Well I am sure you all have heard by now that for whatever crazy reason, Google has decided to just do away with the Google Friend Connect Widget for WordPress users on March 1. You know, the one that we all follow blogs through??! How can they do that? Arghhh. And since I don’t want to lose any of you (because I do use WordPress), I am going to tell you what you can do to continue to keep up with my blog posts.
This is how the widget looks on my site on my sidebar.
So each time someone decides to follow my blog, or any other blog that uses GFC, that number goes up. And I’m not going to lie. Those numbers mean something! Remember how excited you were when you got your first follower? I still remember. It was an amazing feeling to know that someone actually wanted to continue reading what I would write about in the future.
When I follow a blog through GFC, that blog is automatically placed in my Google Reader, where I read blogs. So I assume that is what it does for all of you too if you follow me. And that is how I keep up with everyone, unless I subscribe. I know there are other ways of keeping up with a favorite blog and that’s what I’ll get to next.
Instead of using GFC, I would just encourage all of you to subscribe to people’s blog through RSS. That just means you choose which reader you prefer to read your blogs in, and that blog will be there if you add it. And if you use Google Reader, you can have the blog go there too when you hit the RSS button. You can subscribe to my RSS feeds here, and it’s really simple to do.
Another way to keep up is by having blog posts delivered by email. If that is the method you prefer, you can subscribe by email here, and it’s also simple to do.
I have no idea what will happen come March 1 with this widget. All I know is that it’s not going to work. And when I say not work, I don’t know if that means the widget will just disappear and you’ll lose all of your favorite blogs, or maybe they will still be there. All I know is that I don’t want to take a chance because Google has a mind of its’ own. And I don’t know how much longer I am going to keep my GFC widget on my site because people still sign up so that will just get confusing. A new follower won’t actually be following me, because I might just disappear in their eyes once this thing stops working. That sounds dramatic, I know.
So will you please still continue to follow me (or re-follow me is what I should say)? It will just take a second and I’d greatly appreciate it. You are all my friends and I don’t want to lose any friends! Just to recap, you can subscribe by RSS through the reader of your choice here, or you can subscribe by email and have my posts delivered to your inbox. Easy peasy.
Don’t forget you can also keep up with me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and oh goodness I just created a Google + page like yesterday, and I have no idea what I’m doing on there, but you can follow me there too if you wish.
Really Google, why do you have to do all of these things?!
Thanks so much for understanding and for your support! And p.s.-As of now this is just supposed to be for non-blogger blogs, so for y’all using Blogger will be ok for now. But I have heard they will likely disable it on Blogger blogs as well, at some point in the future. Just something you might want to think about and encourage your readers to subscribe via RSS instead!
xxoo,
Decorchick!
Will you be putting a Networked Blogs button on your blog?
No Tanya I’m sorry. From my understanding NW Blogs automatically posts your blog feed to your Facebook page, and I like to just do it manually.
I actually never used GFC. If I’m on a blog and want to follow it, I look for the RSS button and subscribe. If I can’t find it, I paste the URL into my Google Reader. But I didn’t realize people followed via GFC.
I can’t imagine that you would disappear from my google reader if they do away with the widget. Once you are there I think it would be up to me to delete your blog (which I wouldn’t do!) in order to get it out of my reader. It’s pretty hard to get blogs out of your reader anyway, have you tried that? They seem to just come back! But I will definitely subscribe if you do disappear. :)
Hey Anita, yes that makes the most sense of course, but since Google has been VERY vague and not explaining what is actually going to happen, I’d rather not take my chances with them. And we probably won’t disappear from each other’s readers, but I am wondering if our posts won’t get updated to show we have a new post. That’s what I’m thinking…
What about bloglovin? Is that a different option? It’s kind of confusing to me. I pushed RSS link and when asked to choose I don’t recognize the other options there except Google +. Will I get you if I push that one?
becky @ reinventingtheordinary.com
Yes, just hit the Google button, then you will have the option to put it in Google Reader. Thank you!
When I started following I didn’t click on anything on your site…I copied the address & pasted it in subscribe on my google reader page. Is that different than what you’re talking about here? Does that mean I am not counted because I didn’t go through your widget?
All the blogs I follow I’ve subscribed this way. It’s something I don’t know a lot about.
Yes that way is fine Jen! This is just for people who have only followed through that Google friend connect widget. Thank you! :)
Done! All subscribed! :)
Thanks for the info, I subscribed via email. Would you mind telling me what widget you use for your follow options? I just switched mine and half my followers didn’t resubscribe. I had done mine directly through feedburner but wasn’t getting any info on page views or anything like that so I added Jetpack. I’m pretty new at this whole thing and feel like I’m stumbling around in the dark and speaking a language I don’t even know!
Hi Sheila, it’s not really a widget, just the feedburner stat counter that shows how many subscribers you have. That’s all I’ll be using from now on. I have mine at the top right of my sidebar. I just grabbed that code from my feedburner account.
And to track your page views, you would use Google Analytics, not feedburner.
Hope that helps! Let me know if you have any other questions. :)
I’m with you! I hate that they’re getting rid of GFC but there’s not a lot to be done about it, so… I’ve added to you Google + (for whatever it’s worth) and followed you through Feedburner.
Thanks so much Maury! I think I added you back?
Oh BOO! I actually LOVE google connect and read blogs via my blogger dashboard or sidebar feed….this might be the reason I DON’T switch to wordpress and do my own site to build thing….
The easiest for anyone to follow is for you to add Networked Blogs. Super easy for you to add and all it takes is a small click from your followers. They support everyone. Hugs, Marty
I just followed you via RSS …why they want to change that..I love seeing that widget and whenever I have a new follower I get so happyyyyyyy lol
Why do they have to make everything so complicated? Sheesh, if it isn’t broke don’t change it! But I signed up via RSS so I won’t miss a post!
Oh dear! I dont know if I am receiving you via rss or by email..I don’t recognize anything to do with google. hmmm (Confused here in the first snow of the winter!)
But I sure dont want to miss receiving anything from you.
Hmm, well hopefully you won’t lose me. :) Stay safe in the snow!
Good Gravy! You’d think I could spell my name correctly. Only had it for 68 years! As I said, confused in all this snow! And I guess I didn’t really proofread before hitting the “send” button! :(
SO SAD about this – seriously trying not to get upset but I hate the thought of losing almost all of my followers :( :(
I’m going to link to this post for my readers to see an explanation – you did a great job putting it all together in a post!!
Thank you for posting this! I just started my own DIY blog and was looking forward to seeing that number go up whenever I gained a reader. That’s a real bummer. Such a great little widget! Why get rid of it, I wonder?
I have no idea. I think they created it with the intention of using it for social media or something?
When I find a new blog that seems interesting and want to start following I am used to look at how many people are doing the same. Is there something made to replace that you think? And how does a blogger like yourself know how many followers or , I guess you call them “readers” in the future, you have?
Hi Carol–they haven’t made anything to replace it. And the new Google + is far from being like Google Friend Connect. So for now, I’ll just continue to see how many readers I have from my feedburner account when people subscribe. Right now I have that little counter at the top right of my blog in the sidebar that shows how many. But then I would also add my GFC followers as well because that’s something separate, so now I’m not sure what to do about that!
We can also manually add you to our list of blogs to follow. Just copy the url and go to your main blogger page, click “add”, and paste the blog url!
Following you through Facebook :)