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General

Did You Know Google Friend Connect is Going Away?

  • Kerrie
Google+? But I already have a Facebook page!

I didn’t know Google Friend Connect (GFC) was going away till Marlene from Mission to (a)nother Marathon e-mailed me about it. Yep, that handy little widget over there to the right that says “Running Buddies!” will be gone as of March 1, according to this article and others I’ve seen around the Web. As I understand it, people with a Blogger-hosted blog will have only one or two months after that before GFC goes away for them, too.

What does this mean for bloggers and blog-readers?

Google is encouraging bloggers to make a Google+ page. Great, but then I have to have another page and ask all of you to go “follow” it, etc. I already have a Facebook page and a Twitter account and a blog and e-mail. That’s enough for me. I’m not a fan of the way Google is trying to force everyone to use only Google products. They have some great services, but some just aren’t for me. It’s too bad that I have to use all Google or no Google at all (at least it feels that way).

So, what I have to do instead is ask you to:

  • Follow Mom vs. Marathon using the RSS Feed (over on the right). Copy and paste that feed address into your blog reader. Or,
  • Subscribe by e-mail. Or,
  • Subscribe using WordPress (if you have a WordPress account). Or,
  • Subscribe with BlogLovin’ (the little “+Follow this Blog” button over there on the right), which is a lot like Google Reader, but much cleaner, and easier to read and use.
  • And, of course, if you “Like” my Facebook page, I always publish new posts there (plus other fun stuff!).

So, what do you think about all this? Are you going to start a Google+ page? I, for one, will be canceling my Google account shortly and switching all my blogs over to BlogLovin’.

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19 comments
  1. Carrie says:
    January 27, 2012 at 10:17 am

    I hate it! Plus my computer is so out of date I can’t even run Google+!

    Reply
    1. Kerrie T. says:
      January 27, 2012 at 10:18 am

      Boo!

      Reply
  2. Marie from why she runs says:
    January 27, 2012 at 10:29 am

    Well that sucks! How annoying! Thanks for the heads up. I didn’t know that!

    Reply
    1. Kerrie T. says:
      January 27, 2012 at 2:37 pm

      You’re welcome. I guess it’s a free country, but yeah, it’s annoying. LOL

      Reply
  3. Jen says:
    January 27, 2012 at 10:49 am

    Intersting – I follow blogs using the blog follow option in blogger, I guess I should check I have everyone on my list there.

    Reply
    1. Kerrie T. says:
      January 27, 2012 at 2:43 pm

      So, yeah, with GFC, when you click “Follow this blog” it automatically puts them on your Google Reader. Now, you’ll just have to do it manually. For example, let’s say you found a blog called Skippidy Dippidy at http://www.skippidydippidy.com. To add Skippidy Dippidy, you would copy the http://www.skippidydippidy.com, go to your Google Reader, click on the red button that says “Subscribe” and paste the address in the dropdown box. Then Skippidy Dippidy will show up in your Google Reader. If Skippidy Dippidy had GFC, all you would have to do is click on the GFC “Join this Site” button on Skippidy Dippidy’s site. GFC just made things convenient. Oh well. I wonder if Skippidy Dippidy exists?

      Reply
  4. Kendra says:
    January 27, 2012 at 12:12 pm

    Thanks for the heads up! I agree with not wanting to make a Google+ page… I think Twitter and Facebook are enough! Plus not a lot of people I know are even on Google+… oh well! I think this decision is gonna bite Google in the butt!

    Reply
    1. Kerrie T. says:
      January 27, 2012 at 2:44 pm

      As T Junior would say, “It’s suckeeee.”

      Reply
  5. ~K~ says:
    January 27, 2012 at 12:54 pm

    i’ve been hearing about GFC, but i’m still a lil clueless to what that actually means. To read everyone’s blogs, i go to blogger.com and then i just scroll through my “dashboard” to see the new posts. Any idea if i will still be able to do that? runner_girl5k at yahoo dot com

    Reply
  6. Harmony says:
    January 27, 2012 at 1:05 pm

    I am confused. So will blogs shut down or just not be able to see followers. What do I need to do make the switch?

    Reply
    1. Kerrie T. says:
      January 27, 2012 at 2:47 pm

      No blogs will be shut down, the GFC icon up there on my page just won’t work anymore as of March 1. But if you have a “blogspot” blog, it will continue to work for a couple of months after that (I think — I can’t remember where I read that). Basically, they are just taking away this superhandy “Join this site” button that lets others “follow” your blog easily. So, now, if someone new wants to follow your blog, they will have to subscribe to you via an RSS Feed or manually paste your web address into their Google Reader or BlogLovin’ blog reader pages (see my reply to Jen above).

      Reply
  7. Kris @ Fight Hard Finish the Race says:
    January 27, 2012 at 1:07 pm

    Oh dear, why do they have to be like that? Oh well I’ll figure it out.

    I just tagged you on my blog to do the 11 Random Things, totally understand if you can’t since you have dogs, job, kid, etc. 🙂

    Reply
    1. Kerrie T. says:
      January 27, 2012 at 2:48 pm

      It’s not that big of a deal; it’s just annoying. Hey, thanks for tagging me! I’ll gladly participate!

      Reply
  8. 06189810130309452394 says:
    January 27, 2012 at 7:26 pm

    I was just watching a show last night about Facebook-vs-Google+. Personally, I know no one that uses Google+ or even talks about it. I think they’re fighting a battle in a war that’s already been won by FB. It bums me out – because I loooove the convenience of finding a new blog & just clicking the GFC button (and it’s automatically added to my blog roll in Blogger). In fact, it kinda annoys me when they don’t display one & I have to do all the copy/paste business. And I refuse to get email subscription. Goodness, I can hardly keep up w/my emails the way it is. I guess I need to learn more about this RSS Feed… not familiar with all that.

    Reply
  9. marissa says:
    January 27, 2012 at 8:21 pm

    wow, WHAT? I didn’t know this. Have I been living under a rock? Geez…that’s just great 🙁 Boo on Google!

    Reply
  10. alma says:
    January 27, 2012 at 9:42 pm

    Grrr! And I finally just figured out how to get you into my reader! BTW – I just TAGGED YOU in my 11-thing blog post.

    Reply
  11. Christine says:
    January 28, 2012 at 10:07 am

    I’m not really sure what Google Friend Connect is. Right now I click on the FOLLOW button on top and read all blogs through Google reader, will that still exist?

    Reply
    1. Kerrie T. says:
      January 28, 2012 at 10:34 am

      Nope. At least that’s what I understand.

      Reply
    2. Kerrie T. says:
      January 28, 2012 at 10:35 am

      Unless the “Follow” is part of some other service — like BlogLovin’. In order to follow a new blog and get them in your GOogle Reader, you will have to copy the web address and paste it into the “Subscribe” box directly in Google Reader.

      Reply

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