There has been such a panic response to the Google Reader feature retiring, I want to pass out chill pills to everyone. Relax, it's not all that you think it is.
First, lets get this straight. GFC (Google Friend Connect) is not retiring or disappearing at the moment. Google Reader and GFC are two separate entities. Your blog is not going disappear. Your followers are not going to disappear. Aliens, as far as I know are not going to abduct us. Google Reader will retire July 1, 2013. Not in 5 seconds. Not in 30 minutes. Not tomorrow. Not next month. Relax.
I personally do not use Goggle Reader to keep up with my blogs. I have used Blogger Dashboard, and as far as I know that is not set to retire at the moment (please correct me if I'm wrong). The post by Little girl, big thoughts fully explains the plans of Google in regards to Google Reader. If you have any doubt about anything please read that post.
What I can gather from all of this is that while GFC is not in any imminent danger of disappearing, it does look like that GFC might not always be here to stay. Remember -GFC will still be here in 5 seconds, 30 minutes, tomorrow, and will still be here July 1st. I'm saying that based on the changes of Google I would not be surprised if GFC is phased out eventually.
So, lets plan ahead? That's always smart. You can now follow me using Bloglovin'. You will see I have button for that now on my right sidebar that says "Follow this blog with bloglovin'". Click that, and it will direct you on how to follow me and set up an account if you do not have one. If you'd like to import all of your blogs from Google Reader to Bloglovin', Oooh, Shinies! has created a great tutorial that will show you how to do that. I recommend you do this for all of your blogs you read.
You can also follow me on Facebook & Twitter. Both of these places repost my daily blog posts.
You can also follow me on Pinterest & Intstagram where I share all of my blog photos from my blog.
I hope this helps clear up some of the confusion and hysteria :P.
Happy Saturday!
I had to laugh so hard at the alien part ♥. But yes, the assumption people make that GFC is ALSO ditched July 1st is just wrong.
ReplyDeleteThanks, that's really helpful. I've just moved to bloglovin in less than 2 minutes x
ReplyDeleteThere were too many options on Google - that's in MHO...I think they needed to weed out the various readers. Seems many folks learned how to use one but not others or had blogs strung over the 3 various options to read on Google. But again IMHO...if Google wants Blogger to stay alive (which I am sure they do)...they need to groom a really good and easy to use reader. Right now I can only imagine Google is going a bit nuts with so many folks bailing to Bloglovin because it has a really easy import tool that anyone can just look at and figure out how to in 2 seconds. But you have to like Bloglovin and I am not one who does love it...I find it's one of the last places I go to look at things and the thumbnails drive me nuts in it. I personally gave up FB about 10 mos ago - it robs way too much time each day out of my life and frankly I don't need to know all that stuff about everyone. I tend to use Twitter only for live feeds during live broadcasts (web concerts etc)..Like most folks, I want something in the cloud to keep track of my blogs so I can pick up and read on any device. But that said, there are a lot of readers out there. One only has to go look up RSS readers and look at some reviews and try on a few. I think right now for some folks and all bloggers it's super important to offer a follow me by email option which seems many Bloggers seem to have over looked when setting up their blogs - it's an easy add on. Also something to point out many don't know about is a tool inside of your Google acct called Google Takeout. You all have it if you have a Google account - it's there. You can archive everything at once or transfer things - works for contacts, Picassa, Blogger, you name it...it's all in there. At least if you archive you save all those URLs for blogs you love...and we all know we should have a back up of our contacts. I have an RSS reader inside my email program and about 1 yr ago I finally figured out how to put any RSS feed into it...alas, that is an issue with some of the RSS readers out there - they take a bit more Geek skill than many folks have. But do write your fav blogs and ask them to put in a follow by email option if they don't have one like Steph has (thank you Steph)...change is going to come and go. I hazard a guess in 5 years or so what we all know of as blogs today are going to be much different let alone ways to read them. And yes Steph GFC is not going away on July 1...however, hints are there it is going...but my guess is long as Google has Blogger they need to offer a means to follow that they own and control...so there is more to this than we know. The whole G+ thing has not evolved as was expected.
ReplyDeleteI've never even used Google reader...I've always read my favorite blogs via the dashboard. If they ever did away with that...well then I'd have a problem.
ReplyDeleteFollowing you everywhere! I really like Reader so I'm sad to see it go. I don't really want to change over to anything new... haha I'm getting old... but we will survive. I'm curious to know what new and better alternatives will be developed in the next few weeks/months!
ReplyDeleteSo mad about this. Already lost 100 followers when GFC
ReplyDeleteSo mad about this! Already lost 100 followers when GFC went away for non-blogger sites, now I will lose the majority of my followers again! Can't win!
ReplyDeleteYou and I did similar posts! It kills me how the nail polish world freaks out over stupid crap. I love how you did the chill pill! Hehehehehe!
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