Following the announcement of Google+ API deprecation scheduled for March 2019, a number of changes will be made to Blogger’s Google+ integration on 4 February 2019...That was yesterday.
Google+ Comments: Support for Google+ comments will be turned down, and all blogs using Google+ comments will be reverted back to using Blogger comments. Unfortunately, comments posted as Google+ comments cannot be migrated to Blogger and will no longer appear on your blog.Who has been using Google+ comments? I wonder how many old comments I'm losing!
If you want to find old comments that have disappeared, try archive.org. Feel free to cut and paste the text of old comments into new comments on old posts. Comments on old posts need to pass through moderation, but that means I will see them in my email. I'm eager to help anyone who has been affected by the demise of Google+.
Perhaps some day, I'll get the announcement that Google is ending Blogger, and my entire blog will be undisplayed, and there's nothing I can do about it. All I can think is — there's still archive.org. And don't advise me to extract my blog from Blogger and put it somewhere else. Many years ago, the blog became too large to be exportable using the Blogger software. I'm too deeply intertwined with Google ever to break free. It's like my own human body. Either I can be in here, or I will die.
ADDED: From last November:
After the termination of Google Plus, Blogger users are also becoming apprehensive about their position on the platform. However, Google sets the record straight by stating that they don’t plan to close their free blogging service anytime soon.... Soraya Lambrechts, a spokesperson from Blogger clearly replied that the company has no plans to sunset its blogging platform....Yet!
Although Google has a long history of killing its products, the current statement shows that the tech giant will continue the Blogger site.... Apparently, Google doesn't want to disappoint bloggers yet.
Today, Blogger has more than 90 million monthly visitors and content creators are not only churning out some quality content but also utilizing the AdSense for revenue that is ultimately making advertisers of Google very happy. Perhaps that is the primary reason why Google is not eliminating the Blogger service from its umbrella.
Another reason for Google to keep Blogger up and running is that most of Google’s entities such as Android and YouTube are using the Blogger platform to host their respective blogs.
Posts
108 comments:
The arbitrary potential for impermanence... how does that make you feel as an artist? Is it liberating preventing preciousness?
I never understood what Google+ was supposed to be. It has always just been page clutter.
As long as Google knows everything about you, you're permanent in some form.
“. It's like my own human body. “
And you have a right to choose.
We can carve your entire Blog and comments into a suitable Border Wall. The people can read it 1000s of years from now. English or Spanish is the real issue.
One question--what's Spanish for swish*swish*swish?
I'm on Google plus. Will this comment post, I wonder?
Hunh.
Many years ago, the blog became too large to be exportable using the Blogger software. I'm too deeply intertwined with Google ever to break free. It's like my own human body. Either I can be in here, or I will die.
It might be more complex than a few clicks and a big xml but it's not exactly rocket surgery either. Stop being so dramatic...
Google+ was supposed to be Facebook. Now it's less than myspace.
Even though I have always cared (a lot!) about the archive, I have realized for a long time that 95% of the value of anything written here happens in the first few days of a post. I love to be able to use the tags and to get things from old posts to use in new posts, but I don't think many readers go back. Someone might find an old post in a Google search, but it's such a small thing It's like life itself. It's in the present. And every day of the present is gone and irretrievable when it becomes the past. You can remember the past, but you can't re-enter it.
"I'm on Google plus. Will this comment post, I wonder?"
Oh, no! I think your posts are going to be undisplayed.
Rereading the text (which seems to be written by someone who's not a native English speaker or who isn't that good at written English) it may be that the withdrawal of support for Google+ is at some later date.
"It might be more complex than a few clicks and a big xml but it's not exactly rocket surgery either. Stop being so dramatic..."
Years ago, actual human beings at Google — high level people — worked for days to try to help me and ultimately admitted that the software was written to cut off the process if it took too long. That is, it read the situation as hanging up, not continuing. So it would always cut me off, and the blog is more than twice as large now. They had no other way to help me. I'm not being dramatic. I went through a big deal and I got an answer.
