Stats "Don't Track" - You Cannot Satisfy Everybody

Blogger recently redesigned the Stats "Don't track ..." option - and removed third party cookies from the picture.

The "Don't track ..." wizard is now accessed from the blog URL. The wizard still produces cookies - but they are ordinary first party cookies, which are much less feared than third party cookies.

But, every silver lining has a cloud.

In making the "Don't track" wizard accessed under the blog URL, Blogger created a new requirement - which is no more understood, by some blog owners, than "third party" cookies.

"Don't track" now runs scripts from the blog URL, instead of the Blogger dashboard.

In order for a blog to observe - and preserve - the "Don't track" setting, any computer that the owner uses has to permit first party cookies - and all scripts - from the blog, instead of from the Blogger dashboard.

Since "Don't track" is designed to be used by the blog owner, this new requirement should not be a problem. Every blog owner should be able to trust herself / himself, to not add dodgy code to his / her own blog.

Many security products block scripts from personally owned blogs.

Unfortunately, general security practice is to block scripts from "blogspot.com", "blogspot.xx" (for every "xx" for every country local domain"), and preferably for blogs published to custom domains.

You can trust scripts from "blogger.com", and the Blogger dashboard. You cannot trust the individual blogs, since you cannot trust every blog owner. Even if you could trust some people not to intentionally try to hack your computer, you cannot trust everybody to not stupidly install malicious software from a very convincing hacker, providing one more "gotta have this" blog accessory.

And since you cannot trust the individual blogs, you will have filters. And those filters have to be adjusted, to trust your own blogs - if you want to ignore your own pageviews.

Some blog owners add security software, and don't know how to maintain the filters.

There are too many Blogger blog owners who have installed protective software on their personal computers - without knowing how to adjust the filters, in the protective software. And some of those owners think that it is a Blogger responsibility, to provide them instructions, how to adjust the protective software on their own computers - when only they are capable of knowing what they installed.

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The new version of the Stats "Don't track" option is an improvement, because it no longer requires third party cookies - and involves the associated security risk. Unfortunately, it now requires blog owners to permit scripts, from the blogs themselves.

This is not a security risk, in that only personally owned blogs need to be trusted - but the blog owners do need to know how to adjust the filters involved. And not everybody with a computer knows how to configure their security accessories.

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Country Code Aliases Are Not In Use, In All Non USA Countries

One source of confusion, about the occasionally misunderstood country code aliasing of BlogSpot published blogs, comes from the way the aliasing is being installed, world wide.

Country Code Aliasing is a new feature - and it's still being tested. Since it's being tested, it's not being immediately installed in all countries, world wide - and this will cause confusion, until it is fully installed.

Google is installing Country Code Aliasing, one country at a time, as convenient to them.

Change notification will be provided, if at all, after change is made.

Google is providing no notice, before - or after - any given country is being added, as an alias to "blogspot.com". This is a standard technique used in Information Technology environments - it's not new or unique to the Blogger / Google Country Code Aliasing feature.

It's called by various names, in different companies. Some call it phased installation, others pilot testing, and others may have other names.

Each blog, with a different reader population, will have different results.

What it means - simply - is that not all blog owners will see the same effects, as the new feature is installed, in every country, as each new country is added. Every different blog will have a differing reader population, distributed over different countries.

Readers in some countries - where aliasing is active - will see different results than readers in other countries, where aliasing is not active.

Not any two blog owners will see the same problems.

Combining the different content in every different blog, which makes some blogs more or less susceptible than other blogs to the effects of aliasing, with the different reader population, not any two blog owners will see the same problems, or have the same opinions, about aliasing.

Until every blog owner realises several details about aliasing, we're going to keep hearing complaints.

• Country code aliasing is not optional.
• Country code aliasing has a real purpose.
• Country code aliasing is beneficial to all of us.

We'll deal with the problems, one blog, one country, and one owner at a time.

We'll all just have to deal with the problems, one country at a time. We'll need to ask our readers, one crucial question.

What exact URL is displayed, by your browser, when you observe the problem?

And, we'll have to observe the difference between "blogspot.com", "blogspot.co.uk", and "blogspot.fr".

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Some Blog Owners Reporting The Template Designer Changes Do Not Update On Their Blogs

For several weeks, we're been seeing various reports in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, mentioning problems with template updates, being made using the Template Designer wizard.

The reports are not so widespread to indicate a complete malfunction - but neither can we dismiss the problem, as being unique to one browser, one template type, or one particular update pattern.

It's likely that we are looking at a number of problems, aggregated and compounded, into one common symptom.

I cannot Save changes in Template Designer.

With a problem report like this, some examining of the details may be appropriate.

The Template Designer wizard, which is a component in the Blogger Dashboard, is a complex and sophisticated collection of menus and utilities, which runs on the blog owners computers.

Like most Blogger code, the Template Designer is subject to the effects of other programs, and various security settings - which may be installed or set on each individual computer, with or without the understanding of the blog owner and / or computer owner. In some cases, the blog owner and computer owner may be different people.

If you are seeing a problem with the Template Designer, when trying to update the layout on your blog, there are several tests which you can make, which may help to isolate the problem.

• Try making the same updates, using another computer.
• Try making the same updates, using another browser on your current computer.
• Try setting up a new blog, with the same template, and make the same updates to the new blog.

If you're able to make one or more of the above alternate updates, that will help to eliminate some, or many, alternate suspects, as the cause of your problem. If other people are reporting this problem, their results from the above tests may or may not correspond with yours - because their base problem may differ from yours.

Right now, we're seeing seven different causes of these problems.

1. Changes made by Blogger Engineering, to support new browser versions and browser updates, and to provide new template features.
2. Changes inherent in new browser versions, made by the browser vendors.
3. Third party browser add-ons, installed by the owners of the various computers.
4. Security settings, inherent in new browser versions and third party add-ons.
5. The cumulative effects of various template tweaks, both made using "Edit HTML" and the Template Designer itself.
6. Unrealistic expectations of blog owners, about effects of Template Designer settings, against all templates provided by Blogger.
7. Unrealistic expectations of blog owners, about effects of Template Designer settings, against templates not provided by Blogger.

Of these possible causes, only #1 (and possibly #2 and #6) are the sole responsibility of Blogger Engineering. The blog owners (and computer owners) must assume some partial responsibility for #2 - and sole responsibility for #3, #4, and #5. The blog owner, and the developer of any custom, third party template, must jointly assume responsibility for #7.

Recently, Blogger Support acknowledged the problem, in part.

Some users have reported that the Apply to Blog button in the Template Designer is non-functional for some Dynamic View templates.

We also have a Rollup Discussion, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, where individual details are being provided by various blog owners.

Right now, we're starting to suspect that some "problems" are actually caused by the blog owners, who are simply not aware that not all changes made, using the Template Designer (or the Layout or Template "Edit HTML" wizards), are designed to update all templates used in viewing our blogs.

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