Followers

I read the following on  Crafting with Cotnob  blog and have copied it here

I think most of us have realised that something is going on with Google Friend Connect, mainly that we have lost followers over the last few weeks.  My blog friend Dawn recently shared the following information which I believe is one of the best explanations of what is happening that I have seen:

Hi everyone, have you noticed a drop in your blog followers? 

Or are you missing posts on blogs you followed?

I have & I was visiting my friend Linda's blog, when I came across a post with 

the following information, which I wanted to share with you!

This explains a lot!

In 2011, we announced the retirement of Google Friend Connect for all non-Blogger sites. We made an exception for Blogger to give readers an easy way to follow blogs using a variety of accounts. Yet over time, we’ve seen that most people sign into Friend Connect with a Google Account. So, in an effort to streamline, in the next few weeks we’ll be making some changes that will eventually require readers to have a Google Account to sign into Friend Connect and follow blogs. 

As part of this plan, starting the week of January 11, we’ll remove the ability for people with Twitter, Yahoo, Orkut or other Open Id providers to sign in to Google Friend Connect and follow blogs. At the same time, we’ll remove non-Google Account profiles so you may see a decrease in your blog follower count.

We encourage you to tell affected readers (perhaps via a blog post), that if they use a non-Google Account to follow your blog, they need to sign up for a Google Account, and re-follow your blog. With a Google Account, they’ll get blogs added to their Reading List, making it easier for them to see the latest posts and activity of the blogs they follow.

We know how important followers are to all bloggers, but we believe this change will improve the experience for both you and your readers.

Posted by Michael Goddard, Software Engineer

~~~

This change was due to take effect on Jan 11, but as I mentioned, I've already noticed 

a drop in follower numbers, as have some of my other blogging friends 

 I apologise if this causes any inconvenience & I hope that you can create a Google account, which will allow you to continue following my blog and others, who use Blogger.  

If you do create a Google account, you will have to "Follow" blogs again, as those who didn't

 have an account will be permanently removed from our lists.  However, if you choose not

 to open a Google account, you can still follow blogs using other means such as Bloglovin', Networked Blogs, by email etc but you'll have to check each blog individually

to see what options are available to you!.

I greatly appreciate everyone who follows my blog & I hope that you'll continue 

to follow by whatever means suits you!

I am on Bloglovin as wll as Google and would love it if you would continue following me.