Blogger Support Won't Play Wheel Of Fortune With Us

Long ago, Blogger Support used to provide personalised account recovery service, to blog owners who had forgotten their account names and passwords - and give "hints" in open forum discussion, reminiscent of the popular TV game show, Wheel Of Fortune.

But reality intervened - and now, everybody who wants to recover access to a Blogger account / blog must use one of the automated account / blog access recovery tools- ignoring however defective they may appear to be.

We have seen several sad stories, played out in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue.

Round #1

An unhappy "blog owner" would request assistance.

I forgot the password. Can somebody help me recover access?

Blogger Support would email recovery instructions to "whatever @ gmail . com", and advise the "blog owner"

I emailed your reset instructions to "w****** @ g**** . com".

Sometimes they would get the reply

That does not help me. Can I buy a vowel?

Blogger Support, always optimistic, would give it another go.

I emailed your reset instructions to "w***e*** @ g**** . com".

then

I emailed your reset instructions to "w*a*e*** @ g**** . com".

finally

I emailed your reset instructions to "w*a*e**r @ g**** . com".

Finally, the successful "blog owner" would reply

Thank you so much! I am so happyyyyyyyy!!!

But the story did not always end there.

Round #2

The next month somebody would report

My blog disappeared from my dashboard while I was in the hospital, in a coma. I now want to tell everybody how I am doing - but my blog is now full of spam, and nobody can read it!! Whatever can the problem be?

And the blog mentioned in Round #2 turned out to be the same as in Round #1.

Round #3

The final verdict would be that Blogger Support, while playing "Wheel of Fortune" in Round #1, had been playing with a hacker, who was then able to steal somebody else's blog.

Bonus Round

After that happened a couple times. Blogger developed the recovery tools, and wrote the final FAQ. And, stopped providing real time, personalised advice.

And that is that. You cannot prove that you are the owner of the blog, because you cannot communicate directly with Blogger Support. You have to use the tools provided - and / or search each email account, persistently.

Blogger Support will not play "Wheel of Fortune" any more. Everybody is urged to never reveal their email address, to the world.

In some cases, the blogs would be deleted, as new spam hosts - but ownership is seldom recoverable.

Bankrupt

Your best solution, now, is to start a new blog - then combine the two blogs, in a blog cluster.

Design Your Blog, As You Develop Your Audience

Similar to starting a blog and immediately focusing on making money, we sometimes see people who start a blog, and immediately start designing the template, with custom features.

A beautiful, shiny design is useless, if your readers don't like it. Different blogs will attract different reader populations, who will respond to different designs.

Every Blogger blog is unique, because you are unique - and because you (hopefully) publish blogs that are all different from each other.

Different reader populations will respond to different features.

Depending upon what your readers are, they will respond to various unique features of any given blog. Find out who your readers are, and what they like, before you design your blog.

Start with any standard Blogger template, and with content, to attract readers. Work on getting traffic, from content indexed by the search engines.

Develop content, and get the blog indexed. Content leads to search reputation.

Publish informative, interesting, and unique content - and advertise the blog responsibly. And be patient. There are an infinite number of techniques which will give you better results.

Look at blogs with similar content, and see what works.

As your blog gets traffic, you'll learn of other blogs similar to yours - some of which are published by your readers. See what designs, features, and layouts interest your readers - and learn how to use those techniques.

A well designed blog can have a new template added, any convenient time.

You can modify your blog, including the design, without losing content or readers, any time it pleases you. That's the beauty of online, progressive publishing.

Start with content - and focus on getting readers. Work on the blog design, after you have content and readers.

NeoWorx, And The Redirecting NeoCounter Gadgets

This week, we're seeing the anxious query, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue.

Is my blog for sale? I try to view my blog, and I see

This Domain Is for Sale

Have I lost my blog?

Fortunately, in most cases, the answer is "No, your blog is not for sale." - and "No, you have not lost your blog!".

In mid 2014, NeoWorx, the publisher of popular gadgets like NeoCounter, closed up shop. Back end code for their gadgets, installed on thousands of blogs and websites, had been served from their private libraries. Having closed their domains, the gadgets stopped working.

Initially, "neoworx-blog-tools.net" was purchased by a squatter.

The squatter apparently had hoped to capitalise on the traffic to the domain, provided by the blogs and websites that used the installed gadgets. In late 2014, the squatter gave up (or possibly, sold to another squatter), and "neoworx-blog-tools.net" is now showing a very plain parked page.

This Domain Is for Sale

Either the squatter made a profit on his purchase, by serving ads to the would be viewers of the host blogs and websites, and decided to cash in - or he lost his investment, and decided to cut his losses and move on.

In theory - and by early Internet rules of etiquette - anybody purchasing a domain that has accumulated traffic from the efforts of the prior owner, and expects to be receiving traffic from unwary people like our blog readers, should put advice on their home page.

Sorry, NeoWorx (publisher of NeoCounter and other blog / website accessories) is no more.

or

Looking for NeoCounter? Try their new website.

The advice, to at least accompany the ads displayed there, would provide a brief hint to the unwary reader, that what he sought (i.e., blog content - or a given gadget) is no longer available (as suggested by the first advice). If NeoWorx had renamed themselves, or been bought out, the second advice would have been useful.

The initial purchasers of "neoworx-blog-tools.net", in defiance or ignorance of etiquette, simply served a page full of ads, and no advice. The ads did not target the owners of the blogs and websites - they simply confused the unwary readers - and provided no hints of why they were there, instead of viewing the blog or website.

Subjected to waves of complaints from angry readers, the blog owners had earlier posted in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue.

Why is my blog directing to a page full of ads?

And we would examine the blog code in our browsers, find the gadget which references "neoworx-blog-tools.net", and instruct the blog owner to remove the gadget.

Now, instead of angry readers, who complain of ads, the blog owners suffer questions from confused readers, asking if the blog is being sold. And we continue to advise people to remove the misbehaving gadgets.

