Thepipbuzz

This QuickTip is about a file that Google Buzz is going to put into your Google Drive, as part of it's final turn-off routine, for all Buzz accounts that haven't yet been deleted. Google Buzz was one of Google's early-and-short-lived social networking attempts, but was used by some bloggers looking to promote their blogs. It was closed down in October 2011 I haven't seen it published in any of the Google blogs that I follow, but recently I was sent an email saying that t he last step in the close-down will happen o n or after 17 July 201 3, when Google  will save a copy of the Buzz posts from any remaining active Buzz accounts to the account-holders  Google Drive .  There will be two types of file, and the files won't  count against your storage limits.   They say: The first will be private, only accessible to you, and have a snapshot of the Google Buzz public and private posts that  you wrote . The second will have  a copy of your  Google Buzz p...

This QuickTip is about a change to AdSense's policies about modifying their ad code: in short, you are now allowed to change the code in certain way, to achieve certain things. AdSense have announced changes to their "Modifying ad code" policy. In the past, publishers weren't allowed to change AdSense ads in any way other than what could be done through the AdSense ad-code generator or Blogger's Add-a-gadget / Adsense tools. Now, however, some changes are allowed, so you can do things like: Responsive design : creating a single webpage that adapts to the device on it�s being viewed on (eg laptop, smartphone or tablet). A/B testing : creating multiple versions of a page and comparing how they are used to see which page is the most effective. Setting custom channels dynamically: Ad tag minification : Enabling your site pages to load faster by reducing the amount of data to be transferred. In several places, AdSense say that the goals of these changes should be ...

This article is about setting up Google Analytics on your blog in a way that includes data for AdSense clicks and behaviour. Google Analytics and Blogger. Analytics is Google's tool for measuring website performance:    how many visitors, how long do they stay for, what pages do they look at - and if you use AdSense, where are your earnings coming from. It's a major step up from Blogger's Statistics displays, and has far more details eg where the visitors came from, what browser they are using. When people first started using Analytics with Blogger, they followed the standard Analytics instructions to edit their template and add the tracking code to it. However if they switched to use a different template , the tracking code was lost unless they remembered to re-install it - and many people didn't remember. So some Google engineers started telling people to put the code into an HTML/Javascript widget instead, because widgets are kept through template changes. ...

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 ...