Google Friend Connect is a widget featured on many blogs, and most Blogger sites. Google Friend Connect integrates your Google/Blogger Account, Google Reader, and Blog together seamlessly (though trickier if you try to unsubscribe from a site). It highlights hundreds of beautiful followers in your blog sidebar. In short, it’s a great, popular tool for building up followers: it allows readers to easily subscribe to your site, gives readers an easy platform for reading blogs, and promotes the reader, too.
Last week Google announced they was closing down 7 products that weren’t as successful as they’d like– including the Google Friend Connect. Google says,
Google Friend Connect—Friend Connect allows webmasters to add social features to their sites by embedding a few snippets of code. We’re retiring the service for all non-Blogger sites on March 1, 2012. We encourage affected sites to create a Google+ page and place a Google+ badge on their site so they can bring their community of followers to Google+ and use new features like Circles and Hangouts to keep in touch. (Source)
With this change, the biggest hurdle bloggers will have to face is the potential loss of followers. Google has not announced whether, for other other platforms that can use the feature, if they will migrate the feed for Google Friend Connect followers straight in to Google Reader. For bloggers, this could result in a staggering decrease in traffic.
Kendi Everyday has over 11,000 followers in Google Friend Connect; Kendi’s one of the lucky bloggers on Blogger, who won’t lose that traffic or subscription base. Whereas a blog like Smile and Wave, who has nearly 5000 followers on Google Friend Connect, may lose her followers since her site is hosted on TypePad.
Transferring to a Google+ Page:
Google is encouraging bloggers to create new Google + pages in lieu of their old Google Friend Connect account. This means we will have to pour time and energy promoting a new tool & service to our followers, while attempting to regain those that may have been lost. Google Friend Connect won’t go away until March, giving approximately 4 months to encourage readers to follow us through our RSS Feed or another service (such as BlogLovin’) or through a newly minted Google + page.
With the saturation of social media sites, we will each have to decide whether it’s in our best interests to spread ourselves thinner managing another social media platform (and one that I’m not entirely sure is taking off). Will you be willing to manage a Google + page for your blog on top of your Twitter and Facebook account, creating content for your site, commenting on other blogs, and the other multiple social media tools we use each day? To be honest, I’m not sure that I would, especially when it would mean rebuilding, from scratch, an audience that had already been existing.
How do you feel about Google announcing the closing of Google Friend Connect? Will your site be impacted greatly? (And be sure to check back at IFB, because as I find out more information I’ll be sure to share it!)
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I blogged about this last week. It’s really not fair that Google are playing favourites with their own.
http://www.stylingyou.com.au/2011/11/google-why-cant-i-connect-with-my-friends-anymore/
Please forgive me if the question is answered in the article (I swear I read it!) but I’m still confused, if you are on blogger, does that mean this does not affect you?
We can presume not. They say it will be retired from all NON-BLOGGER sites.
IFB please do something??
((((( i will lose all my followers ! cos i never put up a bloglovin widget for followers except GFC!!!!!! i’m so desperate and disappointed.
Charlenr, why not try hosting a giveaway where entering requires following on bloglovin. That u can start transfering your followers….
So.. I hope my blog on blogger doesn’t lost Google Friend Connect.. right?
Andy
I really hope they automatically transfer it to google reader! About a third of my readers are on GFC and I’ll be very annoyed to lose them.
I’ve stopped using it to sign up to other blogs myself, because it is so difficult to unsubscribe, but there are things I like about it too. while I get the popularity contest aspect of it, I actually really like that you can see people’s photos. When i was a tiny blog, I used to really take heart from the fact that there were real people with faces following me.
I have a google plus but frankly I don’t see how that is a substitute, and I’m not going to start promoting because they go about it in such a heavy handed way.
I’m glad that you posted this because I was considering adding Google Friend Connect to my blog. I do have a Google+ page for my blog, but it seems like I will have to pump it up even more than I planned.
So… If my I use GFC and i have a blog with Blogger.com I’ll be fine?
I can’t even begin to say how much I hate this
. I LOVE GFC. I’ve tried Google+ and hated it. I’m struggling as it is to get readers since I started blogging again earlier this year and I don’t think this is going to help. If we have to spend our time setting up and maintaining a Google+ account it takes away from time we could be producing great blog posts and reading and commenting on our favorite blogs.
As a fairly new blogger I find this very frustrating. My google friend followers has begun getting quite strong recently, and i’d be quite annoyed to lose my followers and would struggle to find new ways to gain loyal readers. Hopefully it’ll not effect bloggers like you mention above.
http://www.mediamarmalade.com
xx
I don’t like Google+, it’s confusing and like you said in the article I don’t want to put effort and dedicate time to create from scratch something I already have.
I’m on Blogger, but I’ve bought my own domain, does this change affect me? Thank you
I am annoyed. I have spent time developing a bit of a following by GFC and I was just starting to see it grow. Now I’m going to be back to square one. Not sure I will be continuing with what Google comes out with next. They seem to turn their programs over quickly.
I think this sucks. I mean if they are going to close it they should migrate all of our followers over to the new system. I mean if you look at it. It looks like they ripped off Facebook if you ask me. Why should we loose our followers. I mean I just started and only have around 136 followers but still thats a lot when compared to having to start all over again from nothing. This upsets me greatly!!! And I may not use the new system unless I get results from it.
Honestly, I feel drained just reading this. Do I think I will find the chutzpah to invest in G plus? At this time I don`t think so, but will see how this all plays out. Thank you for another great article, love.
I can’t understand that decision!
I’m sort of having a small heart attack about this. My followers are important to me, I’ve worked hard to build a following (even though small) through commenting and following other blogs. Now it’s going away? Bummer!
I have a blogger page and my GFC hasn’t worked for months. When new people add me, it never reflects it in the widget. My dashboard says I have nearly 300 followers but my GFC widget shows only 6… always. I just took it off my blog. I’m over it.
A yes or no answer.
Can bloggers on blogspot still use the Google Friend Connect??
Please answer….
Sorry my english!