To the former owners of NeoWorx, and the subsequent domain owners:

Blogger blog owners are not cash cows.

We appreciate accessories, if you can support them. But please, don't produce gadgets that require your program libraries, run up huge volumes of traffic to your library domains, then sell out to spammers.

Here, we have one very real example why adding gadgets from third party developers may not always be in your best, long term interest.

Use Common Sense, And Protect Your Blog

We see various questions about getting advice and non standard accessories / code, from blogs and websites advertised outside Blogger / Google control - generally in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue.

Why can't I see my blog? Every time I click on "View blog", I get a face full of ads!

and

Where can I get accessories, gadgets, and templates for my blog??

and

How do I know what accessories, gadgets, and templates are safe, for my blog?

and

Why did Blogger lock my blog, as a malware host?

All of these folks are discussing the same issue - blog content security. Some are asking properly, before they cause their problems - but others are not.

We have several known bad actors, right now - who have been putting out various blog accessories which, initially, work fine.

After thousands of victims have installed some accessories on their blogs, the owners and readers observe that the blogs are suddenly redirecting to advertising pages, or throwing popup ads on top of blog content. The latency period, for some blogs which are the first to install a new hacker provided gadget, may be as long as 6 months to a year.

By the time any malicious gadgets are discovered, identified, and removed, the victims have to deal with unhappy readers, who don't enjoy seeing a screen full of ads, instead of their favourite blog to read.

Search engine reputation is also affected by this problem. In some cases, the malicious gadgets may be detected by Blogger - and the host blog (ie, your blog) is locked, as a suspected malware host. Even if Blogger does not detect a problem, services outside Blogger will trash your blog.

Thoughtful blog owners will ask how they can get good, reliable, and safe blog accessories. I would start, by ranking the possibilities.

1. Blogger "Add a Gadget", with gadgets labeled "By Blogger".
2. Websites provided by well known Internet services.
3. Blogger "Add a Gadget", with gadgets not labeled "By Blogger".
4. Non Blogger websites provided by developers.
5. Non Blogger websites provided by hackers and spammers.

1. Blogger "Add a Gadget", and gadgets labeled "By Blogger".

The most reliable and safe gadgets will always be found in the "Add a Gadget" library, and be labeled "By Blogger". You have to trust Blogger, if you are going to use their publishing platform in general.

The optional gadget library, and gadgets "By Blogger", is just as safe as the dashboard, and components referenced by the dashboard.

2. Websites maintained by well known Internet services.

Most well known Internet services and social networking platforms will provide gadgets that are designed for Blogger. The best gadgets will be labeled "For Blogger", and be written in Blogger compatible XML. Some general purpose gadgets, written in HTML / JavaScript, will also be suitable.

Almost any gadget in this category, if written by the staff of the service in question, will be free from malicious intent. Both FaceBook, and Twitter, for instance, provide gadget libraries. Because these gadgets were not written by Blogger staff, they will not be as reliable as Category #1.

3. Blogger "Add a Gadget", and gadgets not labeled "By Blogger".

Many gadgets provided in "Add a Gadget" will be provided by third party developers. Hopefully, Blogger / Google exercises some quality control, over gadgets distributed through their library.

That said, the first mass hacking of Blogger blogs, of 2009 - 2010, came through gadgets that were distributed from the "Add a Gadget" libraries. One such gadget was discovered, just last week.

Not all third party accessories are provided with malicious intent. Unfortunately, even if not provided maliciously, some accessories may be unreliable because of periodic changes by Blogger.

4. Non Blogger websites provided by developers.

After the unforgettable blog hijacks of 2009 / 2010, then 2010 / 2011, Blogger / Google Security got aggressive with the problems of malicious gadgets being served from their libraries. Most recent hacking attacks have been distributed from websites outside the control of Blogger / Google.

Some non Google websites are provided by third party developers, who write code almost as reliable as Blogger staff. However, if the choice for my blog was between gadgets in Categories #3 and #4, and be of equal functionality and suitability, I would choose #3 over #4 - and I would seriously recommend the same, if asked.

In some cases, legitimate third party developers have provided accessories that require access to their code libraries. The developers have gone out of business, and have cancelled the domains where the code libraries were served. The abandoned domains have been bought by spammers, as investments - based on serving ads to accumulated incoming traffic, from people surfing to the blogs and websites which have the accessories installed.

In some cases, the domains were actually abandoned by the developers. In other cases, the developers were spammers, who sold their domains for a good profit, to other spammers.

We, the blog owners, cannot really tell which case is involved, when our blogs start redirecting to pages of spam - or even malicious domains, serving malware to our readers. We do need to protect our readers, though.

5. Non Blogger websites provided by hackers and spammers.

Some websites outside the control of Blogger / Google should not be trusted. I would seriously suggest without hesitating, that you stay away from websites like "SEOYourBlog.com", "MakeMunyFromHome.info", and such.

Any blog or website, with clever initials in the name, should be considered, with great caution. Although "SEO" was originally a serious concept, most websites with "SEO" in the name will not have your best interests in mind. Likewise "GPT, "PTC", "PTS" will do you no good.

If and when you add gadgets, always add them using a new HTML / JavaScript gadget. Gadgets added using "Add a Gadget" can be easily removed, if they go bad. Gadgets added using "Edit HTML" must be removed using "Edit HTML" - and some gadgets will be extremely challenging to diagnose and remove.

Security begins with you.

Simple Edit / Removal Of Problem Blog Gadgets

Blog owners frequently have to edit or remove various blog gadgets - and sometimes need coaching, to edit or remove.

Editing or removing gadgets, normally, is pretty simple - when you know what you're looking for. Whenever you are logged in to Blogger, as a blog administrator, you can find the "Edit" link, on the dashboard Layout wizard - or the "Quick Edit" link on the blog (when "Quick Edit" is enabled), as displayed.

