Thanks for following me! Google's Forthcoming Changes

Glorious Followers,

Hi. I tried to write all of you private messages, but the Google Friend Connect box that shows up is giving me heartburn and has a loop.

Google announced a change that starts the week of 11 January 2016.

I hope this post gets to you and you will know what to do with the following announcement. This stuff is new to me, so I hope you are able to get it resolved and keep following me.

Here's the message I got from Google about my blogspot followers:

An update on Google Friend Connect
2 weeks ago by A Googler
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 OpenId 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

Post a comment if this doesn't make sense to you and I'll try to help you figure it out.

Thanks, and God bless!