This might be the first thing that greeted many of the Bloggers today morning. Yes, Google has yet again done something funny without any notice.
When I opened my blog today evening I found that the 'Likes' on the posts have magically disappeared. But how?
If you've read Facebook - a history, you would probably know that Likes simply can't disappear from a blog post. That is, unless the link itself has changed.
First I thought the .in change happens to all Indian bloggers. But when I opened a supposedly foreign blog, it also showed the blogspot.in domain.
So it is more like, all Indians see blogspot.in. It is much like how google.com changes to various domains across countries.
If this finding is correct, this blog will be eternathinker.blogspot.cs in Czechoslovakia.
Update:
From a few more tests it is clear than all Indians see blogspot.in for all blogs, but the second part is slightly different. Blogger hasn't included every other country in this change of domains. India, and perhaps a few other countries too.
As notified in the comments, a blogger in Qatar still see .in for all Indian origin blogs, but .com for Qatar native blogs, ie, unless Blogger think of a .qa addition.
A simple hack to get back your blogspot.com name would be to change your Location in Blogger settings. But of course, this might change your time and settings and your content won't be as associated with your region as it was with the original location information.
And of course in domain change effected countries, say India, your blog will show up in .in domain anyways!
Immediate effects
Blogger does all the redirecting of existing pages correctly, the least we'd expect them to do.
But they can do only so much about your SEO ranking. It will probably go haywire. In other words, reset.
That is, unless Google take some measure to account for this Blogger change. That is, if they really care about SEO ranking of .blogspot domain blogs.
On a subjective analysis, I see this as a big blow to our online identity. We *are* parasites feeding on every service Google offers for free, not exempting Blogger. But this change pronounces it to the world in a more loud and rude manner.
Looking the other way
So I just talked about losing the identity. But if one really wants an identity, isn't the first step to buy a custom domain?
If Google wants to customize their domains across countries, they will do it.
It is, on any given day, much better than deleting all the blogs ever hosted on Blogger without even a sorry mail. And mind you, Google can do exactly this according to their terms and conditions (which we never read anyway).
I think this is a moment of realization for all of us 'free' hosted bloggers. May be this is the time we should weigh the 'need' for a custom domain. Perhaps this is when we should sort our priorities and plans about our blogs.
To adapt the late Mr.Jobs' words:
If you plan to login to Blogger tomorrow morning and write a post apologizing for not regularly blogging (a promise that you made in your last apology post), this whole change shouldn't bother you much.
If you plan on keeping your blog as your online identity (which is an increasingly more important thing), may be this is that time you've been postponing your custom domain plans to.
This is your blog's future, and your online future (although most of it will still be consumed in facebook).
When I opened my blog today evening I found that the 'Likes' on the posts have magically disappeared. But how?
If you've read Facebook - a history, you would probably know that Likes simply can't disappear from a blog post. That is, unless the link itself has changed.
And it was then I noticed that the url is
no more eternalthinker.blogspot.com
but eternalthinker.blogspot.in !
 |
| When the lightning strikes, all the blogger domains in the world switch. Muahaha. Also, unicorns lose their wings. |
First I thought the .in change happens to all Indian bloggers. But when I opened a supposedly foreign blog, it also showed the blogspot.in domain.
So it is more like, all Indians see blogspot.in. It is much like how google.com changes to various domains across countries.
Update:
From a few more tests it is clear than all Indians see blogspot.in for all blogs, but the second part is slightly different. Blogger hasn't included every other country in this change of domains. India, and perhaps a few other countries too.
As notified in the comments, a blogger in Qatar still see .in for all Indian origin blogs, but .com for Qatar native blogs, ie, unless Blogger think of a .qa addition.
A simple hack to get back your blogspot.com name would be to change your Location in Blogger settings. But of course, this might change your time and settings and your content won't be as associated with your region as it was with the original location information.
And of course in domain change effected countries, say India, your blog will show up in .in domain anyways!
Immediate effects
Blogger does all the redirecting of existing pages correctly, the least we'd expect them to do.
But they can do only so much about your SEO ranking. It will probably go haywire. In other words, reset.
That is, unless Google take some measure to account for this Blogger change. That is, if they really care about SEO ranking of .blogspot domain blogs.
On a subjective analysis, I see this as a big blow to our online identity. We *are* parasites feeding on every service Google offers for free, not exempting Blogger. But this change pronounces it to the world in a more loud and rude manner.
 |
| Parasites - they come in all shapes and sizes, and may react very nastily if you try to hurt their perfect life |
Looking the other way
So I just talked about losing the identity. But if one really wants an identity, isn't the first step to buy a custom domain?
If Google wants to customize their domains across countries, they will do it.
It is, on any given day, much better than deleting all the blogs ever hosted on Blogger without even a sorry mail. And mind you, Google can do exactly this according to their terms and conditions (which we never read anyway).
I think this is a moment of realization for all of us 'free' hosted bloggers. May be this is the time we should weigh the 'need' for a custom domain. Perhaps this is when we should sort our priorities and plans about our blogs.
To adapt the late Mr.Jobs' words:
Your pagerank is already zero
There is no reason not to buy your custom domain
There is no reason not to buy your custom domain
If you plan to login to Blogger tomorrow morning and write a post apologizing for not regularly blogging (a promise that you made in your last apology post), this whole change shouldn't bother you much.
If you plan on keeping your blog as your online identity (which is an increasingly more important thing), may be this is that time you've been postponing your custom domain plans to.
This is your blog's future, and your online future (although most of it will still be consumed in facebook).
Images:
http://www.bauer-power.net/2008/12/possible-blogger-security-hole.html
http://www.lookgreat-loseweight-savemoney.com/parasite-cleanse.html
