Sunday 31 January 2016

Google rules ok!


Losing followers?

I finally saw the Google announcement which states that they are no longer allowing followers who are not in possession (?) of a Google account. So that’s why I have been shedding followers since early in December.

Any of you who are not informed of new posts on my or any other blogger’s blog are not being blocked by the blogger but Google itself, that giant, all-consuming steamroller flattening and levelling all who come into its clutches.

This is what Google said:

In 2011, we announced the retirement of Google Friend Connect for all non-Blogger sites. We made an exception for Blogger to give readers an easy way to follow blogs using a variety of accounts. Yet over time, we’ve seen that most people sign into Friend Connect with a Google Account. So, in an effort to streamline, in the next few weeks we’ll be making some changes that will eventually require readers to have a Google Account to sign into Friend Connect and follow blogs.

  As part of this plan, starting the week of January 11, we’ll remove the ability for people with Twitter, Yahoo, Orkut or other OpenId providers to sign in to Google Friend Connect and follow blogs. At the same time, we’ll remove non-Google Account profiles so you may see a decrease in your blog follower count.

  We encourage you to tell affected readers (perhaps via a blog post), that if they use a non-Google Account to follow your blog, they need to sign up for a Google Account, and re-follow your blog. With a Google Account, they’ll get blogs added to their Reading List, making it easier for them to see the latest posts and activity of the blogs they follow.

 We know how important followers are to all bloggers, but we believe this change will improve the experience for both you and your readers.

 Posted by Michael Goddard, Software Engineer
I am not asking any of you to take on a Google account if you don’t wish to. Instead, I might simply delete the Followers’ gadget eventually.


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35 comments:

  1. Autolycus31 January 2016 at 12:51

    I use Netvibes to centralise all my RSS feeds into one webpage. Never used Google Connect.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hilary Melton-Butcher31 January 2016 at 13:54

    Hi Friko - it is possible to sign in using an FB, Twitter account ... which may well help.

    Here's the link: http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2016/01/the-followers-gadget-and-internet.html

    I'd quite like my followers back .. I'm sure they are there ... but I don't like things happening without due warning.

    I noticed a note (somewhere - popped up) .. saying if we didn't update to Windows 10 by July we'd be in deep quagmire, then I saw that someone had tried to update and that update had messed up their site ...

    Us lot with little techie knowledge are bubbling around frothing at our gills ... and hoping for the best - cheers Hilary

    ReplyDelete
  3. LilliStJohn31 January 2016 at 14:42

    Thanks Friko, I shall share this post with my people. Answer for Hilary - I haven't updated to Windows 10 because all around me have and have a nightmare of problems. Keep your windows 7 for a while yet or you will run into a quagmire of problems. My brother lost all his photos, someone else lost contacts and on and on go the problems. Why of Why can't "microsoft" get any update right?? My ipad runs smoothly ALL THE TIME. Even after updates.??

    ReplyDelete
  4. Rian31 January 2016 at 14:47

    That bit mentioned by Hilary makes me wonder. I do have a Google acct, but don't use windows 10. Sure hope that updating to windows 10 isn't necessary to continue to blog here.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Susan Scheid31 January 2016 at 14:55

    Yet more evidence that Big Brother is here. The corporate-speak alone is chilling. I recently read a news article about Facebook's plan to place further limitations on its gun-marketing policies. It transpires that Facebook was one of the largest market places for gun sales in the world in 2014. Here's how Facebook's spokesperson "explained" the change in policy, which will apparently ban private gun sales on the site:

    "'Over the last two years, more and more people have been using Facebook to discover products and to buy and sell things to one another,' said Monika Bickert, Facebook’s head of product policy, in a statement. 'We are continuing to develop, test and launch new products to make this experience even better for people and are updating our regulated goods policies to reflect this evolution.'"

