Google Makes A Major Change on its Blogger Platform Comment Page

Related Post: Update: Google Revises Blogger Comment Page

IMPORTANT FOLLOW-UP ON THE HALOSCAN INSTALL! READ BOTTOM PAGE…

Google, creator of Blogger platform just a few days ago introduced a new setup for its comment page surprising many bloggers and have left them confused. There was no formal announcement on its official blog where its last update made was on November 26th.

The new set up makes it so that only Blogger users can benefit when leaving a comment in another Blogger users page. When a non-Blogger like a WordPress or Movable Type user leaves a comment, he has 2 choices: to give a nickname or be anonymous, both of which does not allow linking of URL.

This might yet be another setback for Blogger because soon enough other non-Blogger users will no longer leave a comment on a Blogger users posts because they won’t benefit anything. When that happens, you create too many unsatisfied bloggers and Google is giving them no choice but to leave. We know for a fact how important a comment is to a user and to the reader. Both sides benefit from commmenting and it’s enough of a reason for one to change a blog platform.

Is Google intentionally silent and being mum about it, hoping the Blogger users would not notice? OR is it just experimental on their part and will give formal announcements later on? Whatever their reasons for not disclosing such a huge move, it left too many unhappy and angry Bloggers who are about ready to jump ship and migrate their blogs to WordPress.

If you’re an established Blogger and do not have your own domain name, moving to another platform will be a headache especially if your site already has a page rank. When you move and create a new name, not only do you lose your page rank but you’ll be starting fresh and will be treated as one by search engines! Creating widgets, resubmitting links to other sites can be really tedious and time consuming! It is not really advisable to move if you don’t have your own domain name.

There is a Solution to this!

There are independent Commenting and trackback sites out there offering their services for free. One such website is HaloScan. It is a user friendly commenting page where HaloScan hosts your comments. What’s great about this site is that it is designed for Blogger and installing it is so easy!! Sign up for HaloScan and tell your Blogger friends. Don’t forget to tell them you read it here!

It is a wait and see for all Blogger users now if it will be a permanent feature or just up for testing. For now, you have a workaround, so install HaloScan on your sites now!© 2007

Follow UP: Updated on 07 december 2007

BEFORE INSTALLING HALOSCAN, PLEASE READ:

Clement, a fellow blogger commented that when he tried to install Haloscan, while it worked fine- all his previous comments do not show up anymore!! We didn’t know about this because we have not really tested the install since we are on WordPress. However, we relied on our blogger friends’ testimonials on how Haloscan is really working for them! We also went to check the site itself and boasts of close to 500,000 satisfied users and we did not see any disclaimer on previous comments not showing up.

Your old comments are not really gone. It is on Blogger still, it’s just not showing up on Haloscan because apparently, Haloscan’s service do not cover uploading previous comments as they could not get the data from Google itself. Before your install with Haloscan, they have asked you to back up your template. WE ASSUME THAT YOU DID! If you want to preserve the old comments for the time being we’re looking at a fix, kindly return to your previous template and your old comments will show up again.

In our initial finds, some bloggers went back to their old template and then copied the old comments on a notepad (name, URL, comments). After which, reinstalling Haloscan and then pasting the old comments on it. This works ONLY if you have few comments to fill in as this manual fix is very tedious and time consuming. So far, that is the fix other bloggers are suggesting.

We are probing into this issue right now and will find a work around on it if we can. We deeply apologize for the inconvenience it may have caused you installing Haloscan upon our suggestion. We meant well and meant no harm. We will update you all as soon as we find something. Thank you for your patience. © 2007

What is the role of Blogs That Follow to “Do Follow” Blogs?

Blogs That Follow is a pro-Do Follow directory! It aims to showcase blogs that has the “U comment, I follow” logos and encourages more bloggers to join in. Creating a directory for Do-Follow blogs make it easier for other bloggers to find blogs of the same niche, thereby easier for them discover the blog and share the much sought link love.

The Do Follow crusaders are slowly but consistently increasing in number, hence the idea of creating a hub for these websites to promote to the world that their blog or website is rel=”nofollow” free!

Blogs That Follow aspires to be a one-stop search directory for Do Follow bloggers who wish to benefit from other pro-Do Follow supporters.

Is Do Follow the answer to rel=”nofollow”?

To an enlightened blogger who values its readers and the community it built within the blog, the answer is a strong and big YES! Do Follow bloggers make a stand to rewarding its readers with link love (as aficionados refer to it) by deleting the rel=”nofollow” tag on their blogs.© 2007

How does rel=nofollow impact my blog?

When Google Inc. spearheaded the fight against comment spams in 2005, it received immediate and wide acceptance from different websites, especially from bloggers who were sick and tired of deleting spam after spam after spam of useless comments on their blogs.

It is meant to solve a major drawback to receiving comment spams, by discouraging spammers from leaving a comment because search engines will ignore the link anyway.

In so doing however, it also discourages readers from commenting because they too are being ignored by search engines! It thus creates a dead link between a blogger and its readers who leave legitimate comments to the site. This ‘flaw’ takes away the camaraderie and sense of community between bloggers and readers as the rel=”nofollow” tag takes away any incentive of commenting to a post. © 2007

What is “Do Follow”?

Do Follow is an action or a step a blogger initiates to remove the attribute rel=”nofollow” in its blog codes, either by installing a plug-in: WordPress plugin or this WordPress plugin, or manually for blogspot and for movable type. Most bloggers would refer to it as a campaign or a movement against rel=”nofollow”. The earliest initiator of the campaign is traced to Randa Clay who on her blog posted the now popular “U Comment, I Follow” design free for all to copy and place on their own blogs as long as the blog advocates Do Follow as well. (This site encourages submission of earlier campaigns to give proper and due credit.)

What is rel=”nofollow”?

rel=”nofollow” is a tag Google, Inc. formulated to prevent comment spams from being crawled by its search engine and is later on supported by other major search engines like Yahoo! and MSN search.

How does rel=”nofollow” work?

When a spammer leaves an unwanted comment on one’s blog like “Win an Apple I-pod”, “Get your free vacation packages now” or “Do you want to win 1 million dollars?” with a link to a website, the <rel=”nofollow”> tag ignores such link so that everytime a search engine updates its search ranking, that link is not included for relevance of a page. It is meant to punish spammers and hopes to deter abuse in posting unsolicited links to blog comments and any websites that accepts comments or trackbacks like guestbooks, visitor stats or referrer lists. © 2007