GeoLocation, And Our Use Of Blogger

Recently, we've seen signs of confusion, from people who have problems with their Internet service, which shows them moving around their geographic region.

I logged in to Blogger, with no problem, yesterday. Today, after logging in successfully, I am asked for more details, to prove my identity!!

This blog owner has a problem with location based security.

Not all Blogger blog owners or readers understand that Country Code Alias Redirection, and the ability to access one's Blogger / Google account (and prevent others from accessing it), both depend upon the ability to determine the geographical location of each blog reader.

Various Google features, like Country Code Alias Redirection, and Google login, use geolocation, to identify the location of each reader.

For people using the Internet, Geolocation uses the Internet connection, to determine physical location. Unfortunately, for many blog owners, the Internet Service Provider, the Internet connection, and the Internet customer (or Blogger blog reader) may each be in a different location.

My own location - even when I am at home - may, at times, appear to move in a 30 mile radius. My ISP routes my connection through any of half a dozen different connection points, in my region, depending upon current network activity.

Some smaller ISPs, located near a country border, may actually get service through a larger ISP in another country. Customers of the smaller ISP may appear, through geolocation, to reside in the other country.

This can be an unfortunate problem, with country code alias redirection, with language detection, with login authentication, and / or the Location option in Post Editor.

People located in one country, reading an unfamiliar language, or seeing their latest post show up in the wrong province / state - or even country - may not appreciate the confusion which is caused. And people who login, and appear to move from city to city in the region, grow tired of having to prove their identity - after successfully entering account name and password.

Thanks to domain based filtering, this may become a security issue for some blog owners, near country borders, who may not be able to maintain / publish their blogs.

Unfortunately, geolocation, using the Internet Address (aka "IP" address), will never return consistent and precise results. Any location based processes will always provide fuzzy results, thanks to Internet services which load balance their network connections.

R.I.P., SiteMeter

I've always been an advocate of redundancy, with essential components and features.

One essential feature of a website is the ability to remain aware of where your readers come from, and what they are reading, on your blog. Besides Blogger Stats, I've advocated both SiteMeter and StatCounter, in a complementary role to each other.

A while ago, SiteMeter decided to add video advertisements to their blog / website agent, that tracks the clicks.

Spending a few moments Googling the issue, I learned

• Many people have complained, to SiteMeter Support.
• The complaints are being ignored.

I took the only responsible action, and removed the SiteMeter agent from my blog.

You may wish to do the same, on your blog or website, if your readers do not have ultra fast computers and fat Internet connections. I guess the old saying

There ain't no such thing as a free lunch

has now, once again, been proven true.

Unwanted videos (invisible, in many cases) are even worse than unwanted music. Both produce noise, when you expect it least - and videos inhale bandwidth.

And recently, SiteMeter has been implicated in other, even more annoying oddities.

My apologies to those of you who have tried to read this blog, and found themselves with bandwidth and memory resource issues.

An Expanding Reader Community May Make Your Blog Vulnerable To A Content Warning

Occasionally, we see a report in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, that reflects on the reader audience - not necessarily only the blog content.

Why is my blog behind a Content Warning?

Some readers of this blog have contacted Google because they believe this blog's content is objectionable.

Occasionally, a quick eyeballing of the blog in question may turn up some dodgy content, which may be suggested, in the forum, as problematic.

This story may not end immediately.

But, I've had that picture gallery, for years! Why did I just get the Content Warning?

Here, the blog owner is not considering changing standards - or the possibility that the blog, becoming more popular, may be adding readers who don't appreciate a photo gallery started years ago.

As your blog matures - and when you are successful at encouraging reader and search engine reputation - your reader audience should be increasing.

If your reader population expands, some readers may be less tolerant.

If you are now advertising your blog to a more selective audience, some folks in that audience may object to some blog content, enjoyed or ignored by your earlier audience.

If you spend time perusing your visitor logs - and if you have a more robust visitor log than Stats, you may find some interesting clues. StatCounter (not SiteMeter) shows, among other details, the "Exit Click" for each visitor. If you see any one post abnormally represented, among the "Exit Click" inventory, you may be looking at content that's possibly not appreciated by some portion of the reader community.

Here, I'll note that you won't necessarily see any statistics for a post that is posted entirely on the main page. If your main page is a significant portion of the blog, you may wish to add Jump Break to your posts, to encourage your readers to click to the individual post pages, and read each individual post.

Be aware of your reader population - and consider their needs.

Whatever your strategy for advertising your blog, be aware of changing visitor interest. Don't "spice up" your blog with "eye candy", and expect to remain free of a Content Warning, forever.

Encourage your readers, with informative, interesting, and unique content. Don't abuse them with eye candy, then demand removal of the Content Warning, without compromise.

Referer Spam Cannot Be Blocked, Immediately

That is the unfortunate truth.

Every day, some new member of Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken asks, innocently

What is all this traffic from dodgy websites?

and after we explain what the dodgy traffic is, and why it does not reflect real traffic, the next question is

So why doesn't Google block it? Why should I have it polluting my Stats displays, and be unable to find actual traffic in my counts?

and the unfortunate truth is simply that Google cannot block it, because it's not significantly different from normal traffic - and the insignificant difference is not easily detected.

