I’m feeling a bit emotionally hijacked this morning.
I feel like an old friend has stabbed me in the back. Or worse, slashed the buttons off my best coat with a flash of his blade like the Scarlet Pimpernel putting down some damn Frenchie.
In the bigger scheme of things this is no big deal but it has got my goat: Blogger has changed the layout and functionality of its Dashboard.
Some of you will be shrugging. Some of you may not have noticed any difference. Some of you may like the changes.
I don’t like the changes.
Worse, I can’t click on anything without Blogger informing me that my browser is incompatible with the new Dashboard, some functions will no longer work and I might like to try installing Google Chrome instead.
I don’t want to install Google Chrome.
I’m sure Google Chrome is a lovely browser. I’m sure it would make love to my computer and make it come all night long. But I use Internet Explorer, like Internet Explorer and am familiar with Internet Explorer. And further, I don’t like having unnecessary bits of software installed on my computer chogging up the registry and increasing the potential for foul-ups. Having two browsers installed goes against the grain.
I feel like Blogger – owned by Google, of course – is trying to bully me into using its own software. This is not on.
Persuade me (if you can) by all means. Sell it to me. Bribe me. Make me come all night long.
But don’t bully me. Don’t mug me. Don’t hold me to ransom.
Because that makes me dig my heels in even harder. That makes me flex and exercise my rather muscular stubborn gene.
At the end of the day this whole thing is a cynical exercise in overly ferocious marketing. What annoys me most is that if you check your blogging stats via the Dashboard (if you can get yours to work now, that is) you will see that Internet Explorer is still the most popular browser that the majority of people use when logging into and using Blogger.
And yet Blogger / Google has seen fit to deliberately disregard the lion’s share of its own user demographic and create an interface that doesn’t work properly in Internet Explorer.
If that isn’t a slap in the face I don’t know what is.
So what do I do?
Go against my principals and install Google Chrome? Dump Blogger and switch to Wordpress? *shudder*
Stop Blogging altogether?
(I’m going to ignore all of you who are currently screaming, “yes!”)
No.
I’m going to moan about it on my Blog via Internet Explorer.
Screw you Blogger. You’re not the only one who can rip off coat buttons with a flick of a dandy’s foil.
Addendum:
I couldn't even publish this post via Internet Explorer. The compose and edit functions don't work. So I have had no choice but to install Google Chrome. I now feel like, not only have I had the buttons slashed off my coat, but I have also had my balls cut off and shoved into my mouth.
Fuck you, Blogger.
P.S. My thanks to you that have pointed out that you can revert to the old Dashboard by clicking on the cog icon on the top of the Dashboard. Alas, this icon does not even appear when viewed in Internet Explorer... therefore one has to install Google Chrome just to revert to the old Dashboard and then carry on using Internet Explorer.
Damned sneaky. Damned underhand.
39 comments:
Whatever you do - forgodsake don't stop blogging (please)! I felt exactly the same when I started... I liked the new 'dynamic' view templates and as soon as I installed them I've learned they don't go hand in hand with Explorer! :( so am now a Chrome user too...
Call me wind because I am blown away by your post!
I didn't like it either, but you wouldn't catch me whining about it in public like a sissy. Life is change and you've got to adapt to these things or go extinct. And why haven't you switched to Firefox? All the geeky bloggers gave Firefox their blessing years ago.
Oh no. Of course you could always be a total idie and get a free wordpress website on your own domain name... there's a thought..:-)
I meant Indie, dammit. And have you noticed that if you check your stats via google analytics and social stats only google plus stats show up. Cos there's no other social media out there. Uh huh!
Yes I feel for you on this Steve.Google putting ads on Youtube to nudge you into chrome to stop them,facebook forcing members into timeline & this here aswell to add to the many.These companies all showing their true colours when in the face of little to no competition.This shows just really how much they value joe public.The whole thing reeks of US internet billionaire Megalomania.As we ask for at least some choice they're giving us all the finger.The scary thing is with Pipa,sopa,cispa etc etc I can only see these dicks acquiring more & not less power.
Hannah: the new templates have, I admit, won me over but the new Dashboard is awful - really clunky!
Keira: fly me, I'm Mandy!
Gorilla Bananas: well, if Firefox is good enough for Clint Eastwood, it's good enough for me...
Vix: I used to have Blogger on my own domain but they pulled all support for that a couple of years ago. I don't really like WP to be honest and it's even more complicated to use than Blogger.
David: we're being taken over by America's idea of "freedom". It's an ideological prison by any other name.
Yes! I have just logged on to find that everything is changed and change unsettles me somewhat!! I know I have to move with the times but I feel like such an idiot when people bandy about terms that mean nothing to me.....
I'm not happy either...Perpetua on Perpetually in Transit gave me the tip to click on the cog wheel thing in the top right hand corner and go back to the old interface....but I don't suppose the freedom to do so will last for long.
I don't like the Google pressure and I think I'll go over to wordpress....when I work out how to use it...
Libby: jargonese is a disease rather than a language...
The fly in the web: rather sneakily the cog icon does not appear when viewing the Dashboard in Internet Explorer, only in Google Chrome so it seems you have to install Google Chrome just to revert to the old Dashboard and then carry on using IE. Ridiculous!
I LOVE Google Chrome!!!!
(runs off laughing!)
Suburbia: grrrr!
;-)
Yes, I'm a 'Chrome-ite' as well - it's much faster than IE - I don't, however, like the new Blogger interface and have reverted to the old one until I can be bothered to work out how to use it!Have a peaceful weekend, my friend.
