each main page display segment.

Some blog owners, enjoying their blogs with the new Layouts templates and the Archives index, demanded special blog posts that were not indexed in the Archives gadget, and could be "hidden" from their readers.

Remember that all posts, using the Classic templates, were "hidden" - excepting important posts, directly accessed using in post links. To satisfy this new requirement, Blogger later added "pages", special posts that are accessed only when linked - never in archives, label searches, or main page displays.

Some time after adding the "pages" feature, Blogger added the "Pages" gadget, to provide an easy to setup index for important pages and posts. The term "pages" became used by many blog owners, to refer to both "ordinary" posts (aka "dynamic" pages), and "special" posts (aka "static" pages) - since both classes of "posts" could be accessed using the Pages gadget

The confusion between "pages" and "posts" is further aided because the edit wizards for each feature have a common overall display layout. Those blog owners not knowleagable about "pages" design may confuse the "page editor" and the "post editor", and continue to refer to everything as either "pages" or "posts".


This post, composed in the Page Editor.
Pages ("Static" Pages)

• Are created using the page editor, accessed from the dashboard Pages wizard.
• Are edited using the page editor, accessed using the dashboard Pages wizard, or the QuickEdit icon on the blog face.
• Are not relevant to the date when published.
• Cannot be scheduled, to publish in the future.
• Cannot be properly created with a blank title - though malfunctioning Blogger code has occasionally allowed pages with blank titles, a mistake which has caused other problems with pages.
• Cannot be created with a custom URL. A Page URL is rigidly based on page title, when published. URL Duplication prevention for pages is not understood.
• Cannot use "Jump Break" in a summarised index (main page display).
• Are limited per blog. Each blog can have a maximum of 20 pages - and deleted pages do not allow creation of additional pages.
• Will host one single post.
• Do not appear in archive indexes, label searches, and main page displays.
• Do not appear in blog newsfeeds.
• Do not have labels.

This post, composed in the Post Editor.
Posts ("Dynamic" Pages)

• Are created using the post editor, accessed from the "New Post" button, located in the Navbar, or in the dashboard Posts List display.
• Are edited using the post editor, accessed from the dashboard Posts List display, or the QuickEdit icon on the blog face.
• Are relevant to the date when published. The URL of each post will always include the current year and month when published.
• Can be scheduled, to publish in the future.
• Can be properly created with a blank title - though problems occasionally make the post editor malfunction when publishing posts with blank title.
• Can be created with a custom URL, when originally published. URL Duplication prevention for posts, especially considering "custom" URLs and post scheduling, is complicated - and has caused other problems with posts, and with their URLs.
• Can use "Jump Break" in a summarised index (main page display).
• Are unlimited per blog.
• Can host multiple posts, using label searches. A label search can also be used as a dynamic page.
• Appear in archive indexes, label searches, and main page displays.
• Appear in blog newsfeeds.
• Have labels.

In general, use of a page or a post, in any given scenario, is chosen based on the latter 6 details. When incorrectly chosen, we frequently see questions.

How do I publish a page with multiple posts?

or

How do I publish more than 20 pages in my blog?

This post is being published as a "dynamic" page. Click here, to see this post published as a "static" page - and click here, to see this post published as a portion of a label search "dynamic" page (with "Jump Break").

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Blogger Blog Content Needs To Be Unique, And Properly Targeted

I've been studying spam, in Blogger blogs, for over 5 years.

This year, we've seen improvement in the automated spam classification process, implied by a noticeable reduction in spam review requests overall - and in a considerable reduction in the proportions of false positive classifications. During the past few months, blogs requested for review are 2 or 3 times more likely to be confirmed as legitimate spam blogs (true positives), compared to this time last year.

Of the blogs confirmed to be spam hosts, when I am able to examine cached copies of the content, 3 out of 4 of those appear to contain material scraped or syndicated from other blogs or websites.

• Content scraped (stolen), or syndicated (copied, with permission), from other blogs / websites. Content scraped or syndicated to other blogs / websites.

Google describes the problem, in Blogger Help: Spam, phishing, or malware on Blogger, quite simply.

Spam blogs cause various problems, beyond simply wasting a few seconds of your time when you happen to come across one. They can clog up search engines, making it difficult to find real content on the subjects that interest you. They may scrape content from other sites on the web, using other people's writing to make it look as though they have useful information of their own. And if an automated system is creating spam posts at an extremely high rate, it can impact the speed and quality of the service for other, legitimate users.

Long ago, spam blogs were first encountered as startup components in large spam blog farms.

Later, we explored the involvement of various "get rich quick" schemes, and of affiliate marketing.

• Content or links which reference referral-based activities such as GPT ("Get Paid To"), MLM ("Multi-Level Marketing"), MMF ("Make Money Fast"), MMH ("Make Money from Home"), PTC ("Pay To Click"), or PTS ("Pay To Surf").
• Affiliate marketing (Please, don't confuse this with "affiliate networking"!).

Of these three broad descriptions of confirmed spam blog content - spam blog startups, get rich quick schemes, and affiliate marketing - the one common feature in most of the blogs, confirmed as spam hosts, seems to be the lack of unique content. One of the features of the Panda update to Google Search was described as "content quality" in search results.

The past year tuning to Blogger spam classification appears to be in keeping with Panda, in that it is targeting blogs which rely upon content intentionally replicated from blog to blog - whether "scraped" (stolen, without permission), or "syndicated" (copied, with permission).

