During the past several months, Google has made multiple decisions with regards to page rank, penalizing those who sell text links, etc. and I really haven’t commented on it or even been impacted by it much. I could always sort of see their motivation, even if I didn’t agree with their actions. However, the latest move to not allow links in the Blogger comment area to blogs other than those on their platform really has me baffled. If you have a Blogger blog, this means that you can no longer visit the blogs of those who leave comments unless they are also on Blogger, and it very likely means that you will see fewer comments in general. That just stinks. What stinks even more is that they didn’t even feel the need to let their users know about it, and just quietly stuck the change in. That is terrible customer service and terrible business practice.
Is there anything you can do about it?
1. Switch to WordPress or some other blogging platform.
2. Install Haloscan to continue allowing external links in the comments.
3. Encourage your readers to leave the URL to their site in the body of the comment.
4. Complain to Google. I doubt that will do any good, but who knows?
Do you use Blogger? Does this move make you want to switch, or am I making too much of it? Tell me what you think.
::Update – Dec. 20::
The ability to use a non-Blogger URL when commenting has been restored. Good to know they are listening to their customers.
Yes I just found out today that this wasn’t because I’m a complete idiot and a lousy blogger, but that blogger had pulled the rug away!
Cheers
How nice. I like Google and love just about everything they do, but as of late it seems they continue to keep doing shady business. For whatever reason they are penalizing the very people that made them what they are today.
I think blogger stinks anyway, so maybe this will give the Blogger users a kick in the right direction toward a better blogging platform.
I noticed this too! I thought I just didn’t remember correctly about entering a name, website and email address that I wanted to (like we can do with WP). I brand myself in my comments and I visted a Blogger blog recently and had to tell the person, “oh, btw, I’m LaureMarie even though my email address is that crazy one above.” Lame! I agree with Deron about liking Google, but lately… hmm. They are going right up there with corporations like Disney, Verizon, Coca-Cola and Walmart bent on taking over the world. Yes, I am a closet conspiracy theorist! Ha!
That’s appalling – thank goodness I got off blogger!
I don’t use Blogger — except to maintain a profile to comment on blogs that don’t allow ‘anonymous’ — that is, non-Blogger — comments — and I agree with you 100%. This annoys the hell out of me.
Interested folks should be able to land on a commenter’s blog in one click, no matter what platform they’ve commented on, or blog on.
I really hope Google hears all this unhappiness, and fixes it.
It’s annoying…but I switched to Haloscan long ago.
I guess this means I will be moving my blog about 8 months sooner than I had hoped to. I think Google is really trying to get rid of bloggers who want to do anything but write their family members.
Just another example of Google throwing their weight around. They can do whatever they want and have to follow their rules… until another search engine comes along. I don’t know why everyone uses Google instead of Yahoo or any other search engine – I suppose people think it serves up better results, and they want to protect their product however they can. To Google, they are protecting their product (aka the quality of their search results) by eliminating as many un-organic links as possible.
I’ve stopped leaving comments on blogger blogs. It’s too much a hassle. My blog in Blogger is still being maintained because it’s my personal blog which I started about 2 years ago and for sentimental reasons, I don’t wish to delete it. But I still blog at my own wordpress blogs
Unfortunately Google is a private business and there is not much anyone can do about it. Google can and will do whatever they want really. I was looking at some blokes seo video on youtube the other day and he said “Google owe you nothing” and its true. Sure they can bend to public pressure but at the end of the day they are responsible to the shareholders and if something is going to lose them money or cost money or not make money then they can change the rules whenevr they want. All you can do is keep adapting. Even though I have been doing professional web design for over 8 years now, I am only just the last few months starting to get into the blogging side of things such as wordpress etc. I have never used th blogspot platform becasue I dont see the value of spending endless time creating a blog only to have someone hang over my head with the ability to take it away.
Google are starting to get me really annoyed. I used to really admire them, taking on Microsoft e.t.c.
I’m very glad I didnt start a purchased link campaign too, that would have been gutting
It’s funny because the blog comments issue is philosophically more earth-shattering than the page rank issue. Yet, this is the first blog I’ve seen about the blog comments. I guess Google thinks that Blogger is the only game in town.
Thanks for being vigilant about this issue and keeping us up to speed.
Hey, I’ve posted about this as well, including linking to other posts written about the issue. Hope it’s okay to have included yours!
Hi
Whatever next? I have only been blogging for a few months but thank goodness I chose WP. I agree with Pablopabla that it can be a hassle to leave a comment on a blogger blog – all that signing in…
cheers
Toni
your completely right, making the change is one thing, but not telling people about it is shocking. What, did they think people wouldn’t notice? I certaintly did on a few of the blogs i visit regularly. Be interested to hear what they have to say about it.
I’m a wordpress fan myself, but while we are on a Google rant then I’m happy to jump in. Google stopped being google when they went public and became something else. Maybe it had to happen given the direction they need to go in to stay on top of search. The “do no eveil” motto went out the door and they seem to be doing “plenty of evil” these days.
I’m jumping ship and moving to WordPress. What I’m so mad about is the work it’s going to take to do it. And I’d rather spend my time now planning for the holidays. Luckily, I’ll have some help with the migration. Really disappointed with Google!
Blogger is pretty lame anyway, but the general idea that Google is too big arrogant, and even untrustworthy, I think we are approaching consensus on that point.
[...] I have no idea. I take Randa’s thoughts in that Google Have Become Too Big For Their Britches. It can’t be a spam measure, as 60% of Google Blogspot Blogs are Spam. My thoughts are that [...]
This is the sort of things I’d expect from Microsoft, not Google…
This decision will not bode well for Google. A number of bloggers saw this coming and switched to Wordpress. The word on the street is to watch for more changes especially to Adsense.
