What they've done with the "Next blog" button

It was the ever vigilant Mrs. Linklater who alerted me to the change: Blogger has decided to see to it that when we click on the next-blog button up there in the left-hand corner, it will take us to blogs geared to our individual interests.

Now let me say first that anything would be an improvement over two or three years ago, when every third "next blog" at which you arrived was porn. I soon learned to leave that little widget alone.

I'm too lazy to hunt up the original source on Blogger, but Mrs. Linklater quoted them; so I'll just use what she had copied and pasted: "We've made the Next Blog link more useful, by taking you to a blog that you might like. The new and improved Next Blog link will now take you to a blog with similar content, in a language that you understand. If you are reading a Spanish blog about food, the Next Blog link will likely take you to another blog about food. In Spanish!

You might discover a cool blogger who has hobbies similar to yours, has similar taste in electronic gadgets, likes sports that you're into, or has similar curiosities and interests. We will finish rolling out the new and improved Next Blog link over the next week and hope that you will enjoy discovering blogs that are likely to interest you."

There's no more porn, for that I'm thankful. But guess what sort of blogs they think I'll like? Food blogs and mommy blogs. WRONG! I'm bored by food blogs... I don't even read PW's food section often. I'm not much on mommy blogs either. I'm thinking I'll trick them and log out of blogger, then use the next-blog button. Let 'em try and force their choices down my throat then.

Go ahead, you folks who are signed in to Blogger Try it. See what sort of stuff they think you'll like.

*note added later: I logged out and tried it, but Blogger still knew it was me. Food blogs galore.

The next-blog button, revisited

Last October I mentioned going on a blog-jog by way of the next-blog button, up there in the top, left-hand corner of this page. I kept coming onto porn sites, and it was obvious my browser had been hijacked, because I was being directed back to the same porn blogs, over and over.

Blogger has obviously changed something, because I've blog-hopped a lot this afternoon and not found a single porn site (no, I was NOT disappointed at this). I've come upon several blogs in other languages, which is understandable; and I have noticed a disproportionate number of blogs by Mormons, but that's no problem in my book.

So in case you had not tried that next-blog button lately, let me assure you that it seems to be safe nowadays.