Google Screws With Blogger
Can you just imagine what their offspring would look like? Oh, sorry, wrong joke--Google already owns Blogger. Today I automatically logged into my account, noting the confusing notice about Blogger instituting use of OpenID for commenting, acknowledging some snafu about URLs and generally wreaking havoc in my little brain.A few readers have protested the unavailability of anonymous commenting on this blog. That's fine if you object. I have my reasons, and although I don't moderate comments, I do see them almost as soon as they are posted. I can hit "delete" with the best of 'em! So, I went to enable this new system, hoping it would coax more comments, which have fallen off during their testing period. I couldn't. I couldn't do anything with my own blog that I was logged in to, unless I logged in again!
First they call my blog crap and drive away advertisers by demoting the PageRank to zero; then they don't respond to my request for explanation, re-evaluation; now they're driving participants away by screwing with the comments process.
Eventually I was able to change the comments to this new OpenID system. I have no idea what that does. Will some kind soul please use it, and tell me (in a comment, if you can) if it is good for you? So far Google Screws have not been good for me.
Labels: blogging, technology
posted by Georganna Hancock M.S. | 9:15 AM
8 Comments:
I'm not sure that I count, as I'm part of the evil empire (by enabling Open ID comments on my blogger blog).
Comments at my blog have fallen off a bit since I no longer enable anonymous comments. I enabled Open ID so that non-Google/Bloggers could put their url's in when they comment.
Good luck to us all.
Google dropped the page rank on a lot of the blogs. I was unhappy too.
Thanks for the info Beth -- where's the URL? See, this is the part I am not getting. Some people put the URL of their blog or website in a comment. I thought Blogger or Google won't allow the links to be followed, however, because it inflates a site's backlink numbers. I thought that was part of the PageRank demotion brouhaha. My backlinks went from over 18,000 to just over 400. So does this new OpenID mean that following links is back? I'm soooo confused!
When you click on my name, it takes you to my Google/Blogger profile page, and my link. clicking a non-Google/Blogger's name will take you to their website. I just tried it on my blog; it didn't work the first time I tried it with someone's Open ID, then it worked the second time.
I think the esteemed Google/Bloggers have some work to do yet.
Blogger has always been unfriendly to comments. I would comment on your blog more often if it wasn't such a pain. I can't tell you how many times I've started to leave a comment and quit because I didn't want to spend the time and effort required to post a simple comment.
On many Blogger blogs - not yours - I used to be able to login with another identity, using my own URL. Now I can't do that any more. I tried to use OpenID and type in my URL but Blogger tells me it's not a valid OpenID.
I have a Blogger blog that I use only for Blogger comments. Once a month or so I post links to some of the posts on my blog, so if anyone clicks on my name and gets to my Blogger profile, they can eventually find my blog though I doubt anyone goes to the trouble of doing so.
One positive addition: I like being able to subscribe to comments even if I have to go to gmail (which I seldom use) to get the messages.
Georganna,
The next blog that came up in my reader after I left the above comment was this:
Why I'm Not Commenting on Blogger Blogs
Thought you might find it interesting though I'm not having the same problem described in the post.
Ooo, Lillie. I see what you mean about losing posts now. You need to be signed in before you start composing. Now, that is a pain, and I'm not going to recreate the long message I just lost!
In theory the OpenID should make things easier all around, but I think google/blogger are making it a bit more difficult than necessary. *sigh* I left Blogger behind long ago and haven't regretted hosting my own Wordpress blog. Life is much easier... until I try to post on Blogger.
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