Referer spam cannot be identified, because it is identical in structure to legitimate Stats pageviews - and because its content changes, constantly.

What does a normal blog page "pageview request" look like?

When you click on a link from, say, a post in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, to this article, your computer sends a single message to the Blogger server, containing three essential details.

1. The IP address of your computer.
2. The URL of a forum discussion, which contains a link to this article.
3. The URL of this article.

From the message, the Blogger server creates a server activity record.

1. An IP address.
2. The URL of the page containing a link to the webpage requested.
3. The URL of the webpage requested.

That server activity record, in the Stats display for the blog, is known as a "pageview".

Finally, the Blogger server starts sending web page content back to your computer, so your computer can display this article to you. As the webpage content is sent back to your computer, your computer receives, and displays, the received content - and asks for more content.

What does a referer spam "pageview request" look like?

Simple enough? So, what is referer spam? Simply, a single message from a spammer computer, to the Blogger computer, containing three essential details.

1. An IP address - possibly, but not predictably, of their computer.
2. The URL of the website being pimped (the spammed website).
3. The URL of the blog being spammed (your blog).

From the message, the Blogger server creates a server activity record.

1. An IP address.
2. The URL of the page (supposedly) containing a link to the webpage requested.
3. The URL of the webpage (supposedly) requested.

That server activity record, in the Stats display for the blog, is also known as a "pageview".

Finally, the Blogger server starts sending web page content back to the IP address provided. If the IP address does refer to the spammers computer, what is received is simply ignored. The spammer computer moves on, and sends another fake pageview message to another server - maybe referencing this blog.

The "pageview request" is generated, before referer spam discontinues.

The problem is simply that no web server can detect a message from a client computer, that results in a response that is just ignored. Web traffic is lossy, and clients drop offline constantly. Even if the response could be detected as ignored, the ignored request might still reflect legitimate activity, initiated by a client that immediately went offline.

There is simply no way for Google to block the spam - because the spam is simply one message that results in a response, by the Blogger server, that is subsequently ignored by the client computer.

That's it.

So why can't Google block the numbers generated by referer spam, as the referer spam hits the servers? Simply because the numbers may not really represent actual spam. They can, just as easily, reflect intense, legitimate activity - or possibly a devious attack against a legitimate website.

Google can only detect referer spam in context, against multiple blogs.

Specific pageview counts and details are observed in context - are blocked only after the same activity is observed against multiple blogs, over long periods of time (similar, in concept, to stateful network traffic analysis) - and the numbers are removed, retroactively.

All of this is a simple unavoidable side effect, of blog owners needing site activity figures that are not affected by script filtering by the blog readers, complicated by fraudulent activity by hackers and spammers.

Referer spam is not unique to Blogger - it is simply tuned to abuse Stats logs.

Please note that referer spam did not start with Blogger - it's an Internet wide problem. Even though it appears mindless and random, some of it is craftily designed and executed.

For a comprehensive look at how referer spam works, outside Blogger, see Wikipedia: Referer spam.

The problem here is threefold.

1. Too many blog owners obsess over raw pageview counts.
2. Too many blog owners do not understand the origins of referer spam.
3. Too many blog owners are not interested in understanding the real problem.

That's it!

Privacy Concerns Over Posts Being Published, And Preview Mode

Some Blogger blog owners, as they develop a post, use Preview mode to periodically observe what the post looks like.

A few owners are confused about the privacy of a post, as it is Previewed. Some think that the temporary nature of the Preview window makes the content, as Previewed, intentionally unavailable for viewing by their readers.

Fortunately, the links - even though they may be clickable by the readers, lead nowhere.

Here is a Preview URL for this post.

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/b/post-preview?token=yV1fKDYBAAA.ySUB0XKSvMXVATQkgsbJpQ.vf2Wk6Ed_TXX54XVpLn3uA&postId=1855542079708688719&type=POST

If you're interested, click on the link. Does it show you anything? How about another?

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/b/post-preview?token=zx9iKDYBAAA.ySUB0XKSvMXVATQkgsbJpQ.r_B4NGbmR453Nsa2tYZPKg&postId=1855542079708688719&type=POST

See anything interesting?

This post, being edited.

This post, being previewed. See the preview URL?



The preview URL:

https://24069595_d291cd04e6207d111fa5388b4e8893fada5ac690.blogspot.com/b/post-preview?token=xZUz-VoBAAA.O0Vfemj-2Qck1xmWN_at645qjM-E809UONHYWYK-IbP8yGx0F6eRm-z3UxF8qMPs.HwrOVypOYd44GQ-D0znhaw&postId=1855542079708688719&type=POST

Click on the URL, above - and see what you get.

Presumably, the tokens attached to the URL make the visibility of the post temporary - and the previewed post becomes secure by obscurity. That is, if anybody cares enough to view this.Why did I see evidence that 5 people had already read the Preview (and now, said evidence is gone)?

But like every Blogger feature, there are always ways to complicate the issue.