    ReplyDelete
  6. DJan31 January 2016 at 15:15

    Hmpf! Your blog appeared in my news feed, but I signed up for a Google account long ago so I could write a blog or two using blogspot. It is definitely corporate Big Brother, but I'm glad I haven't lost you! My followers are going down, down... at this point I don't care any more. But once upon a time it mattered to me. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Cloudia31 January 2016 at 16:20

    I have ceased worrying about these Google changes and just enjoy my friends and their posts: like YOU

    ReplyDelete
  8. Tabor31 January 2016 at 16:28

    Yes, I signed up for Google a while back. But there is another blog venue to which I cannot post...it is another blogging software. I used to be able to post to a photographers lovely site, but now I am required to login. I do not need anymore IDs and passwords to list. Let us hope this does not mean we are going to slowly lose our way here.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Molly31 January 2016 at 18:10

    Things do seem to be changing at a rate of knots, but whether for the better or better for whom is debatable.

    ReplyDelete
  10. the fly in the web31 January 2016 at 19:12

    The delight of the internet used to be its freedom...now the big boys think that we are dependent on it they start tightening the screws.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Elephant's Child31 January 2016 at 19:23

    Sigh. I really, really dislike the way these changes are imposed on us.
    And at the moment appear to be totally unable to update to Windows 10. Trying has been an data chewing exercise in frustration. Less than ten days into my internet month I have already used more data (lots more data) than I did for the whole of last month.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Terra 31 January 2016 at 19:31

    This is so sad, I lost 15 followers, and the blocked followers probably will not realize they are no longer reading the blogs they used to read. We can't tell which blogs are blocked so we can't contact them. In anticipation of this months ago I added a follow by email link and a bloglovin.com button to my blog as alternative ways people can follow my blog.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Z31 January 2016 at 20:19

    I moved away from Blogspot a couple of years ago but still keep the blog open. Only today, I noticed that the followers had dropped off, though I only noted a few weeks ago that they hadn't then. I do have a gmail account, and too many people know it for me to give it up, but I don't care for google at all and no longer use it as a search engine and would never use chrome, just so they don't know everything about me.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Librarian31 January 2016 at 20:51

    Thank you for the explanation. I have lost 2 this week, after the "dramatic" drop I reported on my blog some time before Christmas. I did suspect it had nothing to do with my blog but everything to do with blogger, and now I know I was right.

    Strictly speaking, as a Data Protection Officer, I shouldn't have a google account myself... but there you go, I just really enjoy blogging and am not ready to move it to another platform.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Lorrie31 January 2016 at 22:08

    I intensely dislike the way Google wants to control information. I have all the blogs I read in Feedly. Bloglovin is another option.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Jeanie31 January 2016 at 22:21

    Oh, please don't delete it! It's so wonderful when you show up right in my feed! I'd be afraid I'd miss -- unless you add a follow by email or something. But yes, I was disappointed by that, too. So far I've only lost two and who knows, they might just be bored with me. But really, what's the point?!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. shoreacres1 February 2016 at 13:01

      Jeanie, there's a "follow by email" link. That's how I get Friko's posts.

      Delete
  17. Kathy31 January 2016 at 22:40

    I saw the notification and had already noticed a drop in Follower numbers. I've always had a 'Follow this blog by email' button in my sidebar and have about 30 people who use that and I added a link to Bloglovin some time ago. Since the demise of Google Reader I've used Feedly to follow blogs and it works well for me.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Ur-spo1 February 2016 at 00:12

    I haven't grasped this one. However I read blogs by having them bookmarked so I don't miss them that way.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anonymous1 February 2016 at 00:42

    I rather like have the widget or gadget on a site as an instant indication of the worth of someone's blog. Shallow that is, but if someone has no followers after four years of blogging, then I am not sure their blog will be for me. Btw, yours in one of the few blogs I actively chose to read, rather than somehow it just happening because someone kindly left on comment on my blog.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. shoreacres1 February 2016 at 13:00

      That's an nteresting perspective. I purposely don't list the number of followers I have. I let the comments on my blog speak for themselves.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous7 February 2016 at 08:37

      Looking at comments is a another easy and less shallow way to judge a blog. If comments are really warm and nice, then it may well be a person to follow and maybe the commenter is too.

