Dear Followers,
I’m writing a special post to all of you because it’s come to my attention that the most popular way to follow my blog (and many blogs) the Google Friend Connect widget is no longer going to be a viable option beginning March 2012. According to Google, Friend Connect is not a popular enough service to keep going and so beginning March 2012 they will be closing it down except to blogger blogs (and who knows how long they will keep it open for blogger).
I hate change for the most part. I cannot fathom why Google feels like Friend Connect is not popular, it seems to be on almost every blog I go to; but there’s nothing to do but get past the frustration and move on.
So from now on the best ways to follow me are:
- Follow via Google Reader Button – this option works just like GFC in that my posts will go to your Google Reader
- RSS Feed (this option allows you to choose the reader of your choice)
- Email Subscription – pretty self-explanatory, my posts will go into your email inbox
- NetworkedBlogs – Following this way means my posts will go into NB’s reader on FB
- Facebook Fan Page – by Liking my fan page you will have access to my posts (since my posts automatically go to my Fan page, this will not be as convenient for you though since you may have to search the page out, especially if you have many pages you Like)
In my opinion, the best ways to follow are either Follow via Google Reader, RSS Feed or Email; NetworkedBlogs is also a good way, the Fan page is handy but probably not the best way to keep up to date with what’s going on.
Please note, even if you already follow via GFC, you most likely WILL NOT receive posts after March 2012 unless you follow another way.
I really hope you all choose to continue following me, I wish this wasn’t a change that had to be made, but Google has left us no choice. I am more thankful than ever that I’ve left blogger for WordPress.
I know that March is a few months away, but I wanted to let all of my followers know before the deadline came so that there is time to make the change and get the word out. I thank all of you for your support, it has meant so much to me as a new blogger this year.
I hope you all will continue to follow me as I make my way into the future and all that it holds for all of us! Thank you so much for your patience as we work through is! 
All best,
April @ My Shelf Confessions
About April
I am a little surprised that they are saying that it is not popular enough. I really wonder if the reason for this change is their big push towards Google+. But from what I can see most bloggers are not moving to that–they are taking many of the options you have listed.
Shanan
http://www.thebookaddictnet.blogspot.com/
Yeah I don’t get why they think it’s not popular either, I guess they’ve tried other things with GFC that haven’t been successful but it is a great way to follow blogs. I guess they figure that that’s not the only purpose to have it around for lol Yeah, I’ve decided not to create a G+ page (at least not yet) I already have a Facebook Fan page that people can access, and G+ is definitely not a replacement for the blog LOL
Thanks for stopping in
I read that it’s going away for all non-blogger sites – http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/more-spring-cleaning-out-of-season.html. They probably decided not to support it for blogs that aren’t on blogger.
“Friend Connect allows webmasters to add social features to their sites by embedding a few snippets of code. We’re retiring the service for all non-Blogger sites on March 1, 2012.”
We’ve all read their and other posts about this, since it concerns us as non-blogger sites, yeah. Obviously, since posting this post! Though the reason was it hasn’t quite taken off like they wanted it and want to focus on other products, which means GFC might not be as safe on blogger blogs for long either. It seems they want to work more with G+ for the blogs as well. I think it will turn out perhaps even better in the end though, since GFC has been having issues for quite some time.
Hmm… I did a search of my name and look what came up. Now I know why I didn’t return to this blog.
Sorry, I guess I’m missing something? You didn’t return because…?
And interesting this post happens to pop up again now when GFC is definitely going the way of the dodo bird as Google has announced it’s shutting down its Google Reader service…
Yes, I’ve definitely read all about it, hence this post. Google has said that GFC is not a popular service and therefore on March 2012 it will no longer be supported on non-blogger blogs (such as mine, which is why this is so important to me and I’ve read as much as I can about it).
Google is pushing people to use it’s Google Plus pages and they have not said how long it will be available for blogger blogs; it seems like they are moving towards getting rid of GFC altogether in the future, so if I was a Blogspot user I don’t think I would use it anymore either, but that is every blog owners decision to make for themselves.
Thanks for the heads up!!