Dear Blogger, this is an English language blog read...

July 11, 2012 7:20 AM

How do I get Blogger to use .com instead of .de?

I have a blogspot. In my settings, it shows the url as "name.blogspot.com", but if I access my blog, it becomes "name.blogspot.de".
My blog mainly has international readers, and is also available through www.samenameastheblogspot.com. I would like it to always use the .com ending. Blogger uses unique names, so it's not an issue of name.com being taken by another user - I reach my blog when entering name.blogspot.com - it just changes to .de there, all links included.

My language settings are all set to English and changing "my home" in Google Maps doesn't do anything. How do I get Blogger to only use .com?

posted by MinusCelsius to Computers & Internet (12 answers total)

Best answer: You'll have to use an IP in the USA. Google is routing people through country specific domains to give governments the ability to censor which blogs are visible.
posted by devnull at 7:37 AM on July 11, 2012

Response by poster: That says only *I* see it as .de and people from other places will see .com (assuming they click the .com link)? If that's the case, it doesn't bother me.
posted by MinusCelsius at 7:43 AM on July 11, 2012

If you want me to verify that for you, Memail me the link. I am in the U.S. I will tell you if it says .com for me.
posted by Michele in California at 7:54 AM on July 11, 2012

I can verify that people in the US will be able to use the name.blogspot.com address; those outside will be redirected. I'm in the UK, and I just checked a couple of blogspot blogs I read. If I enter the top-level domain as .com, I'm redirected to .co.uk.

Interestingly, this doesn't seem to happen for other top-level domains (at least not here in the UK). If I enter blogname.blogspot.com, I get redirected to blogname.blogspot.co.uk, but if I enter blogname.blogspot.fr or blogname.blogspot.de, I stay on those sites.
posted by brianogilvie at 8:26 AM on July 11, 2012

Response by poster: Well, frankly, that's cosmetically annoying... Would I have the same issue on wordpress or does only Google do that?
posted by MinusCelsius at 9:25 AM on July 11, 2012

Since you own www.samenameastheblogspot.com, you should have Blogger host the blog directly on that domain. I assume that you have www.samenameastheblogspot.com redirecting to name.blogspot.com. Instead, set Blogger to use a custom domain name and change settings with your domain registrar/DNS provider accordingly.
posted by zsazsa at 9:46 AM on July 11, 2012

Response by poster: I already did that. My annoyance is with visiting the page through Google+ and such, where the blogspot is found through other means than a direct link. Having it show up as .de suggests it is German, which isn't the case.
posted by MinusCelsius at 11:06 AM on July 11, 2012

Best answer: Have you tried Google's own suggestions for bypassing the automatic redirect?

There are also browser-specific workarounds, e.g. for Firefox.
posted by dhartung at 12:30 PM on July 11, 2012

Best answer: Wordpress.com doesn't do that. Everyone has blogname.com AFAIK.
posted by kathrynm at 2:11 PM on July 11, 2012

Response by poster: Considering moving to wordpress; though the FF workaround works fine.
posted by MinusCelsius at 3:58 PM on July 11, 2012

Errr, I misspoke. It's blogname.wordpress.com. Sorry ;(
posted by kathrynm at 4:39 PM on July 11, 2012

Have you tried Google's own suggestions for bypassing the automatic redirect?

afaik those suggestions don't apply to their blogging service.
posted by devnull at 6:19 AM on July 12, 2012