Google Blogger CMS Platform Multiple issues
I've been on Google's blogger platform since the beginning. Several times there was a temptation to switch to wordpress but both I was lazy and as I was already deep into blogger with 1000s of posts, migration seemed like a risky affair. I held on to blogger platform but since recent times I am facing several issues on Google's blogger CMS. No solution seems to be in sight and Google doesn't seem to be focusing much on blogger platform of late.
Note that my blog has 2600+ posts- this could be a contributing factor to some of the issues listed below.
1. Blog Editor- Can't search across older posts.
In the blogger editor panel where we see all our posts, the search function is failing miserably. If I want to search if any blog posts have a specific content, I enter the keyword and search- but this search of late works only on recent posts. If a post older than few years has those key words, they never get listed. I have to manually search on the web, identify when it was published and navigate to that year and month to locate the post manually. Very Painful.
2. Old comments lost.
My Blog has over 20000 comments across its 2600+ posts. But the comment section shows only 1000 comments. This Club Mahindra post alone has 580+ comments. No way to locate older comments.
3. Comment Email alert has stopped working
Earlier we used to get an email when a new comment is posted. Now it has stopped.
4. No new widgets since ages.
Google's blogger template layout hasn't been introduced with any new widgets since years. Clearly no one is focusing on this aspect or no one is interested in making widgets for blogger
5. Reduced crawling frequency
Not sure if this is specific to my blog or most blogs are facing similar issue- the google search crawl frequency has dropped- earlier my new posts would get indexed within a day or even hours- now it takes multiple days. Could be an issue specific to my blog, or it could also be because of reduced importance Google might be giving to blogs.
6. WYSIWYG is not working
Editors are supposed to be What You see is what you get. But I have repeatedly experienced differences in formatting I could see in the editor vs how it appears on the live. Bit irritating as some minor formatting issues often cause lots of rework and struggle.
Example: In the editor, two photos appear perfectly aligned. But on the blog, there's a mis-alignment.
Editor behaving weirdly is a lot higher if text was originally typed elsewhere (like Google docs or MS word) and pasted in blogger.
7. Won't retail preferences
Preferences specified are often not retained and lost- next time I try to edit the link, check box is all empty!
8. Spam filter failing
Comment spam filter is repeated failing to filter obvious spam comments. I have to manually mark many as spam and remove them
9. Failing to list more than 3-4 posts on home page
On the home page, sometimes only 2-3 posts get listed- I don't know if this is a template issue or blogger CMS issue- My Airlineblog which is new and has less posts uses same template and doesn't have this issue. So I am guessing it is again due to overwhelming volume of posts in blogger CMS. This behavior is a bit random-hard to predict or reproduce as sometimes it shows 6+ posts on home page.
10. Video code disappears
Embedded videos are sometimes lost after an edit of the post- I will have to copy and paste the code one more time.
At this moment these are not showstoppers, so I am able to live with it- but it has really made blogging experience less fun.
11. Control doesn't stay where it was
I edit an old post say on 5th page in editor and publish- control doesn't stay on exact location- it resets to first page or comment section etc. I have to navigate again to the post if I want further edits.
It is getting more and more irritating to edit blog posts on Google blogger
Is Blogger going to be next service to face the axe by Google?
Google has a portfolio of 100s of products and has been killing products that aren't popular and aiding in revenue generation. Orkut, Google+ (Check https://killedbygoogle.com/). Google Trips will be next. (5th August last day). Will blogger follow suit?
Blogger is a free service by Google and doesn't generate any revenue. However, millions of blogs hosted on blogger serve as a base to display Google Adsense, which is main revenue source for Google. Thus that should be enough reason to keep Blogger up and running. Let us hope.
Solutions
I've searched in online forums for possible solutions- Couldn't find any convincing/practical solution. Over time, few things I plan to do are
- Delete old and irrelevant posts that are not getting any traffic or have lost their relevance/usefulness over time
-Keep taking more frequent backups.
Are you aware of any other solution? Are you facing similar issues?
Note that my blog has 2600+ posts- this could be a contributing factor to some of the issues listed below.
1. Blog Editor- Can't search across older posts.
In the blogger editor panel where we see all our posts, the search function is failing miserably. If I want to search if any blog posts have a specific content, I enter the keyword and search- but this search of late works only on recent posts. If a post older than few years has those key words, they never get listed. I have to manually search on the web, identify when it was published and navigate to that year and month to locate the post manually. Very Painful.
2. Old comments lost.
My Blog has over 20000 comments across its 2600+ posts. But the comment section shows only 1000 comments. This Club Mahindra post alone has 580+ comments. No way to locate older comments.
3. Comment Email alert has stopped working
Earlier we used to get an email when a new comment is posted. Now it has stopped.
4. No new widgets since ages.
Google's blogger template layout hasn't been introduced with any new widgets since years. Clearly no one is focusing on this aspect or no one is interested in making widgets for blogger
5. Reduced crawling frequency
Not sure if this is specific to my blog or most blogs are facing similar issue- the google search crawl frequency has dropped- earlier my new posts would get indexed within a day or even hours- now it takes multiple days. Could be an issue specific to my blog, or it could also be because of reduced importance Google might be giving to blogs.
6. WYSIWYG is not working
Editors are supposed to be What You see is what you get. But I have repeatedly experienced differences in formatting I could see in the editor vs how it appears on the live. Bit irritating as some minor formatting issues often cause lots of rework and struggle.
Editor behaving weirdly is a lot higher if text was originally typed elsewhere (like Google docs or MS word) and pasted in blogger.
7. Won't retail preferences
Preferences specified are often not retained and lost- next time I try to edit the link, check box is all empty!
8. Spam filter failing
Comment spam filter is repeated failing to filter obvious spam comments. I have to manually mark many as spam and remove them
9. Failing to list more than 3-4 posts on home page
On the home page, sometimes only 2-3 posts get listed- I don't know if this is a template issue or blogger CMS issue- My Airlineblog which is new and has less posts uses same template and doesn't have this issue. So I am guessing it is again due to overwhelming volume of posts in blogger CMS. This behavior is a bit random-hard to predict or reproduce as sometimes it shows 6+ posts on home page.
10. Video code disappears
Embedded videos are sometimes lost after an edit of the post- I will have to copy and paste the code one more time.
At this moment these are not showstoppers, so I am able to live with it- but it has really made blogging experience less fun.
11. Control doesn't stay where it was
I edit an old post say on 5th page in editor and publish- control doesn't stay on exact location- it resets to first page or comment section etc. I have to navigate again to the post if I want further edits.
It is getting more and more irritating to edit blog posts on Google blogger
Is Blogger going to be next service to face the axe by Google?
Google has a portfolio of 100s of products and has been killing products that aren't popular and aiding in revenue generation. Orkut, Google+ (Check https://killedbygoogle.com/). Google Trips will be next. (5th August last day). Will blogger follow suit?
Blogger is a free service by Google and doesn't generate any revenue. However, millions of blogs hosted on blogger serve as a base to display Google Adsense, which is main revenue source for Google. Thus that should be enough reason to keep Blogger up and running. Let us hope.
Solutions
I've searched in online forums for possible solutions- Couldn't find any convincing/practical solution. Over time, few things I plan to do are
- Delete old and irrelevant posts that are not getting any traffic or have lost their relevance/usefulness over time
-Keep taking more frequent backups.
Are you aware of any other solution? Are you facing similar issues?
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