Official Blogger Blog: October 2010

Safe Browsing on Blogger

October 27, 2010

National Cyber-Security Awareness Month is here once again. In that spirit we wanted to share a bit about what we are doing on Blogger to help fight malicious content, along with some tips for a safer browsing experience online. While spammers are always coming up with new tricks, the combination of Blogger’s abuse-fighting systems and the security features of modern browsers helps ensure that you’ll be able to browse through your favorite blog content with confidence.

We’ve partnered with other abuse-fighting teams within Google to develop sophisticated systems for automatically detecting and quarantining nefarious content on Blogspot. Over the years, our teams have analyzed the patterns and behavior of malicious blogs and code, and with each new detection our existing algorithms are trained for better coverage in the future. As a result, we are able to catch and quarantine thousands of malicious blogs each year, and are happy to say that our overall spam levels are at an all-time low across our service.

Of course, while our automated systems provide great coverage for a wide variety of abuse types, you can always let us know about suspicious blogs by reporting them directly to us via our online form. We’re also looking to you, the users, to be our eyes on the web and let us know anything that may have escaped our existing systems.

Beyond partnering with us on the detection process, you can also make a difference in your own online security by taking advantage of your browser’s built-in security. Modern browsers have powerful security features that can detect potentially malicious sites and alert you should you stumble upon them. Using technology like Google’s Safe Browsing tools, users of many browsers see warning screens when attempting to visit sites that automated systems have determined to contain suspicious content. To make sure you have the latest and most secure browser version, please check out the following browser sites:

Google Chrome

We also recommend using one of the following tools to keep your browser plug-ins up to date: Google-developed SecBrowsing; Mozilla Plugin Check.

For more tips on safe browsing and security on the web, check out the home of Cyber Security Awareness Month at the http://staysafeonline.org/.

Back from BlogWorld

October 20, 2010

Sometimes returning to a nice, quiet office can be just what the doctor ordered after an exhausting trip away. And for the handful of us on the Blogger Team who just returned from BlogWorld Expo in Las Vegas, this was definitely the case.

For the first time since the convention’s debut four years ago, we set up shop on the tradeshow floor with our very own Blogger-themed exhibit. Armed with demo stations, Blogger t-shirts and chip clips, and our very own bright red marshmallow couch, we spent our time showing off the latest features and talking to literally hundreds of folks about their experiences with Blogger. And we learned a lot.

shaun, vardhman, chang, antin, brett, and tina on the marshmallow couch.

The feedback that we got was both encouraging and enlightening, and we’re still in the process of digesting everything. First, we want to thank everyone who came by the booth to say hello, test out the new features, spend a few minutes getting interviewed, or to tell us what we could be doing better. Having so many passionate bloggers in one place to interact with was an incredible resource, from the gentleman we spoke with who has been blogging since 1995 to the fitness blogger who set up her first Blogger blog right in front of us. So once again, thanks for sharing!

demoing with the guys from vanilla. photo credit: brendan sera-shriar

We’re excited about what’s in store for Blogger in the coming months, and after this trip we’re even more committed to delivering the best blog service possible. In the spirit of keeping the conversations going, feel free to send us a tweet or post on our wall if something’s on your mind. Or, if you want to give us some more detailed feedback, please let us know on our Product Ideas page.

Finally, we want to thank Rick Calvert for reaching out and encouraging us to be a part of BlogWorld Expo. We hope to see you all next year!

Help Us Make Blogger Better (again)

October 07, 2010

New Template Designer

Spam Comment Filtering

Background Image Uploads

Accurate Post Previews

Photo Captions

More Default Templates

asking for your input on our Product Ideas page

Guest post: Discover amazing products and earn money with OpenSky

October 07, 2010

This is a guest post by John Caplan, founder and CEO of OpenSky. OpenSky allows bloggers, including all Blogger users, to discover unique products and sell those on their blogs. As we are interested in helping our users find various ways to monetize their blogs, we’ve asked John to introduce OpenSky for our users. -- The Blogger team OpenSkyHow OpenSky worksSign up nowWhat People Are Saying About OpenSkyOpenSky may have cracked the code for web publishers and small e-tailers, delivering profits to both while helping consumers with a pain-free shopping experiencehe New York TimesLA TimesVentureBeatTechCrunch

Join us (and start selling) today.

Safe Browsing on Blogger

Back from BlogWorld

Help Us Make Blogger Better (again)

Guest post: Discover amazing products and earn money with OpenSky

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