Similar to people who, years ago, published web sites, with the web site access logs published as part of the web site (and became the original target of referer spam attacks), we have Blogger blog owners who publish a real time access log on their blogs.

A popular blog accessory, Feedjit, provides a real time list of blog pages, as read by various people. Similar to a visitor log, but displayed in real time, and shown to the public in general, Feedjit shows everybody what blog content is being viewed.

And here is the complication, of the Preview content. Some blog owners are concerned that the public can view their Previwed content, because Feedjit displays the URLs of the Preview displays, as they (the blog owner) develop a new post.

Please examine the URL quoted below - does any component of that URL contain any tag, suggesting to you that the content is treated as private? It's simply obscure, because (without the involvement of Feedjit, or a similar access display log), the Preview post is not visible. To check it, here's the latest Preview URL for this post.

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/b/post-preview?token=PYh8KDYBAAA.ySUB0XKSvMXVATQkgsbJpQ.6T7Xf_PcgR7nXI_xZCq_Kw&postId=1855542079708688719&type=POST

Personally, I don't use Preview mode that much. I like to Publish my posts over a period of days - if not longer. None of my posts are actually static, I call this Progressive Publishing. You're welcome to view any of my posts, any time you feel the urge.

Watch this post, and see what changes. To start, I'll now observe that, with the post Published, all of the Preview links (above) all appear to load the finished post - until the token (in the URL) expires. If you just clicked on any of the above Preview links, you are probably now seeing

Invalid security token: Error 403

since the Previews, for this post, have long expired.

The conclusion would be that Preview content is only visible until the post is Published. Until the post is Published, the Preview is available to everybody - if you choose to publicise the URL of the Preview.

What Does Stats Provide, That Third Party Visitor Activity Meters Cannot Provide?

Not all blog owners realise how unique Blogger Stats is, in its design.

Some owners may idly suggest that Stats can easily be replaced by any third party visitor activity log / meter.

Why bother to use Stats? Since Blogger Stats shows referrer spam, it's pretty useless - just use SiteMeter, StatCounter - or Google Analytics.

They have no idea why Stats was designed as it is, nor what information Stats provides, that no competing product can possibly provide.

Every add-on accessory, such as any visitor activity counter / log / meter, has to be manually installed in your blog.

Most visitor activity counter / log / meter products require installation.

Simple accessories, which depend upon your visitor clicking on a link, can be installed easily - just add a clickable link on your blog - either in a post, or anywhere in the body of the blog. Visitor logs or meters such as SiteMeter or StatCounter, in order to produce usable statistics, can't depend upon the blog readers clicking on a link.

Most such accessories use add-on JavaScript code, installed in the body of the blog (as an accessory gadget), or in the blog template (installed using "Edit HTML"). With add-on code, that references any external server, the installed location on the blog page, of the accessory code, is crucial.

• Install the add-on at the top of the web page (or in the template code), and as your reader loads each page, he / she gets to watch the page load pause, as it waits for a distant accessory server to respond (while recording the visit).
• Install the add-on at the bottom of the page, and any reader, who closes the display before the page finishes loading, will not be counted by Analytics / SiteMeter / StatCounter.

In either case, the page takes longer to load. This causes reader impatience, and motivates the reader to close the display before the page finishes loading. The result - your blog gets one less new reader.

Most visitor activity counter / log / meter products are affected by filters.

Besides reader impatience causing statistical inaccuracy, all third party accessories that use JavaScript have a second problem - script filtering by our readers.

Analytics, SiteMeter, and StatCounter are known to be explicitly blocked, by some browser setting or third party application that may run on any given client computer. Some security products specifically list "sitemeter.com" or "statcounter.com" in their Block Lists.

A lot of malicious activity, encountered when surfing the web, can easily be blocked by proactive script filtering - just permit scripts, from any given domain, only when explicitly told to do so.

Every reader uses security accessories in the browser and on the computer - and many security accessories and settings provide script filtering. Most security is now provided as "deny by default, permit only on demand".

Most security products update automatically, as updates are produced - and this leads to other problems. Many of our readers, who are concerned with security, or who use computers that are well protected, may not be counted, consistently, by Analytics, SiteMeter, or StatCounter.

Stats does not require installation, and is not affected by filters.

Blogger Stats avoids the issues of page load delay induced impatience, and client filtering, by not using JavaScript add-on code. Since Stats is a Blogger accessory, it can retrieve data directly from the access logs produced by the Blogger servers. Access to server access logs:

• Does not cause page load delays.
• Is not subject to page load delay impatience.
• Is not subject to reader security settings.
• Does not require installation of any accessory, on individual blogs.

Besides the problems of our readers visits not being counted, we have the issue of what information is provided, and for what period of time. If you have installed SiteMeter or StatCounter on your blog, look at the displays provided. Each product will mention a limit of either 100 or 500 log entries - and will display details or statistics based upon the log used.

Many Blogger blogs get more than 500 visits in a single day - requiring blog owner visits to the log website at least daily, or to pay for extra service, to provide any benefit. And of course, that log was started only after the product was installed.

