{ Museum of Obsolete Objects, by Jung von Matt // discovered via The Dew Drop Inn }
"...While our daily lives become more and more digital, some things just vanish. They simply became obsolete..."
"...While our daily lives become more and more digital, some things just vanish. They simply became obsolete..."
And so it it seems to be also with Google Friend Connect. As you have probably already heard on the ether, as of March 1st, Google Friend Connect will no longer be available to non-Blogger blogs. Authors of affected sites are being encouraged to create Google+ pages with a Google+ badge on their blogs in order to retain and keep in touch with their community of followers. You can read the full article on the Official Google Blog here.
Reading about, I am not alone in feeling that it won't be long before this tool is no longer available on Blogger blogs either and that this is only the first phase of it's entire 'retirement'. After all, it makes no sense to have it available to some and not to all. So what to do?
Well personally while I *love!* the idea of having everything in the same pot, I cannot ignore that readers subscribe through a variety of means depending on their personal preferences. And while GFC seemed like a great idea (that 'one-pot-for-all' one) in the beginning, the ties between blogging and social media have grown ever richer as time has gone on and we are far more sophisticated and savvy users.
A while ago now I replaced the default GFC follow widget with my own button having got fed up with it being so tempromental, and with it the visual hang-ups of worrying about 'the numbers'. Which was all fine and dandy. With the impending phasing out of Google Friend Connect altogether, I feel it is therefore time to remove it (and so I have done). In it's place there are now options for you to subscribe via email or reader, whichever is your preference. You can also 'follow' me on Bloglovin (whose clean, fresh interface I totally love), or simply add me manually to your Google Reader.
I will continue to investigate options and am open to any bright ideas or recommendations you may have, so please do share them below as I want to make this nice and easy for everyone. Thank you ©
I've Got hello cotton and linkyfollow and I think gfc is to be replaced by google plus even though it's crap. There's meant to be a widget but I haven't been able to get it working yet. Spent all of Saturday investigating. There's a networked blogs option too and blog frog. Bajillions
ReplyDeleteClaire... GFC is not so much being replaced by G+, as being removed altogether. After all, why have two systems for keeping track of your community - makes everything very confusing. So I totally get that ;) Thanks for the suggestions - I read your post on the topic between party-mayhem - and will go look at those too.
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