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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Recovering Stolen Blogs Is Not An Open And Shut Case

Recently, we've seen a few problems reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, requesting return of blogs stolen from the rightful owner.

Supposedly, the "rightful" owner is the person posting the problem report. We've learned from past experiences that this may not always be the case, however.

Long ago, when a stolen blog claim was posted in the forum, we could report it to Blogger Support as a "blog theft".

In many cases, given enough patience, Blogger Engineering and Google Legal would carefully examine the blog ownership history, and eventually restore the blog to its "rightful" owner. Unfortunately, even with the most careful forensic examination, the "blog theft" claim was occasionally used by hackers, to steal other peoples blogs.

Most recently, when "blog theft" is reported, Blogger Support declines to consider the case. Considering all of the issues, we generally see that they are making a responsible business decision.

Instead of spending massive amounts of time verifying individual claims, Blogger Engineering appears to be working on overall improvements to Blogger - to encourage blog owners to not put themselves, or their accounts and blogs, in unrecoverable positions.

Any blog which contains abusive material - whether malware, porn, or spam, or illegally obtained material - can be reported using the proper complaint form. Blogs which do not contain abusive material are the property of the current owner - and Blogger / Google will respect and support the current owner.

Blog owners, claiming theft, can generally report a stolen blog as abusive - if the current content justifies that claim. Other than that, the best solution is to hire a lawyer and convince a judge to issue a court order - and require Google Legal to become involved.

The issue of Blogger account and blog recovery is a long and painful one - for many people.

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Control The Email Settings, Relevant To Your Blog, Wisely

Some blog owners don't always think about the various email settings, which are part of their Blogger blogs, and the possible effects to their email - or somebody else's email.

There are several settings, where a blog owner may enter an email address.

• Email posts to
• Comment Moderation.
• Comment Notification Email.

These settings don't require acceptance by the recipient, making for some interesting possibilities for causing problems in other people's email, as well as one's own email.

There are several Blogger dashboard settings - related to post publication and to various commenting activities - with differing effect to one's own, or somebody else's, email.

• Settings - "Mobile and email" - "Email posts to" generates a minimally formatted text copy of each post, when published, to up to 10 email addresses.
• Settings - "Posts and comments" - "Comment Moderation" generates a minimally formatted copy of each incoming comment, before the comment is published - and allows moderation of the comment, while reading the email message - when the recipient has the proper authority.
• Settings - "Mobile and email" - "Comment Notification Email" generates a minimally formatted copy of each incoming comment, before the comment is published or rejected.

Since none of these settings require acceptance by the recipient, there are various possibilities for causing interesting email delivery.

Unlike various subscription services which use email, such as a FeedBurner Email Subscription service, an email address added to any of these three settings requires no formal acceptance. If a blog administrator should add an email address, whether their own (primary or additional personal email address), a willing friend or relative, or an unknown victim's address, there is no initial email sent to the recipient

You (or somebody else) has added this email address as a recipient of "Email posts to" / "Comment Moderation" / "Comment Notification Email". Do you approve of this additional traffic source to your email service?

or a similarly worded notification / approval. Given a clueless or malicious blog owner, it's possible that one (or all) of these settings could be used to harass an unwitting third party.

The "Email posts to" feature, also known as "BlogSend", generates a minimally formatted text copy of each post, when published, to up to 10 email addresses. This setting has been used, in the past, to provide distribution of newly published posts for private blogs, as well as a simple distribution for posts from public blogs.

Since it's limited to 10 entries, BlogSend does not provide a suitable service for any blog with a reader population of any appreciable size. For a blog owner with any technical experience, FeedBurner Email Distribution is a much better solution for post distribution - when the blog in question is publicly accessible.

For distribution of a private blog to more than 10 readers, one may use Google+.

The "Comment Moderation" and "Comment Notification Email" settings, used together, can generate interesting duplication of email to one's own (or somebody else's) email service. If these settings are made without thinking, some interesting confusion can result. Email addresses can be added to each of these settings without consideration of the relationship or level of authority enjoyed by the owner of the email address, relative to the blog in question.

Comment Moderation Email is presumed to generally be a function performed by blog administrators - but email resulting from this setting will be sent to anybody addressed. A blog administrator / member - or other non administrator of the blog or an unwitting stranger - will receive email suggesting several options,

Publish
Delete
Mark as spam

Moderate comments for this blog.

If the recipient is not an actual blog administrator, the links in the email provide confusion, and no result.

Comment Notification Email might be generally addressed to blog members - but is not necessarily limited. Since notification of comments is sent separately from moderation, recipients of a notification can become confused when they fail to find the comment, mentioned in the notification, present on the blog. A blog administrator, using either an email moderation message - or using the blog Comments wizard, may or may not decide to Publish - or to designate a comment as Spam - regardless of a notification message having been delivered to each designated recipient.

