Why Blogger Adds http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif To Your Post

I think I know why blogger adds "http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif" into posts seemingly at random. Well, first, it's a mac thing.

On a mac, in any browser, you can drag images from the browser onto your desktop and it works the same as right-clicking and "save image as". You can't do that on a Windows machine.

Well, when you click the Insert Link icon, the little gif sticks to your mouse, then after you type in your link, click OK, and move your cursor back down into the compose window, it adds the url for the link icon. Silly, huh.

What's my solution? Slow down! Don't swing your mouse back into the compose window immediately after you click OK.


I tested clicking the icon and moving the mouse back into the compose window, and almost every time, it added the silliness. Unless I did it slowly. Not like Steve Austin jumping over a building, or David Banner throwing a car, or even Rodan walking through a scale model city. Just a little slower.

Sometimes, you can even see an outline of the icon image box flying back into place after clicking OK. Strange.

It's some javascript that calls a variable: "var insert_link = 'insert link';"

I have no idea what that means or why that would make this happen.

So here's why it's happening, and a solution of sorts, but not a real fix unless blogger fixes it.

I actually was able to add some of the other icons from up there too, just by dragging them and placing them in my compose window.

http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.bold.gif
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.italic.gif
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.quote.gif
(couldn't get the spell check icon to work)
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.photo.gif
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.video.gif

Hope this helps

What do you think?
1. Did you know Google results finds 28,300 instances of gl.link.gif as of 8/31/07?
2. Do you know anyone at Blogger who can help fix this?
3. Do you have further explanation as to why this would happen?