It’s true. As of March 1, 2012, Google will be removing its popular (so I thought) app, Google Friend Connect… for non-blogger sites.
When I first added Google Friend Connect (GFC) to my site, I was excited to add followers. It made me feel as though there were those of you who really enjoyed what I had to offer. I got excited each time I gained a new follower. I began adding “friends” and it enabled me to find more furries with websites and blogs. Before I knew it, I realized that I had become part of a community I never knew existed… a community that thrives on a love of all animals, writing, and friendship.
So it boggled my ‘still-could-be-called-a-puppy’ mind, when my friend Sugar told me that GFC was going to be ending next year. Since I have Word Press installed on my site, I wasn’t privy to the information that’s available on Blogger. Thank you, Sugar, for letting me know about this, so I could make informed choices, and prepare things. I certainly don’t want to lose touch with all of you, and I hope you don’t want to lose touch with me.
For one year, I posted every single day. For one year, I gained new friendships, and followed countless other websites and blogs that I thought were awesome. For one year, I had gained (as of the preparation of this post) 134 followers via GFC. For one year, I relied upon GFC to help my friends follow me. For one year, I had no idea that this would end soon after the one year.
This whole GFC thing got me wondering how to keep in touch with all of you, and how you could keep in touch with me. Sugar had thought that maybe someone would create a plug-in for us Word Press users… and that’s definitely a possibility, but I don’t know if and when that’ll happen. So, I started doing a few things…
First, I started bookmarking all of my friends’ websites and blogs. Just knowing I could reach all of you with just a click, makes me feel really good. I also have many of your sites listed on my ‘Friends’ page already, which made things a bit easier. Since that page is reserved for my GFC-Followers, not all of you are on my Friends’ page, but it was a good place to start gathering bookmarks. When GFC leaves, and if there is no plug-in to help keep it, I will have to make some changes to that page.
Next, I signed onto my Feedburner account. I haven’t been there since I set things up, so it was a good idea for me to visit and see what was new.
I discovered, that as of writing this post, I had 156 subscribers to my feed. How exciting for me! I had no idea how many of you had actually subscribed. Not gonna mention that I had a few more at the time I first installed the feed tracker — it isn’t fun now to see people unsubscribe. Heh. But I am more than pleased that there are those of you who have found my writing worthy enough to follow and read each day. It really does warm my ‘wanna-be-a-lap-puppy-forever’ heart. You guys… I wanna give you all a big hug. {{{HUG}}}
Since Feedburner will soon be the only way for you to “follow” my posts (besides visiting my site personally), I wanted to let you all know that I’ve made it so that you could now subscribe via email. This is one thing I was never sure how to do, but one look at my Feedburner account helped me figure this thing out.
Now, instead of only receiving updates by subscribing to my posts in your a reader, you can choose to subscribe by email! You can receive my posts automatically to the email address you choose. How cool is that? If you haven’t yet subscribed either way, please do consider doing this so you don’t miss a single post. If you choose to receive email updates, you’ll have to first confirm your Feedburner subscription by clicking the link in the confirmation email. No worries — your email will be kept private and won’t be shared with anyone.
I am exploring other ways to keep in touch with everyone. I already have a Facebook account, but I’m not able to be on there as often as I’d like, or as much as I really need to be in order to really keep in touch with everyone. I don’t seem to be able to increase the amount of friends there, either.
I was thinking of joining Google+, but I don’t think I’d use it enough. Do any of you use it? What are your ideas for following friends and having friends follow you, after GFC goes away?
Dogs in Cars…
Send in your Dogs in Cars photos!… If you haven’t yet joined this series, or if you have new pics you’d like to share, send them in! If you already have my email, send away! If you need my email, contact me first!!