Blogger Stats, on the other hand, is able to provide statistics for the current day, week, month, and for "all time" (starting in May 2009, for all blogs in existence at that time).

Stats does not discard old statistics, they just extract from the server access logs, for any time range provided.

• All time.
• Last 30 days ("Month").
• Last 7 days ("Week").
• Last 24 hours ("Day").
• Last 2 hours ("Now").

Any blog owner can see any available statistics, at any time. Stats never has to be installed, by any blog owners - it is already there.

Stats is vulnerable to bogus activity records, created by spammers.

Unfortunately, the biggest strength of Stats - use of the server access logs to gather the visitor activity data - leads to its best known weakness - abuse by referer spammers, which leads to inflated blog read counts.

It may help to understand that referer spam did not start with Stats - nor is referer spam unique to Stats. Referer spam has been around ever since people published websites, and displayed a visitor log extract ("My Recent Visitors") to make their website more interesting to new readers (The suggestion that "This website should be more interesting to YOU, because it has readers from all over the world!").

Stats, like every visitor activity counter / log / meter product, resets totals.

Besides the concern of referer spam, we see various evidences of confusion about Stats displays.

• "Daily" counter resets that occur during the day - never at midnight.
• The inability to compare detail in one display, with aggregated counts in another display.
• Inability to display pageview counts for all posts in the blog.

All of these limitations are simply the direct result of how Stats is designed.

Every visitor activity counter / log / meter product differs, from every other product.

In reality, both Blogger Stats and third party visitor activity logs or meters have their respective advantages - and neither choice can ever replace another.

• If you want to see demographic details about some readers of your blog, you can use Analytics, SiteMeter, StatCounter - or any number of third party visitor activity logs and meters - after the chosen accessory has been installed.
• If you want to see comprehensive statistics about all readers of your blog - without being limited by install time or reader security policy - only Blogger Stats will help you.

Fortunately, all products are free - and Stats requires no installation. Your Stats data is there, waiting for you - on the Blogger dashboard menu.

BlogSpot Published Blogs Being Accessed Using Country Code TLDs

Recently, some blog owners outside the USA have been asking about mysterious redirects which they (or their readers) are seeing, when accessing their blogs.

Why is "xxx.blogspot.com" now redirecting to "xxx.blogspot.com.au"?

and

Why was my blog address recently changed from ".com" to ".in"?

Blogger will host our blog content using country code relevant aliases, according to the unique laws of each different country.

The local country domain URL is determined using geolocation.

The relevant CC alias will be accessed automatically, according to the network location of the reader in question. These aliases are being added on a country by country basis, with Australia ("blogspot.com.au") and India ("blogspot.in") apparently recently deployed.

This will let Blogger remove content, that's illegal in one country, without having to remove that same content for all of your readers, worldwide. You benefit, because your blog won't go offline, for the entire world, when you publish something that's illegal in one single country.

A BlogSpot blog, with a standard header, will be indexed under "blogspot.com".

With any BlogSpot published blog containing a standard Blogger header, the blog will have a canonical reference to the "blogspot.com" alias. The search engines will index the blog, using the "blogspot.com" alias - even when following a country code specific link.

The search engine ranking of your blog won't be affected - except that a blog, left online in most countries, will get more traffic than one taken offline worldwide. When you check the Page Rank, you should continue to check the "blogspot.com" URL, because all search engine reputation will accumulate under the "blogspot.com" alias.

Owners of blogs with custom templates should check the template.

Owners of older or uniquely developed blogs, possibly using Classic or highly customised templates, may want to check the headers in their blogs, and make sure that they have a "canonical" tag referencing their "blogspot.com" alias.

Blogs published to non "blogspot.com" URLs, using properly setup and fully operational "custom domain" publishing, will not be affected - as the default "blogspot.com" URL is already redirected to the domain URL. While a newly purchased custom domain is "In Transition", the domain redirect will not be in effect - and the "blogspot.com" URL will be subject to CC alias redirect.

Any reader using a browser or computer that's affected by domain based filters will need to check all filters. Add "blogspot.com.au", "blogspot.in", "blogspot.jp", or any other relevant country, wherever "blogspot.com" is specified.

Note that geolocation will produce anomalies in odd cases.

Note that the redirect uses geolocation, to identify a relevant country code. Readers in small countries, or located near the border of other countries, may be using an ISP located in a different country, and may find their personal redirect reflecting the other country.

Any reader wishing to bypass the local alias can access a "no country redirect" alias using the URL of "blogspot.com/ncr". Similar to the "ncr" URL modifier used to bypass local language redirects of "blogger.com", this will give access to the U.S. English alias of the blog of your choice.

Referer Spam Does Not Represent Real Traffic, To Our Blogs

We've been discussing referer spam for many years.

Every week, besides many people who wonder

Why doesn't Google put an end to this, for good?

there are occasionally some folks who wonder

But is this all bad? Doesn't this help us in our overall Blogger statistics as far as traffic counts go? If so, it's not all bad - for those of us with less than ginormous followings.

And both attitudes reflect people who just don't understand what it is.

