I imagine you’ll see posts like this more and more, the closer we get to March 1st, as that is the date Google has decided to cut off all non-blogger users from their Google Friend Connect service. At this time, everyone you follow through Google Friend Connect that does not use blogger will disappear from your reader stream. Kaput! They were, of course, nice enough to present an alternate method of staying in touch with your Google friends: Google Plus.
I decided to go a different route. Firstly, because I don’t much appreciate the strong-arm approach they’re using to usher people to Google Plus; secondly, because I don’t find Google Plus to be an effective social medium. I’m already a member, and I have plenty of people in my circles, but when I post both there and on Facebook, it’s always on Facebook I get the most interaction. I know this isn’t everyone’s experience across the board, but it’s enough to keep me from relying on it to announce when I have new posts available on my site.
Instead I decided to go back to an old friend: NetworkedBlogs. It’s run through Facebook (where a lot of my traffic comes from already), it has a similar widget to Google Friend Connect, and it’s easy to use.
The one major drawback as I see it is that for those of you who use Google Reader, Networked Blogs does not add my blog back to your reader. At least…I don’t think it does. For you, I have the little RSS subscription buttons located at the top of every post (please note, you have to click the “News-Blog” link and view multiple entries to see the RSS button. If you are only viewing one post, the RSS button is not visible). You may want to subscribe through the RSS feed if you want to continue seeing my posts in a reader.
So, my wonderful readers, minions, and friends, I’d sure love it if you could follow me with the new NetworkedBlogs widget. If you do, I’ll add an extra entry to the BIG GIVEAWAY, which yes…is still going on! If I happen to owe you any other entries, or you do anything on the list for new entries, be sure to comment and let me know. The drawing will happen this Sunday, and I’ll announce the winner on Monday.
Good post. I agree with you on REALLY disliking Google’s “strong arm” tactics. I’m not all that impressed with “circles” either. I do think you should check out Linky Followers as an alternative to GFC. It’s new and available across all blogging platforms. It’s free and I love that I can easily follow my fav blogs in the handy reader. Hope you’ll check it out, too.
Laurie
I actually did sign up to that as well, but I’m hesitant to use it for two reasons. First, you have to manually update on their site every time you post a blog. And second, I believe it forces followers to use Linky’s reader, if I’m not mistaken? Still, it is another good alternative that I might end up using eventually. Thanks for the heads-up! 🙂
I’ve been a subscriber via Google Reader for a while now, but I’ll see if I can sign up with your new thingy… And you’re totally right about FB vs. G+ — I’ve noticed the same.
Thanks, Milo. I know it’s a big pain. I wish there was another way to migrate all my followers. If you want to continue using Google reader, I think you can simply subscribe vie the RSS feed…