"Perhaps some day, I'll get the announcement that Google is ending Blogger, and my entire blog will be undisplayed, and there's nothing I can do about it." 100% correct. I am actually pretty surprised that the platform still exists today.
Other people do go to old posts!
I often use your tags from a new post to see what else you have said on the subject. I don't always click on the older post and read the full post and comments, but often enough to see and remember old some old comment handles.
I hope you never lose the old stuff. I have, once in a while, seen your evolution on a subject just by reading the title and first few lines in old posts under the tag.
It might be worth paying a geek to transfer your entire history to another platform at some point.
"Google+ was supposed to be Facebook. Now it's less than myspace."
The only way to make it work was to build confidence that this is the big thing. That's the only reason Facebook dominates. People believe that is the place. Their bubble could burst. I go to Facebook, but I don't like it much. I think it's full of people who sort of loathe it. So is Twitter. It's all vulnerable. Something else could arise, and people could just decide they don't want this sort of thing anymore.
I sign in through Google account, and I have Google + that I do nothing with. I have to admit I have no idea how this is going to affect me, even though I've read multiple emails about it.
I sign in with my Google password. Does that mean I'm toast?
Facebook and twitter are free-range organic whereas google plus was factory farmed and they didn't have Andy Warhol
Thanks, Annie C.
I don't want to lose the archive but one day, it will be gone, and one day, I will be gone. I'm not going to squander the value of today brooding over those 2 realities.
Note to the Chinese--
Every US secret is hidden in the Althouse Blog in CODE!
Download the entire thing, then put your best people on it.
Send a copy to Althouse and she may give you a few hints.
I feel like I should be working on a fatalistic haiku about blog comments and cherry blossoms or something.
Tomorrow I'll think of some way . . . after all, tomorrow is another day.
"I sign in with my Google password. Does that mean I'm toast?"
No. Just Google+.
I sign in with my Google password. The entire blog is written by me inside my Google account. I made my bet on Google, and that's all there is to this blog. It's Google or death.
If somehow Google ends this blog, however, and I, the bodily human being lives on, I will look for some other way to write, and I hope you will look for me. But how will you do that — by Googling me?!
I can't think about that right now. If I do, I'll go crazy. I'll think about that tomorrow.
"Every US secret is hidden in the Althouse Blog in CODE!
Download the entire thing, then put your best people on it.
Send a copy to Althouse and she may give you a few hints."
Of course, I would never open a big file someone sends to me.
Authors die, but their works live on. Painters and Sculptors die, but their works live on. Funny how we often thought that having things digital meant they would live forever.
Old movies need to be restored because the film was fragile, old television shows were taped over by the studios.
Seems the more electronic things get, the less permanent they are.
Yes, I am on Theraflu. It makes me think weird things.
A woman blogging
Reading comments by moonlight
Cherry blossoms
"Of course, I would never open a big file someone sends to me."
Just keep it on a server in your bathroom.
So true about the impermanence of digital words. This is what I hate about electronic medical records. They can all just go “poof” in less than a second. Even if backed up.
Years ago, actual human beings at Google...
How many years ago? Things may have changed with as blogs have grown (exponentially) larger. Perhaps they have improved the export process to the point they may be able to help you.
No way is your Blog larger than what our guys what build data scrapers deal with. Perhaps it can be pulled off the public domain instead of relying on Google? Ima have a chat with them...
There is someone who wouldn't hesitate to tell you: "You didn't built that."
I found a Haiku by some famous poet named Buson that will be more meaningful to Wisconsinites than some blather about cherry blossoms:
Hanging down,
a badger’s balls,
a badger’s itchy balls.
Google is getting rid of Google+ because nobody uses it. Blogger is still quite popular, even if not so popular as it once was due the the limited features.
I'm surprised you can't download your blog in pieces if Google isn't set up to let Blogger move vast amounts of data in one shot. However big your blog is, it's a fly-speck on the windshield of internet traffic.