Sometimes, identifying a problem blog gadget, to another person, isn't easy. What happens, if someone misreads your instructions?

Even when identified, it may not be a simple task to locate a given gadget.

• The "Quick Edit" option may not be enabled, on a blog.
• Even when "Quick Edit" is enabled, a blog with lots of gadgets may be tedious to search, looking for the gadget in question.
• Mistakes can be made. What happens, if you click on the wrong link, and remove the wrong gadget?
• When a malicious or misbehaving gadget is involved, either loading the blog or the dashboard may produce unacceptable results.

Fortunately, with the right diagnostic work, we may not have to load either the blog, or the dashboard, to edit or remove an identified gadget.

Start by locating, and identifying, the gadget in question. As an example, I will use a gadget from my test blog. First extract the code, for gadget "HTML13" - my so called "Empty HTML Gadget".

<div·class='widget·HTML'·id='HTML13'>(LF)
<h2·class='title'>Empty·HTML·Gadget</h2>(LF)
<div·class='widget-content'>(LF)
This·is·a·(<span·style="font-weight:bold;">somewhat</span>)·empty·HTML·gadget.(LF)
</div>(LF)
<div·class='clear'></div>(LF)
<span·class='widget-item-control'>(LF)
<span·class='item-control·blog-admin'>(LF)
<a·class='quickedit'·href='//www.blogger.com/rearrange?blogID=6231987187698503326&widgetType=HTML&widgetId=HTML13&action=editWidget§ionId=sidebar-right-1'·onclick='return·_WidgetManager._PopupConfig(document.getElementById("HTML13"));'·target='configHTML13'·title='Edit'>(LF)
<img·alt=''·height='18'·src='http://img1.blogblog.com/img/icon18_wrench_allbkg.png'·width='18'/>(LF)
</a>(LF)
</span>(LF)
</span>(LF)
<div·class='clear'></div>(LF)
</div>

Look for "quickedit" - and extract the "href" value.

//www.blogger.com/rearrange?blogID=6231987187698503326&widgetType=HTML&widgetId=HTML13&action=editWidget§ionId=sidebar-right-1

Be really careful here - extract the complete string, between the ' ... '.

Add "https:" to the front of the extracted value.

https://www.blogger.com/rearrange?blogID=6231987187698503326&widgetType=HTML&widgetId=HTML13&action=editWidget§ionId=sidebar-right-1

And there is the exact URL needed, to access the Edit wizard, for the gadget, "HMTL13".

Now, to point out the "obvious".

• The URL will work, for the gadget on any blog, even if "Quick Edit" is not enabled for the blog - for a blog administrator.
• The URL will not work, for the gadget on any blog, even if "Quick Edit" is enabled for the blog - for a non blog administrator.
• Disclosure / possession of the URL poses no security threat to your blog - nor any benefit to a hacker. Try the link below, and see for yourself.
• Even if you are logged in as an administrator, the URL may not work - if "third party" cookies are not enabled.

The URL is simply a tool, which can be extracted, by anybody - and can be used, by a blog administrator (and only by a blog administrator), when properly logged in to Blogger.

Having noted the "obvious", your life can be a bit simpler, when instead of having to instruct someone how to locate and use the correct "Quick Edit" or Layout Edit link, to remove a problem gadget, you simply instruct them.

Login to Blogger, and click on the link below:
https://www.blogger.com/rearrange?blogID=6231987187698503326&widgetType=HTML&widgetId=HTML13&action=editWidget§ionId=sidebar-right-1.
Then click "Remove".

Now, extract and try a link from your blog - and see for yourself. Isn't that simpler?

Blogger Is Unfair - To Would Be Blog Thieves

Blog owners continue to forget the account name and / or password of their Blogger accounts, then demand alternate recovery options.

Every week, we see the reports in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, claiming that changing their email - or getting a new phone - caused somebody to unfairly lose access to her / his blog. Too many blog owners refuse to understand that the email address and phone number are simply backdoor accesses to their Blogger accounts.

When given advice to use Blogger: Forgot your username or password?, or Blogger Help: Having trouble signing in or viewing your blog?, we frequently see demurrer.

Neither tool helps me. Can I please contact a real person?

The implication, when demanding human real time contact, is that the blog owner (or would be blog thief) can provide secret details - which when supplied, will convince a real Google security employee that the Blogger account / blog is the legal property of the complainant.

Secret details, which are jointly effective for Blogger / Google and the would be blog owner, are quite limited.

Account / blog recovery details have standards, to be useful.

Any account / blog recovery has to be based upon details which have three requirements.

1. The would be owner knows, and can use.
2. Blogger / Google can verify, within their own databases.
3. No third person can discover, using enough search time (Google or competitor) - or manufacture, using PhotoShop or a similar product.

Any details, which do not fulfill all 3 requirements, are either useless or unsafe. If unwisely accepted by Blogger / Google, they simply allow theft of someone else's properly secured Blogger account and blogs.

Verification can only use Blogger / Google maintained details.

Verification has to be based on Blogger / Google databases. Blogger cannot accept FaceBoook, Twitter, or WordPress personal pages or profiles, as proof of identity or ownership.

Blogger has a responsibility to active blog owners, to not permit theft.

Many complainants claim that Blogger is being unfair, in denying them access to their blogs. They overlook the fact that unwisely accepting publicly known or unverifiable details, as proof of blog ownership / identity, would be unfair to the millions of blog owners, who remember their login details - and are actively maintaining and publishing their blogs.

The purpose of account recovery is not to simply allow every blog owner access to their blogs, even if they casually neglected to remember required identification tokens (account name, email address, password, etc.). The purpose is to allow as many blog owners as possible access to their blogs - while preventing malicious blog theft by hackers able to misuse the provided recovery tools.

Active blog owners want their blogs to remain theirs.

