Sunday, December 9, 2018

Free unlimited photos on Blogger

an old-fashioned camera
JOHN KRATZ
Now, when you upload an image into your blog, it will never count towards the storage you have from Google.

That's the result of two recent changes to how Blogger handles images.

Consequently it is no longer necessary to resize images before adding them to your blog.

Wednesday, December 5, 2018

My Blogger wish list for 2019

Dear Google,

Man making a wish by blowing on a dandelion
CC BY 2.0 KITTY TERWOLBECK
I have been good this year! I've blogged regularly (not here, but on my main blog), and been helpful in the Blogger Help Forum.

I know Blogger from a user's perspective, and really like the platform. So, I have some ideas for how to make it better—not just for me, but for users generally.

Wednesday, November 28, 2018

Blogger versus WordPress

THE BEST FREE BLOGGING PLATFORM


2 men arm wrestling over a pile of money

They are both good. But not perfect.

"They" are the two leading blogging platforms, WordPress and Blogger.

Saturday, October 27, 2018

Clever but doomed, Google+ prepares to go

An orange plus sign and a question mark

This month Google announced that Google+, its "social layer" that at one time seemed on track to be Google, will end for "consumers" next August.

Update: March.

The implications for Blogger, including the status of Google+ comments and the transition path for bloggers who use Google+ for their profile pages, are not yet clear.

I'd like to take a moment, though, to reflect on what this tells us about our digital lives in general and our relationship to Google in particular.

Google+ was doomed to fail. And Google is a strange place.

Sunday, September 30, 2018

Never delete a Blogger blog.

Avert Regret


Shoe about to step on a banana peel


OK, "never" is an exaggeration. But not a big one.

If you have a blog you don't want any more, a better alternative is often to make it private.

Tuesday, April 10, 2018

Multiple sign-in for Blogger

juggling multiple accounts
Kasabyan Musal/USAF
In yet another sign that Blogger is getting some Google love, it's now possible to manage blogs in two different accounts (1) at the same time (2) from a single browser.

Sunday, April 8, 2018

Multiple accounts? Let your avatar be your guide

Compass

Let me draw your attention to an account-management feature that you will find on your Blogger dashboard and many other Google pages.

At the top right of your browser window, Google shows your account avatar, the little round image associated with your account.

Plain
Screen shot showing avatar
Mine is an apple. Yours should be different.
This inconspicuous image is the gateway to some useful account-identification and account-management features.

If you are ever in doubt about which account Google thinks you are in, this avatar can clear things up.

Saturday, March 3, 2018

Wrangling Google accounts

Which account does Blogger think you are using, anyway?

Just who do they think you are?

And if you need to change accounts, how do you do it?

Sunday, February 18, 2018

Your photos just got more important

On February 14, Google made it slightly more difficult for viewers to bypass your blog when they find one of your images in Google Search.

To the extent that this changes the behavior of the searching public, your photo or other image has become a pathway to your blog.

Google has removed the "steal this image" button from Google search while leaving the "visit web page" option.

Google image search options for visit, not view
Look, Ma, no piracy!

Saturday, January 20, 2018

Where are my Blogger photos?


Google keeps your Blogger images "in the cloud," online. But where?

Blogger images did not make the switch to Google Photos when Google phased out Picasaweb, its original online photo album.

Instead Google created the Album Archive as a stripped-to-its-basics online repository for Blogger and other legacy images. 

Later, Blogger made those images available in its Media Manager, when Google phased out the Album Archive. View your images here.

Your blog has an album there. But what you can do with that album is extremely limited.