Blogger Explains Why Followers Being Cut

I'd noticed the number of my Followers began to drop a few days ago. Since I didn't think I'd offended that many people, *G* I decided to read those pesky announcements from Blogger.

If you've noticed the same thing, or if you were following this blog and suddenly you notice you got dropped, here's the reason why, straight from the horse's--or Blogger's--mouth. Here's their official statement.

An update on Google Friend Connect

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.

What This Means

If you followed SlingWords, or any blogspot blog, with a non-Google account, Blogger has removed you or will in the near future.

You need to sign in with a Google account in order to follow SlingWords or any other blogspot blog.

Takeaway Truth

Sorry for this hassle, but it's beyond my control. I hope you will continue to follow SlingWords. Geez, it's always something, isn't it?

4 comments:

  1. Appreciate the update regarding your blog and Google.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Seems like nothing less than an attempt by Google to get more accounts which equals more leverage for advertising revenue. Bah!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. True, but everyone is in business to make a profit.

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