So, it seems that something terrible has happened with Google Friend Connect. I think it’s happening mostly to folks who began in Blogger and have migrated to WordPress. Maybe we’re being punished? Probably not, but it’s still sad!
Okay, not really. I’ve survived worse.
But, for those of you who have noticed on my sidebar, yes, all of my happy friends and followers have been wiped out. One day the widget was gone, and when I tried to fix it, it was empty. Ah well. Like I said, worse things…
BUT, a few things I thought would be useful to share with you:
1. If you want to re-follow and subscribe via Google Friend Connect (not sure what this even means or does, honestly – please, enlighten me!), you are invited to join my three new best friends over there on the sidebar. Hello, friends!
2. Second, while we’re talking feeds and my limited understanding of such things, I thought it might be interesting to tell you about what I use to follow all my favorite blogs. Bloglovin’ (who totally doesn’t know I exist and certainly hasn’t asked me to share this with y’all) is a great way to keep all of the blogs you love to read in one place.
I used to keep a feed on my sidebar when I was in Blogger and that worked well. But WordPress doesn’t have anything that works like that, so my friend Kayla Aimee told me about this.
Just go to their site & search for blogs that you want to follow. Then click follow. Pretty easy. Every evening you will get an email with all of the new blog posts that have been published on your favorite blogs that day with a little picture or preview of that post.
Another thing I like about bloglovin’ (not my #1 pick for a name, but I like the system, so I’m moving on…) is that they have an iPhone app. So, when I’m at the salon waiting for my hair to process (wait – what? You’re not a natural blonde??) or in the car waiting to get Oliver from preschool, I can just open up the app and check in on stalk all my friends and favorites from there. (You think you guys are the only ones who read blogs and don’t always comment? I’m so guilty, y’all!)
It’s just handy and I like to use it. So, I’m sharing it with you!
I hope this wasn’t the lamest post ever. Just a couple of blog-following tips and, for good measure, a photo of two people I’ve been seeing a lot of these days:
Happy Thursday, friends! Ryan has been in Boston since Sunday afternoon (it’s been a looong week, but I don’t know the rules about blogs and saying your husband will be gone for five days so I never mentioned it…) and is flying home today! So, after a quick rainy run with my girls and just a little more single parenting, and I get to see my beloved again! Hurrah!
God is good!
Hey, that’s me!!!! One of your three new best friends!
I know! I think you were the first! Does that make you my #1 best friend??
I would love that! Hope that doesn’t make me sound too desperate! :-)
hmmm…. i seem to have disappeared from your widget, but i am still getting your blog feed in my google reader.
I know – it’s so weird! I honestly wonder if I did something to mess it up. I know just enough CSS to be dangerous! :)
I like that you have a “rarely used” folder on your iPhone. I have one on my last page called “crap” (not quite as nice as “rarely used,” hah!) and it’s mostly the built in iPhone apps that cannot be deleted.
Yeah, I saw a folder called “rarely used” on Ryan’s iPhone and felt like it was a good category. Keeps things less cluttered – especially since, you’re right, you can’t delete some of those apps!
FYI: I say NOTHING about when S is gone, how long, how often, etc. And I never blog or tweet about being out of town until we’re back home. These are the Captain’s orders, and I’m happy to comply. Keeping things vague is safe. (Not telling you what to do, just sharing MY rules. I’ve already slipped by using our last name. Oops.)
Hope Ryan’s Boston adventure is going well!
Good idea not to mention hubby is away! I don’t get all this feeds stuff either… I just like stalking/following blogs ha!
Hi! Please email me, I have a question for you! :)
HeatherVonsj (at) gmail (dot) com
I’m so old school that I dont get all the feeds stuff either. I use bookmarks and have it always opened in my sidebar….but I love that Bloglovin’ has an app that I can access. I might be switching over so I can check out blogs on my phone, when I am not around my laptop.
Do you know of a way to get Blog Lovin’ set up to view all the time while you are on the internet browser?
I was your 33 follower! Can I be special toooooo? :)
yes, of course, Amy! You are my favorite number 33! :)
Whoot whoooooot! Thanks!
Are you on WP now? If so, the GFC widget is being taken down entirely on March 1st. I am not sure how this affects my Google Reader. I have been careful to cut and paste my links there too, but I hope I don’t lose everything. I am going to see if I can find another reader to sync my blogs to, just in case!
Yes, on WP now. Sheesh – this is hard to keep up with! Let me know if you find anything!
I’ve also been using Feedly, which is a Firefox extension. Has a neat interface, magazine style. Takes some getting use to though. If you have a MAC, you can also import your current Google Reader blogs into Mac Reeder. That one works pretty good too!
GFC is going to be out soon anyways. I don’t think it will affect people who have already subscribed- they’ll still receive your feed, from what I understand. I would suggest going with feedburner, so people can subscribe via feed or e-mail that way.
Ah! This helps – thank you, Whitney!
Ouch! All those followers gone, I hurt for you on that one. In all of the online world of friends and followers, it seems like getting people to publicly announce that they follow a blog is the hardest. But it’s cool, they’ll all be back. As for blog following apps, have you tried Flipboard? It just came out for iPhone and has a great UI. It just works with your google reader feed. Miss you guys, it’s funny that 2 months seems like a long time now.