People who carefully maintain access to their accounts and blogs do so, based on the presumption that Blogger / Google will not unwisely give someone else access. These people appreciate the Blogger promise that our blogs will remain ours, forever - as long as we exercise common sense and courtesy.

The many blog owners, who maintain both front door and back door access - and actively maintain and publish their blogs - do not really care about the few who need "their" long dormant blogs recovered - or who want to delete "their" blogs, so they can move their activity to FaceBook or WordPress. They appreciate that Blogger will not give up login details, without observing appropriate caution.

Stolen Blogs Can Not, Generally, Be Returned

Whether you give up your blog willingly, have your blog stolen from you, or accidentally enable your blog to be stolen - once your blog is in someone else's control, Blogger cannot, legally, help you.

We see the naivete, periodically, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

I made my friend an administrator of my blog, and he changed me to an author. Can Blogger restore my ownership?

And the short answer, too frequently given, is denial.

No, Blogger cannot help you.

Blogs stolen, supposedly from their rightful owner, can generally not be returned by Blogger.

There are various ways to lose control of a blog.

• Some will, intentionally, transfer control - then change their mind.
• Others will naively make a friend a co-administrator - and have the friend take control of the blog.
• Still others may enable the blog to be stolen by a hacker.

In any case, once control passes to another person, it's unlikely that Blogger can, unilaterally, restore ownership.

Blog thieves are very persuasive - and masquerade as theft victims.

One problem here is that too many would be blog thieves start their tales with just these claims. Long ago, Blogger Support would, obediently, "restore" ownership, when requested - and we would later see the angry forum report.

How did this other person get control of my blog?

Blogger Support would research the second "theft" report - and realise, too late, that they had previously enabled the theft.

Blog owners enable some thefts, with security mistakes and requests.

Also, if you neglect to remember your account name or password, please don't just setup a new account, then suggest that Blogger transfer control of the blog, to the new account. This suggestion, also, has been used to make Blogger an unwitting accomplice in too many thefts.

Blog owners must assume some responsibility for problems.

The bottom line here is that you have to accept full responsibility, for retaining control of your Blogger account and blogs.

Even if your friends account is hacked, then used to attack yours, don't expect assistance from Blogger / Google. And please understand that blog security review won't happen, immediately.

Blogger Blogs Displaying Mysterious Transparent Boxes, Covering Blog Content

We're seeing a steady flood of problem reports about various Blogger blogs that have developed a mysterious transparent box, covering some portion of the blog surface when displayed. Some blogs display the box for all views, others for main page view only, and still others for specific individual posts. The box may be visible at the top of the page or in the middle - and may scroll with the screen, or may remain fixed relative to the display. In many cases, it blocks important blog content, and / or prevents clicking on crucial links.

Initial observations, during the immediately previous 2 - 3 days. referred to a "FaceBook or similar Social Networking gadget". Digging deeper, and looking closely at reported cases, we can look for the problem itself.

After repeated examination of multiple cases, we're seeing a more specific pattern, in the problem source code. Using a text browser tool, we find the following code (with gratuitous line breaks added for readability), which appears to be the kernel of the problem.

<div id="fb-root"></div><script>
(function(d, s, id) {
  var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
  if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
  js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
  js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1";
  fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));
</script><br />
<div class="fb-like"
data-href="https://www.facebook.com/xxxxxxxxxxx"
data-send="false" data-show-faces="true" 
data-width="450"></div>

(Note that "xxxxxxxxxxx" will be the FaceBook user name, providing the proper addressing to the account where the "Like" transaction is targeted).

The problem appears to involve the FaceBook Like accessory. It's possible that FaceBook Support can provide a better diagnosis - but for right now, I'll simply suggest removal of the above code. In the cases where the code was installed into an empty HTML / JavaScript gadget (and with no other accessories installed there also), I'll advise removal of the gadget containing the code.

If you can identify the problem gadget in your blog, you can edit the gadget, and Remove it.

As an alternate solution, you may add CSS which will hide the boxes. Only time will tell, if this is a better alternative for many blog owners. Using the "Add CSS" wizard in the Template Designer Advanced menu, add the following:

#fb_xdm_frame_http, #fb_xdm_frame_https
{
 display:none !important;
}

Depending upon your level of technical comfort and expertise, you may elect any one of three solutions.

1. Remove the entire HTML gadget.
2. Remove the specific problem code.
3. Add CSS to hide the problem.

It's your blog, and your accessories.

Note that after you add or remove the code in question, and save the changes, you will need to clear browser cache and restart the browser, to accurately test success in resolving the problem.

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How To Not Get Content For Your Blog

One of the oddest displays of naivete we see, from some blog owners, asking in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, would be

How do I let anybody post to my blog?

These owners have no idea how popular they would be, with spammers, were this to happen.

If you have a blog, and you want to let up to 99 of your closest friends publish their thoughts to your blog, you can setup a team blog, and have fun. Beyond that limit, you cannot - nor should you - go.

Occasionally, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I? we see the anguish

Where did the spam, on my blog, come from?

These queries come from people whose blogs have been successfully attacked, by hackers or spammers, and who now see content which they do not appreciate, being posted in their blog.

Leaving blog open to public authorship will make your blog spammer friendly.

If you were to voluntarily let anybody post in your blog, without requiring that anybody hack to gain control surreptitiously, your blog will become very popular with spammers.

After spammers saturate your blog content, your genuine friends will find elsewhere to post - and your remaining friends will be spammers. And your new friends (spammers) will tell their friends (more spammers), about a blog which accepts ads (posts) from everybody.

Your blog will be late classified as a spam host.

Shortly after this happens, your blog will be - righteously - classified as a spam host, and taken offline. And if you cannot show any non spam content, it will likely stay offline.

We're sorry, but your blog cannot be restored. It was recently confirmed as spam. Blogger suggests that you read the TOS.

You are responsible for content distributed by your "guest authors".

