Monday, December 28, 2015

Blogger changes...

Hello friends,

I recently noticed a drop of several friends all at once.  I spent some time trying to
figure out if I had posted something offensive, or if it was just a coincidence
that 10 people stopped following on the same day.  Anyway....if you are in the same
boat, OR if you follow some of your favorite blogs via yahoo, etc., here
is what I found out:

Apparently, everyone will be required to have a Google account to follow Google (Blogger) blogs. They are using the date of January 11, but several other Blogger friends have reported a large drop in numbers as well.  Please read the message below - it's an easy fix; but will require
that everyone has a google account.



Posted: December 21, 2015

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 Open Id 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 sorry if this causes any of my followers issues; but I hope you will be willing to create a Google account; so that you can continue to follow anyone who has a blog with blogger.  You will need to create a Google account and become a follower again; as they will remove all the followers who do not have Google accounts. I don't know about other blogs, but you can also subscribe to my blog via email, or use Bloglovin', if you do not wish to create a Google account.

I appreciate all of my followers and hope to see all of you still on my followers list next year.  

Thank you for taking time to read this information.  

Thanks for stopping by,

Patti J.


9 comments:

Rushd Lady said...

Thanks for letting us know, Patti. I was unaware of the changes.

Jak Heath said...

Thanks for that Patti, a very interesting read, thanks for the info x

Judy1223 said...

Patti, I had the same thing happen and I wondered why people were "un-following" me! I feel better! Thanks for sharing this info!

Laurie Unger said...

I wondered what was going on....thanks for posting.

Julie Tucker-Wolek said...

hmmmmmm ... thank you for doing the research on this ... I lost 8 last week -- I wonder though, if they mean you have to use your Google+ ID to comment/follow, or if you can still use just your blogger ID to comment/follow. I have a Google account, and a Google+ account, but I comment under just my Google one ... guess I will find out on the 11th! LOL!!

ursula Uphof said...

Thanks Patti for this info...I also lost a few and wondered what happened. Wishing you a wonderful 2016. Ursula xxx

Kezzie said...

Thanks for this- I sign in with my yahoo address to my blog account on blogger- does this mean that I will lose my blog too and my blog profile? It's so confusing!!

Kezzie said...

I did notice the drop in followers but I still appear to have a blog profile!

Kezzie said...

I did notice the drop in followers but I still appear to have a blog profile!