I also wanted to share this important post fromKenra Daniels, who is nice enough to let me perpetuate her wisdom.
Anyone who uses a Blogger platform...hearken to these words!
Follow with Google Friend Connect? Not Anymore!
If you haven’t heard already, Google’s Friend Connect, or GFC, will no longer be available outside the Blogger platform in March. Since GFC was never available for WordPress.com blogs anyway, this hasn’t affected me one way or the other.
But lots of bloggers who don’t use Blogger have been unhappy about being told to add their Google Plus badge to their sidebar. They will have to start from scratch building their followings, and those new followers won’t see their blogs in Google Reader.
Without widely known alternatives, though, there wasn’t much they could do except push followers to sign up via their RSS feed, with mixed success. As far as I’m aware, Facebook’s Networked Blogs was the only other option that most blog readers would be familiar with. I’m sure there are others, just not as universally recognized.
So, even if you use Blogger (on March 1, GFC will become Follower, available only to Blogger users, and the general suspicion is, that will be around only a short time before it, too, is phased out in favor of Google +), I encourage you to support your blogging brethren. Add Linky Follower to your blog, and use it to follow other blogs.
You can get started right now! Just head over to the sidebar and click Follow Me in the Linky Follower Widget. Signing up is quick and painless! I promise!
But lots of bloggers who don’t use Blogger have been unhappy about being told to add their Google Plus badge to their sidebar. They will have to start from scratch building their followings, and those new followers won’t see their blogs in Google Reader.
Without widely known alternatives, though, there wasn’t much they could do except push followers to sign up via their RSS feed, with mixed success. As far as I’m aware, Facebook’s Networked Blogs was the only other option that most blog readers would be familiar with. I’m sure there are others, just not as universally recognized.
Until Now!
You know those so-useful little Linky List sign-up tools so many bloggers use? Well, Brent Riggs, the guy who provides them has teamed up with some bloggers and developed Linky Follower! As he explains in his post, Linky Follower is FREE, allows users to organize the blogs they follow, and is not dependent on, or part of, any other service.So, even if you use Blogger (on March 1, GFC will become Follower, available only to Blogger users, and the general suspicion is, that will be around only a short time before it, too, is phased out in favor of Google +), I encourage you to support your blogging brethren. Add Linky Follower to your blog, and use it to follow other blogs.
You can get started right now! Just head over to the sidebar and click Follow Me in the Linky Follower Widget. Signing up is quick and painless! I promise!
Hi Ash
ReplyDeleteI'm honored that you shared my post with your followers. Thank you!
And congrats to June Manning! Enjoy!
Well, that's useful to know about. Also a complete nuisance, of course.
ReplyDelete