Google allows your blogs to be served over an encrypted connection. This feature was rolled out long back for blogspot blogs. In order to make use of this feature, you have to do almost nothing, but this post will provide some more details around the same including setting up of http to https redirects.
If you are using a blogspot blog(i.e not a custom domain, then your blog will already be having an https address.
Blogger provides XML templates and you will find tonnes of third party templates on the internet. You might also want to tweak the templates to change the way how your blog looks. Before you make any changes to your template, it might always be a good idea to take a backup of your template. This will allow you to restore it back in case the template edit did not go well. Backing up restoring templates on blogger is very simple using the new Blogger interface. In this tutorial, we will guide you through the process.
Blogger Custom domains are more like a Vanity URL for your BlogSpot blog. It will allow you to create a better and easy to remember URL.
Blogger allows you to seamlessly integrate with any domain name. To start off you have to make your GoDaddy domain to point to Google's servers. This simple tutorial will guide you step by step with screenshots and instructions to make it easier for you.
Google has released it’s Social Commenting System and has made it available for Blogger Blogs.The new commenting System is more social and looks better than the original Blogger Commenting system. The Google Plus commenting System will also display social interactions made on Google Plus. This tutorial will help you to enable Google Plus Commenting system on your Blogger BlogLately I have been posting about different Rich Text markups which can help Google in displaying your Blog beautifully on Google Search Pages. Here is another one which would be useful to people who write review products like Gadgets, Movies, Games etc. This won’t be useful to any one else out there :P
Here is a screenshot of how the Review data would appear on Google Search Results
The Google Search Result Snippet is the main thing that helps users decide whether your page is relevant to their search or not. The snippet which gets displayed is generated using Google’s algorithms. But you can assist Google in generating a meaningful Snippet. This can be done using structured microdata, microformat or RDFa markups.
Breadcrumbs are useful navigational trails displayed on Google if you have added the breadcrumb markup to your Blog.
If you have already created a Google Plus Brand Page, then it is time to promote your Brand Page right from your Blog. You can do so by adding a Google Plus Page Badge on your Blog. The Page Badge has two variations.The standard badge displays the profile pictures of the people who have +1 ed your Brand Page along with the +1 count and an Add to Circles Button. The badge has a minimal version as well.
During the initial launch, Google Plus was limited to personal profiles unlike it’s rival Facebook which had a platform where brands can create pages for themselves. Plus was then a platform for connecting people to people and not with brands.During the initial phase it never allowed Brands to Create profiles for themselves by imposing strict name checks while creating the profile. In November Google however released it’s equivalent of the Facebook Pages, which they have termed as Google Plus Brand Pages.
I have got many queries asking me how I have setup the Forum here on Blogger Plugins. So I finally decided to write a tutorial on the same. Though I’m hosting the Forum on HostGator, the blog is still pointing to Google’s Robust servers. This post will be useful for those who want to continue publishing using Blogger to a Custom Domain and would like to add more features to the domain.
A few months back Blogger announced that they will be providing an option to integrate their Google + Profile into Blogger. This was available only on the Blogger in Draft Dashboard. Now it has rolled out of draft and is available for everyone. If you have a Google + Account and you are using the same Google Account for Blogger, then you can easily make the switch.
Ever Since the launch of Google Plus, Google has been tightly integrating it with other Google Products. Now Google is trying to help the users have a unified Google Profile which can be used across its various products.
If you are using the New Blogger Interface, and you haven't yet switched to Google Plus, then you will be greeted by this message in your Dashboard.
Blogger has added a new option to easily integrate Google Analytics with your Blog.
To Add your Google Analytics Tracking code, you just need to specify your Google Analytics Account number in your Blogger Dashboard. To do that Go to Settings > Other and fill up the “Google Analytics Account number” field, Once done Save the Settings. Now Blogger will automatically add the analytics tracking code to your blog(even on the mobile version).
I had got quite some number of questions regarding how I display post thumbnails here on my blog. So I decided to write a tutorial about the different methods that you can use to display post thumbnails. Post Thumbnails will look good on your blog if you are using the Blogger Jump Break Feature to efficiently control the post excerpt that gets displayed on non-post pages. So here are the methods:
The Blogger’s new UI has now migrated from Blogger Daft to the regular Dashboard.If you are a regular reader here, then you must have already seen screenshot of the new UI. Blogger has now made some improvements to the new UI, and has plugged it into the regular dashboard.The new UI also includes an option to Edit your Template Code.
The Blogger Mobile templates is something pretty cool, and blogger provides you with 27 mobile templates to choose from. You cannot completely customize the mobile template(as of now) but you can pick any of the available templates.
Some months back, I had posted about how you can add Custom Fonts to Blogger using the Google Fonts API. Now Blogger has integrated all of these Custom Fonts into the Blogger Template Designer. This means that you will be able to use these Custom Fonts without the need for any Template Edits.
As you might already know, Blogger is integrated with Picasa and all the images that you upload to Blogger automatically becomes a part of your Picasa account.Picasa has got 1 GB free Storage.So if your Picasa Account exceeds this 1 GB limit, you wont be able to post more images to your blog.(In that case you will have to buy additional Storage).
Blogger has now released mobile templates, which would make your blog look cool on your smartphones. The mobile templates will reformat your blog for mobile phones. It will even strip down the post content on your home page, so that its more readable and not too lengthy.
This feature is still in draft and so you will have to login to enable this new Feature.
Till now Blogger used to have two Feed Control Options, a Short Feed or a Full Feed. The short feed, as the name suggests contains a short version of your post with HTML and images stripped off. The Full Feed contains everything including the images and the HTML. Now Blogger has added a third option which will give you better control over what gets displayed in your Feed.
Blogger allows you to upload your own videos via the Blogger Post Editor. It also allows you to embed YouTube videos into your posts(by copy pasting the YouTube embed code into your post editor). Now Blogger has made this process even more simpler by providing a better interface for adding YouTube videos.
This YouTube integration is available only in the updated Post Editor. So if you are still using the old editor, it’s a good time for an upgrade.