"It's in the present. And every day of the present is gone and irretrievable when it becomes the past. You can remember the past, but you can't re-enter it."
I love this. I suppose you could try to re-live it, but the very act of its being and the trying would mean it is not the same. Is that a quantum mechanics thing? Schrodinger's cat?
A time travel machine could change that.
Anyone know anything about MeWe, the in your face, Facebook?
Google truck outside
Cherry blossoms tremble
Leaf blower roars
I too sign in with a Google password. I thought that meant the Google+ termination would cause my comments to disappear. Is there some simple way to be certain? (I can log in here or from the main google.com search page.)
I don't see the alternative methods of logging in here any more, since I created the identity on Google. No big surprises there I suppose. The (non-changeable) radio button under "Choose an identity" shows "Google Account". There is no "+" anywhere.
I assumed the Google login would be relatively speaking the most benign method. I have no presence of Facebag and I refuse to get involved with it. If my comments go away it'll be sayonara for me.
It is always distressing when we have to depend on performance by others.
Of course, I would never open a big file someone sends to me.
Silly. They would send a Ming vase equipped with a drive nest.
I'm too deeply intertwined with Google ever to break free. It's like my own human body. Either I can be in here, or I will die.
Someday there will be Trans-Typepad blogs — outwardly Blogger sites that were intended by Nature to be Typepad entities.
Has anyone been using AOL for comments?
Good riddance Google +
I might be using Google+
Nope. Blogger account. I'll still be here!
It'd be easy to download all the posts with all the comments - just parse the "Blog archive" links and pass each post's link off to a webpage downloader. The entire blog and comments are probably less data than a DVD.
The google dweebs were stupid and/or lazy.
I comment on my Etch-a-Sketch.
I thought everybody did.
"They would send a Ming vase equipped with a drive nest."
That could look nice on the back of the john.
Google has been informing people that Google+ would be going away for about a year now, without saying exactly what that meant. I have a Google+ account but never really used it, and I didn't change my logon to go though Google+. Lucky I guess.
I'm googling this google plus comments thing and google gives me nothing.
Bing linked me to this:
BLOGGER: If you’re using Google+ for comments, go to "settings," click "posts, comments, and sharing," and scroll down to "Google Plus Comments" and mark it as "No" for "Use Google+ comments on this blog." Which means people will then be commenting directly on your blog. Unfortunately, Google+ comments may disappear from your posts. So sorry!
Darell, la palabra es silbido.
Blogger Darrell said...I comment on my Etch-a-Sketch. I thought everybody did.
Are you the pointy-haired boss on Dilbert?
https://dilbert.com/strip/1995-04-03
Official Press Release Thanks Bing!
What will happen to Google+ comments on Blogger and other sites?
Blogger and other sites may use Google+ for their commenting system. Comments on blogs may also exist as posts or comments on Google+. This feature will be removed from Blogger by Feb 4th and other sites by March 7th. All your Google+ comments on all sites will be deleted starting April 2, 2019. You can download and save these comments.
In other news, FlickR keeps warning me it's going to delete 90% of my photos. Once Yahoo solid it, the free terabyte of storage was unsupportable. Luckily it's pretty easy to request an archive link and download everything.
The word is whistle?
The pony-tail girl weeps.
The google dweebs were stupid and/or lazy.
While not disputing the lazy premise, I do think the portability factor is the goal that eluded the Googlers who helped Althouse. There was* no way to migrate he entire blog, along with comments with the tools they had available, which would keep the same functionality.
*Of course, years from now, some grad student in digital archaeology may take the time to unravel, Dead Sea Scroll-like, the blog and its comments and create some kind of searchable database to reveal what we were all thinking here way back when.
When Disqus fails, a lot of comments across the Internet will memory hole.
That, perhaps is good. We should all sunset.
