Connect Your Blog to a Google+ Page

If you log into your Blogger dashboard today, you'll notice a new Google+ tab which can be used to integrate our blogs with Google+.



For some time, we have been able to link our blogs with a personal Google+ profile. Now we are also able to connect to a Google+ page for business, organisation or brand!



If you haven't already connected your Blogger site to a Google+ profile, go to the Google+ tab in your dashboard and click the button to upgrade:

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Is Opera incompatible with Blogger?

In recent days, those using Opera to maintain their Blogger sites may have received warnings that their browser is not compatible with the platform:

According to The Register, Blogger appears to operate "just fine and dandy" when using Opera 12.0 for Mac, but after dismissing the message it re-appears.

The alert box is banished if Opera changes its user-agent string - the line of text the browser sends to a server to identify itself - and pretends to be a build of Chrome.

Back in August last year, Blogger Buzz posted details of browsers which would be supported by both Blogger and other Google platforms:

Beginning August 1st, we’ll support the current and prior major release of Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari on a rolling basis. Each time a new version is released, we’ll begin supporting the update and stop supporting the third-oldest version.

An Opera spokesman has told The Register that this is assumed to be an error and that there is discussion with Google about fixing the problem.

Are you using Opera? If so, please let us know if you've been affected by this message. Your comments and opinions are most welcome.

Create Custom Permalinks for Blogger Posts

I discovered a lovely surprise when logging into Blogger to create a post this morning: the ability to create custom permalinks for posts!



Usually when we create a post, the URL generated for the item page is based on the post title. By creating a custom URL we can use a different structure which can help posts rank higher in search engines, as well as being more user-friendly.



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Farewell to the Blogger in Draft Blog (and hello +Blogger!)

The Blogger team recently posted that The Blogger In Draft Blog Is Being Retired. But don't worry if (like me) you favour using all the shiny new stuff in the Blogger in Draft dashboard, that side of Blogger is not going anywhere. Phew!



Rather than using a separate blog to post details of the new features we can try out, the Blogger Team will be posting it on the +Blogger page instead.



Be sure to add the +Blogger page to your stream if you haven't already done so. In recent weeks there's been a lot of useful posts on the page, including details of interesting hangouts and detailed information on using Blogger to its best effect.

Redirecting from Blogspot.com to country specific domains

In efforts to country specific laws, Blogger have begun redirecting blogs hosted on blogspot.com subdomains to country specific domains (ccTLDs).



For example, if you are in the UK and viewing a Blogger hosted blog which would usually have be hosted on a *.blogspot.com subdomain, you'll be redirected to *.blogspot.co.uk.



This is happening to enable Blogger to censor content on a country-specific level. For example, if the UK asked Blogger to remove  a page of content from a blog, the page would no longer be available to view by visitors in the UK; it would however be available to view in other countries.



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Blogger rolling out local domains?

While creating a site for a local company on Blogger today, I noticed the blogspot domain the site is hosted on suddenly changed from blogspot.com to blogspot.co.uk.



The site can still be accessed using the dot.com url I originally created, though it's automatically redirected to the dot.co.uk version.



So far I haven't been able to find any information about this new enforcement of local sub-domains, and may only assume this is a new feature the Blogger team are rolling out.



Have any of you noticed a new local domain extension for your Blogger hosted site? Please let us know what you think about this update in the comments below.



Image credit: The Booklight