Another thing to consider, as the owner of a "host" blog, where "guests" post contributed material, is that you will be responsible for the content posted by your guests - whether you let the world post - or designated members.

• If you allow guest posts in your blog, you, as the blog owner, are responsible for the content of those posts.
• If your "guest" posts the same material elsewhere (as in his own blog, or a third person's blog), and search engines index both blogs, both blogs may receive "duplicated content" penalties.
• Nobody benefits, from duplicated content.

Unfortunately, you have to develop your blog content, yourself. Don't expect the public to provide your content for you - and plan to keep your blog online for long.

Non Existent Blog Feeds, Replaced By Mysterious Content, On Our Reading Lists

Periodically, we see reports in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, about hijacked blogs. Sometimes, the reports come from blog owners (or former blog owners) who cannot now control (or publish) their blogs - or maybe who report mysterious content on their blogs. Other times, the reports come from people who report mysterious and unwanted content in their Reading List (Google Reader) displays.

Of the latter group, many are being found to have earlier Followed blogs owned by people who are naively trying to attract random readers to their blogs, and who overlook the reason for having blog feeds in general. Different Followers would report seeing multiple streams of randomly changing content in their Reading Lists.

Recently, we've gotten reports from people who are seeing a single, and unique hijacker in their Reading Lists - producing consistent streams of duplicated, repetitive content. This does not appear to involve blog owners, naively misusing the Post Feed Redirect.

Some time ago, we explored a mysterious scenario, of people unsuccessfully trying to setup a blog feed gadget, who reported a mythical "Net-Temps Job Search Feed" displayed in their "Configure Feed" display. It appears that Blogger fixed the condition which caused the "Configure Feed" gadget to display the mythical "Net-Temps Job Search Feed".

Now, people who Follow blogs lacking a feed, or who Subscribe to blogs with no feed, are not seeing an error message - they are simply seeing an unwanted feed in their Blog Feed gadget or Reading List / Google Reader displays.

If you are seeing mysterious, repetitive, and unwanted content in your Reading List / Google Reader display, take some time and diligently check each individual feed. Instead of finding one or two blogs which are using an inappropriately redirected feed, you may find multiple entries referencing non existent feeds. Blogs that you were legitimately Following may now be producing no feed.

• Blogs that have been deleted.
• Blogs that are now private.
• Blogs that simply have the feed disabled.

Any of these blogs, viewed en masse, may now be producing a single, repetitive stream of mysterious and unwanted content. This will possibly be more likely with homogenous and large Followed communities.

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Account Recovery Options, And Prevention Of Blogger Account / Blog Hijacks

Ever since Blogger started using Google accounts to authenticate Blogger account access, blog owners have had trouble maintaining access to their accounts and their blogs.

Not all Blogger blog owners understand - and less accept - the measures that Blogger has taken, to prevent malicious activity, by unknown persons who would use Internet obscurity to hijack their accounts, and their blogs.

Every day, we see numerous complaints in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, about inability to recover account access. And, we see occasional (not occasional enough) reports about blogs now owned by people who are not personally known by the rightful blog owner.

Blogger is continually improving their account recovery, authentication, and account hijack prevention policies. Unfortunately, as they improve in one area, they make things more difficult in another.

Until late 2010, Blogger / Google offered several options, for recovering account / blog access.

• An automated wizard, where you could provide the URL of your blog, and have account recovery instructions sent to the email address registered with the Blogger account(s) that administered the blog, accompanied by the welcomed advice

  We've sent password reset instructions to your email account xxxxxxx@yyyyy.zzz.

• An option, should the latter email account be unusable (the owner graduated from school, changed ISPs, changed jobs), to walk into many regional Google offices, present proof of identity, and regain access to some Blogger accounts.
• In some limited cases, to transmit a facsimile of specific proof of identity documents to a Google office, have identity verified remotely, and regain access to some Blogger accounts.

In early 2011, we noted a significant number of cases where people were reporting logging in to Blogger, and finding various personal blogs missing from the dashboard blog lists. Checking the blogs themselves, they were found to be still online - but now owned by other persons. In an alarming number of cases, the persons then owning the mysterious blogs appeared to be part of a malicious and well planned attack, against Blogger accounts and blogs.

In mid 2011, Blogger changed the automated account recovery wizard, to not display the email address being used for the password recovery. Now, we see less detail.

We've sent login instructions to your GMail account.

or even

We've sent login instructions to your account at y****.com.

To recover account access, the blog owner is now required to remember the email address - or minimally, to have access to all owned email accounts, and check each account, one by one, until login instructions are found.

To reduce the need for local and remote identity verification, Google enhanced the account recovery wizard, where the blog owner can provide an email address (whether or not usable for incoming email), provide secondary details to prove identity, and regain access. They also added Two Step Verification, which lets you use a pre registered cell or home phone, as an additional / alternate identity token - both to prevent hijackings, and to recover account access.

Unfortunately, people who idly forget the password and the email address, or who forget (or never provide) secondary personal details when setting up their Google account, will always be a challenge. Another challenge is provided by people who value anonymity, and setup multiple email accounts to obscure their real life identity from their Blogger blog ownership.

In specific cases, Blogger is known to provide mysterious "hints" to people who have gratuitously used multiple email accounts - and who cannot now remember all accounts used.

Your email address is a***0@yahoo.com.

However, the limited effectiveness of hints should always be noted. The Blogger Help Forum: [FAQ] Regarding account-related issues won't be going away, for lack of traffic, any time soon.

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Identifying And Removing Deviously Engineered And Marketed Blog Hijacks

We saw the symptoms of the first carefully engineered blog hijacks, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, two years ago. During each succeeding holiday season, each attack has apparently become more and more deviously engineered.

