European Union & Google's Directive Regarding Cookies

I finally have thought of something to share in this blog. But first things first, I have to comply with this message that greeted me when I opened my Blogger account.

Here's the official notification:

European Union laws require you to give European Union visitors information about cookies used on your blog. In many cases, these laws also require you to obtain consent.

As a courtesy, we have added a notice on your blog to explain Google's use of certain Blogger and Google cookies, including use of Google Analytics and AdSense cookies.

You are responsible for confirming this notice actually works for your blog, and that it displays. If you employ other cookies, for example by adding third party features, this notice may not work for you. Learn more about this notice and your responsibilities.

So, I have updated this blog's privacy policy.

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The New Blogger Dashboard - Blindingly White & Bright for my Eyes

When I logged in to Blogger today, I almost got blinded by the stunningly white new Blogger Dashboard interface.

My Blogger Dashboard

I don't know about you but it is too white and too bright for my taste, and not good for my eyes.

Here's what greeted me when I started to create this post.

I hope there is a way to customize the Blogger Dashboard to my own liking and for the sake of my eyes.

Plus, a little time needed to be familiar with all the buttons to navigate the dashboard and to blog.

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No To Rebranding Blogger® to Google Blogs

Google plans to rebrand Blogger® to Google Blogs, as exclusively reported by Mashable.

With all of my blogs under the Blogger domain, I am now filled with apprehensions for the future of my blogs and regret never investing with my own custom domain. Tsk! Tsk!

Mashable reported that Google plans to rebrand Blogger to Google Blogs in about six weeks. As this has not yet been confirmed by Google, I hope that it would not push thru.

I expect that the rebranding will change the domain from blogname.blogger.com to blogname.googleblogs.com. And as in any domain change, it will adversely affect all of blogs under the Blogger domain - all of the blogs I maintain.

I'm sure Google being the dominant search engine can implement massive reindexing but how about my blogs standing with Yahoo/Bing? What will happen to incoming links accumulated over the years? And what about those sign-ups to blog advertising platforms needing your blog URLs?

My blogs aren't yet established but gradually enjoys increase in traffic. I was banking on Google trusting older domains/URLs. The rebranding feels like starting over.

Waaah! The pain of relying with free services or platforms. I must certainly invest on custom domains from now on.

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New Blogger™ - My Reaction to These New Developments

The word is out from the Official Google Blog about What’s new with Blogger. I would say WOW! and woops! And other thoughts about this developments.

Based on the video, I think that the new Blogger™ is finally giving Wordpress a better competition in terms of design. It's wonderful and makes me want to blog more often. And I'm sure another round of Blogger vs. Wordpress debate.

I chose to create blogs on Blogger™ because it allows ads from different platforms like adsense, infolinks, adgitize, affiliate programs and others. But I would often wish that its interface would somehow be like that of Wordpress.

One of my perceptions, still, is that Wordpress is easier to customize if someone is knowledgeable with PHP. That is probably the reason of the thousands of WP plugins available for different purposes. I hope that Blogger™ would also develop something similar.

Woops!

On a negative side, my netbook's display isn't cut-out for the dashboard of WP. With all these improvements by Blogger™, I am afraid that my screen wouldn't suffice. I might need to buy a bigger laptop.

Anyway, I am hoping for a better blogging experience out of the new Blogger™. How about you? What are your thoughts on the new Blogger™ ?

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Adsense Issue: Adsense Leaderboard Ad Appears Inside My Blogger Dashboard

I successfully implemented a template change in one of my blogs - the Prepaid Cellphone Portal. Unfortunately, something went awry that is annoying me now.

The end result of the said template was an issue with Google Adsense. An adsense ad in leaderboard size format is appearing right inside my Blogger Dashboard, in the Design Tab/Page Elements.

This post is my quest on finding the solution to remove it.

Every publisher of adsense ads in his or her website/blog knows it is wrong to click on your own ads. I'm worried that I may inadvertently click on that ad while making modifications on the page elements of my blog template.

Of course, I tried searching online for a solution but so far, have failed to find one. Finding none, I resorted to posting my problem at the Google Adsense Help forum. Here.

The last resort would be to go under the hood (again), study the html/xml codes and perform trial and error. But I'm not in the mood for that right now.

I'm hoping that this adsense issue would be resolved soon. I'd appreciate suggestions from any of my helpful readers/visitors.

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Blogger Template Change

Blogger template change is a big decision to make especially when your blog already enjoys regular traffic, established a good follow or you are quite comfortable to seeing such design.

I decided to change the Blogger template of my Prepaid Cellphone Portal blog and I'm sharing a few things that crossed my mind while doing so.

• Don't change the blog if its template ain't broke.
  If it's doing well in traffic/revenue and there is no functionality issues, it's better to leave it alone even if you find the newest premium template better looking.
• The replacement Blogger template should be better than the previous one.
  I believe there is no perfect blogger template but there may be one that perfectly suits your blog niche or topic.
• Why spend when you get a good Blogger template for free? Okay standing out is a good thing but if entails cash you can spend with sommething else more necessary, then think again. I recommend eblogtemplates.com and ourblogtemplates.com for free blogger templates.
• Download Full template before uploading the new blogger template.
  Even if you're the best xml/html coder, things can sometimes mess up. Murphy's law even affects Blogger template changing you know.
  
  
• Adapt the Same Color for your new blogger template.
  If color theme is not the main reason why you're changing your blog template in the first place, it may be best to use the same color scheme in the new one. Your blog followers may also be turned off by the sudden colorfulness of their favorite blog - yours.
• Remember the effective parts of your old Blogger template and try to incorporate it on your New one.
  Of course, only if the new one don't have it. Whether its the read more truncated option, ads beneath the blog title, analytics code or etc. It would give you and your regular visitors some continuity. The downloaded backup serves this purpose.

I am far from being a blog template creator or expert. This post is just putting my thoughts about the subject out in the open. Changing blogger template is as subjective as every blogger/designer. Achieving your blog's goal is the only measure to know if your decision to modify the template is a right one.

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