Comment notification email may look similar to comment moderation email, less the comment processing options - possibly causing more confusion. A blog owner, adding his own email address to both comment moderation and comment notification, may see the combination as unknown duplication. And blog owners may confuse the proper use of comment moderation and comment notification email.

A blog owner, transferring ownership of a given blog, may overlook updating of the email settings. A new blog owner, receiving a blog being transferred, may likewise overlook these settings, and may lack the associated email, until the omission is corrected.

Either the previous owner, or the new owner, may be confused temporarily - and may wonder why they are still getting email / not getting email, until they examine and correct the setting in question. Alternately, if someone's email address was added maliciously, by a blog owner intending to harass somebody, one can see interesting possibility for conflict.

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A Team Blog With No Administrators Is Given To The Authors, For Their Control

We have known, for a while, that every Blogger blog has to have at least one administrator.

That rule is enforced by the Permissions wizard, which gives any administrator the choice to demote or remove any administrator, from the Permissions list - but only when there is at least one other administrator in the list.

When the Permissions list is displayed, if there are at least two members with administrative authority, each administrator entry, in the list, has a link to demote or remove that member. If there is only one member with administrative authority, there is no such link - and that member can be neither demoted or removed from the list.

As long as only the Permissions wizard is used, to demote or remove administrators, this article would be meaningless (see the above link). But, there is another way for administrators to be removed - and this occasionally leaves blogs with no administrator.

If the only way to lose an administrator (or member) from a blog was by using the Permissions list to demote or remove, then the Permissions list setup, as described above, would be sufficient.

Unfortunately, the Blogger - and Google - account deletion processes don't consider the member lists for the blogs owned by the account. When a Blogger account is deleted, the fate of the blogs owned, by that account, has to be decided later.

Any blogs which have only one member (the owner) are either frozen or deleted - as with only one owner, there is no need to keep those blogs. Any blogs with more than one member simply lose that one member. But what if a blog has more than one member, but only one administrator - and that one administrator takes a hike?

With a team blog with one administrator, and one or more authors, losing the one administrator would leave a blog that was being published (by the authors), but could not be managed (because there was no administrator). This would, in the past, lead to panic in the forum.

The administrator for my blog deleted his Blogger account - and now my blog has no administrator! What do we do now?

With no administrator existing, Blogger Support would be summoned, and would have to determine whether a blog:

• Had no administrators.
• Had at least one author.
• Was being requested by a person who had a legitimate need to request control (a former administrator, or a current author).

Failure to ensure that each condition was being properly met could, with the right problem report, allow a hijacker to improperly assume control of someone's blog - with only Blogger Support to blame for enabling the hijacking.

To allow control recovery without needless delay, and avoid the need for endless detail in verifying any such panicky report, Blogger Engineering made a simple procedural change. The "Forgot your username or password?" wizard, when control recovery is requested for a blog with no administrator, simply sends the appropriate access tokens (aka "login instructions") to all blog authors - as long as the membership list is well maintained.

Any blog authors, able to receive the login instructions, then become de facto administrators - and can jointly determine the fate of the blog. The control recovery process can be automated, and the risk of possible hijacking of actively owned (administered) blogs is reduced. This simply requires that at least one blog author uses a Blogger account based on an active and genuine email address - and if necessary, can search persistently for the email sent.

When this reset process is done, each author of the blog initially has the same power as each of the other authors. Blogger leaves it to all authors to act honourably - and to politely choose one or more authors to be administrators. As long as the author submitting the reset process is able to locate the email message in his Inbox immediately, he can make himself the sole administrator - if he decides.

If one of the authors has problem locating the email, it's possible that the other newly appointed administrators could unwisely hijack control of the blog. If this happens, it will be up to the authors to jointly establish order. Blogger Support will not be involved in any conflict.

The more authors a given blog may have, the greater the chance that one author, receiving the email message, may act dishonourably, and hijack the blog. In cases where there are a large number of authors (precise number not known, right now), Blogger will defer to the author requesting the reset.

In this case, the author requesting the account reset can enter his email address, that is used by his Blogger account, to have the password reset email sent directly to him.

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Having A Blogger Blog Removed Or Restored, After Death Of The Blog Owner - The Next Chapter

The question of disposition of blogs, left behind by deceased blog owners, comes up in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, from time to time.

As Blogger blogs - and similar Google products - become mature, and as more people who publish Blogger blogs become susceptible to old age and death, this problem will become more critical. As recently as 2010, in order to assume control (or request deletion) of such a blog, Blogger required only a faxed copy of the death certificate.

We are now seeing that the death certificate is only one part of a formal procedure, which Blogger / Google now uses, in the dual role of

• Compassion, in allowing a friend or loved one to appropriately assume control of blogs left behind.
• Due Diligence, in preventing fraudulent claims by people who have no legal or moral right to assume control of blogs.