Oddly, the impermanence of digital data surrounds us. Boxes of old 5” diskettes with important files are virtually worthless without a reader and accompanying software. The same for 3 1/2” disks, Zip disks were supposed to be the equivalent of the golden plates of the Angel Maroni. Has anyone tried to view Beta tapes recorded in the early 80’s with precious videos of the kids? What about those DVDs burned in the 90’s? Does anyone seriously believe at this point that the 2TB Passports used as backup archive drives loaded with music and photos will be accessible in 30 years?
Meanwhile, cavemen thousands of years ago produced records that are still studied today. Ancient Hebrew texts have survived many millennia. The Minoans carved extraordinarily complex images in exotic materials only millimeters across that servive to this day and displayed beautifully at the Getty Villa. Obrecht, Ockeghem, and Joaquin des Prez left us gorgeous music from many centuries ago that is still sung to this day.
We have the hubris to think that we are leaving an indelible mark. Those Minoans left an indelible mark. We are just leaving farts in the wind.
- Krumhorn
I got this email and thought it was a fishing trick; it came directly after a phony email from BB&T which was definitely phony.
YES!! Now I can run for elective high office!
I always thought that Blogger helps Google with its search function. Google does not have to find all the words on blogs, because all the blogs already are within Google.
So then...the internet is not forever. Google+ sunsets and so do the comments posted on that platform. Well...good.
Years ago, actual human beings at Google — high level people — worked for days to try to help me...
Sundar Pichai introduces his employees
Come on. You can back it up, somehow. Your blog is a historical record. I love going back and reading what was happening real-time in 2008 or 2012. Or reading what everyone said about Mailer when he died or whatever. And then there's the dustup with the libertarians which is always fun to re-read.
Maybe, I'll just copy some of Althouse's greatest and keep it for myself.
Nobody will regret the loss of The Girl at Starbucks That Hates You and Bukkake America more than I. Those French cave dwellers had nothing on our Laslo Spatula. Sketchy Guy Who Works At The Adult Bookstore had wisdom for the ages. And Jenna Who Falsely Claims Rape To Be Popular is a pungent cautionary tale that will be instructive when the next Kavanaugh is nominated a thousand years from now. Except they’ll call her Dr Jenna so that we can honor her rage.
Laslo carved in intaglio. That’s the ticket to posteriority!
An anal sex joke. See what I did there?
Farts in the wind. I did it again
- Krumhorn
"I'm surprised you can't download your blog in pieces if Google isn't set up to let Blogger move vast amounts of data in one shot. However big your blog is, it's a fly-speck on the windshield of internet traffic."
The article I linked in the post update says Google will keep Blogger because it has monthly traffic of 90 million. If so, then I am 2% of Blogger. That seems like a lot... or not a lot. I wish there were more, of course!
@ Krumhorn
http://iamlaslo.blogspot.com/
"Come on. You can back it up, somehow."
It's backed up at archive.org.
"I'm surprised you can't download your blog in pieces if Google isn't set up to let Blogger move vast amounts of data in one shot. "
There's no function within the Blogger software that lets me do this. If anyone has some way to download the blog outside of Blogger, please let me know. I would very much like a backup! But I feel better knowing archive.org is always backing everything up. I think archive.org is so important!
Yes, a considerable worry.
I think the approach Freerepublic took is looking wiser all the time.
They host their site on their own hardware using their own homebrew software.
They have kept this system going for 20+ years. Originally I suppose it was just how it had to be done back then, but they subsequently avoided the temptation to migrate, or depend on advertising.
They will be difficult to deplatform, unless their enemies get down to their telecom providers, etc.
Well, I moved my 2600 post, 13 year old blog to Wordpress. Althouse is probably bigger than that, but I’m pretty sure if you can download a Blogger backup you can get it into Wordpress. It almost certainly would mean paying for their “business plan.”
I can provide a list of “look out fors,” if it matters.
Looks like I'll be outta here as well, until another means of commenting appears. I onlly see the Google Account option.
I'm out too.
It is all ephemera anyway.