The end result here is that Blogger blogs, to avoid spurious spam classification, need to contain as much unique material as possible. While some amounts of quotation of other blogs and websites is beneficial, the majority of blog content needs to be written by the blog owners and contributors, and properly targeted to the reader population.

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Account / Blog Recovery, With Team Blogs, Requires Well Managed Membership

We've known for a while, about account recovery for team blogs.

We've sent login instructions for the blog at http://mybloggerblog.blogspot.com/ to you and the other blog authors.

Apparently, team ownership recovery has its limits.

I used "Forgot?", and got the advice

Your blog has too many authors to email them all. Please enter your email address into the form below to look up your account information.

The blog has too many contributors. Since some of these contributors' accounts are no longer active, there's no way for me to easily identify the account which has now has the administrator rights.

Like account recovery for a blog with inactive team members, the "Forgot?" wizard won't work well with large membership lists, which are not well maintained.

In this case, the would be owner (former owner?) now has two possibilities.

1. If he was the only administrator, the blog now has no administrators - and any author can now claim ownership of the blog, by using “Forgot?” and providing the proper email address.
2. If the blog still has administrators, the former owner now has to identify an administrator who is active and accessible, and who is willing to restore his account to administrator status.

What to do, now?

Once again, we see the advantage of keeping the membership list well maintained.

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Problems Adding / Editing The HTML And Text Gadgets

We're seeing a few reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, mentioning problems adding or updating the HTML and Text gadgets. The most common symptom is very simple.

When I try to update the gadget, all that I see is

javascript:void(0);

In this case, we have to first explain that "javascript:void(0);" is not the problem - it's simply a symptom of the problem.

Once we explore the problem itself, we see various possible causes.

The base cause for problems with the HTML / Text gadget is simple - the script which processes gadget updates provides no diagnostics when detecting errors.

If you were to update a post, or the template, with bad HTML, you'd see some error message, indicating that your changes are bad.

Both Post Editor and Template Editor provide some diagnostics, when errors are detected. With the HTML / Text Gadget, the script issues no error messages, it simply stops.

Instead of "javascript:void(0);" displaying for a fraction of a second, as the update is saved and the window closes, the blog owner is left looking at

javascript:void(0);

until he hits "Cancel" in confusion.

The HTML / Text gadget has been observed to have various problems, which prevent changes from being properly saved.

• Bad HTML, when accidentally in HTML mode.
• HTML / JavaScript code which contains line breaks in the wrong places.
• Bad HTML code, when intentionally entering an HTML gadget.
• Gadgets with blank titles.
• Layered security, which blocks the gadget update scripts from running.
• Trying to use a non supported browser version.

Blog owners who are not observant, when updating the gadget, may accidentally be in HTML mode. Rich text, containing HTML significant characters, will be a problem.

HTML / JavaScript code is sensitive to line breaks in the wrong places in the code. Blog owners, accidentally or intentionally inserting line breaks, can cause a problem.

HTML / JavaScript code, in general, is syntax sensitive. Bad code will always be a problem.

Gadgets with blank titles will cause a problem, when using some browsers. If a gadget with a blank title is specifically required, it may be possible to use a null title, instead.

<!-- -->

Inappropriate use of layered security may block cookies or scripts, and prevent the gadget from updating.

The gadget, like every other Blogger feature, must be updated to support newer browser versions. It will likewise be updated periodically, to remove support for older browser versions. Non supported browser versions will frequently cause problems.

Some of these error scenarios should be more clearly identified, by the script - but not all can be identified. Attempting to save a gadget with a blank title, for instance, should produce a stern warning

Blank titles are not accepted.

Unfortunately, HTML syntax errors generally can't be consistently diagnosed, with any detail.

The best solution here is for the blog owners to be aware that the gadget operates this way, when being updated. Some cautious effort must be made, when updating the gadget.

It's possible that problems updating the gadget, like many Blogger problems in general, can be best diagnosed using affinity testing, and / or differential testing.

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Blogs Publishing Large NewsFeeds Can Cause Problems

We're seeing a few reports, which involve blogs with published newsfeeds with large volume, producing intriguing varieties of symptoms, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

My Followers are not getting email updates!

and

My blog does not update, on my Followers blogs!

and

My blog can't be viewed! All that I see is the gears turning!!!

All of these blog owners are publishing blogs which produce feeds, which are too large.

In general, a newsfeed can be any size necessary. There are two secondary details, however, which can make a Blogger blog, publishing a large newsfeed, problematic.

There is nothing basically wrong with large newsfeeds - but blogs which use dynamic templates, and blogs which produce feeds redirected through FeedBurner, can have problems when publishing large feeds.

We're currently seeing blogs with large feeds causing problems with dynamic templates. This produces one more case where we end up prescribing a non zero Timeout setting, for dynamic views.

Besides dynamic template display problems, blogs with large newsfeeds can produce problems, when redirected through FeedBurner. There are two approaches to making a feed smaller - use less posts - and alternately (when possible) format posts using Blogger post editor, instead of using Microsoft Office.

To diagnose a large feed problem, one can use any text browser, such as Rex Swain's HTTP Viewer, or maybe Web-Sniffer View HTTP Request and Response Header. Either product will provide a size display.

Feeds over 512K in size will be problematic, with either dynamic view, or FeedBurner redirection.

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