Thepipbuzz

This quick-tip is about the Webmaster Tools Tool Data Validator tool - which is an easier way to "teach" Google about the way things are described on your blog or website. Recently, Google announced a new feature in Webmaster Tools called the Data Validator. This is like a simpler way for website-owners (which is what bloggers really are) to tell Blogger about structured information that they put onto their sites - by point-and-clicking at the information on screen, rather than by learning the intricacies of Rich Snippets and the snippet testing tool . What they've released so far is just an English-language tool for events - "such as concerts, sporting events, exhibitions, shows, and festivals". To use it you need to visit Webmaster Tools, select your site, click the "Optimization" link in the left sidebar, and click "Data Highlighter". And obviously you need to have verified the blog in Webmaster Tools before you start, and to do the ...

This article describes the Creative Commons search tool, which you can use to look for pictures, videos, music etc that are available for other people to use under a Creative Commons license. What is Creative Commons Previously I've described how copyright applies to bloggers , how you can protect your blog-content from copyright theives , and what you can do if they take you work anyway . The focus in that series was looking after your own rights. But rights always come with responsibilities. The details vary by country, but in general you cannot just copy other people's recent work without their permission - in the same way that they cannot copy yours. Some people, though, are happy to give other people permission to use their work , often with certain conditions (eg you must including an attribution link to the creator). Creative Commons is an easy, legal way for creators to give permission for things they create to be used by other people. It is a framework which offer...

This quick-tip is about Google's winter 2012 product cancellations, which appear to have less impact on most Blogger users than their recent seasonal purges. Today, Google have announced their next round of discontinued products - they used to call it "spring cleaning", but this time around have at least acknowledged that it's winter for half the world, and summer for the other half! Some Google Calendar features are to be discontinued, specifically: Creating new reservable times on a Calendar using Appointments Smart Rescheduler Add gadget by URL. Check your calendar via SMS/text message Create event via SMS/text message (GVENT). My guess is that this may affect some Blogger users, who have integrated a calendar with a blog. It's a fairly specialist area, so likely to be a small number. There are a few other discontinued features, but I suspect they won't affect bloggers to much extent: Google Sync a tool giving access to Google Mail, Calendar and Contact...

This Quick Tip describes a new rule that AdSense is introducing to their terms and conditions, about how often the new 300x600 ad unit can be used on a single page. Recently AdSense introduced two new sizes of ad-unit, the 300x600 Large Skyscraper and the 300x50 mobile-banner . These aren't available from the AdSense add-a-gadget or ads-between-posts options in Blogger - but once you've been fully approved for AdSense , it's easy enough to add them to your blog by getting the code from AdSense, and installing it to Blogger the same way you install any other 3rd party code . Personally, I like the 300x600 - it looks much more natural in several of my blogs, because it's more like the other things in the sidebar. Many of the ads it is showing at the moment are text-ads, because advertisers are still developing image-ads in the new size.  But even the text ads look better, especially in sites where I am trying to blend ads with other content. (Believe it or not, I hav...

This Quick Tip is about Google+ Communities, and the ways you could use them to promote  your blog. Google+ has launched Communities - their equivalent of Facebook's Groups. If you  want to be a market-leader in your field then you might want to create: A page for your blog (eg like I have with Blogger Hints-and-Tips' G_ Page), and A community about some aspect of your niche . (eg How to Use Blogger ).  Or,  if your blog is more like a newsletter for a club or group , you may want to create a  community for your members instead, with less focus on the niche and more on the people. Why bother "Fantastic - yet another social media channel to grow and keep up to date .   Just what we all need.   Not!" I sympathize ... but  this time around, I suspect it will be worth the effort. Firstly, if building communication and relationships between people who are interested in your niche is one of your blog's goals, there are strong reason...

This quick tip is about a new feature that AdSense have just announced, which lets you control the types of ads that are banned - by website, instead of just for your entire AdSense account. For a long time, I've recommended that Blogger-users who use AdSense should: Protect their account from malicious use , and  Stop sexual-content ads from showing to be sure that they meet Blogger's Terms and Conditions. The second of these steps is basically about telling AdSense not to show certain categories of ads on your blog. One of the bug-bears with this is that, until now, it's been all-or-nothing:  you could ban ad-categories from either all your sites or none of them.     For example, one of my sites is likely to be visited by people who are unhappy with the idea of dating agencies using suggestive photos of young women in the ads.   Until now, I've had to ban this category from all my sites, to be certain that they weren't show on the sensitiv...