FTP Published Blogs Redirect BlogSpot URL Automatically?

Ever since Custom Domain publishing was provided by Blogger, one noticeable feature that differentiated custom domain from FTP publishing was the status of the original BlogSpot URL. With a blog published to a custom domain, the original BlogSpot URL was automatically redirected to the new custom domain; but this was not done for blogs published by FTP.

This was a major deficiency too.

• With the original BlogSpot URL unused, blog readers had to be informed in advance of the pending change.
• As soon as the blog was published and the BlogSpot URL became available, it was frequently snapped up by splog publishers.

This necessitated publishing of a stub blog, by the former owner, after the blog was published by FTP, informing all that the blog had been moved to another URL.

This deficiency appears to be ended. I was in the process of diagnosing a problem with an FTP published blog, where the owner reported

I can no longer reclaim the original subdomain, as was recommended.

I went to verify the condition of the BlogSpot URL, and observed a very interesting display.


This advice was rather annoying, with custom domain published blogs, but I think it's rather comforting right now.


This is a major improvement for FTP publishing, and it would appear that FTP publishing is intended to be a peer solution to custom domain publishing. From a business standpoint, and considering the problems inherent in publishing by FTP, I still wonder what's the long term plan.

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