We've already discussed, repeatedly, why Google can't just put a end to it, unilaterally.

The latter musing, considering that it may possibly be beneficial to any Blogger blogs, is no more valid than the former. Referer spam simply cannot be blocked, because it is not different from legitimate traffic.

Stats logs entries, from referer spam, do not reflect people viewing the blog.

The numbers reflected in our Stats logs do not represent any actual traffic against our blogs, or any websites with links to our blogs. The only person who benefits from referer spam is the owner of the advertised (fake referer URL) sites - and that happens only when we click on the links in the Stats display.

Only Stats, which builds its pageview counts and graphs using the Blogger server activity logs, is subject to referer spam. All third party visitor logs and meters, which depend upon snippets or widgets added to the blog template, are not subject to this problem.

Don't click on the links - and use a third party visitor log for verification.

So, besides my facetious advice that you simply

Don't click on the links.

comes equally facetious advice that you

Get a third party visitor log / meter, for accurate and comprehensive pageview counts.

Stats Not Displaying Individual Posts, In Detail Lists

For several days now, we've seen various reports from anxious Blogger blog owners, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, lamenting the lack of detail information in their Stats logs.

My Stats logs does not show the page views for particular posts.

This is just one example, of the many ways that blog owners perceive, and report, the ongoing problem.

If you look at the Stats Overview or Posts display, for any blog with any popularity, in the "Now" or "Day" time range, you'll likely see the well known advice

No stats yet, check back later.

When initially reported, this was only visible in the "Now" time range. Now, the effect is seen in "Day", and for some, less consistently trafficked blogs, in "Week" also. The effect is visible, consistently, in both the Classic GUI (brown / dark blue display), and the New GUI (2011) (brown / orange on white display).

This problem is apparent, for most blogs, in the "Posts" tab.
Most blogs with consistent traffic will show this affecting only the detail Posts lists. The "Now" and "Day" Posts lists, as noted, show "No stats yet, check back later.". The "Week", Month", and "All time" Posts displays show the Posts lists from before the problem first occurred. Both the Posts names in the lists, and the pageview counts for each post listed, are frozen.

This blog shows no effect in pageview counts, outside the Posts detail lists. I've carefully examined the graphs for "Now", "Day", "Week", "Month", and "All time", in both the Classic and New GUI, for this blog - and I don't see any count discrepancies. Your observations may agree or disagree - and I await your comments.

We have a Rollup discussion, in Blogger Help Forum.
We have an ongoing rollup discussion, in Blogger Help, where the scope of the problem is being discussed. My original perception of the problem began as we explored the latest wave of referer spam; I am today trying to determine if the two events are related.

An earlier outage may be related to this problem.
We also had an interesting 2 hour outage, a week ago, where no Stats data (counts, or details) was available for the previous week - and some blog owners are wondering if that issue is related. We have no references for the latter episode, as we escalated that problem in real time, and Blogger Support was able to fix it, immediately.

That problem was complete (as noted, both counts and details were available), it was immediate (it showed on all Stats displays for the previous week, retroactively), and it was total (the immediate nature and effect on the forums made it an obvious BloggerFire). This problem, according to my observations, is neither.

---

(Update 18:00): Blogger Support has fixed this problem.

---

The Need To Comment, Anonymously, Has To Remain A Possibility

Not all blog owners understand the need for people to post anonymous comments, against our blog posts. Periodically, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, we see the naivete expressed by some.

How do I find out who is posting anonymous comments to my blog?

These people do not understand the need for anonymous commenting.

You, as a blog owner, have the ability to select the level of authentication, to be required of anybody preparing to post a comment to your blog. For "Who Can Comment?", we find the selection list

1. Anyone - includes Anonymous Users
2. Registered Users - includes OpenID
3. Users with Google Accounts
4. Only members of this blog

People who wish to comment anonymously, yet provide a "Name" / "URL" to link back to their Blogger profile, or their blog / website, may do this at their discretion. Anybody doing this provides no guarantee of being genuine, however.

If you allow "anonymous users" to comment, then people who wish to comment anonymously need to be assured that their privacy will be respected. You can gather demographic data about your blogs visitors - and you may infer specific details about individual commenters - but the relevance of that policy will be limited by the precautions exercised by your commenters.

>> Top

Dynamic Templates And Visitor Information

As the dynamic templates continue to be installed on various Blogger blogs, more and more blog owners are noticing problems with their visitor logs.

I installed a dynamic template on my blog, and my Stats display shows

No stats yet, check back later.

and

StatCounter shows no traffic, now that my blog uses the dynamic views.

These reports come from people who don't realise how the new templates work - and why they don't seem to work, in these cases.

Blogs that use the dynamic views are able to display content faster.

The display speed improvement is possible, because dynamic templates use the blog feed - which is downloaded from the Blogger newsfeed servers, and rendered as a web display on our computers. Non Dynamic templates display static or semi static HTML (with CSS, XML, and other extensions) - rendered into web displays on the Blogger servers, and downloaded as web content.

The differences in web page display are not consistent with how visitor activity is observed.

