Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Bloglist Note

An update on Google Friend Connect

2 months ago by A Googler

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

Manage blogs you follow

You can read the latest posts on your favorite blogs by adding them to the reading list on your Blogger dashboard.

Follow a blog

When you follow a blog, the latest post will be displayed in your reading list. There are two ways to follow a blog.

From your Blogger dashboard

From the blog's Follower's widget

If you choose to follow publicly, your picture and a link to your Blogger or Google+ profile will be displayed on the widget.

Change how you follow a blog

Here’s how to change your privacy settings on the blogs you follow:

Sign in to Blogger.
Under “Reading List,” on the right, click Options .
Next to the blog you’d like to change, select your privacy setting to public or anonymous.

Stop following a blog

From your Blogger dashboard

From the blog's Follower's widget

Let readers follow your blog

To let other people follow your blog, add the Followers widget:

Sign in to Blogger.
Select the blog to update.
In the left menu, click Layout > Add a Gadget.
In the pop-up window, click More Gadgets.
Search for Followers and click Add .
Select your settings and click Save.
On the top right, click Save arrangement.

To see your followers and what blogs other people are following, click their pictures.

To prevent a user from appearing in your Followers list, from your Blogger dashboard, click Followers. Even if you block a follower, they may still be able to read and comment on your blog.