This season - each season starting in Fall of one year and lasting until Spring of the following year - we are seeing a hijack complement which appears to be devious in both marketing and installation technique, and which requires a complex search of the affected blogs. If you are receiving reports from your readers

Your blog starts to load - but is quickly replaced by a page full of advertisements!

you may need to exhaustively examine your blog for any third party code - and as always, the problem code may have been installed at any time in the past. When discovered, the hijacks are not consistently found in recently installed code.

The blog hijacks, being examined during this holiday season - appear to be deviously planned and marketed.

• The hijacks use a variety of host accessories and gadgets.
• The hijacks use a variety of distribution libraries.
• The hijacks are being marketed to a diverse audience, which causes different installation techniques - and necessitates the complex search of affected blogs.

To find and remove a hijack from an affected blog, you'll need to start by viewing the blog in question, using a text only browser, or proxy service. I, personally, use several products.

• hpHosts vURL is a text only browser, that runs as a stand alone application locally on your computer.
• Notepad-Plus-Plus is an offline text editor, which provides a variety of search tools for text files. You can sometimes avoid use of your browser completely, by copying page source code directly from vURL.
• Rex Swain's HTTP Viewer is a standard online text proxy that I use.
• Lingo4you HTTP Web-Sniffer is an online alternative to Rex Swain.

All of these products may be more or less useful in identifying the source of your specific hijack. The Rex Swain and Web-Sniffer text proxies each have their effective differences.

If anybody uses alternative products, and cares to share information about the tools used, I will most gratefully add them to my library here.

The approach here is complex.

1. Of course, backup the template, before starting.
2. Load the blog, in question, in the text browser / proxy display of your choice.
3. Do a simple text search for the identified host / target name in the URL, such as "adiwidget", "pagesinxt", or "ripway".
4. You'll see several different possibilities.
   • The search may reveal the hijacking code in an HTML gadget. You can use the "Pages Elements" / Design tab (Classic GUI), or the "Layout" wizard (New GUI), and remove the offending gadget.
   • The search may reveal the hijacking code in the template HTML. You'll have to use the Template Editor, and remove the offending lines of code.
   • The search may not find any identified host name, in a text search. You'll have to do an extensive text search, looking for unknown HTML / JavaScript gadgets / snippets of code, and evaluate each gadget / snippet, on the fly.
5. You may need to bypass the Blogger menu structure, to directly access the Blogger wizard needed, if trying to use the Blogger menus is also a problem.
6. Clear browser cache, before checking for success.
7. And always backup the template, again, after completing this task.

And hopefully, having found and removed a hijack from your blog, you will learn to be more discrete, in your choice of accessories and gadgets, in the future.

Blogger Blogs Redirecting To "pagesinxt.com" / "ripway.com"

In spite of my recently published caution against gratuitous additions of third party blog accessories, we're seeing a small yet steady stream of reports about mysterious blog hijackings, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

When I view my blog, it shows up for a few seconds - and then forwards to this weird website, that I've never heard of.

Not everybody is aware of the dangers of adding non Google developed code, to their blogs.

Unlike the blog hijacks from the past couple years, the "pagesinxt" / "ripway" hijacks being reported have no consistent diagnosis.

• We have not yet observed a consistent host feature, such as "falling snow" (from 2010).
• Some hijacking code, when found, is part of the template HTML.
• Other hijacks are apparently being installed as HTML / JavaScript gadgets.

To find this latest hijack, you'll need to start by viewing the blog in question, using a text only browser, or proxy service. I, personally, use several products.

• hpHosts vURL is a text only browser, that runs as a stand alone application.
• Rex Swain's HTTP Viewer is a standard in browser tool that I use.
• Lingo4you HTTP Web-Sniffer is an alternative to Rex Swain.

All of these products may be more or less useful in identifying the source of your specific hijack.

The approach here is multi-phasic.

1. Of course, backup the template, before starting.
2. Load the blog, in question, in the browser of your choice.
3. Do a simple text search for "pagesinxt" and for "ripway".
4. You'll see several different possibilities.
   • The search may reveal the hijacking code in an HTML gadget. You can use the "Pages Elements" / Design tab (Classic GUI), or the "Layout" wizard (New GUI), and remove the offending gadget.
   • The search may reveal the hijacking code in the template HTML. You'll have to use the Template Editor, and remove the offending lines of code.
   • The search may not find either "pagesinxt" or "ripway". You'll have to do an extensive text search, for unknown HTML / JavaScript gadgets, and evaluate each gadget, on the fly.
5. You may need to bypass the Blogger menu structure, to directly access the Blogger wizard needed, if trying to use the Blogger menus is also a problem.
6. Clear browser cache, before checking for success.
7. And always backup the template, again, after completing this task.

If you want more detailed help for identifying or removing your personal hijack, please start a new discussion, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, state the URL of your blog, and state what URL the blog is redirecting.

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Our Reading Lists, Hijacked By Spammers

I've been writing about spammer activities, and about various blog hijacks, for some time. There's a special, rather devious blog hijack, involving spammer activity, that we've been aware of, for some time. In Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, we occasionally see the query

How do I get rid of spam, in my Reading List? I did not Follow this blog!

Nobody will, intentionally, Follow a blog full of spam. In some cases, though, people Follow blogs that are published by naive blog owners, who have been conned by the spammers, into working for them.

The never ending need for more Followers, readers, search engine reputation, subscribers, and traffic, is a frequently expressed concern in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?.

In discussions outside Blogger Help Forum, one might possibly find suggestions of other, more imaginative ways to get more traffic to your blog. With Blogger blogs, there's a very obscure and easily used feature, that can be used to publicise your blog, randomly, to readers that you would not, otherwise, address.

All that you need do is to redirect your blog feed into a "feed redistribution cloud", that randomly redirects the readers of any blog, to viewing the feed from another blog, similarly using the redirect.

By redirecting your readers, you are exposing them to other blogs, randomly selected. Similarly, readers of other participating blogs are randomly redirected to your blog - and there is the promised publicity for your blog.

This is such a great idea, isn't it? Think again.

