This is not for only blogs from India, but all blogs that are looked up from an IP address in India. While if you are using your own personal domain hosted on Blogspot, your domain name will remain the same.

For example that Google’s official blog which has the original URL as

http://googleblog.blogspot.com

but for Indian users, it shows up as

http://googleblog.blogspot.in/

Why is Google re-directing Blogspot blogs?

Well Twitter has decided to censor tweets based on country specific basis, so that they can conform to local laws regarding content. Google is doing pretty much the same thing.

As Google explains in the this support forum, it is trying to conform to local law agency suggestions on taking down or blocking certain content at the same time keeping it online otherwise.

For example, if a URL is deemed offensive in India and the court orders Google to remove it, it can block the link for Indian readers but it would still be available from other countries.

Will it affect Google Page Rank or search rankings?

I tried to run a Google search for .in domain of Google’s official page. The query I entered was

“site:http://googleblog.blogspot.in/”

and it returned no results. So I guess we are not going to see two separate URLs for the same content showing up in the link.

Google will probably (hopefully) make sure that it does not affect many blogs and the search juice they get.

Would love to get your views in comments about Google new move for Blogspot. Do drop in your comments.

(via Google System)

-- This Post Google to Redirect Blogspot Hosted Blogs to Country Specific Domains is Published on Devils Workshop .

There are many unofficial AdSense Add-ons and other tools but Google has recently rolled out an official extension.

• This extension can allow users a quick peek into their AdSense earnings. It displays the earnings for the particular day, from previous day and the current month and the previous month.
• Download the AdSense toolbar from here. You will need to grant this extension access to your AdSense account. You might not want to do this on a shared computer or a public one.
• It also displays how much money do the custom type of Ad banners along with websites.

If you are curious about AdSense you might want to check out this guide to getting your AdSense account approved.

Also if you are new to AdSense you might want to go read about this checklist which helps you master AdSense.

Do drop in your comments.

Link: AdSense Toolbar for Chrome

-- This Post Check AdSense Earnings Quickly with Chrome Toolbar is Published on Devils Workshop .

The first thing that struck me as strange about Blogger, compared to WordPress was that it did not have threaded comments. This makes the comments look very disorganized. Blogger today announced threaded comments for all users.

Settings for Threaded Comments on Blogger

• If you have comments enabled on the blogger, then threaded commenting is enabled automatically on your blog.
• If you had comments turned off then go to Blogger Settings.
• In settings select ‘Full’ for Blog Feed. Under Post and Comments Settings select Embedded for Comment Location.
• Save your Settings and your Blogger blog will now feature threaded comments.

Catching up with WordPress.com?

When it comes to blogging platforms Blogger is surely a lot behind other platforms. How far behind Blogger is to WordPress, can be easily understood with the fact that threaded comments were introduced on WordPress.com in early 2009, almost three years ago. Even today WordPress blogs allow commenting using Facebook and Twitter IDs which is a far more efficient way to entice commenting.

It is no wonder that Blogger lags behind Tumblr and WordPress over the last couple of years.

Do drop in your comments.

-- This Post Enable Threaded Comments on Blogger [Blogspot] is Published on Devils Workshop .

What’s New with WordPress 3.3

• The new WordPress version will allow dragging and dropping files into the WordPress uploader. Support has been added for rar (winrar) and 7z (7Zip) files.
• This version will also feature fly out menus, which will help navigate on the dashboard a lot faster.
• WordPress 3.3 also shows a lot more by combining the old dashboard header with the toolbar.

• There will be no time lag when two people are in edit mode for the same post.
• WordPress 3.3 will also feature the ability to import you Tumblr blog onto WordPress.

Before you update your WordPress 3.3 make sure your theme is compatible with the latest version along with plugins you are using.

Also adding a note  of caution that before any upgrade, it is always a good idea to take a backup.

Have you tried out WordPress 3.3? Do drop in your first impressions in your comments.

Download Link: WordPress 3.3

-- This Post Upgrade Your Blog to WordPress 3.3 “Sonny” is Published on Devils Workshop .

Google Adsense is still the king of online advertising for bloggers. This might change soon if WordPress has its way. WordPress has announced WordAds, an advertising program that will show Ads on WordPress powered blogs. This is being done with a tie-up with Federated Media.

Who Can Apply for WordAds?

• Any WordPress.com user can apply but there are some details that are needed to qualify for signing up for WordAds.
• The blog needs to be publicly visible and also have a custom domain.
• Users can start applying for WordAds here.

How does this help WordPress.com?

-- This Post WordAds – WordPress Competition to Google Adsense is Published on Devils Workshop .

