Blogger Error: Page Not Found ps/rpc_relay.html

Problem Statement

Google Webmasters Tools was reporting a crawl error on multiple pages of some of my blogs. The error message was:

Page not found http://page_url/ps/rpc_relay.html

Some other folks who encountered this error on their blogs saw a drop in their blog traffic too. However, in my case, there was no noticeable drop in traffic.

Root Cause

In order to identify the root cause, I looked for any reference to ps/rpc_relay.html on my blog. I looked into the template source code, but it was clean. Then I looked at the page source and did find the reference there. Looking at the source, it was clear that the problem was associated to the Follower widget.

To confirm my suspicion, I removed the Follower widget and as expected, the reference to ps/rpc_relay.html disappeared from the page source.

Solution

In order to fix the issue and also retain the Follower widget, I replaced the Follower widget with Google Friend Connect. Basically, both are same. The only difference being that the former comes as a standard widget from Blogger and the latter as html code that needs to be added to a HTML widget on the blog. Here are the detailed steps:

1. Remove the Follower widget.
2. Go to Google Friend Connect (GFC) and login with your Google account (the same account used for Blogger).
3. Click on your blog name (in the list of blogs) in the left hand navigation panel -> Overview -> Add the members gadget.
4. If you want, configure the member's gadget to match the color scheme of your blog.
5. Grab the widget code.
6. Come back to your blog and add an HTML widget. It can be in the same section where the Follower gadget used to reside.
7. Paste the HTML code from GFC into the HTML widget and save it.

After replacing the Follower widget with GFC, the reference to ps/rpc_relay.html was gone from the page source (except for one reference which was a comment).

Two or three days after making the change, the error was gone from Google Webmasters Tool. The blog was clean again.

The solution worked for me and I hope it works for you as well. Good luck !

Blogger Javascript Error "Permission Denied" in IE6

Problem Statement

I get a Javascript error (Line: 619 Char: 122 Error: Permission Denied) when my blog is loaded in Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) and the Google Friend Connect or the Follower widget doesn't load. Refer to the screenshot of the error below. The blog loads fine in Firefox 3.5 and Google Chrome 4.x.



Root Cause

The root cause is the conflict between the Poll widget and Google Friend Connect (GFC) or the Follower widget. If the page layout is such that the Poll widget loads first, I get the error. If GFC loads first, then there's no error.

Solution

I don't have a fix that addresses the root cause, but here are a few options that you could try:

• Change the page layout such that GFC (or the Follower widget) loads before the Poll widget.
• Remove the Poll Widget as a "widget" and embed it inside a blog post. This is the option that I've chosen. On the top menu, I've added a link to the Poll page. Obviously, this defeats the purpose of running a poll, but if your page layout cannot be changed due to some reason, then this is the next best option.
• The obvious option is to get rid of either GFC or the Poll widget.

I posted this issue on the official GFC forum, but unfortunately, there's hardly any help available there.

If I find a better fix, I'll post an update here, and if you know of a proper fix to address the root cause, do let me know.