Sunday, April 18, 2010
PTC / PTS And Other Frauds
We've seen a few blogs recently confirmed as spam, which appear to be focused or named around Pay To Click / Pay To Surf advice content. So, I did some thinking, and reasoned why PTC and PTS should have no place in the Blogosphere.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Adding The Jump Break To Older Templates
Did you just add the "Jump Break" feature to your blog, following the instructions from Blogger, to add the extra snippet of code? Are you observing odd behaviour, such as the legendary post / sidebar alignment problems, or photos disappearing / being oddly placed in the post?
It's possible that the instructions as provided by Blogger, when taken literally, may be causing such odd behaviour.
It's possible that the instructions as provided by Blogger, when taken literally, may be causing such odd behaviour.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Blogs With Classic Templates Receive New Lease On Life
For any of you publishing a blog that uses a classic (HTML) template, Blogger made a major improvement yesterday. A long requested option, the "Newer Posts" / "Older Posts" links, was added to the classic template meta language.
So now, if your blog display is segmented by Auto Pagination - even if your blog uses a classic template - your readers (and the search engines) can access all of the posts in your archives.
So now, if your blog display is segmented by Auto Pagination - even if your blog uses a classic template - your readers (and the search engines) can access all of the posts in your archives.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Safe
In an idle search today, I discovered that Nitecruzr Dot Net, and all blogs in the domain, are now considered safe, by various website monitor programs. Both SERPs in Google Search, Google Safe Browsing, and McAfee SiteAdvisor, now show Nitecruzr Dot Net in green.
So now, you may enjoy all Nitecruzr Dot Net blogs in assurance of perfect safety. Spammers, note: We will continue to moderate comments, ruthlessly. "Nice Blog" spammers need not apply here.
And in other news, we are seeing noticeably less reports about hijacked blogs, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.
We tested this site and didn't find any significant problems.
So now, you may enjoy all Nitecruzr Dot Net blogs in assurance of perfect safety. Spammers, note: We will continue to moderate comments, ruthlessly. "Nice Blog" spammers need not apply here.
And in other news, we are seeing noticeably less reports about hijacked blogs, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Gadget Based Malware Attack Continues
This week, we note that the hijacking of Blogger blogs, observed earlier this month, involving maliciously coded third party Blogger Gadgets, has resumed.
On a positive note, we see that Blogger has now taken responsibility of the problem.
On a positive note, we see that Blogger has now taken responsibility of the problem.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Avoid Custom Domain Problems
Having written my somewhat popular guide Troubleshooting Your Custom Domain Problems, I have learned that many problems addressed in the guide can be better solved by being avoided.
So, I'm now writing Setting Up A Custom Domain, as an overview to avoiding what can be avoided.
So, I'm now writing Setting Up A Custom Domain, as an overview to avoiding what can be avoided.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Templates
Well, Blogger finally did it.
In Draft, today, you'll find the new Blogger templates. 3 column templates, templates that use transparency overlays, 4 column templates, even 3 and 4 columns, with split sidebars. And some very shiny backgrounds.
This will keep all the artistic types busy, for a good while. And there will be less damaged templates, from importing third party code.
From the Draft Blogger dashboard, select "Layout". From the navbar, "Customize". Then, "Template Designer".
So that's the end to boring Blogger templates. What you have now is a combinable inventory of 4 exciting styles, with separately selected layouts (2, 3, and 4 columns, split sidebars, left / right variations), a background library with colour palette, and adjustable column widths. Enough choices to keep many bloggers busy choosing.
In Draft, today, you'll find the new Blogger templates. 3 column templates, templates that use transparency overlays, 4 column templates, even 3 and 4 columns, with split sidebars. And some very shiny backgrounds.
This will keep all the artistic types busy, for a good while. And there will be less damaged templates, from importing third party code.
From the Draft Blogger dashboard, select "Layout". From the navbar, "Customize". Then, "Template Designer".
So that's the end to boring Blogger templates. What you have now is a combinable inventory of 4 exciting styles, with separately selected layouts (2, 3, and 4 columns, split sidebars, left / right variations), a background library with colour palette, and adjustable column widths. Enough choices to keep many bloggers busy choosing.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Social Engineering Attacks Against Blogger Blogs
This month, we are seeing what appears to be the fourth identified social engineering attack against Blogger blogging, in as many months.
In December 2009, we saw a "blogoholic.info" hijack.
In January 2010, we saw a "smashingfeeds.com" / "searchinvented.com" hijack, most commonly involving a "Tweet This" accessory.
In February 2010, we saw a "sendptp.com" hijack, most commonly involving a "falling snow" / "falling hearts" (for Valentines Day) gadget.
This month, we are seeing a "deplayer.net" hijack, apparently involving various "visit counter" / "countdown timer" and "music accessory" gadgets.
Each month, some reports also mention gadgets identified in previous months, also redirecting to the hijack of the month URL. This makes the observed activity very likely to be part of an organised, persistent attack.
The most recently identified attacks use aggressively protected code, and may require manual de install procedures.
Please, be careful of any non Blogger accessory. If you (your blog) are the victim of any such accessory, and can identify where you got the accessory, or where it was recommended to you, your information could be valuable here.
It appears that some malware may be included in some gadgets installed by the Blogger "Add a Gadget" wizard. If you find removing any Blogger gadgets to provide you any relief, please report your findings in my article Some Hijack Malware Is Being Claimed To Be Blogger Provided. Your details, provided there, would be greatly appreciated.
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In December 2009, we saw a "blogoholic.info" hijack.
In January 2010, we saw a "smashingfeeds.com" / "searchinvented.com" hijack, most commonly involving a "Tweet This" accessory.
In February 2010, we saw a "sendptp.com" hijack, most commonly involving a "falling snow" / "falling hearts" (for Valentines Day) gadget.
This month, we are seeing a "deplayer.net" hijack, apparently involving various "visit counter" / "countdown timer" and "music accessory" gadgets.
Each month, some reports also mention gadgets identified in previous months, also redirecting to the hijack of the month URL. This makes the observed activity very likely to be part of an organised, persistent attack.
The most recently identified attacks use aggressively protected code, and may require manual de install procedures.
Please, be careful of any non Blogger accessory. If you (your blog) are the victim of any such accessory, and can identify where you got the accessory, or where it was recommended to you, your information could be valuable here.
It appears that some malware may be included in some gadgets installed by the Blogger "Add a Gadget" wizard. If you find removing any Blogger gadgets to provide you any relief, please report your findings in my article Some Hijack Malware Is Being Claimed To Be Blogger Provided. Your details, provided there, would be greatly appreciated.
>> Top
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