{"id":7985,"date":"2011-12-13T03:00:15","date_gmt":"2011-12-13T07:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.baileybegood.com\/home\/?p=7985"},"modified":"2012-01-31T19:27:55","modified_gmt":"2012-01-31T23:27:55","slug":"goodbye-google-friend-connect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.baileybegood.com\/home\/2011\/12\/13\/goodbye-google-friend-connect\/","title":{"rendered":"Goodbye Google Friend Connect?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.
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\nWhen 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.<\/p>\n

So it boggled my ‘still-could-be-called-a-puppy’ mind, when my friend Sugar<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

\"GoodbyeFor 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.<\/p>\n

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…<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Next, I signed onto my Feedburner<\/a> <\/em>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.<\/p>\n

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}}}<\/p>\n

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 <\/em>account helped me figure this thing out. <\/p>\n

Now, instead of only receiving updates by subscribing to my posts in your a reader<\/a>, you can choose to subscribe by email<\/a>! 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 <\/em>subscription by clicking the link in the confirmation email. No worries — your email will be kept private and won’t be shared with anyone.<\/p>\n

I am exploring other ways to keep in touch with everyone. I already have a Facebook<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

\"Goodbye
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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<\/em>, after GFC goes away?<\/p>\n

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Dogs in Cars…<\/strong><\/p>\n

Send in your Dogs in Cars<\/a><\/em> photos!…<\/strong> 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<\/a> first!! <\/p>\n

Happy Tuesday woofs & hugs, friends! <3\n\n~Bailey (Yep, I'm a girl)\nP.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<\/a>. Please let me know you’ve visited — I love reading other blogs and making new friends. <3<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/font>*Extra Woofies*<\/font><\/strong><\/font>
\nWord verification has been turned off! Comment away! Spammers take a hike! All comments are moderated<\/strong>, so they won’t show up right away. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

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