• Dynamic templates provide less customisation ability, for most blog owners.
• Newsfeed content is simpler than web pages.
• Newsfeed content is read one display page at a time.
• Displayed dynamic pages contain less formatting tweaks.
• Individual posts, when displayed, are already cached on the local computer.

Dynamic templates provide less customisation ability, for most blog owners.

The downloaded dynamic templates are very simple, and contain no custom code for different blogs. Once downloaded for your blog, they will work the same for my blogs, and for my neighbours blog - with all blogs using dynamic views. This makes these blogs very stable.

Newsfeed content is simpler than web pages.

Non rendered newsfeed content is much simpler than rendered display pages. Once the template code is downloaded once, downloading the data is even quicker than downloading the templates.

Newsfeed content is read one display page at a time.

The newsfeed content is read from the Blogger newsfeed servers one display page at a time, and cached on each readers computer. As each blog is read, the most recent articles are at the top. Many readers, as with viewers, will never go beyond the first display page.

Displayed dynamic pages contain less formatting tweaks.

The displayed pages contain very little accessories and formatting, which is so popular with many blog owners, and which generates load on networks and processors.

Individual posts, when displayed, are already cached on the local computer.

When an individual post is displayed, the cached content is already right there, on the computer.

There are disadvantages to having all content cached, however.

The advantages, and the disadvantages, of the dynamic views originate from the same basic details - use of the blog newsfeed, and of a very simple and standard template. People who distribute their blog as newsfeed subscriptions have been asking the same question, for years.

How do I track my subscribers, as well as I track my viewers?

There is no easy answer to this need. With all content cached on the local computer, tracking reader activity is not so simple.

Tracking reader activity is a challenge - for both Blogger and non Blogger features.

Both third party visitor logs and meters, and the Blogger Stats feature, have problems providing details about our readers - with our blogs using the dynamic templates.

1. Older installations of third party products use HTML / JavaScript, installed directly into the blog templates (generally Classic, but some Layout and Designer templates). The dynamic templates will not include this third party code. Newsfeeds contain only very simple text, and pictures, with no scripts.
2. Newer installations of third party products use HTML / JavaScript / XML gadgets, installed as accessories into the header, footer, or sidebar sections of the display. The dynamic templates, right now, contain neither sidebars nor accessories.
3. Stats reads the Blogger server activity logs, generated as rendered display pages are downloaded to the client computers. Newsfeed content may not require the same server activity, and generate comparable activity logs.

None of these features will be easily included in the dynamic views, without some rethinking of the simple and standard dynamic template structure.

1. Blogger has suggested that they will provide support for JavaScript code, in the dynamic templates. We can install third party JavaScript code directly into the dynamic templates, making them more complex, and unique for different blogs.
2. Blogger has suggested that they will provide sidebars, and support for accessory gadgets. We can install third party JavaScript code as sidebar gadgets.
3. Similar to accessory gadgets used for third party JavaScript, or to JavaScript embedded into the templates, Blogger can provide additional code to drive Stats displays, and provide pageview counts, into the template code.

Unfortunately, all of these alternatives will come with a price. We will see increased code complexity, increased downloaded code volume, and increased network and processor activity on our computers.

In short, do not expect to see detailed visitor information, comparable to what we see right now in Stats or third party products, immediately - and watch for increased latency once these features are added.

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Owners of #Blogger blogs occasionally observe discrepancies in visitor activity, when they change their blogs to use dynamic templates, and examine their visitor logs.

Some - but not all - changes come from reader reaction to the dynamic template displays and features. Other changes involve how the dynamic templates are processed, by the local computers being used by the blog readers.

Blogger Magic - Third Party Visitor Logs / Meters, And Referer Spam

Blogger blog owners have been suffering from the onslaught of referer spam, in their Stats logs, for over 6 months now. Some blog owners, who use third party visitor logs / meters like FlagCounter, Sitemeter, and StatCounter, have started to wonder.

How do SiteMeter and StatCounter manage to filter out the referer spam, yet Google cannot do anything about it?

This would be quite a magic trick indeed - if this was happening.

When you setup a third party visitor information product, like FlagCounter, Sitemeter, and StatCounter, the installation process involves addition of a JavaScript code snippet, as part of the blog template. Any time a page in the blog is loaded, by a blog visitor, the JavaScript code references the FlagCounter, Sitemeter, or StatCounter server, and adds a visitor record describing the pageview.

That's such a simple way to gather information about your visitors - and for its simplicity, it is unreliable, in various ways.

• Your visitors who use computers that filter content from domains - like BlogSpot, FlagCounter, Sitemeter, StatCounter, or possibly your non BlogSpot custom domain - won't be counted, reliably.
• Your visitors who share a caching proxy server won't be counted.
• Depending upon where in the page, the JavaScript code is added, your visitors may or may not be counted.

When Blogger / Google designed the Stats visitor information accessory, they used another technique for counting visitor activity. Blogger, unlike FlagCounter, Sitemeter, and StatCounter, has access to the server activity logs. When Stats was activated, for the Blogger blogosphere, they activated it on a blog by blog basis - and without requiring any updates to the blog code.

