Blogger Resolves The FaceBook Photo Sharing Issue

Blogger Engineers recently added Blogger template code, to provide images in shares to FaceBook.

The added code is included in the standard template header. If you have a custom template, you may need to verify template header content.

If you have added the previously recommended Open Graph Code to your blog, to allow Open Graph based post / photo sharing - and you use the FaceBook Developers Debugger tool, you may see a new diagnostic suggestion.

Given newly added template code, blogs with added OG code may generate ominous warnings in the FaceBook Developers Debugger tool.

Looking at my blog, and the blog main page.

Object at URL 'http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/' of type 'article' is invalid because it specifies multiple 'og:url' values: http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/, http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/.

Looking at my blog, and a FaceBook Debug log, for this post.

Object at URL 'http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2016/03/blogger-resolves-facebook-photo-sharing.html' of type 'article' is invalid because it specifies multiple 'og:url' values: http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2016/03/blogger-resolves-facebook-photo-sharing.html, http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2016/03/blogger-resolves-facebook-photo-sharing.html.

With Blogger now providing a properly resized image, automatically, from each post, the image provided in the previously suggested Open Graph code is now redundant - and causes duplication.

The browser source listing, for this post.

The FaceBook Debugger log, for this post.



Here's what I see now, in the standard template header.

<meta content='Blogger recently added template code, to properly share content to FaceBook. Learn how this affects your blog.' name='description'/>
<meta content='http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2016/03/blogger-resolves-facebook-photo-sharing.html' property='og:url'/>
<meta content='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqAwPngF8wVHKBg-4CTrKgEOUXfgtPIjSzp0sFgOqkFhMJhTKHaqT_qX06vE2Ib1fDdOMkwKs6Y17_XlYoZJxTQPoGHh_HerSMTCcWUT4O0JfV77PPXC3hkE6qypiqpqK69lBuQW6wOA-6/w1200-h630-p-nu/Screenshot+2016-03-13+at+14.35.32.png' property='og:image'/>

So, what do we have?

<meta content='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqAwPngF8wVHKBg-4CTrKgEOUXfgtPIjSzp0sFgOqkFhMJhTKHaqT_qX06vE2Ib1fDdOMkwKs6Y17_XlYoZJxTQPoGHh_HerSMTCcWUT4O0JfV77PPXC3hkE6qypiqpqK69lBuQW6wOA-6/w1200-h630-p-nu/Screenshot%2B2016-03-13%2Bat%2B14.35.32.png' property='og:image'/>

The chosen image - resized to 1200 x 630, to suit the FaceBook recommended 1.9 aspect ratio - and large, to suit the FaceBook recommended size.

Now, 3 data elements (2 Open Graph) may be redundant.

• description
• og:image
• og:url

This makes the immediately previous advice unnecessary.

If one wishes to provide author information, that also becomes slightly simpler.

<!-- BEGIN Open Graph tags -->
<meta expr:content='data:blog.metaDescription' name='description' property='og:description'/>
<meta expr:content='data:blog.pageTitle' name='keywords'/>
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
<meta content='article' property='og:type'/>
<meta content='https://plus.google.com/nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn/about' property='article:author'/>
<meta expr:content='data:blog.pageName' property='og:title'/>
<b:else/>
<meta expr:content='data:blog.title' property='og:title'/>
<meta content='blog' property='og:type'/>
</b:if>
<meta expr:content='"en_US"' property='og:locale'/>
<!-- END Open Graph tags -->

If you truly want to share author details, you still have some work to do - but photos should now be shared, automatically, if your blog has a template with a standard header.

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Recently, Blogger Engineering added OG code to the standard template header, to allow us to share posts with images to FaceBook, without having to add special code. This should help, for owners of blogs which have standard headers.

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Base64 Photo Hosting, And Open Graph Code

Some blog owners make photos an important part of blog content.

When sharing a post to FaceBook, problems are seen with photo content. In some cases, this is because of how the photos were added into the post, when using Post Editor.

We've known about problems with photos installed using drag and drop, and post editor, for a few years. Drag and Drop photos, in some cases, are stored as "Base64" content - with the photo content hosted in the post, instead of Google Photos (or Picasa).

Photos added to posts in post editor, using "drag and drop", have been a problem for many years.

Base64 hosted photos make posts abnormally large.