If anyone has some way to download the blog outside of Blogger, please let me know. I would very much like a backup!
It would not be a difficult task to walk the archive and download the text, but I have no idea how much storage space it would require, and should certainly be done from a web server platform such as AWS.
Doing that would save the text, but in a largely useless form, unless you then load in into some other platform. Any links from your blog to the outside world would continue to work ( as long as what they were linking to continued to exist. ) Any links that other people had into your blog would still point to the location on Blogger, and you have no way to ever fix this. Any links from your blog to itself could be translated so that they lead to the corresponding link in the new archive.
I'm sure I have and/or could learn the technical skills to do this, but it would take a lot of time that I currently don't have.
I think archive.org is so important!
Randy Parker thought everyone should have a Red Ryder Range-Model BB gun with a compass in the stock.
Doing that would save the text, but in a largely useless form...
Powerscraper?
If anyone has some way to download the blog outside of Blogger, please let me know.
Uh, "Just parse the 'Blog archive' links and pass each post's link off to a webpage downloader."
You could do that by hand in a few days or get some "script kiddie" to code it up in a few minutes.
Ever wonder why archive.org can download the blog but google (claims it) can't?
Here's how they do what I described above (though they switch from "blogger.com" to "blogspot.com" without comment):
https://www.archiveteam.org/index.php/Blogger
Here's how to (maybe) download the site from archive:
https://blog.archive.org/2012/04/26/downloading-in-bulk-using-wget/
Doing that would save the text, but in a largely useless form, unless you then load in into some other platform.
All data is useless until you load it into some "platform".
Fernandistein said...
All data is useless until you load it into some "platform".
Of course. My point was that the method I described does not result in the data being loaded into any platform, nor does it put it into a format that any other platform would know how to read.
If google kills blogger there are other services. Wordpress is popular.
I for one wouldn’t follow you to Facebook. That might or might not be a plus for you. But Chuck and Inga and ritmo would.
Goodness me, what has been a slightly irritating back of mind concern, now migrates to major concern for my little blog, as one of the main reasons I started it was as a place to keep stuff.
Have enjoyed and learnt from many of the above comments!
Forse from Hong Kong
You could always print it out. You might have to sell your house to buy all the paper and ink though.
My favorite product that Google killed -- Picasa, their little photo management utility. It still works on my Mac, but will stop working when macOS requires 64-bit apps. That will be a sad day. I did like how Google+ photo albums looked, but nobody there to look at them!
This post with comments is about 20 printed pages long (so far). Assume 75 pages a day on average, 15 years is 410,625 pages, which is 12.58 Encyclopedia Britannicas. You could prob fit it in your shared office.
I hate Google with a passion and avoid it whenever possible. I have a gmail account just because it was required to set up an account to post here. Other than the first couple of days, I have never looked in it. Lord knows what's in there.
When I established the gmail account, Google actually hijacked my accounts on a few list servers. For example, I am signed up for the neighborhood list server using a different email address. All of a sudden I stopped getting email from the neighborhood. When I investigated, it turned out Google had replaced my email address on that list server with my new gmail address. How the hell is that ethical?
Google is EVIL.
There's site called the Wayback Machine which saves old websites. You could check whether Blogger and you are on it with the comments. It has waypoints, moments when the site and all on it was entered. It may be the most recent waypoint has all the previous posts.
This post with comments is about 20 printed pages long (so far).
The text for this post + comments is 28KB. At about 4,000 posts / year * 15 years, the entire blog is about 1.7 GB of text; triple that to include formatting and more than 80-some comments and you have about one DVD worth of numbers.
I had to google what google plus really was. I still don’t get what it is/was.
Google will happily pull your platform out from under you.
I'm on Google+, but mainly to validate my other, non-google sites.
It was their attempt at mimicking Facebook, only it was tortorous in a different way. I never could figure out how to use it, and since it wasn't popular, I never made much of an effort.