Every Blogger blog was given Stats access, and the statistics initially provided preceded actual Stats availability, because nobody had to install any accessory code to the blogs. That is because Blogger uses the actual server activity logs - and does not require add-on accessory code.

Unfortunately, server activity logs only record server activity - and this is how referer spam works - and why it is so hard for Google to block it. Referer spam is simply a normal access request from the spammer, which generates a server access record, and a Stats pageview. The spammer simply goes away after generating the initial access request. The Blogger server, as with any non Blogger server, has no way to detect when the spammer drops the connection and goes away.

Since third party products like FlagCounter, Sitemeter, and StatCounter use add-on code, they are not susceptible to referer spam techniques. Only products which work from the server activity logs are susceptible. FlagCounter, Sitemeter, and StatCounter, and other third party visitor information accessories, have no need to filter bogus activity.

And this is why I have stated that the only way that referer spam will ever go away is for us to make it unprofitable for the spammers, by not clicking on the links in the Stats logs.

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Private Blogs And Your Visitor Log

There are known limitations, to the effectiveness of making a blog private.

The problem of access latency, where a blog made private won't block everybody immediately, is one. Another is the possibility of co workers of a legitimately designated reader being able to read a private blog, on an office network that uses a caching proxy server. But there are other perceived problems with private blogs, that don't actually exist.

One perceived problem is seen when examining the visitor log for a private blog. Some one without access permission, loading a private blog, will load the "Private Blog" interstitial warning on top of the requested page. The visitor log will show the page in question being loaded. But look closer - do you see any other pages being loaded?

A log from StatCounter is perfect for this task. For any visitor to your blog, you can see a record of each link clicked during the visit. For an uninvited visitor to a private blog, you'll likely see one click - the "Entry Page" - and that's it. And even if the "Entry Page" is listed in the visitor log, chances are that all that was actually seen was the interstitial page.

So if you're examining the visitor log for your private blog, relax. Your private content is, most likely, safe.

Identifying Your Visitors

Just about anybody who owns a blog has, one time or another, wanted to find out more about a specific visitor to a blog.

Generally, we might need to find out about a person who leaves a specific comment, so we can block or take other action to prevent unwanted comments. With a properly chosen visitor log, this isn't difficult.

With a comment, for instance, we start from the comment.

• Note the date and time of the comment, and what post it was published against.
• Examine your visitor log, and find all clicks against the post in question, immediately preceding the comment in question.
• Find the visitor log entry that contains a reference to the comment viewing and / or the comment posting process.
• Now, you have the IP address of your malicious commentor, and an assortment of demographic details, possibly including an approximate location.

This is a key process in keeping malicious comments out of our blogs. But note the limitations here.

• You cannot say, for sure, that two clicks from the same IP address are, in reality, the same person. On a shared computer, say in an airport or a library, one IP address could be shared by any number of readers.
• You cannot say, for sure, that two clicks from two different IP addresses are, in reality, two different people. One person could have Internet service that provides a dynamic IP address assignment. In a space of 30 minutes, one person could, sequentially, use 3 different IP addresses.
• In no case can you say, for sure, exactly where a person is located.

And if you examine the visitor log of your choice, you might observe the URL which was viewed by one or more visitors immediately before they viewed yours. This is known as the "referer" URL. Try not to be concerned or offended, if you see indications of visitors from an unsuitable website name - or maybe from a country or geographic region known for inhabitants who engage in hacking and other misbehaving. People in China, India, Russia, the USA, and other countries, have legitimate reasons for reading your blog - just as people in other countries do.

Neither the demographic details, nor the "referer" URL, should by themselves indicate any hacking activity taking place, in an attack against your blog. And there is no law or regulation which restricts the right to link to any website on the Internet. If you have a public blog, and you spend time publicising your blog, then you're going to get visitors.

So use a visitor log - but use it wisely.

Blogging Anonymously Has A Price

Blogger supports anonymity - both in our ability to maintain and to own a blog anonymously, and our ability to comment on blogs anonymously. But this anonymity comes with a price.

I need to contact the owner of "xxxxxxx.blogspot.com", but there is no contact information and the blog is private.

or

How do I find out who left an anonymous comment on my blog?

or

I can't access my blog - I forgot the password and the email address doesn't exist any more.

or

I deleted my account, and they won't give it back to me!

All of these are queries by bloggers who do not understand the price of anonymity.

If Blogger is going to preserve our anonymity as blog owners, and as commenters (on blogs where anonymous comments are allowed), they cannot give out any information, to anybody, that might disclose our identity.

Blogger / Google must protect anonymity diligently, to be trusted.

If Blogger / Google starts disclosing identity information, to people who ask casually, nobody will be able to trust our - or their - intentions.

If you let people comment anonymously on your blog, people will comment with the expectation that you won't be requiring any personal information, other than demographic information that's obtained through a visitor log. If you don't like anonymous comments, you either disable anonymous comments - or you moderate comments, and discard what you don't like.

You - and only you - must maintain your anonymous, multiple identities.