The trend was Blogger.com was the first choice for new bloggers while WordPress was adopted by bloggers with more experience.

That trend is changing and more people are using WordPress or Tumblr. WordPress.com according to Compete.com is miles ahead of Blogger and Tumblr, when it unique visitors are considered (see graph below).

These number do not include self-hosted WordPress blogs; but only the ones on WordPress.com. It is amazing to see it has numbers that are double if not more than other blogging platforms consistently for over the last two years.

Rise of Tumblr

It also shows the rise of tumblr being adopted as a blogging platform by many. It had less than 4 million unique visitors and today it’s around 15 million. Tumblr has some fantastic social features which has given it huge numbers when page views are taken into account it dominates WordPress and Blogger.(see graph below).

Tumblr has over a billion page views when compared to WordPress.com’s 200 million page views. This shows tumblr is doing a brilliant job of engaging readers socially but WordPress doing a better job with search engines. Maybe this is not a battle between platforms as much as it is a battle between social vs. search.

What are your views? Do drop in your comments.

-- This Post Blog Wars: Impact of WordPress, Tumblr and Blogger is Published on Devils Workshop .

Currently this option is available only in the draft section of Blogger platform but will be made available to everyone.

How to activate your Google+ profile to Blogger

• Visit the draft blogger landing page, which is draft.blogger.com.
• Ideally you should get a prompt to get started with Google+ profile, but incase you do not see the option, visit this link http://draft.blogger.com/edit-profile.g and you should be able to get the link to connect blogger to Google+.

• The next page that loads up shows you how your profile is about to change.

• Finally click on accept and it takes you to another page that allows you to add this profile to the blogs you choose.
• The change then is applied only to those particular blogs.

I think this will be helpful, in the sense most bloggers will have it easy to keep up a single profile. Currently Google does not mention if it plans to shut down Blogger profiles in the future. But it might happen in the future and makes sense as blogs on Blogger platform will get more social and only help the visibility of Google+.

Do drop in your comments and views.

Related: 5 Google Products that need Google+ integration 

-- This Post Integrate Google+ Profile into Blogspot/Blogger is Published on Devils Workshop .

Another way is to embed the complete tweet inside a post, so the reader can retweet, reply or even favorite a particular tweet from the post itself (see image below).

For embedding a tweet within a post or page on WordPress, Blackbird Pie Plugin is very useful and recommended by Twitter.

Using Blackbird Pie Plugin to Embed Tweets

• First install Blackbird Pie Plugin on your WordPress blog and activate the plugin.

• Once the plugin is installed, look up the URL of the tweet you want to embed. If you see the tweet on twitter, click on the link below the tweet, which points to the individual URL of the particular Tweet (see image below).

• Now look up the post your want to edit and a new Blackbird Pie icon appears in the post edit options. Click on the icon and insert the URL as shown in the image below.

• Click on Insert and the Tweet is embedded on the post itself.

Hope this post helps you embed your favourite tweets into a WordPress page or post. In case you looking for information on platforms other than WordPress, look up this link.

Do you use Blackbird Pie Plugin and drop in your comments.

Link: Blackbird Pie WordPress Plugin

-- This Post How to Embed Tweets on Self-Hosted WordPress is Published on Devils Workshop .

But nothing says “I like your post” like money does. And Flattr allows bloggers to contribute small sums to good bloggers they appreciate.

How Flattr Works for Bloggers

• If you are a blogger, then sign with Flatter. Mark out some money you are willing to be distributed.
• That money could be as less at 3 Euros (the site has default currency as Euro).

• This money is then distributed to other bloggers on whose posts which have the Flattr button and users have shown appreciation by clicking on it.
• As a blogger, you can also earn money by adding the ‘Flattr’ button on your blog posts. Flattr supports WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr and other popular blogging platforms.

I find the concept behind Flattr a very good one. To be honest, it is not a replacement for advertising revenues from blogs but mainly useful for new bloggers to get recognition and some revenue from people who appreciate their content.

Try out Flattr and tell me if you like the concept? Do drop in your comments.

Link: Flattr

-- This Post Social Micropayment Program for Bloggers – Flattr is Published on Devils Workshop .

You can see live demo here.  You can download it from here.

If you decide to use it on your Blogger.com blog, please read follow-up articles on customizations as well.

As Mukund developed this theme on his own, contact him only for support.

WordPress Theme

I saw some readers requesting WordPress version of DW theme as well. We will surely release current DW WordPress Theme for community once its get ported on our recently launched rtPanel wordpress theme framework.

Thanks Surun for the tip.

Link: Devils’ Workshop Blogger.com Template

-- This Post Download “Devils’ Workshop” Blogger Template is Published on Devils Workshop .