Posts containing "Base64" encoded photos are abnormally large - and will cause problems with the index pages, and auto pagination. That is a nuisance - but just that.

With posts shared to social media, such as FaceBook and Twitter, photos hosted using Base64 become more than a nuisance. When normal posts are shared to FaceBook, OpenGraph code is used to identify key post content - such as a photo to accompany the shared post.

Open Graph code uses URLs to reference photos.

OG code uses HTML / XML tags, in template code - with a URL identifying a shared photo. A post that contains Base64 hosted photos won't have URLs identifying the photos - it will have the actual photo content.

This photo was installed, using drag and drop. Interestingly enough, it is not Base64. It is possible that Blogger no longer uses Base64 encoding - which would explain why the problem with OG code is rather irregular.

When shared to FaceBook, the photo must be converted to normal Google Photo hosted content, so it can be shared using a URL - as normal photos are shared, using OG code. If shared using Base64 content (if OG were to support Base64), the post, again, becomes abnormally large.

Base64 hosted photos simply present one more complication, when sharing posts to FaceBook, Twitter, and other social services.

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Some blog owners publish posts that contain photos added using drag and drop. Some drag and drop installs result in Base64 hosted photos - which must be converted to Google Photos hosted content, when shared to FaceBook or Twitter.

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Phishing Is A Form Of Identity Theft

We've recently seen a few blog owners, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, report their blogs being classified for phishing.

Today my blog was locked due to "phishing":

Hello, Your blog at http://xxxxxxx.blogspot.com/ has been reviewed and confirmed as in violation of our Terms of Service for: PHISHING. In accordance to these terms, we've removed the blog and the URL is no longer accessible.

No, there was no phishing in this blog - and no, I didn't change or add anything to it recently, that could trigger a false detection or report.

In the past, phishing generally would involve gadgets used to gather online identity information - such as third party email collection.

Email collection, in Blogger blogs, is best done using FeedBurner.

Most properly designed Blogger blogs, though, use FeedBurner Email Distribution - and FeedBurner, being part of Google, is hopefully not susceptible to phishing involvement.

Considering phishing as a form of identity theft, one might see a connection between some blogs, and Blogger abuse classification.

Phishing is the attempt to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details (and sometimes, indirectly, money), often for malicious reasons, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.

Some blog owners, in an effort to increase traffic, may be incautiously adopting identities of commercial products.

Mentioning commercial products, in user names, is a way to increase blog traffic.

When using social networking platforms, like FaceBook, Google+, and Twitter, a user name which includes a commercial identity may seem like a great way to get attention from the other members. The legal owners of the commercial product, however, may consider this to be a copyright violation, or identity theft.

Each of the terms "copyright violation", "identity theft", and "impersonation" may be included by Blogger abuse classification, or online reviewers, as PHISHING.

Google - and AdSense - may also have a problem with social networking identity.

It's also possible that Google wants to protect themselves - and is requiring the guilty blogs to be classified.

I do note that one of the blogs, recently reported in the forum, appears to have empty AdSense ads - on the same page with FaceBook and Google+ badges, that may impersonate a commercial product. The impersonation - intentional or not - may also violate AdSense prohibited content.

Google ads may not be displayed on websites with content protected by copyright law unless they have the necessary legal rights to display or direct traffic to that content.

Besides being careful to only include original content in the blog, one should also be careful to not infringe on commercial identities in other websites - such as social networking platforms.

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Some #Blogger blog owners, in an attempt to increase blog traffic - are advertising their blogs using social networking platforms like FaceBook, Google+, and Twitter - and are using the names of commercial products in their user names.

The user names include carefully added words which, to the blog owners, may seem to protect the blogs from complaints by owners of the commercial products. It's possible that Blogger does not see that way - and may be righteously classifying the blogs for copyright violation or identity theft, both of which might be considered phishing.

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The Followers Gadget, And Internet Identification

How many of you have used your favourite Internet application recently - and received a convenience login suggestion?

To continue, please tell us who you are!

Login with your FaceBook, Google, or Twitter account.

Many small business Internet services, instead of making you setup one more unknown account, are letting you login, and use their product, based on your FaceBook, Google, or Twitter account.

This is not a magical concept. It requires a lot of work, to make this happen.

The major Internet services, such as FaceBook, Google, and Twitter, act as identification sources for many smaller services.

