ESCAPING THE BUBBLE
I must say I'm mightily impressed with the Help Community on this site. In an attempt to escape my bubble and connect with other bloggers on this site, I posted this message to the Help Community:
"I've recently joined this site and I'm slowly finding my feet.
I've noticed that I'm unable to follow someone's blog unless I have their URL address which is nigh impossible to get as I can't find any way to access blogs. There doesn't seem to be a generic homepage to see what's going on in Blogger, a search function that searches beyond my blog, no lists/feeds of new etc blog posts.
I feel trapped in a bubble!
How can other bloggers see my blog?
And how can I see other people's blogs?
Many thanks in advance for any help proffered."
Within 15 minutes I had two seemingly useful replies, one from WebLove.PL and another from Adam (who had earlier helped me regarding comments/replies being spammed on my blog posts). I've copied-and-pasted their replies below.
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Reply from WebLove.PL:
There are millions of blogs that publish thousands of posts every day. A home page with blog feeds would quickly become a hotbed of spam (i.e., usless).
You can search for blogspot.com pages indexed by Google: https://www.google.com/search?&q=site%3Ablogspot.com but there are also many blogs with custom domains.
- indexed last year: https://www.google.com/search?q=site:blogspot.com&source=lnt&tbs=qdr:y
- containing a specific word or phrase: https://www.google.com/search?&q=site%3Ablogspot.com+fashion
You can search for indexed Blogger profiles in the same way: https://www.google.com/search?&q=site%3Ablogger.com%2Fprofile
- indexed last year: https://www.google.com/search?q=site:blogspot.com&source=lnt&tbs=qdr:y
- containing a specific word or phrase: https://www.google.com/search?&q=site%3Ablogspot.com+fashion
You can search for indexed Blogger profiles in the same way: https://www.google.com/search?&q=site%3Ablogger.com%2Fprofile
- You can use similar queries to search for blogs on other platforms as well
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Handy links:
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Also:
And:
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Reply from Adam:
There is a learning curve.
You can find other blogs by searching for them online. Others can find you the same way, though you may not be indexed or ranked on search engines when you first start out.
Once you find them, you can follow them in a number of ways, including Blogger's own "reading list" feature (at www.blogger.com).
You can also find blogs by direct referral, if you come across links to them when you are reading them online.
Others can find you in the same way, although obviously someone else has to link to you for that to happen. As a side effect, links to your blog from good sources also build your search reputation with search engines.
This can be a long-term process of engaging with other bloggers.
For some thoughts about this process, see
and for "following" substitute "linking to."
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I haven't fully digested their replies but it seems I'm in for a long haul to escape my bubble!
PS. Both WebLove.PL and Adam are diamond product experts. I've now found out that diamond product experts here aren't diamond merchants but an affiliation given to them by Google for providing outstanding help and education to users - see photo below of a certificate of achievement awarded by Google to a diamond product expert. I don't think I'll ever be awarded that certificate!
Good for you!!
ReplyDeleteI'm very slowly getting the hang of this site.
DeleteGlad they could give you more info. on what is outside the bubble here, yet seems to be a lot of work. Thanks for the links and info..
ReplyDeleteTo get outside the bubble, I suspect, will involve quite a bit of hit-and-miss searching.
DeleteYes it will..
DeleteNot everybody can figure out how to add the follow button to their blogs. It's great that there are helpful people willing to lend a hand.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised the site doesn't add the Followers gadget as a default setting, with an option to remove it.
DeleteAs with any Google product, you start from scratch and do the customization yourself.
DeleteThat's always a big ask for an IT simpleton like me!
DeleteWow, that's great that you found your way out and they are helping you. I can see their point about the spam.
ReplyDeleteYes I can imagine how spammed up a feed of new blog posts would be here.
DeleteI'm going to have a rummage through the links listed in the two replies.
dammit, I forgot to check the box again
ReplyDeleteNaughty!
DeleteThat's it, I'm naughty not forgetful. 😂
DeleteWell...I understand how a general feed would very quickly become overwhelming. I still think it would be helpful if they at least had a search function so you could, for example, find all recent posts from authors who put "AFF" in their blog tags. Or sex, or cooking, or music, or whatever. I suppose it would still be overwhelming. I wonder how many bloggers are hosted by Blogger?
ReplyDeleteI agree that a search function would be very useful here. I'm at a loss why there isn't one.
DeleteI tried unsuccessfully to find how many bloggers are here. All I could find from Wikipedia was that Blogger "was ranked 16 on the list of top 50 domains in terms of number of unique visitors in 2007." Not as high as I first thought.
A rejoinder. I get the impression that any generic search for, say blog posts on AFF (or at least labelled as AFF) has to be done on a search engine like Google. I haven't tried yet.
DeleteBut if AFF senior management can find us here then there must be a way!