01 Feb 2012 21 Comments
A Bit of Housekeeping: Saying Good-bye to Google Friend Connect
I wrote about my love-hate relationship with Google Friend Connect a couple of months back. It turns out, love it or hate it, I have no choice but to say adios, adieu and good-bye to good old GFC. You see, as of March 1st, GFC will no longer be available to bloggers who are not on the blogger platform. Oh yesh.
When I first heard about it, my heart sank a bit. After all, GFC has been with me since the beginning. It is like my security blanket. I take comfort in seeing all the lovely faces of my GFC followers, even though that members number tended to drive me crazy in the past.
With GFC going away though, I started to wonder: Will it mean I have to start from scratch? Will people forget me? The panic quickly went away as I know there are MANY other ways to connect to my amazing readers.
So dear friends, if you follow LipstickRules via GFC, please consider connecting with me in other ways. I hope you do. See the top right corner of my blog — Facebook, Twitter, Bloglovin and good old RSS? That’s where you can find me and places where I’ll be putting more efforts into in the coming year.
So while I will miss seeing all the friendly faces on the GFC widget, I know that I will still be in touch with many of you!
Until tomorrow, my friends!
Michelle
Feb 01, 2012 @ 21:45:38
Eek. Just in case I hadn’t already, I clicked RSS again!
Feb 01, 2012 @ 21:50:28
Zuzu, you are the best. Thank you.
Feb 01, 2012 @ 21:52:38
I added you to BlogLovin’ and RSS…Just to be sure I don’t miss anything
Feb 01, 2012 @ 21:53:46
Thanks Shaylee!! Appreciate it!!
Feb 01, 2012 @ 21:56:10
annoying, right? they really rubbed me the wrong way with that announcement, especially as they framed it as a push to “just go sign up for google+” no thanks, so that can be cancelled too?
Feb 01, 2012 @ 21:59:07
Totally annoying. But that’s one of the reasons why I left the Blogger platform in the first place. So many changes. I feel that while this sucks a bit, I have a bit more control over my own site. After all, who knows what Google will do next?!
Feb 01, 2012 @ 22:26:45
Hey Michelle,
I still don’t quite understand this. What does it mean by bloggers who are not on the blogger platform? This is so irritating! Will all my readers disappear?
Feb 01, 2012 @ 22:30:41
It’s still all very vague actually. All that we know is that blogs that are not on the Blogspot/Blogger platform will not have GFC. It’s not clear though what happens to us who follow blogs using GFC and whether we’ll see the blogs we follow disappear. For example, I follow a lot of blogs via GFC. If they take it away from my site, does that mean my account is gone and I can’t see those blogs anymore? I’m not sure. I hope not! I’m still doing research on it. I have read other people say that removal of GFC on non-Blogger platform blogs is just the first step and they could get rid of it altogether because they want us to use Google+.
Feb 01, 2012 @ 22:32:31
Hey BeautyGirl24, I don’t mean that the blogs I follow will disappear. I mean that they disappear from my view or that I won’t be able to view via the dashboard anymore. We’ll have to see I guess!
Feb 01, 2012 @ 22:35:39
Oh ok Michelle, thank you!
Feb 01, 2012 @ 22:42:50
I am now bloglovin you!!!
Feb 02, 2012 @ 19:12:21
Thanks Missy!
Feb 02, 2012 @ 00:03:26
Ciao Michelle,
Thank you so much for bringing this to my attention. I really had no idea what this was all about, and still don’t understand a lot about it as of yet, but all I know is that I don’t want to lose my GFC’s, I have a lot of friends that I made through there and it is really the only way that I connect with most of them.
I am happy that you posted your Facebook account here, I have “liked” your account… just so that I can keep in contact with you.
This does not sound like good news to me…. why does Google do things like this?
Hope that you have a great day!!
Hugs & Kisses Sprinkled with lots of Love!
Love,
Shelley
xXx
Feb 02, 2012 @ 19:13:32
Thanks Shelley! I don’t quite understand it all myself. I’ve seen a lot of other bloggers do a similar post and take similar actions and thought it was a good idea. I appreciate the support
Feb 02, 2012 @ 06:30:53
I am now following you on Bloglovin. I need to go through all the blogs I follow and follow them a different was as I don’t want to forget about any of them. x
Feb 02, 2012 @ 19:14:05
Thanks Alice. I have to do the same too.
Feb 02, 2012 @ 12:04:19
Does that mean that all of the subscribers will not be able to find your blog in their lists?
No way!
I’m clicking on rss, just in case
Feb 02, 2012 @ 19:14:57
Hey Lyd, I guess anyone who is not on Blogger platform won’t be seen in your blogger Dashboard anymore. I think links from other blogs like on blogrolls will still work though. I hope they do at least! Thanks again Lyd!
Feb 04, 2012 @ 01:20:47
oh no!!! GFC is the easiest way to ‘follow’ blogs. sometimes i find google and facebook like to upgrade things for the sake of upgrading things … and just makes it harder for everyone. *shakes fist in the air*
Feb 04, 2012 @ 13:19:38
I wasn’t aware of this….I think I’ll be making a move to word press soon! I’ll have to start doing some homework to see what this means to me and the bloggers I follow.
Feb 05, 2012 @ 03:41:14
i just removed GFC from my blog. i’ll have to remove sooner or later. i don’t know if that has affected anyone who only follow via that means. even though i have only small number of follower, it’s ego boosting to know i have followers and the number of followers. it’s google’s pathetic way to push people over to the useless g+ and i still don’t see how g+ can replace gfc. i’d rather use fb than g+ (even tho i don’t like fb). oh well. :p