Happy Tuesday woofs & hugs, friends! <3 ~Bailey (Yep, I'm a girl) P.S… If you’re a human who blogs about your furry, or a furry who blogs about your human… or even a furry who blogs about your life… I invite you to follow me via Google Friend Connect (see box in the right-hand column –>), and join me on Facebook. Please let me know you’ve visited — I love reading other blogs and making new friends. <3
*Extra Woofies*
Word verification has been turned off! Comment away! Spammers take a hike! All comments are moderated, so they won’t show up right away. ๐
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Hmm, we didn’t know Google is doing away with GFC. Thanks for telling us. Hope they aren’t doing away with Google Reader!
I use Google Reader – you can subscribe to RSS feeds from Feedburner even without the GFC button. Maybe that’s an option?
Wow – I didn’t know it was going away, and I use it!
Sam
We’ve got you all set up in Google Reader so we can stay connected even without friend connect! I’m sad that some of my friends my get lost in the shuffle. I must write a post about it a little closer to the date!
We are all confused. We use google reader. Is that going away too?
Woos ~ Phantom, Thunder, Ciara, and Lightning
At this time, Google has not said that Google Reader is going away… just a few products, including Google Friend Connect. ๐
We don’t know what GOogle+ is, but we subscribe to your blog (and all others) on Google Reader! We don’t always get a chance to read all our favorite blogs anymore since Mama is busy in school (BOOO, SCHOOL!) but we would NEVER unsubscribe to yours!
I had no idea either. Thanks for updating us all. I hope we can find a way to keep track of our followers and all the blogs we follow. Where there’s a will, there’s a way!
Nooooooooooo theya re taking it away??
NOT impressed!
Oh my! Now I don’t know what to do…. Will we still have our blogs?
Not very good news. The Google Reader is the only way I’ve been able to visit all the latest posts without scrambling around. It seems like the good, workable things are always the things taken away from us.
:o(
Facebook seems like the way to go these days
Benny & Lily
I did not know that, but it doesn’t surprise me. Google+ makes you prove you are human and are real. I left blogger and I will eventually leave GMail and Google Reader once I figure it all out. Google has no concept of customer loyalty and have been going out of their way to make the user experience less pleasant. Feedburner is owned by Google, so it will probably get messed up too.
Thanks for the update. I didn’t know either. This has me rather frustrated as this was an easy way to keep up with what other Bloggers were posting. I am not a FB fan and have no intention of going down that road. This gave me a daily update of who to check in on.
grrrrrrr! I am still so new at this, it is still mostly a foreign language! I have no idea what feedburner is???? Yikes. When is this all happening?
This was NEWS to me. All I can say is Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I am not big on CHANGES.
I hadn’t heard about this and we are not happy about it either…we will be complaining to google for sure !
Wow! That IS a bummer! I use Blogger and didn’t know either. I rarely read the update messages they send out, but I bet it was in there. I wonder why the would get rid of it? I liked the whole Friend/Follower thing too! I’ll have to get busy bookmarking! Thanks for the heads-up!
Woof! Woof! Oh Bailey … you sure planning ahead. We are not happy too since we plan to move our blog to WP starting Jan2012. BUT we think some genius guy will develop a plugin … and hopefully by that time Google/Blogger have a better plan about Google+. There must be a great reason why they are doing this because many great bloggers are in WordPress. Will keep you posted once we learn more information. Just keep your paws cross on our big move to WP. Lots of Golden Woofs, Sugar
FYI: haven’t visited my either … been busy n getting ready for our long Holiday break. Golden Woofs
We hope someone does make a plugin — I don’t know what I would do without some of the plugins I currently use! ๐
Well I use blogger and I sure did not know about this either. What a shame for them to take away something that has worked so well for everyone to stay in contact. Sniffs, The HoundDogs
Thats too bad about GFC, I didnt know either. I love having followers and following new blogs it so sad. I have added a lot of blogs to my blog list, and that does let me know whats going on on blogger
I guess I’m behind because I had no idea they were going to be doing away with the GFC…I guess I’ll have to decide what to do as well…Thanks for letting me know…I hope I don’t lose track of people like you, that would be too bad… ๐