We're seeing confusion, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, about unfairly limited Blogger / Google support policies.
Why can I not Follow my favourite blog, without using a Google account?
and
Why must I upgrade my computer, to be able to use Chrome?
Some blog owners and readers take the support policy limits personally, as if Blogger / Google is punishing them - or their readers - for not using the right account to login, or not upgrading their software.
Every different account host - and every different browser or operating system - requires more unique code, that must be provided by Blogger / Google, in their libraries.
Blogger / Google are trying to make their products efficient and stable.
Blogger / Google is trying to make their applications and browser more stable. More stable products yield happier users, and more users.
Complex code libraries, caused by the need to support every different non Google account (previously supported by Blogger), and every different operating system of every age, cause Chrome and Followers to be slow and unstable. Slow and unstable applications and browsers yield unhappy users, and less users.
More complex code libraries require Blogger / Google to spend more time updating their code, for every change made outside Google.
Which choice makes more sense?
- Less complex applications and browsers, less time spent maintaining less complex code libraries, more customers, more satisfied customers.
- More complex applications and browsers, more time spent maintaining more complex code libraries, less customers, less satisfied customers.
My money says Door #1 makes the most sense, from a business viewpoint.
Efficient and stable applications require effort by users, as well as coders.
Blogger / Google simply can't support every different non Google account in their applications, and every different browser and operating system, and maintain a business. People who want to use Blogger and Google have to make some effort, and help Blogger and Google to help them.
Blogger cannot support non Google accounts, and provide an efficient and stable Followers gadget.
If you try to update Chrome - and you see advice
Sorry, you can't update Chrome, using this operating system.
or if you (or your readers) try to Follow your blog, and see
We're sorry, the site owner has blocked you from joining this site.
Neither refusal is Blogger / Google being petty, and forcing you (or your readers) from having unlimited choice, capriciously. This simply represents Blogger / Google making a tough choice, and trying to provide efficient and stable products, for their customers who are willing to make some effort.
Some blog owners do not understand the need for #Blogger and #Google to support use of a limited range of non Blogger / Google products, in their various features. Support policy for products like the new Followers gadget, which now supports only Google accounts for Following - and Chrome, which supports only newer versions of Windows operating system - are not understood.
This month, we have a few reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, about problems Following some blogs.
Why am I being blocked, from Following?
Some would be Followers are taking this personally. Please, don''t do that.
What you're seeing (maybe, when trying to Follow this blog, too) is not an owner initiated conspiracy.
The Blogger Followers gadget rewrite is taking shape.
If you're trying to use a non Google account to login to Following, you'll be seeing this, for some blogs.
If you want to Follow some blogs, you will need to use a Google account. The OpenID and similar non Google logins are not usable, with Following, any more.
We were warned, several months ago, about changes to Followers.
As we mentioned some weeks ago, starting this week, we’ll remove the ability for people with Twitter, Yahoo, Orkut or other OpenId providers to sign in to Google Friend Connect and follow blogs. To follow a blog via Google Friend Connect now, readers will need a Google Account (the same they use for Gmail or YouTube).
It's happening, finally. One day, we'll have a new - and more stable - Followers gadget.
The #Blogger Followers gadget rewrite is continuing. This month, some would be Followers are seeing a notice, instead of the gadget, when they try to Follow some blogs, without Google accounts.
The Followers Gadget Rewrite Continues
Would Be Followers Being Blocked By The Blog Owner
We're seeing a scattered collection of reports, mentioning problems publishing comments, using OpenID authentication.
This problem appears to be related to the Blogger rollout of SSL support, for our blogs, which is currently in progress. SSL, or Secure Socket Layer, represents the next step in blog / website security - a step which the Internet community has been taking, for many years.
Blogger has been using SSL (aka "HTTPS" login), in their dashboard, for several years.https://www.blogger.com
That's a secure Blogger login. The problem with Blogger using SSL in our blogs is that moving to SSL requires care, to avoid confusing our readers. Lack of care will subject our readers to the well known "mixed mode" warnings.This site has insecure content.
Only secure content is displayed.
Firefox has blocked content that isn't secure.
These are several examples of what were normal, years ago, on many websites. Blogger does not want our readers subject to needless confusion, from these warnings.