Both roles are righteous, and are needed to help Google reduce hijacking of active Blogger blogs.

As part of an improved procedure for disposition of Blogger blogs left behind by deceased owners, Blogger now uses GMail Help: Accessing a deceased person's mail as guidelines. The new guidelines

1. Use a two part process - a preliminary review, followed by a formal court documented process.
2. Include a dedicated facsimile transmission / postal mail address.
3. Include additional requirements, which formally identify the relationship of the person requesting control of the blog in question, to the deceased.

The preliminary review specifies a facsimile transmission / postal mail address:

Google Inc.
Gmail User Support - Decedents’ Accounts
c/o Google Custodian of Records
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
Fax: 650-644-0358

and a formal list of material required, for Part 1 - preliminary review.

1. Your full name.
2. Your physical mailing address.
3. Your email address.
4. A photocopy of your government-issued ID or driver’s license.
5. The Gmail address of the deceased user.
6. The death certificate of the deceased user. If the document is not in English, please provide a certified English translation prepared by a competent translator and notarized.
7. The following information from an email message that you have received at your email address, from the Gmail address in question:
   • The full header from the email message. See instructions on how to find headers in Gmail and other webmail email providers. Copy everything from 'Delivered-To:' through the 'References:' line
   • The entire content of the message

When specified by Blogger Support, we were instructed to substitute the blog URL, for the Gmail address (as #5). No addendum referencing the email message (as #7) was provided.

The instructions for Part 2 are not as well defined, as for Part 1.

Part 2 will require you to get additional legal process including an order from a U.S. court and/or submitting additional materials. Please note that submitting these materials will not guarantee that we will be able to provide Gmail content so we recommend not embarking on Part 2 until you hear back from us regarding Part 1.

These requirements may seem onerous to the less observant. Actually, by formalising the process, this should reduce the number of fraudulent claims, and make it easier for Google personnel to legitimately process claims, while exercising both compassion and due diligence.

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Blog Control And URL Availability Hacking - Four Sides Of The Same Story

Occasionally, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, we see various queries about our blogs, and how to gain or regain control.

• How do I get a blog, which is attacking me (impersonating me, insulting me, publishing my secrets), removed from Blogger?
• How do I claim a dormant URL?
• How do I recover control of my blog?
• My blog is now under somebody else's control! How do I get my blog back?

In some cases, all of these queries are simply one more attempt to gain control of a blog, or a URL. As we gain experience in reading between the lines in Blogger Help Forum, and as Blogger Support gains experience in researching blog histories, we can start to see patterns, and signs of multiple attempts to assume control of the blog - or the URL - in question.

Many blog or URL hacking attempts start quite innocently. Two of the more common ones are quite naive, and completely separate, tales.

• Some people want to recover control of their blog, after having forgotten the username / password.
• Other people want to start a blog - but find that the desired URL is not available.

Some people, denied recovery of the blog, because they can't prove ownership, will try another tactic.

I'll tell them that the blog was stolen from me. Surely if they think the blog was hacked, I can get it back, since I used to be the owner!

People trying to gain control of a dormant blog will likewise use their imagination.

If I get the blog deleted as spam, I can grab the URL. Surely a Dormant blog is just another type of Spam, in Blogger!

Unfortunately, these techniques have been used, already - and have resulted in still other tales of anguish.

It requires the wisdom of Solomon - and the patient persistence of Gil Grissom - to sort through the problems reports. Claims

I just graduated from college, and I can't use my email address to recover the password!

and

I just woke up from a 7 year coma, to find my family blog under control of a hacker!

and let us not overlook

My friend just died. Can I please have control of the blog, so I can put a notice to all of his friends, on the blog?

and

I never updated my Blogger only account to a Blogger / Google account - and I never got any email, warning me of the impending change!

All of these tales have enormous human interest - and seem to justify mercy for the plaintive requests.

Unfortunately, these stories - and others like them - are not always what they seem. What we sometimes see are the other side of the story.

• Attempts to steal control of an active blog.
• Attempts to gain control of the URL which would be perfect for their new blog, if only the URL was available.
• Attempts to probe and reveal the identity of a blog owner, who is guaranteed anonymous blog ownership, by Blogger policy.

So, if you beg and plead for attention

None of these tools help me, in the least. Can I please speak to a live human, so I can explain my special need?

Please, do not be surprised to be directed to read about why Blogger Help is the only contact, and why you absolutely must prove ownership of the blog, before being given control. And even the ultimate insult, you must provide a copy of the death certificate plus get a court order, as you grieve for the loss of your friend or loved one.

The bottom line here is that, if you intend to publish a Blogger blog, it is your responsibility - and only your responsibility - to maintain control of your blog. You are an adult (or are presumed to be one) - and you have responsibilities, as an adult.

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