Thursday 7 February 2019

Trying hard to be rid of us

Those of us using Google's Blogger for our blogs have known for a long time that it seems to be on borrowed time.  Google has no qualms about killing products that no longer bring it enough new users.  Indeed I am fairly sure I began My Clavering blog in 1999 with something called Pages or Sites??? and was eventually compelled to move over to Blogger in 2010.

We then got 'forced' into using Google+ when they thought they could compete with Facebook.  We know how that turned out.......  and they are now killing off Google+ with very little warning.  This has appeared on all my admin pages:

Following the announcement of Google+ API deprecation scheduled for March 2019, a number of changes will be made to Blogger’s Google+ integration on 4 February 2019. 

Google+ widgets: Support for the '+1 Button', 'Google+ Followers' and 'Google+ Badge' widgets in Layout will no longer be available. All instances of these widgets will be removed from your blog. 

+1 buttons: The +1/G+ buttons and Google+ share links below blog posts and in the navigation bar will be removed. 

Please note that if you have a custom template that includes Google+ features, you may need to update your template. Please contact your template supplier for advice. 

Google+ Comments: Support for Google+ comments will be turned down, and all blogs using Google+ comments will be reverted back to using Blogger comments. Unfortunately, comments posted as Google+ comments cannot be migrated to Blogger and will no longer appear on your blog. 

Learn more.


If you click on 'Learn more' there is a load of boggling information for non-techies like me but the most worrying aspect are these little gems:

Please note that if you have a custom template that includes Google+ features, you may need to update your template. Please contact your template supplier for advice.

Google+ Comments: Support for Google+ Comments will be turned down, and all blogs using Google+ Comments will be reverted back to using Blogger comments on 4 February 2019. Unfortunately, comments posted as Google+ comments cannot be migrated to Blogger and will no longer appear on your blog.


Right now as far as I can see, on this blog at least, all is well but I thought I would give you the heads-up in case I (or you!) suddenly disappear into the ether.

You may also have noticed that I now have chosen to 'approve' comments before posting.  I have had such a load of spam inserted throughout several blogs and retrospectively added back through many years that it became a real chore 'cleaning up' all the time.

Hopefully we will all stay happy and connected for many years to come.




14 comments:

  1. Oh yes, that's been appearing to me as well. Blech.

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    1. Blech, indeed. Its demise has been rumoured for a while and there has never been any real support for it. I did read in a techy piece they only have two people supporting/developing it now, but not sure if that was a 'techy' joke???? All that said - it is free and super-simple to use and I for one don't want to go elsewhere.

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  2. Yeah I am a little concerned that I don't know all I should know and will lose some features. I attempted the export, message said they'd email me when it was completed, but that was days ago. When Google added the EU Cookies thing last summer it screwed up comments for months, so who knows what else may inadvertently be effected/afflicted. I just hope that blogger will be mostly in tact for several more years since we are so interconnected through it. Good luck ladies!

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    1. Yes, indeedy, Jodi. I hate the idea that any comment that has been sent via Google+ just gets wiped - what a rubbish piece of programming - too lazy (costs?) to make those comments still appear. Especially peeved as I never wanted Google+ in the first place but got pressed to it to use youTube and visit other folks blogs

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  3. Lot's of changes for sure. From what I can tell Google is still invested in the Blogger platform so overall I think we're okay. And it looks like your comments are using the regular blogger template and not the google+ version too, so I think you'll be alright. Social media seems to really be changing the way people find and interact with blogs so I'm not too worried about losing the Google+ features. However, keeping a copy of your email subscriber list is really one of the best ways to safe guard yourself from losing followers in any event. Would you consider a social media page as well?
    It's really too bad to hear you've had so much spam. I get a lot too and I understand why you've switched your comments to approval.
    Blogger really has been a wonderful (free) way to connect with so many! Let's hope we have many more years ahead still!

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    1. Thanks Kristine for the comforting noises. Unlike you I am utterly clueless with these things and at the mercy of change but I now feel reassured. Cheers to Blogger - I am indebted to it and long may it reign. Just please stop twiddling things.

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  4. Yeah I don’t understand all of it, but had problems posting comments the last few months and had trouble logging into my blogging account this morning and thinking it might be time to make the shift. They certainly make it hard. Nothing is any good if it doesn’t make them money...

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    1. Way of the world I guess. Let's just hope it plods along for many years.

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  5. Hello Marilyn,
    Anything to with computers boggles my mind. Blogger seems to be trying to take the fun out of blogging, but I hope the miniaturists on the system will keep at their blogs. It really is my favorite way to share my work and be inspired by others.
    Big hug
    Giac

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    1. Me too Giac. My husband is a top whiz at such stuff having been a big cheese in computer land for over thirty years so he translates the gibberish now and then for me - though to be truthful I don't always understand the translation. Like you blogs matters to me it is my only way of sharing mini stuff as I don't know anyone who has even the vaguest interest in it.

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  6. I don't use Google+ all that often and truth to tell, I often forget that it is there, so the fact that it is being terminated doesn't bother me all that much.... I think.
    But "they" might as well be speaking Martian when they send out these notices because I am not familiar with the terms and/or the abbreviations and have to have my daughter explain most of it to me. Which of course,I promptly forget so now she writes things down on a piece of paper and uses detailed diagrams to help me remember and hopefully get with the program.

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    1. Oh, so familiar. I try to convince my techie husband it's not because I am too stupid to understand I just don't have the SLIGHTEST interest and can't therefore 'take it in'. I suspect most of us will be OK and things will toddle along as normal. Fingers crossed.

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  7. Google already announced in 2016 that it would be phasing out Google+ but since I don't really use it often, I put it to the back of my mind. When I received the announcement that my account would be deleted within a week or two, I had a sudden panicky moment and went to read up on it. I know a few miniaturists don't have a Blogger account at all and exclusively use Google+ for their posts. Those are the ones who are going to lose their entire pages and everything on it. I think fortunately, the demise of Google+ won't affect ordinary Blogger users much and you needn't worry, Blogger is HUGE and Google will definitely not be getting rid of us. I'm starting two new blogs this year and have been debating whether to use Blogger or Wordpress. I think for insurance I'm going to go Wordpress. If one folds and there's enough advance warning, at least it will be possible to migrate one's blog to the other platform.
    As for spammers, for months I never had a problem but lately there's been a spate of annoying posts on my blog. What really bugs me is that one can't report the offending profile to Google anymore. I think I'm going to write them a letter about that. Hopefully they're working in the background on a way to automatically flag and remove the offenders.

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    1. Thanks for making comforting noises Megan. I do love the simplicity of Blogger and the fact it is free! I would be reluctant to deal with a new host. I have an especially annoying 'anonymous' that keeps threading its way through several of my blogs and back over many years so it was a pain to have to keep locating the post and removing it. From the text being used it is presumably a 'robot' crawler not a real person but I am concerned that if another reader clicked on any of the links sent or replied to their comment they might open a can of worms for themselves so I think the simplest thing is to moderate any comments to my blog and so destroy at source.

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