Changes for Google

Just in case you were not aware, or you don't completely understand the details of Google’s new rules and restrictions- I did a bit of researching. Google is doing away with Google Friend Connect (GFC) for non-Blogger blogs. The shutdown will officially happen on March 1, 2012.

My blog fortunately is run by blogger, meaning I’m in the clear for now but from what I gathered they will soon begin to phase it out completely and push for members to use google+ instead. I have to be honest; I’m not real excited about having yet another social networking site to learn and maintain. Twitter took me a few months and a detailed lesson from my 16-yr-old sister to figure out. Google Friend Connect was simple, easy, and available without the extra steps of social networking.

But I do not appreciate the way Google is handling this matter, so I have decided to disabled my GFC widget. Current followers with blogger will receive my feeds but new followers will not have the same option any longer. I would rather offer my readers a more long-term option of visiting The Inspired Lens where we can all stay in touch more easily. I encourage everyone to do the same regardless of who hosts your blog. 

This is definitely not meant to come across as a commercial screaming follow my blog but if you do enjoy reading and won’t have the option once GFC is gone; I suggest following by any of the options listed on the right side bar. Honestly, I suggest you do this for all of your favorite blogs (as I have) in preparation for Google’s phasing out of GFC altogether.

The goal is to make the transition seamless and avoid losing some great daily reads!