Confusion About GMail Vs Non GMail Based Email

Long ago, when diagnosing a problem thought to involve email, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, we would ask a very simple question

Is your Blogger account based on a GMail - or non GMail - email address?

And we would carefully add

Please, do not state your email address, here!

The latter request was to prevent theft of peoples Blogger accounts.

Now, in many cases, we must qualify the question of email address. We also ask.

Is your email provided by your employer, ISP, or school network?

and even

Do you read your email in a browser window, or a local email client?

Modern email distribution is not always homogeneous.

Both questions reflect the complex nature of email delivery, that is a part of Internet reality.

Few people can accurately diagnose their problems, based only on the simple question

Is your Blogger account based on a GMail - or non GMail - email address?

The lines between GMail, and non GMail email accounts - and addresses - are not absolute, any more.

Both GMail and non GMail addresses may be used in a local network.

GMail, and non GMail addresses, alike, may use GMail browser based email, in delivery and display. And GMail accounts may use non GMail email systems, for addressing, delivery, and / or display.

These variations can lead to interesting scenarios such as mysterious loss of blog membership invitations, and of email subscriptions. And options for Blogger account recovery become more complicated - with password synchronisation issues, between the email account and the Blogger account.

Thanks to Google Apps based domains, and the ability to provide non GMail addresses which use GMail, anybody can use a non GMail address with GMail based delivery and display. Some people have even setup Blogger accounts, based on Google Apps based email addresses (again, appearing to be non GMail based) - though this is not recommended.

Managed domains may use GMail delivery, and a non GMail email address.

Corporate email systems, ISP provided email, and schools (of all grades, elementary through university) may use Google Apps based email. Many large local network based email systems have been "upgraded" to use cloud based email, such as GMail, for delivery and display. The results are not always beneficial.

And, thanks to "push / pull" GMail options, where an individual GMail account can be configured by a knowlegeable account owner, even individual account owners can use a GMail address, with non GMail delivery and display - or can use GMail display, for non GMail based address / delivery.

With computer owners who do not care or know about what email system they use, with where the individual messages may be filed, and with security filters that update without notice, loss of email messages is common.

Bounced email does not get dropped into the "Bulk" / "Spam" folder.

Note that "bounced" email may not be treated as spam. Some "bounced" email never gets as far as a spam filter - it may simply be rejected. You will look, in vain, in the "Bulk", "Inbox", and "Spam" folders.

This will interfere with account recovery - if you can't find the password reset email, how do you recover control of the account?

The simple question

Is your Blogger account based on a GMail - or non GMail - email address?

just is not accurate, when diagnosing all Blogger problems.

Comments Posted Use "noreply" Email Addresses

Recently, we've noted a number of complaints about Blogger commenting, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken

.My comments all use a "noreply" email address, instead of my actual email address. How do I have people email their replies to my comments?

This appears to be one more way which Blogger is trying to safeguard our Blogger accounts and blogs, from malicious, technically astute blog thieves.

Some time ago, we observed that this precaution appeared to be unique to Blogger accounts which used Google and Google+ profiles - and did not involve Blogger profiles.

It appears that this is now universal, and includes Blogger profiles, as well as Google / Google+ profiles. It's likely that the noreply email addresses are being offered to keep more blog readers from, inadvertently, exposing their email addresses to email mining techniques.

In remembering the long ago discovered "nice blog" spam, it's possible that "nice blog" spam was originally developed to help the spammers gather email addresses, using very innovative technique.

All that a spammer has to do is to post a "nice blog" comment, select "Email follow-up comments to me" - then watch as the Inbox fills up with follow up comments from bloggers, willingly giving up their email addresses to every stranger also selecting "Email follow-up comments to me", in that comment thread.

The people willingly providing their email addresses, to the world in general, are perfect targets for hackers later trying to brute force access to the Blogger accounts, starting from the provided email addresses. Use of the "no-reply" email address prevents this type of mischief - and reduces the workload of Google Security, as they would otherwise have to verify account / blog integrity, for hacked accounts and blogs.

For even more protection (which is not a bad idea, in any case), consider using Google 2-Step Verification, to protect your Blogger / Google account from hacking.

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Confusion From Email Spam Detection, And Non GMail Email

We're seeing a few reports in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken about problems with email, sent by Blogger, when the destination is a non GMail email system.

Some email systems verify the sending email address, against IP address. With these systems, email which originates from a Blogger account that's based on a non GMail email address, and comes from a Blogger / Google IP address, is going to present a problem, to the account owners.

If your Blogger account (your readers Blogger account) is based on a non GMail email address - and your blog provides any of various "notification" / "subscription" services, this can be a problem.

• "BlogSend" (aka "Email posts to") based subscriptions.
• Comment moderation or notification email.
• FeedBurner feed distribution, such as "Subscribe by Email"
• Your readers like to comment authenticated, and select the "Email follow-up comments ..." option.
• The Blogger supplied "Contact Me" accessory gadget.

You're going to have email "bounced" by some (non GMail) email clients. This will be a similar problem, if a reader sends you email - or Blogger relays you email based on your reader request, as in comment notification or contact form entries.

Note that "bounced" email may not be treated as spam. Some "bounced" email never gets as far as a spam filter - it may simply be rejected. You will look, in vain, in "Bulk", "Inbox", and "Spam" folders.

Blogger originated email, to certain email clients, will be bounced, because Blogger sends the notification / subscription email with your Blogger account (your readers account) mentioned, as the sender.

With Blogger comment moderation / notification email coming from a non GMail based Blogger account, and sent from a Google IP address, an email client such as AOL, HotMail, or Yahoo, which verifies email address against IP address, is going to reject the incoming email message. This is because "Sender Policy Framework", which AOL, HotMail, Yahoo, and other email systems use, detects the originating address as "spoofed".

Spoofing is a common technique used by spammers, in hiding their email identity. Most email based spam is spoofed - so email systems, which use DKIM or SPF filters to identify spam, will bounce any messages which do not verify properly - when IP address and originating email address are compared.

The problem may also involve comment subscription email. This may result in bounce messages being sent to the person attempting to publish a comment. This causes more confusion.

The solution, to the problem with moderation / notification email, is simple - but unlikely to satisfy many Blogger account owners. You will have to use a GMail email address, for comment moderation or notification. Until Blogger Engineering figure a better way to send the moderation / notification email, email clients such as AOL, HotMail, and Yahoo will have this problem.

If the blog owner changes ownership of a blog, from a non GMail based Blogger account to a GMail based account, and neglects to change the comment moderation / notification email address, the bounce messages will likely continue. What might happen with comment subscription email is yet to be determined.

This problem, as discussed above, affects the comment moderation process. While annoying to some blog owners (as noted, those using non GMail based Blogger accounts / email addresses), the problem is not all that severe. Affected blog owners can use the Blogger dashboard Comments wizard, to moderate comments. Also, blog owners, who moderate comments after they are published, may not even notice this problem.

This problem may also affect membership invitations to private / team blogs This will be a more severe issue, in that this problem will affect all blogs with owners using non GMail email addresses, and with prospective blog members on large non GMail email systems - because there will be no dashboard based wizard - and no possibility of moderation after publishing.

The involvement of Google Apps based (non "gmail.com" Google email) Blogger accounts, and Blogger originated email, is yet to be studied. Also please note that Blogger account email addresses, and comment moderation / notification email addresses, do not have to be the same - and this may cause still more confusion.