If you setup a new Blogger account, and then create a new blog, and you include no personal details in either the account or the blog, you will wind up with a Blogger account that cannot be recovered, if you ever forget the account name / password - or if the account is ever locked for "suspicious" / "unusual" activity.

Don't demand that Blogger break someone's anonymity, without legal need.

If someone publishes a blog without a Profile gadget, or publishes a blog privately, without including contact information somewhere, don't expect to casually write to Blogger and demand contact information. And don't try claiming to own the blog in question, and that you forgot the password - or that you cannot remember the many different email addresses that you may have used.

Blogger cannot disclose the identity - including the email address - of the owner, if anonymity is to be preserved. This includes if your blog is deleted, and you don't know the owner account.

You may have to find out owner identity, on your own.

It's possible that you can identify a contact, on your own. If you require contact information provided by Google, you'll need legal assistance, and a court order.

Keep Malicious Content Out Of Your Blog

Every day or so, we see reported from concerned bloggers, about unknown content in their blogs.

Where did those ads come from? I didn't add them!

or

How do I keep this other blogger from posting porn links in my blog?

As we add content to our blogs, and make them fun, interesting, and shiny, to attract readers, we risk adding undesirable content. This is a constant problem.

The bad guys are out there - and the more fun, interesting, and shiny your blog is, the more it's likely to have readership, reputation, and value.

The more readership, reputation, and value that your blog has, the more attractive it is to the bad guys. And the bad guys have various ways to attack a given blog.

• Malicious Comments
• Malicious Posts
• Malicious Accessories
• Malicious Blog Members
• BlogList / Feed Gadgets

Malicious Comments

One of the easiest way to add third party content to your blog is from allowing comments.

Comments are contributed by people who, at best, you simply do not know. Any content from someone who you do not know can always be malicious, or obnoxious in some way.

Some blog owners will try to identify and block individual commentors. I will continue to insist that anybody who you should fear will not be bothered greatly by anything that you can do here.

You absolutely must moderate comments, or risk having a blog known for hosting malicious links - or worse.

Malicious Posts

Besides comments, posts are a constant concern. If you have a team blog, you have to be able to trust the other members in the blog.

Post moderation, using post editor to publish, isn't an option. Anybody who you make an author can publish what they feel like publishing. You can only moderate posts after they are published, when using post editor.

An alternative to using post editor to publish is Mail-to-Blogger, where contributions are emailed to the blog. If Mail-to-Blogger is setup to publish straight to the blog, and the bad guys figure out your MTB account and password, you'll have malicious content a plenty.

You can moderate before publishing, using Mail-to-Blogger.

Malicious Accessories

Any time that you install third party accessories of any type, you are placing your blog at risk.

Don't be overly paranoid - you have to make your blog interesting to your readers. But do keep the risks in mind.

This is similar to layered security for your computer, which is a related concern here.

Malicious Blog Members

Sometimes, possibly having unwisely installed a third party accessory, the install process may have enabled the addition of an unknown member to the blog. The unwanted content may be added by the attacker, using this unknown blog member.

If none of the above advice offers you an explanation for the existence of unwanted content, check your blog member list.

BlogList / Feed Gadgets

Occasionally, we may Follow a blog where the owner will later decide to try to get more traffic to the blog, and will redirect the blog feed to a cloud of random blogs. If you are Following such a blog, or have such a blog in your BlogList or Feed gadget, you'll see your BlogList or Feed gadget show odd content - and frequent spam.

Google Webmaster Tools

As a Google customer, we have access to a very useful set of tools, which help us develop and maintain a healthy relationship between our blogs and the Google search engine spiders.

Google Webmaster Tools (now Search Console) provides us with tools to measure our visibility, and it provides us with helpful hints on how to improve our visibility.

You can use Google Webmaster Tools for any active URL that you administer.

If your blog is published to BlogSpot, you use the "xxxxxxx.blogspot.com" URL; if the blog is published to a custom domain, you use the primary URL for the domain.

Using Google Webmaster Tools for any web site requires that you are the administrator of the web site.

Google doesn't want anybody who's not the administrator, of any web site, accessing search engine diagnostics for that web site.

The meta tag provided in the verification process is a token, and it must match the URL that you are verifying. If you change the active URL for the blog (rename it within "blogspot.com", or publish it to a custom domain), you will need a new Google Webmaster Tools entry, with a new verification tag.

The meta tag is as important a data element as the clickable link that you get in your email, when you're offered membership in a blog - or when you verify an email address, for an account. You click on the link, which opens the token, and applies it to your account.

With a Blogger blog in Google Webmaster Tools, you install the token into the blog template, to verify ownership of the domain (blog). Only a blog administrator has the authority to update the template. If you don't install the token into the template, you can't prove that you own the blog, and you can't use Google Webmaster Tools for your blog.

Elsewhere in Google Webmaster Tools, you'll find the Web crawl logs. Some information in the web crawl logs can be very useful to you, while other is informational only. It's to your advantage to separate the two categories. The "Preferred domain" setting in "Site Configuration" is a very small setting, that can have a big impact. And most of us setup our blogs on GWT so we can add a sitemap to the blog.

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