Google Freak: Blogger

Showing posts with label Blogger. Show all posts

Follow Blogger on Twitter by Adding @Blogger

Friday, January 9, 2009

At last, Blogger has joined Twitter to bring you the latest official buzz from Blogger at Google.

Image representing Blogger as depicted in Crun...

Image via CrunchBase
Follow @Blogger on Twitter to get the latest buzzwords from the Blogger team in real-time.

See Blogger Buzz: Blogger in 140 characters or less

How To Add Google Friend Connect Social Gadgets to a Blogger Blogspot Blog

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Earlier, I thought that Blogger or Blogspot blogs could not have Google Friend Connect Social Gadgets added in because of the uploading restriction. Little had I known that the html files contain the required code that simply needs to be pasted into my blogger / blogspot template for verification and Google Friend Connect support.

Here is the guide on how to Add Google Friend Connect Social Gadgets to a Blogger Blogspot Blog!

For website owners all you need to do is upload the relay and canvas files to your web directory and "Voila!".

To get started you need these two accounts.

Blogspot/Blogger Blog Setup:

Login to Blogger
Click on Settings
Click on Layout
Click on Edit HTML
Find </body> (end of template)
Paste this: <script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.google.com/friendconnect/script/rpc_relay.js"></script> before the </body> tag.

Friend Connect Setup

Click on Setup a New Site link.
Step 1: Enter your sites Title and URL
Step 2: Skip this step as we have already added the code into our template. (above)
Step 3: Click the Test to finalize setup button!
Step 4: Click on Get code to add the Members gadget to your site.
Follow the page to setup your gadget canvas styles and copy it to your blog
Click on finalize and you're ready to embed some social gadgets!

Thats it! Now you can go add these cool social gadgets and membership gadgets to allow users with a Google account to signup and login to your blogspot blog.

There is more!

Just like Disqus, etc, you can add Google Friend Connect comments for blogger posts!
A Ratings and Reviews Social gadget is also available for a site and for individual posts.
A Wall gadget can be added to your site for discussions and wall posts. (like Facebook without the video, audio and pics... for now!)

Many thanks to Frederic Fleche, who runs http://www.bioinformatics.fr/ and who helped me clean up this redundant code that you can remove at will.

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.google.com/friendconnect/script/friendconnect.js"></script>

Each Gadget canvas template comes with this line of code even though the first canvas code you added already has it, in this case we added the code itself in the steps (see above). Keep the original one and remove the duplicates from your extra Google Friend Connect gadgets' canvasses.

Be sure to checkout the ratings and reviews gadgets as well as a general wall gadget, similar to a Facebook wall, for your site!

If you enjoyed this post or found it interesting please join my site using Google Friend Connect for more. You can also rate, review and comment on individual posts. Also, be sure to share this post with all your friends who have a Google / Gmail account and who might be interested in all things Google.

CrunchBase Information

Google Friend Connect

Information provided by CrunchBase

How To Enable Blogger Comment Moderation and Email Notifications

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Image via CrunchBaseComment moderation and notification by email for blogger blogs are off by default.
By enabling this option in Blogger, I will be notified of comments, or I can keep comments pending for moderation. It all depends on how much I want to be in control of the imminent GIGO system.

Here is How-To: Enable Blogger Comment Moderation and Email Notifications

Go to your blog at blogger.com (blogspot.com)

Click Settings

Click Comments

Click Edit at the Blog Posts layout element

Find Comment moderation

Click Edit to add or edit the default reactions.

Enter Your Email Address into the textbox for email notifications of new comments.

Now you will get an email to notify you about pending or posted comments, when selected. Very useful to prevent unwanted spammers and bots.

How To Add Reactions To Blogger Blog Posts

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Reactions are basically an emotional response to the article, similar to voting up with emotional semantics being the weighting. Reactions are defaulted to 'Funny', 'Interesting', 'Cool' and are not restricted. This means we can add more specific reactions by choice. 'Brilliant!' don't you think?

Adding reactions to a Blogger blog post is very simple. There is no HTML or JavaScript code to add or edit, just a simple checkbox to enable it.

Here is How-To:Add Reactions To Blogger Blog Posts

Go to your blog at blogger.com (blogspot.com)

Click Layout

Click Page Elements (if not there already)

Click Edit at the Blog Posts layout element

Click Reactions checkbox in the Configure Blog Posts pop-up.

Click Edit to add or edit the default reactions.

That is that and it's now time for users to react!

How To Make A Blogger Blog Load Faster

Optimizing a Blogger blog to load faster can be achieved by following some of the hints, tips and tricks given to us by Blogger.

Here is how-to: make your Blogger blog load faster!