1. Your Followers (and subscribers) want to read the feed from your blog - not from some random blog.
2. Many Blogger blog owners don't use this feature.
3. Many users of this feature are not legitimate Blogger blog owners, but publishers of spam blogs and websites.
4. Should you redirect your readers into a "feed redistribution cloud", the chances are greater that your readers will be reading a blog published by a spammer.
5. No spammer will redirect the feed from his blog. He's going to keep all of his traffic, to himself
6. Since no real people knowingly subscribe to feeds from spam blogs and websites, your blog won't be getting any reciprocal crowd of eager would be readers, originating from the spam blogs and websites.
7. And, we are here.

As a Follower (and not a blog owner), having examined your Reading List and found yourself reading a blog full of spam - that you certainly did not Follow - what do you do? It's a simple - but possibly tedious - task to identify and remove the blog owned by the naive person, who was conned by the spammers, that you are Following.

Having done that, why not go one step further, and help us to help Blogger and Google to interdict the spammer activity?

If you can identify the URL of a blog, that you are Following, that is redirecting its feed in this manner, Blogger / Google can identify and terminate any Google hosted blogs and websites that are advertising this easy, random way to publicise your blog - that is simply another trick used by the spammers, into getting the naive blog owners to do their dirty work.

All that we need is the URL of any blog, that you were Following, that rudely redirects its subscribers (like you) into the "feed redistribution cloud". Blogger / Google can do the rest.

You can comment, here - or start a discussion, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken - it's your choice. Just help identify the naive blog owners.

Do your part, and help us clean up the Blogger Blogosphere.

Why Can't Blogger Just Tell Me The Email Address?

We see the pain, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, of blog owners who do not understand the need for keeping the name of their Blogger account a secret.

I forgot the email address that I was using. Why can't Blogger just tell me the address??

and some ask

How did this unknown person "xxxxx xxxxx" get control of my blog?

Years ago, the local police would have to convince home owners

Please, stop leaving a spare key under a rock, near the door!

Both many blog owners (today) - like some home owners (years ago) - had the same basic problem - naivete.

Like the home owners of years ago, who kept a spare key under a rock near the front door, for emergencies, blog owners will use tricks to remember their password.

Don't - please don't - use a guessable password!

One favourite technique, for remembering the password, is so obvious.

Pick a password based upon something that you can remember.

For a blog owner who is married, the answer is obvious.

What is my spouse's name?

and there's your password. If you forget that, you have worse problems, that cannot be addressed here.

If the name of one's spouse was a secret, using the name would not be a problem. But knowing that many blogs either contain the name (and picture, maybe) of the whole family - or lead to a Profile page or website (FaceBook, Instagram, Twitter, ...) with similarly useful information - how secret is the password going to be?

Hackers love blogs with guessable passwords.

Knowing both the Blogger account name (email address) that owns any blog of interest, and the URL of the blog, any hacker has a simple enough task.

1. Scrape blog content, into a text analyzer.
2. Extract a few hundred details (spouse's name, and others) from the blog content, as analysed.
3. Run the known details through a password generation program.
4. Now, the hacker has a database, containing "10,000 good possible passwords", specifically relevant to this blog.
5. Go to "www.blogger.com", plug in the account name, and try out the 10,000 passwords, one by one.
6. That's a simple brute force password attack.
7. Sit back, and watch any botnet, controlled by the hacker, go to work.
8. Given enough time, the hacker very likely gets access to the Blogger account, and to the blogs owned by the account.

Steps 1 - 8, for any experienced hacker, will be summed into one step.

Plug in the URL of the blog.

Everything needed is just more coding - and a nice robust botnet or two.

The hacker, of course, will be targeting thousands of different blogs, simultaneously. So what if he (she) fails to find what details she (he) needs, to steal your blog? He'll (she'll) gladly settle for another - while the botnet works on yours.

Besides using a "strong" password (which carries it's own risks such as forgetting the password - and now we're here, again), the best way to prevent a brute force attack is by preventing step 5.

Keep the account name / email address a secret.

Additionally, if you have a blog and a business - or otherwise exchange email with strangers, separate your Blogger / Google account and your email account. Use two separate email addresses, for Blogger and email.

Learn to appreciate efforts made, by Google, keeping your account and blogs safe.

If you need to recover access to your Blogger account, don't expect to use the Blogger "Forgot?" wizard, plug in your blog URL, and get a reply

Email was sent to your address xxxxxxx@yyyyy.zzz

And, if you post in the forum.

Please email me advice, to "xxxxxxx@yyyyy.zzz"!

expect to get a stern warning

Please, do not post Blogger account names, or email addresses, in the forum.

People objecting to the recent Blogger policy of masking email addresses, in Blogger commenting and similar services, as "no-reply @ blogger . com", may also need to consider this very real issue. Possibly, even use Google+, instead of Blogger commenting, for networking with ones peers.

Google tries to identify brute force attacks, and takes action when possible.

And, if your Blogger / GMail / Google account is disabled - and you get a mysterious notice about

Suspicious / Unusual activity on your account

this could well be the other side of a brute force attack against your account, intercepted by Google.

Don't be offended by the various precautions.

• The unpopular "24 to 48 hour" waiting period, which you endure after getting the account enabled.
• The painful diagnosis of "hacking detected" against your account (aka "suspicious" / "unusual" activity).
• The annoying inability to access your Blogger account, when traveling.

If you find the precautions and problems to be unacceptable, consider using Google 2-step verification, to protect your account against brute force hacking.

This is not fiction here - it's all very real.

None of this is fiction or paranoia - it's based on some very real, recent events, and even involves a recent National Scandal - and leads to some very real conundrums.

Similarly, we have a very distasteful answer, to a seemingly worthy need. And another apparently "ceremonial" but necessary answer, to somebody in need of understanding and support, that can't be provided.

You have to make the effort, to maintain and protect your blog.