Letting FaceBook, Google, and Twitter identify us is good, for everybody.

With FaceBook, Google, and Twitter providing identification services, we see a win - win - win situation.

1. FaceBook, Google, and Twitter get to set the standards for identification - and make the Internet safer for everybody.
2. The lesser known services can concentrate on their product - and not worry about identification.
3. The users of the lesser known services have one less account / password to maintain.

I login to AddThis, using my Google account. That's one less account, for me to maintain.



This is called Open Protocol Authorisation - or OAuth. I use OAuth to login to AddThis - and to other services, at various times.

Followers used to use OpenID Authentication - and complicated code.

For many years, Blogger used a similar concept - OpenID authentication - with the Followers gadget. People could Follow our blogs, using a Twitter, Yahoo, AIM, Netlog, or OpenID account - and they could identify their activities (similar to our Blogger / Google+ profiles) using a profile hosted by Orkut, Netlog, Plaxo, or Twitter.

This use of a third party service, for account and / or profile hosting, is not magical. OAuth / OpenID standards or not, each different service has its own peculiarities. Coding, to allow for these peculiarities, makes the Followers gadget more complicated than it should be.

Complicated code is not good. Blogger has to maintain duplicated code to allow for different browsers, operating systems, world wide government bureaucrats, and more. More time spent fixing problems == less time spent improving features.

Followers has shown problems to different people, at various times.

The Followers gadget, for many years, has well known problems.

"Were sorry ...

This gadget is configured incorrectly."

Everyone who uses Followers, on their blogs, has surely seen this notice.



The gadget, on this blog, has shown that error, more than once. Many would be Followers have told me so.

Many of us have tried to surf the Followers gadget, on their favourite blog, and seen this display too.



A lot of people saw the latter, in 2015, when using the gadget on this blog.

Now, Blogger is simplifying Following - and dropping some Followers.

This year, Blogger Engineers are removing excess code in the Followers gadget, to make it more reliable. This requires removal of code which supports OpenID accounts in Twitter, Yahoo, AIM, and Netlog - and profiles hosted in Orkut, Netlog, Plaxo, and Twitter.

Now, Following supports only Blogger / Google / Google+ accounts and profiles. Note that Blogger / Google / Google+ accounts do not have to be GMail.

Removal of the excess code requires removal of the OpenID accounts and profiles. And, we have been seeing our Followers counts drop, since mid December 2015.

It's important to note that anybody "Following" our blogs, using OpenID, can continue to use any email or third party newsfeed subscription - neither of which are affected by the account / profile cleanup. They were not using Reading List to read our blogs, since Reading List requires a Blogger account. And with the Followers gadget broken, no new readers were surfing to our blogs.

I don't like the drop in numbers, any more than the next blog owner. But I also don't like being unable to surf, using the Followers gadget.

So, I'll endure what looks like a 20% drop in Followers count - and be able to use the Followers gadget. And hope that having a working gadget, with less Followers, will still lead to more traffic - more so than having a broken gadget with more Followers. And, move forward.

And, my deepest apologies to those of you who were Following - but are not now - and wanted to find out why you were dropped.

Just use a Blogger / Google account, and Follow again, using a working Followers gadget, or using the Reading List wizard, please. And we'll put this sad story behind us.

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Twitter New Rule Comes up With 9 Questions That Nobody Has Asked

Twitter changed the game with their new rules that significantly limit the usage of their API. Much has been written about that but nobody actually asked some very important questions that I’m curious about. Before publishing them here I sent these questions to top technical bloggers and journalists, and they didn’t seem to be interested at all (not even a reply). But I still don’t believe that the questions are irrelevant, so here they are. If twitter doesn't answer them, at least I hope to get some “most likely” answers in the comments:

1. Why do you need these limitations? We all assume that it’s because of your business model, and we are totally fine with you making money, but how is imposing these limitations helping? If you want to display ads, can’t you simply send the ads with the API, and cut API access for those filtering the ads? Or, alternatively, make the API paid (pay-per-usage) – this worked for Google. Or a hybrid solution – if you are a displaying tweets in real time, pay, otherwise use it for free.

2. Why the display guidelines? What’s the benefit of a unified display for you and for the users? Users so far have been perfectly aware that they are reading and interacting with tweets even if the tweets are formatted differently. Furthermore – you’ve been changing twitter.com a lot in the past. Imposing a unified look will mean either that you won’t change anything in the future, or that API clients will have to make changes every now and then.