It is a great relief to me to discover that Google+ is being shut down. At last, they'll stop trying to convert my gmail accounts into Google+ accounts! Hopefully gchat will survive, stripped of the useless superstructure of these Google+ hangouts and groups and circles or whatever they were.
"YES!! Now I can run for elective high office!"
EDH wins the internet for the day, but who will remember his victory 20 years hence?
Ann Althouse said..."Years ago, actual human beings at Google — high level people — worked for days to try to help me and ultimately admitted that the software was written to cut off the process if it took too long."
I remember that incident and being surprised and disappointed that they weren't successful.
Do you recall if they tried to use the regular Blogger backup tool, the Google Takeout tool (which is very different from the backup tool), or something else?
Since a lot can change in a few years, I wonder if it might be worth trying the current version of the Google Takeout tool.
See https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout and https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/3024190?hl=en
Just checked my blogspot backup which I imported to Wordpress. ~15MB
That's for 2600 posts and maybe that many comments. A relatively sparse number of graphics.
Google mentions no backup/export size limit here:
https://support.google.com/blogger/answer/41387?hl=en
It does say:
"There is no file size limit to import a blog, but the number of imports in a day is limited."
"Years ago, actual human beings at Google — high level people — "
Top. Men.
Don't assume archive.org has it all. Godaddy has helpfully lost my blog database twice and while I was able to get most of the posts from after my last backup, I could not get them all. They only scrape your site every so often, and not every url there.
All you people panicking.
Google is not Google+.
Google Account is not Google+ Account.
"All you people panicking.
Google is not Google+.
Google Account is not Google+ Account."
The problem is all this stuff is so opaque.
"The problem is all this stuff is so opaque"
True dat.
Kirk Parker said...
"All you people panicking.
Google is not Google+.
Google Account is not Google+ Account."
Are you saying my comments aren't going to disappear?
I learned a long time ago to not depend on any software owned by Google. Their lack of product loyalty disrupted my life more times than I care to remember, including dropping Google Reader and desktop Snapseed. I recommend you start considering where to move the blog.
I seem safe. I'm "Unknown (Google Account)" with the option to sign out. It has my email address underneath. Why am I "Unkown"? Perhaps if I sign out and back in...
[I] will be asked to sign in after submitting [my] comment. Nope. Still "Unknown", despite the sign in screen saying "Hi Mark". Oh well.
I recently had to reinstall Windows on my desktop computer, followed by reinstalling all my software. When I got to Google Earth, it appears they've fucked that up too. Are they trying to force me to use Google Chrome?
" I will look for some other way to write, and I hope you will look for me. But how will you do that — by Googling me?!"
I'll read you at Althou.se
"Are you saying my comments aren't going to disappear?"
If you look at your avatar it's a G+, which means you are using a Google+ account to access this blog and comment. The other non-avatar (those who do not have a custom one) are white B's on orange, which means they are Blogger (or regular Google) account sign-ins.
Your comments, Bob Boyd, will wither away into the ether while ours will remain. In other words, you will have never existed and the rest of us will be digital Ozymandiases.
"If you look at your avatar it's a G+, which means you are using a Google+ account to access this blog and comment. The other non-avatar (those who do not have a custom one) are white B's on orange, which means they are Blogger (or regular Google) account sign-ins."
Yeah, I get that, but since I don't use Google plus in any other way except to log in to Althouse, Kirk Parker's comment had me wondering. He wasn't clear.
I look at the comments as a conversation. If you hold a conversation in person, it may be enjoyable, worthwhile, educational, whatever, but the comments you make exist only in memory, if that. I'm taking it largely on faith that anyone even reads a given comment the first time. Posterity will be just fine. I guess I'll switch over to Blogger.
Google+ was a desperate and extremely lame attempt to cut into Facebook's traffic I suppose. It was never supported in any meaningful way, I hardly ever used it (stopped blogging with Blogger years ago) and can't say I'm losing any meaningful content.
But if they disappear Althouse there will be hell to pay!
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