You will get no sympathy, when you complain how unsupportive Blogger is.

You have to make some effort - and remember some basic information - if you are going to maintain a Blogger blog. And, encourage your friends to keep their accounts and blogs safe.

It's The Holiday Season Again, And It's Time To Decorate Our Blogs

The Winter Holiday season is approaching, and this week we're seeing queries by some blog owners, getting ready.

Why do my readers see a search display - instead of my blog?

and

How do I make it snow on my blog?

and a few owners, and visitors

Why does my browser freeze or lag when viewing this blog?

Many blog owners, who publish craft, family, and personal themed blogs, just have to make their blogs reflect their holiday wishes for their readers. Only later, they may re think their decision.

Some of us in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken remember this season last year, though not fondly. Many blog owners, having previously decorated their blogs with Falling Leaves (Thanksgiving), Falling Snow (Christmas), and later Falling Hearts (Valentines Day), found themselves spending time in the forum, asking why nobody could see their blogs. The answer that they found was that their blogs, previously decorated with the Falling Leaves / Snow / Hearts animations, were redirecting their readers to websites which were not relevant to their readers interests or needs.

The owners of computers poorly protected against malicious software installation, when redirected from their friends holiday decorated blogs to the hijackers websites, found themselves later consulting their local computer guru. The gurus spent time (not always without expense) removing some unwanted software, installed by the hijackers websites.

The charming thing about the hijacks is that the Falling Leaves / Snow / Hearts gadgets, when installed, did not immediately redirect the various visitors to the malicious websites. This detail appeared to indicate very devious planning by the hijackers, who had waited, patiently, while thousands of blog owners had installed their trickery, before activating the hijack.

This caused some confusion in the forums. A normal part of problem diagnosis - which many of those of you, who have requested help here, may recognise - is the brief and very simple question

What changes have you made to the blog, recently?

Most blog owners, naturally, answered

Nothing interesting.

Later, when a malicious Falling Leaves / Snow / Heart accessory was identified, with the stern advice

Get rid of that!

The answer would be

I installed that 6 months ago! Surely, that's not the problem??!!

Only after large numbers of people had reported problems with their blogs, and we found the Falling Leaves / Snow / Heart accessory on the problem blogs, did we advise everybody

Remove all Falling Leaves / Snow / Heart accessories, from your blogs, immediately.

Besides the blatant blog hijack threat, there's another issue for you to consider. The animation - falling hearts / leaves / snow - requires intense processor activity. If people stop visiting your blog, because their browsers freeze up, you'll need to revisit your decorative decision.

So, as this years holiday season starts, we'll advise everybody to beware of any animated accessory, such as (but not limited to) Falling Leaves / Snow / Hearts. Install any third party accessory with care and discrimination. And remember everything installed, for a long time afterwards.

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Blog Feeds Hijacked By "Net-Temps Job Search Feed"

A few bloggers, recently, are trying to add a Feed gadget to one of their blogs, and as they do so, the "Configure Feed" wizard shows a mythical "Net-Temps Job Search Feed". This typically happens when the feed in question has not been activated.

If you're seeing the "Net-Temps Job Search Feed" when trying to "Configure Feed", you'll find

1. The Save button will be non responsive. You can't publish a Feed gadget configured for a non existent feed.
2. As soon as you correct the problem
   1. Activate the feed for your blog (when the feed is for your blog).
   2. Hit "Change Feed URL" from the "Configure Feed" display with "Net-Temps Job Search Feed" displayed.
   3. Hit "Continue".
   you'll see the feed for your blog in the "Configure Feed" gadget window. And, you'll be able to publish the new Feed gadget.

Before you can do step #2, though, you may experience a small amount of panic

OMG, my blog has been hijacked!

But take a deep breath, count to 10, and activate the feed for your blog. You'll get nowhere, until you do step #2.

Really.


So, let's add a feed gadget for my new (mythical, right now) blog "nitecruzrs-non-existent-blog.blogspot.com".



And there is the mythical "Net-Temps Job Search Feed". But try hitting "Save", and see what happens.



So, I'll activate the feed on my "non existent" blog. And "Change Feed URL".



And hit "Continue" again. And now, I'm in business, with my (previously) "non existent" blog feed good to go.



If you see any other results, this post is open for comments.

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(Update 2012/03/30): We're now seeing a similar oddity in our Reading List / Google Reader displays.

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Blogger Blogs Redirecting To "freegadget2015.blogspot.com" / "freegadget-xde"

As yet another chapter in the tale of the hijacked Blogger blogs, today we have reports of blogs redirecting to "freegadget2015.blogspot.com" and "freegadget-xde".

For those newly experiencing this persistent assault upon our blogs, see the FAQ My Blog Has Been Hijacked - What Do I Do? for diagnosis and removal techniques. Note that you'll probably need to use the "Edit HTML" wizard, and delete the offending code, for expedient removal.

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Blog Hijackings - The Worst May Be Over

Blogger Support took control of the blog hijacking problem yesterday. Today, I did a search in "Add a Gadget", and found encouraging results.







I believe that they are now trying to disable the installed gadgets - so if you see a blank space on your blog, that's possibly why.

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(Update 2010/11/25): And to celebrate Thanksgiving Day 2010, we see a report of yet another hijack attempt.

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Blogger Blogs Redirecting To "freegadget2014.blogspot.com"

In a disturbing repeat of problems experienced earlier this month, we have reports of blogs redirecting again, this time to "freegadget2014.blogspot.com".

For those of you experiencing this assault upon your blog, see the FAQ My Blog Has Been Hijacked - What Do I Do? for current diagnosis and removal techniques. Note that the gadgets noted this week, as earlier, appear to resist removal, so you'll probably need to use "Edit HTML", and delete the offending code.

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(Update 2010/03/23): Blogger Support has taken ownership of the problem.

Our team is working to sort out these affected gadgets from our side, and hope to have this fix out shortly.

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