3. Will you kill TweetDeck? It is a traditional client which currently violates a lot of the new rules.

4. Have you considered that browser add-ons and smartphone apps can still do whatever they want with tweets and you can’t do anything about it? A browser add-on can modify the look, can append additional actions, etc, without using the API. Likewise, a mobile app can have an embedded browser and modify the DOM. Existing clients may move in that direction and you won’t be able to enforce your rules. It will just be less convenient for the developers
.
5. Why are you blocking additional actions for tweets? The rules say that you can’t have any addition action attached to a tweet. But these are options that many users like and want - translate a foreign tweet, schedule a retweet, reshare the tweet to other networks, email a tweet, read-it-later, and more. Why are you are effectively killing a lot of useful functionality? How does that contribute to your business goals?

6. Did you know that the new rules will cause a lot of “collateral damage” and in what way is this justified? You may have wanted to kill “traditional clients” only, but so far the integration with instagram, tumblr, linkedin, ifttt (and more) has been broken (some of these are not necessarily due to the changes themselves, but to youroverall intention to more strictly enforce rules)

7. Why do you say that your users own their content, but you don’t allow them to have it distributed to other channels (the reason linkedin and ifttt dropped twitter support)? They can still do that by manually pasting it to all these channels, but why making it harder for them?

8. Do you know that your apps and web client are not that good? I can’t use the twitter app for android because it is slow and gets stuck all the time, so I use TweetDeck. Also, your clients lack a lot of little things that make me choose other clients.

9. Why aren’t you answering questions of developers (mine, at least)? I emailed every relevant email address I found and also asked at the discussion forum. After my initial “rage” against the new rules I decided to approach the issue in a more civilized manner and asked you how exactly can I change my service to conform to your rules. But no answer for a month and a half now.

Posted by:Bozhidar Bozhanov

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Suresh Raina Tweeted against Pakistan after Pakistan were beaten by Sri Lanka

Suresh Raina and his 'nephew' were trending on Twitter on Friday. A tweet from his account ridiculed Pakistan cricket team but he later said that it was written and sent by his nephew. The tweet was sent after Pakistan were beaten by Sri Lanka in Colombo on Thursday. A tweet on

Raina's page said: Ek do din late gaye ghar !!!! Woh bhi besharam ki tarah Gaye... Bye bye Pakistan!!!!

The tweet was deleted a little later.

On Friday, Suresh Raina tweeted an explanation that the controversial tweet was actually tweeted by his nephew.

"Smart phones r dangerous. Discovered it last night after my nephew posted random tweets. I'm a sportsman and would never disrespect," he tweeted.

"Though I already deleted it, I felt its better to clarify. To all those who r upset, I'm sorry. I'm not one to show disrespect."

Suresh Raina

• ✔

@ImRaina

Smart phones r dangerous. Discovered it last night after my nephew posted random tweets. I'm a sportsman and would never disrespect.

5 Oct 12

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Suresh Raina

• ✔

@ImRaina

Though I already deleted it, I felt its better to clarify. To all those who r upset, I'm sorry. I'm not one to show disrespect.

5 Oct 12

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Looking at Twitterati's reactions after his explanation, it seems they don't believe him though. #Raina, #RainaNephew started trending minutes after his tweets. Here are few funny tweets.

Gaurav@gaushama

#Raina: Mere paas Bangla hai, Gaadi hai, Bank Balance hai, kya hai tumhare paas. #RainaNephew: Mere paas tera smartphone hain.

5 Oct 12

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Nikhil Mane@nikhiltait

Yeh twitter hai boss, na tameez se tweet kiya jaata hai aur na tameez se delete kiya jaata hai #RainaNephew

5 Oct 12

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Faking News@fakingnews

Suresh Raina's nephew must be young, maybe a classmate of Shahid Afridi.

5 Oct 12

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Fake IPL Player@_fakeiplplayer

Didn't know Suresh Raina calls his thumb his nephew.

5 Oct 12

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Common Man@i_common_man

5th October is now to be celebrated as World Nephew Day

5 Oct 12

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Fake IPL Player@_fakeiplplayer

Now Rohit Sharma will say his nephew was batting for him all this time. #Suresh #Raina

5 Oct 12

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