Thepipbuzz

This article describes options for making link to a blog's old URL automatically point to the blog's new URL after a custom domain change. If you have a blog made with Blogger which has a custom domain, then it's easy enough to switch this blog to use a different domain. Doing this moves both the content (posts and pages) and template (layout, structure, colour-scheme). Often when people make this type of change, they want to set up re-directs so that if anyone clicks an external link to the old custom domain, they are re-directed to the same content on the new domain. For example, www.old-domain.com/current-Page.html should redirect to www.new-domain.com/current-page.html.) With many other website building tools, the .htaccess file for the site lets you set up re-directs like this. But things are little different when you use Blogger. Your Blogspot address VS your custom domain Your blog always has a blogspot addresss - let's call it: www.yourBlog.blogspot.com When yo...

This article is an introduction to Google's Maps Engine Lite, which is a tool for creating custom maps. What is Google Maps Engine Lite In late March 2013, Google announced a beta (ie late-stage test) of Maps Engine Lite - and now it is available from the main Google Maps interface, without the word "beta" in sight. This is a web application to let you "Create powerful custom maps", and it has more features than the current  "My Maps" custom-map editor in Google Maps, which I've used until now to put certain maps into one of my blogs . You can access it at: https://mapsengine.google.com/ Once you have signed in to a Google account, you can either view/edit an existing map that you have make with Maps Engine Lite or which has been shared with you in MEL, or create a new one. How to create a custom map using Maps Engine Lite Click on the New Map button from the front screen, or the New map link from the manage-files folder (top left side of the sc...

This QuickTip shares a feature that I just noticed inside Blogger's Add-a-gadget > Adsense option. Previously I've mentioned that rather than using the AdSense gadget offered by Blogger's Add-a-Gadget wizard, I usually get ad-code from AdSense and put this code into my blog as an HTML widget. This gives: Access to a wider range of ad-unit sizes,  Better control over the gadget alignment ,  Ability to re-use  AdSense's colour palettes that I've saved before Access to an "image ads only" option that Blogger doesn't have. The downside that if I have enabled a mobile template for the blog, then visitors who look at it using a mobile device don't see any ads.   I did find work-around for this, but it had a nasty side effect if I wanted to add another gadget to the template - and that's a story for a different post. Tonight I happened to look at the options in the Add-a-gadget > AdSense  option again, and was delighted to notice that the new...

This article describes Google's Inactive Account Manager, a new tool that gives you control over what happens to your Google account if you don't log on to it for a period of time. Ages ago, I read a thought-provoking article on ProBlogger about making a "blogging will" . His main aim was to ensure that his family could access his business assets (ie his blogs etc) if something untoward happened to him. Now, Google's Data Liberation Front have annnounced a new tool called the Inactive Account Manager , which lets Google account owners say what should happen if they ever stop using their account. This tool lets you decide If and when your account should be treated as inactive What happens with your data if it becomes inactive, and Who else is notified, and what is said to them. At the moment, it covers these Google tools - which are attached to your Google account : +1s Blogger Contacts and Circles Drive (which I guess means Docs too) Gmail Google+ Profiles, Pages ...

This QuickTip is about finding the "expand widgets" option in Blogger's template editor. Today, Blogger Buzz announced a new version of the template editor . This is exciting in all sorts of ways, including that it implies that Blogger will continue to support template editing:   some people suspected that Dynamic Templates , which don't allow template editing, might be the way of the future. But there's one immediate issue: many of the existing "How to do XXXX in Blogger" tutorials include statements like Open your template for editing, and tick the "Expand widgets" checkbox or Open your template for editing, and make sure that "Expand widgets" isn't ticked However today's changes have deleted the Expand Widgets checkbox . So - what do you do if you need to expand the widgets?   Luckily, this is one of the things that has been made easier, once you find out where the option has moved to. How to see expanded code for a gadget ...

This quick-tip describes some tools that I've recently discovered that measure page-load speed and make suggestions about how to improve it. Google have said a number of times that page-load-speed (ie how quickly a visitor to your blog sees it load onto the screen) is one of the factors in SEO. And even if SEO isn't important to your blog in terms of getting visitors, page-load speed is important for making your visitors happy : even your mother isn't going to be happy if your blog takes five minutes to show her the pictures of your new baby. So Google's tools for measuring and improving page-load speed are valuable tools for most bloggers. Where to find them: The tools are available at https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/ The most important one for Bloggers is in the Analyze section, called Insights, found under the "Analyze your site online" link . There are other tools there, too (eg an API, the Page-speed service, extensions for certain browser...

This article is about how to stop the annoying email messages that Twitter sends when an acquaintance joins Twitter and decides that they think you should follow them there too. What happens if a "friend" invites to you follow them on Twitter A few weeks ago, I got an email message saying that Helen Someone had just signed up to Twitter, and had provided my email address as someone who followed her elsewhere, and who she thought should follow her here too. But I'm already on Twitter, and my account there is linked to a different email address than the one which Ms Someone "generously" chose to share with Twitter. And frankly, I get enough email from her already, the last thing I want her doing is bugging me on Twitter too. So what did I do? Like any sensible person, I deleted the email. But now, every few days, I get an email message like this : ---------------------------- Original Message ---------------------------- Subject: Helen Someone is still wait...