Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Google Blog FTP Shutdown

Google is shutting down FTP support for its Blogger Blog service from 1 May 2010. However, so far I am unable to understand Google's instructions for migrating to an alternative service.

The current service, which I use for two blogs, allows me to create postings using Google's Blogger software, which then posts the resulting entries to my own web site.

FTP causes support problems for Google. As an alternative they are offering a service where they will maintain the content on their own service, but accessible from a sub-domain on my site. So instead of the current http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/ my postings would be at www.blog.tomw.net.au

The Google alternative sounds reasonable (FTP seems to be slow), but I can't understand the instructions provided. Google provide a migration tool which I can't get to work. I can't find a written description of what the tool does, just a video. There are no instructions for creating a sub-domain, just a domain and even there there are no instructions for the popular CPanel interface which my ISP uses. It seems likely that if I followed the instructions given, at best I would end up making my web site inaccessible, and replacing it with just my blog. In place of the usual online support, Google provide a Google Docs form with everyone's site listed.

Perhaps I am asking a lot for a free service, but I do have web ads on my blog pages and Google is probably making several hundred thousand dollars a year from these, so I do expect a little service.

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