Blogger blog owners have been asking, for years, that Blogger support SSL in BlogSpot (and our custom domains).
FaceBook upgraded to SSL, in 2013 - and saw problems with Blogger content.
Last year, FaceBook upgraded to SSL. Blogger blog owners, who were also FaceBook members, watched their Walls, which contained HTTP links to their Blogger blogs, show the "mixed mode" warnings. The real issues begin to arise, however, when your application must include assets served by servers which also do not support SSL.
...
We’ve all experienced “mixed mode” warnings, with some browsers being much more annoying about them than others. "Mixed mode" means you requested a page over SSL, but some of the resources needed to fully render that page are only available over unencrypted HTTP.
Blogger is offering the option for us to upgrade our blogs, this year.
Now, Blogger is upgrading, so our blogs may (optionally) support the SSL protocol - and not confuse FaceBook members, who post links to our blogs. To avoid the "mixed mode" warnings, which would confuse our readers, they are upgrading all Blogger processes, including OpenID authentication, to support SSL.
The Blogger upgrade has exposed a WordPress inconsistency.
Just as FaceBook upgrading to SSL helped to cause Blogger to upgrade, so is Blogger upgrading to SSL exposing an inconsistency in WordPress use of SSL, for OpenID authentication.The problem in my case (and maybe in others as well) seems to be that https://yourblog.wordpress.com is send for verification to the OpenId server. This is what I could figure out from the URL. If you than manually replace HTTPS with HTTP, it works.
This comment suggests that WordPress, which in general is using SSL security, has an OpenID server that has not been upgraded.
WordPress needs to check their OpenID servers.
So now, Blogger has to wait for WordPress to fall into step, consistently. Until WordPress upgrades their OpenID server, people who want to use a WordPress OpenID account, to comment on our blogs, will have to select "OpenID", instead of "WordPress" - then enter the WordPress OpenID URL, asHTTP://whatever.wordpress.com
And wait for WordPress to upgrade their server.
We see an occasional request, in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger, about commenting and the profile used when authenticated.How do I have my comments linked directly to my blog? I don't want my comments linked to my profile, with people having to hunt for my blog links!
This person does not understand why we have Bogger / Google / Google+ profiles, linked from our comments.
Even if we can't provide direct links to our blogs, when commenting using a Blogger or Google account - we can do that, if we can comment, using an OpenID account. An OpenID account links directly to our designated blog - when we specify the right blog URL, while logged in using OpenID, to publish a comment.
Your Blogger blog will provide an OpenID account, just as well as a FaceBook or WordPress account will do, for any Blogger blog using Blogger hosted commenting. Blogs using third party commenting systems may, or may not, support OpenID.
Blogger has been providing, OpenID authentication, for comments, for some time.
Getting OpenID to work - to allow comments using a Blogger based OpenID "account", is not automatic, however. The OpenID V1 tags, which are part of the standard Blogger blog header, don't work. You'll need to replace them, with OpenID V2 - and you will need a Blogger account, with a Google / Google+ profile.
Here, as always, I'll advise you to backup the template - before and after tweaking it.
You'll add 3 lines of code. Copy and paste 3 lines (which may display here as up to 6 lines, wrapped), below. <link href='https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/ud?source=profiles' rel='openid2.provider'/>
<link href='http://www.google.com/profiles/nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn' rel='openid2.local_id'/>
<link href='http://www.blogger.com/openid-server.g' rel='openid.server'/>
Access the dashboard Template wizard, and use "Edit HTML". At the top of the header section, look for the "all-head-content" tag.
Change <b:include data='blog' name='all-head-content'/>
<title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title>
To <b:include data='blog' name='all-head-content'/>
<link href='https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/ud?source=profiles' rel='openid2.provider'/>
<link href='http://www.google.com/profiles/nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn' rel='openid2.local_id'/>
<link href='http://www.blogger.com/openid-server.g' rel='openid.server'/>
<title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title>
Then, replacennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
with your Google or Google+ profile id. And hit "Save template".
The next time you are preparing to comment, on a blog that supports OpenID based comments, select OpenID, and provide the URL of your blog.
You will have to login, using your Blogger account with the right Google / Google+ profile, and accept the comment. Other than that, it's pretty straightforward.
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