Times they are a-changin’ and Google is busy cleaning out old services and applications while ushering in new ones.  One of the ones being swept out the door is Google Friend Connect (also known as GFC).  At least it won’t be available or supported for non-Blogger/Blogspot blogs after March 2012.  So, sites like mine which is on WordPress will no longer have a GFC option.

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: Official Google Blog

But what does that mean for you and I?

First let’s look at why we use GFC from my perspective:

• It allows readers to follow blogs in their Blogger dashboard and/or their Google Reader by receiving new post updates.
• It allows readers to show their support of a site.
• It allows bloggers to send out newsletters (though it never sent it to all who opted-in for some reason).
• It provides a measure by which some companies use to help determine if they want to partner with a blogger on a review/giveaway.

It means …

• some followers will need to find a new way to keep up with a blog’s posts.
• bloggers need to find a new newsletter service.
• companies will be looking at a new set of numbers that may or may not reflect the full following as bloggers work to rebuild on Google+.

Lets be honest, a lot of us will be lazy and won’t go find a new way to follow along…. myself included.  We’ll all hope that everyone else will follow us over, but we’ll be too focused on our own transition to consider consequences.

Solutions

• Hope Google will develop a way to easily transfer followers over to following our Google+ page.
• Help readers and bloggers get invitations to Google+ so they can start to familiarize themselves to it. (That’s my invite link.  I don’t get any compensation for you signing up with it.)
• Sign up for email subscriptions and other newsletters for giveaways and events.
• Follow on Google+ pages.

I hope you’ll join me!

About Darcy

Darcy Zalewski is a married, stay-at-home mom who is discovering her greener side, starting with advocating for cloth diapering. When she's not changing diapers or singing the Itsy Bitsy Spider, she can be found at Tales From the Nursery, where she shares tales of motherhood as well as product reviews, or at ShePromotes, a resource for blogger support.

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