One question, that I have never seen specifically asked, is about our following, reading lists, and blog subscriptions in general.Why do I have to login to Blogger, to maintain my Reading List?
The blog follower / owner has asked a question that is involved in various problems, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue - but with this question so easily overlooked.
The Blogger dashboard Reading List, which so many use transparently, is unique to each of us.
Similar to the confusion about the email address, mysteriously displayed on our Blogger dashboard, is the unstated detail that each of us has our own personal set of followed blogs - and consequently, our own Reading List.
If you want to maintain the (Blogger Following / Google Friend Connect) Followers community, on your blog, you are forced to do this, as part of the Followers GUI. When you are able to access the Reading List "gear" icon, and "Manage Blogs I'm Following", you have already logged in - possibly, without realising.
Sometimes, blog owners have learned of various dashboard shortcuts - and use them transparently. All blog dashboard access requires a login - to simply prove, to Blogger, that you are the owner of the blog in question.
Most blog owners understand, instinctively, that they must login to access each blog dashboard. Not everybody realises, however, that they have their individual Reading List - also accessed by their own login, on the dashboard "home" page.
Along with having your own Reading List, you have your own reading list maintenance wizard (aka "Manage Blogs I'm Following" - or possibly the Google Friend Connect equivalent, for Blogger accounts that use Google+ profiles). To access your own wizard, you must identify yourself, by logging in to Blogger.
Failure to use the right Blogger account, or using a computer that prevents proper identification, leads to an empty Reading List - or to a list with just one entry. This is one reason for some people claiming that the Reading List is unreliable.
We are observing owners of a few Blogger blogs reporting that the popular Google Friend Connect accessory, as suggested last year, recently stopped working, on their blogs.I have a Blogger blog but I'm using a custom domain (not purchased through Blogger though) - and my Google Friend Connect is gone now, just like they announced it, concerning the other non-Blogger blogs.
From a brief check of several blogs reporting this change, it appears that blogs published to non BlogSpot URLs, using custom domain publishing with incorrect DNS setups, are being treated as non Blogger blogs. The Following / Google Friend Connect accessory, on those blogs, is now stopped.
Last year, we were informed that Google was going to stop providing the immensely popular Following / Google Friend Connect gadget for websites outside Blogger. It appears that the referenced change is now in effect - and Google Friend Connect is no longer a non Blogger accessory.
Since Blogger blogs can be published to BlogSpot URLs (using native settings) - or to any available non BlogSpot URL (using custom domain publishing), it's not a simple process to identify a Blogger blog. It appears that Blogger blogs published to non BlogSpot URLs, using custom domain publishing, are being treated as non Blogger blogs - when the domain DNS addresses redirect incorrectly.
For some Blogger blog owners, who have been using (marginally) incorrect DNS addressing for their custom domain published blogs, and whose Following / Google Friend Connect gadgets have stopped working, the task is simple.- Correct the DNS addresses.
- Re publish the blog.
The detail, that not all blog owners will find this an immediately convenient project, is unfortunate.
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This week, Google announced the end to its website based community building accessory, Google Friend Connect, for non Blogger based websites.We're retiring the service for all non-Blogger sites on March 1, 2012.
The announcement notes its replacement with Google+.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.
Blogger blog owners can continue to use the Followers gadget, can use Google+, or can build their communities using both features.
Blogger blog owners were recently offered several suggestions, to integrate Google+ into their blogs.- The Google+ badge, placed on the blog, directs your readers to your Google+ profile.
- You can replace your Blogger profile with your Google+ profile.
- Replacement of your Blogger profile with your Google+ profile enables you to publish your blog updates to your Google+ followers.
With Google retiring Friend Connect, this allows Blogger to take over its functionality. Blogger blog owners, who like the idea of letting their Followers display their icons on the faces of our blogs, and view our blog updates in the Blogger Reading List / Google Reader displays, can continue to use the Followers accessory.
By removing Google Friend Connect from the Followers accessory, Blogger is hoping that the code supporting the Followers gadget can be simplified, and will become more stable. This will hopefully resolve many of the recently reported outages, both in the blog face display, and in our dashboard and Reading Lists.
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