Yahoo Site Explorer: meta tag authentication on Blogger, etc

Sunday, February 11, 2007

I blogged previously about Yahoo Site Explorer (more info) and bemoaned the inability for Blogger users, and bloggers on other blogging platforms who can't upload files to their blog host's server, to authenticate their blogs (see my previous post for more about Yahoo Site Explorer and why you'd want to submit your blog or site to it).

After many requests for it, Yahoo have finally introduced authentication via inserting a special meta tag between the <head> and </head> tags of your blog template or layout (see Yahoo howto on authentication - you'll probably need to scroll down the Authentication page to find the meta tag).

I tried it and sure enough, within 24 hours, my blog was authenticated with Yahoo and I was able to access the greater information available from Yahoo as to how it crawls and indexes my blog. But it didn't seem to pick up my feed automatically, I had to submit it manually. (Or have I got that wrong, has anyone else noticed this?)

You have to resubmit your site or feed to "ping" Yahoo each time you want to let Yahoo know your site has been updated e.g. with a new post, so their crawler knows to come and reindex your site or blog - you can click Manage next to the site URL, then the Resubmit button.

One remaining issue with Yahoo Site Explorer is that I have to submit my Blogger Atom or RSS feed. I can't submit my Feedburner feed, even if I'd prefer to, because I'd have to authenticate ownership of Feedburner's website to do that, which of course I can't do!

(Thanks to sfchicken for drawing attention to this.)

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11 Comment(s):

I used the meta tags and it failed every time. When saving the template Blogger modifies the tag. Site explorer wont authenticate.

(By dwayne, at 01 March, 2007 14:22) Edit Comment

Dwayne, that's interesting. In what way does Blogger modify the tag when saving please, can you post what it changes it to? I've not had that problem myself. Have you tried pasting the meta tag just before the </head> tag?

(By Improbulus, at 20 March, 2007 08:42) Edit Comment

I also have had the same tag-modifying problem with my Blogger template. Even Google's own tools, (WMT, AdSense, etc) seem to get modified by switching, for instance name=x and content=x in the tag.

(By OKLAHOMO!, at 27 July, 2008 02:24) Edit Comment

Oklahomo (fab name!) have you tried raising this issue with the Blogger help group?

(By Improbulus, at 27 July, 2008 12:33) Edit Comment

quick clarification: you MUST put a / at the end of the meta key. For example it tells you to put > at the end of your key. Simply add a /> and you should be fine.

(By The Pilgrim, at 14 December, 2008 03:34) Edit Comment

Thanks for the helpful comment Pilgrim!

(By Improbulus, at 31 December, 2008 22:15) Edit Comment

thanks Pilgrim.. it'll do the trick... ;-) looking for anwers for a long time...

(By Pachutsky, at 15 January, 2009 03:19) Edit Comment

Until I read this post, I was aimlessly wondering why my blog is on Google search and not on Yahoo, since I submit to them both.

The authentication thing was the culprit. I haven't even suspected it. Thank you!

A problem I have yhough is that beside my side which is pending authendicatin, in Yahoo My Sites, there is a...feedburner.com waiting too. My earlier mistake you mention too in the post. Can I remove it or it will vanish?

(By yellowsub, at 21 January, 2009 01:07) Edit Comment

This post has been removed by the author.

(By freegiftcard4survey, at 23 February, 2009 09:37) Edit Comment

Hi, thank a bunch!!. My problem with authenticating my blog with yahoo site explorer is now resolved. Due solely to a missing /. Haha...

(By Inspired Momx1, at 21 August, 2009 14:39) Edit Comment

hi there,
i am facing some problem in accessing blogger's default feed. Actially i was developing custom tool for my blog for which i needed to access its feed using. http://blogname.blogspot.com/posts/feed/default/-/lablename, but prblem i faced is that my visitors will not be able to access the widget if they are using browser other than Mozilla. is there any other way to get all past's title in particular label, mind lable name keep changing according page being visited, so i cant just born feed for each label, as some advise me to do so. and using feedburner i cant categorize my posts.

(By SwimWriter, at 18 November, 2009 11:29) Edit Comment