Yep, they are getting too big for their britches!
Thanks for the news! I switched to WordPress earlier this year but still have a couple of blogs I use on blogger.
I didn’t notice this change but will certainly go investigate.
Fortunately I have been coaching my clients to not put all their eggs in the blogger basket! (I also advise the same with wordpress.com.)
Thanks,
Linda
Google can throw its weight around, but they could have at least said “Look, you’re not profitable to us. But if you want your comments to keep working right, and you want us to bring you some great new features, then pay us “x” dollars monthly or annually.” Don’t just rip the rug right out from under. Give us a choice to pay and get the features put back, or go elsewhere. Some people might actually want to pay to stay with Blogger, as long as things worked well. Just my 2 cents.
Yes, Google has become obnoxious to the point that they are going to lose a lot of people on their blogspot platform. I too noticed that no longer would they take the name, url, and comment all together. Putting links inside the body is definitely a chore in itself, isn’t it? What a PITA!
Bogger is an awful choice for anyone. They erased my blog for “terms of service violations” and would not tell me what rules i broke. What a bunch of BS.
Well, Google grew a lot and sooner or later they will hit a point when they will need a better organization for their projects. About PR, well, I think that blogging had a high impact on PR growth and they put less importance on blog linking too.
And I am so pissed with this change, I may actually contemplate moving to another platform. This is one reason why I didn’t choose Vox.
I used to use blogger but then I switched to Wordpress since it’s so much more powerful in terms of usability and SEO. I hated the Blogger WYSYWIG and when I switched it off I got unpredictable line brakes even though I used the correct mark up.
Wow, Blogger is going to loose a lot of customers. I use Wordpress and Typepad. I guess the old saying, “you get what you pay for” is true.
That’s fascinating. Google tends to do a good job fulfilling my needs, but I don’t use Blogger and hadn’t heard of this. I’m glad I chose WordPress. Thanks for sharing!
I saw this and wondered if it was just me until Gayla mentioned it. Homemom3 can’t move since it has so many links, but it is irritating. First I lost all of my rank, now this.
That’s appalling – thank goodness I got off blogger!
What good is the nofollow attribute when people can just use challenge response mechanisms like captcha ?
What worse could happen next? Google rewarding better click tru rates on adsense for people using blogger to entice people like us to go back to blogging on blogger? Geez….
Thank U Randa for yer I Follow Logo!
It looks Sharp*
I removed the NoFollow on Blogger – Hopefully it works OK*
)
Oh my no wonder I can’t leave the same kind of comments I used to. It bugs me. Thanks for explaining it.
~Leslie
So much for “don’t be evil!”
I have a Blogger blog, and a Wordpress blog.
I love Wordpress so much. There’s really no comparison. However, I have over 300 posts at my blogger blog, and a nice subscriber base. I wish I could find a way to “gracefully switch” to Wordpress — without losing backlinks and subscribers.
Until I find a way, I’m stuck with my Blogger blog. ;(
I am in the same boat, Laura. If anyone comes up with an easy way to move everything to Wordpress I would welcome the suggestions, but the keyword is EASY!
[...] in the light of Google’s recent behaviour with the Blogger platform. See Randa’s blog: Google is getting to big for it’s britches. I suppose if you are going to tattoo your favourite brand on to your body you had better hope that [...]
Seems like a dumb move by Google. They are just encouraging people to not comment on their blogs.
Unfortunately google is God in Internet and can do what wants…
Dont´be evil ¿?
I think the move is good for those who do not pay bloggers involve in the paid link stuff, but not good for those who want to add more to their blogs.
I personally suggest google to let the bloggers to choose what they want. I mean if that is really a cool funciton, they don’t need to set it without letting the user knows, but everybody will use it. Those who doesn’t like it can turn it off. Thats the way to go.
Google doesn’t understand that we are their customers. The whole meme of Google is that a small site with good content can get ranked just as well as a big corporate site. Since bloggers can’t pass link value onto what they like anymore we are losing some of the democracy of the search results – large sites will just continue to buy links and the rest of us will suffer as a result.
Being new to reading bloggs, I didnt really understand the problem. Reading your post has clarified it.
Like all BIG companies, they seem to lose focus on who they customers are, what the customers want and most importantly, what made there company as big as it is.
Customer service is a dying trait…..try and call any big firm and on most occasions, you get robotic service. It simply isnt good enough.
hi, This actually stinks … wht is wrong with google no one knows when will google understand that we are their customers. This is really sad .
Unfortunately this is typical behavior on the part of Google. They’ve got incredibly smart engineers, but with their intelligence they’ve got crazy arrogance too. Usually that’s a good thing — Google has the confidence to make great UIs by simplifying things for the average user. Unfortunately when there’s any “grey area” in a judgement call, the Goog all too often throws their paternalistic weight around without the courtesy of even an explanation.
The good news is that search is very competitive. As dominant as Google may be today, they will either respond to the market’s preferences, or they’ll sow the seeds of their own decline. It just might take a couple years!
It’s sad, really. We had some blog buddies in blogger.com and we noticed 3 days ago that link field was gone. Some have actually encouraged their readers to include their URL in the post themselves. One actually has transferred to wordpress.
Yes, and they did it so quietly and there’s been very little mention of it since.
Wordpress must be delighted – Google has given them an early Christmas present.
I still have a Blogger blog I use so I just installed Haloscan, but yes leaving comments on Blogger blogs is a pain. Although I am thinking of setting a Blogger blog up and getting it to automatically redirect to my main WordPress blog, then using that for leaving comments on Blogger blogs.
Done that, hopefully my name above links to new blogger blog and works okay.