Nana Go-Go: I must say I have nothing against Google Chrome per se but it is nothing special and I just object to being made to install it at the say so of some super affluent corporation. It rankles.
Mr. Gorilla is right it's Firefox to the rescue...
Im sure I left you a comment earlier that blogger has eaten but you need to go to the wheel button on the top right hand corner of dashboard and choose 'old interface' from the drop down. Life will return to normal then :)
Working in IE8 for me; haven't made my mind up about it yet. It's like a lover whose erogenous zones have all shifted; they need finding again.
I hate the new blogger interface as well. It works fine with Safari though - which is the default for Macs (my laptop) but which I also use on the PC as I now prefer it to IE. I seem to have firefox as well but one of the teenager installed that so she could watch the Daily Show on line (just to prove it is the choice of geeks, I am told you can change the settings to tell lies so it convinces whatever network has the Daily Show that you are in the US so it lets you watch it on their i-player)
Ok, everybody remain. Calm.
My first pressing question: do your balls taste like Chrome?
Next, Chrome is good. Chrome is actually your friend. Oh man. You're an Internet Explorer user??? I would never have picked that! ;-P So there's your achilles heel, I knew there had to be one! Ah well. Every diamond has its flaw. x
Enjoy your weekend. Hope it's coloured .... kodachrome for you. Cough.
Löst Jimmy: I better start thinking in Russian...
Kelloggsville: the wheel button does not appear in Internet Explorer... I can only get it in Google Chrome...!
Tenon_Saw: Google Chrome's favourite position seems to be the "starfish".
Alienne: hark at you! You'll be hacking into the Pentagon next! ;-)
Being Me: do my balls taste of chrome? Hmm. Let's see. Salty, bit of an iron taste... no wait, that's blood. Ow! This really was not a good idea, you know!
I'm so glad you whined about this in public. I thought I was showing my age by sticking with Internet Explorer, but respected geeks use it too! Actually my daugher installed Firefox, which didn't agree with the cursor, then Chrome which crashed my system. So better slow than nothing at all until I can afford a shiny new machine.
I'm still with the old Dashboard. Playing around with a new blog on WordPress (lammastour.wordpress.com) and although it offers a lot it certainly is complicated! I do like familiarity.
Lady Mondegreen's Secret Garden: I can always be relied upon to whine in public! Actually there is a cure to this problem... you can tell IE to work in compatability mode - it is the icon that looks like a sheet of paper to the right of the address bar at the top. Click that and then all is right with the Blogger world again.
I found it very annoying too but then decided to just go with the flow, use Chrome and now I'm getting used to it. Instead I can now whinge about Facebook timeline instead.
Trish: urgh! Don't even get me started about the crappy Facebook timeline thing!
I always hate it when they muck about with blogger or gmail or anything like that. The improvements are never better. I haven't had the problems you list because I use Firefox as my browser. I just have different problems. For example, Firefox won't let me add links to my blog list. So if I want to add a new blog... I have to use Internet Explorer! The irony...
Rol: back in the old day software developers would strive for cross-browser and backwards compatability... these days the wants of the consumer come so far down their list of considerations I'm surprised they let us use their software at all.
I just reduced Facebook use when it started to annoy me and found that the washing up got done more quickly.
Google is becoming increasingly insidious, but there are alternatives, so you can just stop feeding it.
Firefox is a fine browser and I'd pay for it if the only alternative was free Google Chrome.
Wordpress is easy enough for a dolt like me, so a youthful and firm-buttocked chap like you should find it a steal.
Open your mind, young Jedi.
As I said to Libby I am a complete luddite so any and all changes are so hard for me... Weird yes that they make these changes but still are not as good as other that other bloggy purveyor, now can't remember their name. Oh I'm so old...Yes wordpress. Also depressing to have my stats shoved in my face every day...
I don't know what the difference might be, but I was able to do a new post this evening with no problem in Internet Explorer in the new Blogger interface, so can't help but wondering what may allow it work here when it isn't working for you ?!? Maybe the offering I made to the gods of web last night... several tons of flies in their web. We all have the marketing mucks knives at our collective throats, day in and day out. Use my product, or else ! Ship them all off to Somalia, I say...
Jon: it has been many a year since I've been referred to as "youthful and firm-buttocked". For that alone I thank you, sir. It seems the omens are pointing me towards Firefox...
About Last Weekend: I have a little experience of using Wordpress and just found it over complicated with little to show for it. For the time being, despite my gripes, I'm sticking with Blogger.
Owen: I found - after writing this post - that you can switch IE to compatability mode and this seems to remove all the problems. Maybe your browser is already running in this mode? Would have been nice if Google / Blogger had pointed that out though. I now have to uninstall Google Chrome...
Face it: you're technologically a dodo.
I bet you don't even have a smartphone.
Marginalia: come round here again talking gibberish and you'll get the wrong end of my blunderbuss.
Dump google chrome and install firefox - worked for me :)
Vicky: seems Firefox gets a big thumbs-up from most people!
I feel the same. There feels like a lack of control when they just CHANGE things and you are made to put up with it. You can hear them going heh heh heh, see how you cope with THAT.
But at least it's let me comment ... and I haven't been able to do that for a while.
Fran: then it seems every cloud has at least one silver lining...
One of the reasons I haven't blogged for so long is that I blinkin couldn't. It did my nut, so I just stopped trying for a while. I have installed google chrome and have just written a post, it has bben a month since my last one... tut tut
Suzanne: you make it sound like confession! Apparently you can tell IE to work in compatability mode by clicking the "page" icon to the right of the address bar at the top. Suddenly all works again.
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