      Delete
  20. Starting Over, Accepting Changes - Maybe1 February 2016 at 02:03

    I don't care about the number that appears on my follower list; I care about the people that I have gotten to know through Blogger. That connection with people like you who have told interesting stories and shared part of their lives with me is what matters.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Jenny Woolf1 February 2016 at 11:33

    Yes, I've just noticed I lost a few more followers again. I wondered why. Thanks for explaining. I never wanted a google account but now I've changed my smartphone it's impossible to manage without. Grrr!!

    ReplyDelete
  22. shoreacres1 February 2016 at 13:03

    Here's something not every WordPress user may know. You can now follow any blog in the WordPress reader, just by entering the URL. Since I tend not to use the reader, I've not utilized that for Blogger blogs, but it is one option. As a matter of fact, I think WP made that change as a response to Blogger's change to Google account sign-ins. Needless to say, there's a bit of competition between the two.

    ReplyDelete
  23. ellen abbott1 February 2016 at 14:46

    well, I wondered what had happened to the 20+ followers that I lost over a period of a week or so. I added a follow my email button to my side bar. wish I had known in advance so I could warn my readers, if they are still actually reading that is.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Rita1 February 2016 at 15:59

    I've been following by email for a long time because the Blogger friend thingie wasn't always working--kept telling me regularly that I wasn't following anybody at all. I was afraid that the list wouldn't come back so I went to following by email and now I am glad I did. I'm not sure if I lost followers because I don't keep track, but I'm sure I probably did. Google is trying to take over the world. Most annoying.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Anonymous2 February 2016 at 14:11

    Follower, pollower, knollober. I don't care. Google can stuff it. I ABSOLUTELY refuse to follow the leader. I am not a dog. And if I were I'd lead the leader.

    It's hugely annoying having to subscribe. Not least because the other day I wrote a not finely crafted stencil of a response to one of the most irritating people I yet have to meet only to be stone walled by Google in the comment box. Well, it's her loss. She might have learnt something useful about herself but not at the cost of yours truly jumping through Google's hoop.

    I don't "follow" any blogger in an organized way. If, and when, I take to someone I'll remember them and log on - manually.

    Google is in trouble. As one of your other correspondents said: Big brother is upon us. Let's hope, for Google's sake, they won't trip up on their own trap.

    Hug,
    U

    ReplyDelete
  26. Susan Anderson2 February 2016 at 16:47

    I lost 30 followers in one fell swoop and was glad to find out a day or two later that it was a Google thing. I thought maybe my posts were losing their appeal.

    =)

    ReplyDelete
  27. Fiona2 February 2016 at 23:04

    Ahh the powers that be....I have a Google account because that was the only reliable [at that time] to get email wherever we were. Now there are days when I am just tire of Google and the way they run your internet. They tailor make your advertising and who know what else they do. We do enjoy the blogosphere though and visiting here! I do hope your well and keep safe.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Sally Wessely2 February 2016 at 23:37

    I don't understand any of this. I guess I will have to have my more techie husband explain it. I have had a Google account for a long time, and I have Google Plus, but I honestly don't know how to use it. Do I show up in your feeds?

    ReplyDelete
  29. Anonymous4 February 2016 at 14:57

    Well that's all very confusing to me. I think I am connected everywhere so I shouldn't get lost. They will have to make concessions for the older participant, I think.

    ReplyDelete
  30. joared5 February 2016 at 07:21

    My baptism into blogging was with Blogger and have considered changing but not done so. Hadn't heard about all this so don't know what to make of it all for me. I've not been into the whole following process other than through my blogroll which I periodically update. I do read comment and have commenters from other than Google platforms, so don't want to lose those I enjoy so much. I haven't installed MS 10 either as doing so will likely slow my computer down even more, especially since I don't have and my Verizon provider doesn't provide me a higher speed or fiber optic. Google, the social networks, and all those silent collectors of personal date on each of us are very troublesome. The more info they want, the less I try to provide.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Susan Kane6 February 2016 at 01:45

    Well, that explains a lot! Thanks!!

    ReplyDelete
  32. Hilary8 February 2016 at 20:11

    The thing is that the information to advise our readers came around to most of us after we had already lost to readers we were to advise.

    Google – I used to love it. Now it's all about exclusivity.. sigh!

    ReplyDelete

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