Blogger Users Can Continue Using Google Friend Connect

friend connect will not retireGoogle Friend Connect as you all know is a free social networking site which allows your website visitors to join your blog to build a profile and interact with each other by sharing information via third-party sites. Blogger users who follow blogs using friend connect receive updates straight in their dashboard. This service was introduced on 12th of May 2008 but on November 22, 2011, Google announced that Friend Connect will be retired for all sites by March 1, 2012 and encouraged use of Google+'s pages and Google+  badges instead.  This shocked almost everyone because it took web owners great efforts to build Fan following using Friend Connect. Should Blogger users worry as well?

 

Friend Connect Will Remain on Blogger!

On November 22, 2011, Google's Senior Vice President of Operations Urs Hölzle announced several services whose development will be stopped in 2012. These services include:

  1. Google Bookmarks Lists
  2. Google Friend Connect
  3. Google Gears
  4. Google Search Timeline
  5. Google Wave
  6. Knol
  7. Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal (RE<C)

The official announcement clearly states that Friend connect service will retire only for sites other than Blogger.com

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.

The statement clearly mentions non-Blogger which means a green signal for BlogSpot users. Therefore you don't need to worry about the hard work you put in building your readership. Friend connect is an excellent tool in bringing valuable traffic to our blog and several others.

Widgets Similar to Friend Connect

Apart from displaying Friend connect widget on your blog you should pay more importance to the following ever expanding social media sites:

  1. Facebook
  2. Twitter
  3. Google+

2012 should be the year to build readership through social media. You can use the following sharing widgets to multiply your traffic and Fan base.

You may also try adding sharing widgets below post titles and a floating sharing widget to left side of your content. Check the entire Sharing widgets collection here.

Any Questions?

I am sure this will now remove the roamers that are spreading widely in blogosphere about friend connect retirement from Blogger blogs. Keep building fan following from Friend connect and add this widget to your blogs to provide your visitors with several options of subscription. If you have any doubts or questions, please feel free to post your queries. Peace and blessings pals. :)

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17 comments

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  1. Nice post..so we are free now from the rumours.
    i have around400 friends ove friend connect...

    THnks for the stay..


    www.studentsCrunch.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. nice article vey helpful


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  7. Very nice and helpful post. I see your blog. Really your blog is also nice. I have also a nice blog http://www.planetguerrilla.com/
    Also here you will got some nice post. Anyway thanks for share.

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  8. Hi Mohammed,

    My Ques is Can I use GFC in blogger if I use my custom domain.
    I have not signed for GFC so please let me know if it is possible.
    Right now I'm using wordpress with my host.

    Waiting for your reply.

    Thanks,
    Sudeep

    ReplyDelete
  9. I do not think Google will maintain Google Friend Connect in Blogger much longer. And unless they fix it we would be better off without it. Friend Connect has more bugs than a termite nest, it is extremely slow, asks for reloads (when you follow a blog) all the time, it is nearly impossible to insert the links you want, now with Blogger-Google integration the Blogger links were killed, and frankly I do not think it has ever been actively used for readership.

    Google did not update it last year when they gradually deployed the major entire Google platform. It is still the exact same 2008 gadget, with the same buggy code and TCP connection problems. Google actively pushes Google+ adoption and this is evident even in that reassurance of them. If they did not fear the wrath of the bloggers they would have already killed it. But they will anyway. Soon.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hello! I'm very, very confused. I've been trying to get google friend connect on my blog because it seems a good way for people to follow, but all it comes up with on the widgets is the google+ follow thing. Whenever I go to the friend connect website, it just links me to a page on "how to follow someone". Can you help?? Thanks!!

    ReplyDelete