The Case of the Disappearing GFC Followers.....

I am aghast. I am totally discombobulated.

As most of us bloggers are aware, whether we blog about books or something entirely different, Google has been toying with the GFC followers' widget for quite some time now. 

First they said they would eliminate it entirely, and then they suddenly decided to not make it available for Wordpress blogs, or any blogs using any other blogging platform that was not the one owned by them -- Blogger. And now they have suddenly started messing around even more.

This is really BIG, SURPRISING NEWS for me, and I'm sure a lot of bloggers are up in arms about this, having found out about it before I did. I'm just now crawling out from under my rock, folks. And I'm not at all sure that complaining to this humongous corporation would do any good....

Just the other day, I noticed, when publishing articles to this blog, A Night's Dream of Books, that some of my GFC followers had inexplicably disappeared. They weren't many, though, so I chalked it up to some people not liking my blog anymore, and unfollowing me. But the next day, there were more....and then the next day, there were STILL more. There have been more today, as well. For the past three days, I've been seeing fewer and fewer followers in my GFC widget. I used to have 1,321, and am now down to 1,245 and counting.....

Of course, I decided to GOOGLE this disturbing discovery. Well, guess what? The Almighty Google Corporation has now decided that, if anyone who wants to follow a blog does NOT have a Google account, they can't follow that blog using the GFC widget! Yes, that's right -- unless you have a Google account, you won't be able to follow your favorite blogs with the GFC widget. 

But what REALLY RANKLES is that they are actually REMOVING followers from the GFC widgets of Blogger blogs, if they find that these followers do not have Google accounts!!!

I happen to have another blog, titled MindSpirit Book Journeys. This is a literary fiction/nonfiction blog, and I only had four GFC followers on it, because I don't post to it as much as I do to this one. Well, would you believe that Google has removed one of those four followers? Now I have three!  WHY would they bother with a blog that only had FOUR GFC followers?! I'm just pointing this out to show the whole RIDICULOUSNESS of this thing, because the following on that blog doesn't really concern me that much. 

My search brought me to the Blogger Help Forum, where I found the "explanation" for this mysterious, totally INFURIATING phenomenon. I am providing the link so all of you who read, follow, and comment on my blog can see and absorb the information for yourselves. 

Please click HERE to access Google's "explanation". The article is dated 12/21/15.

Like any large corporation, Google is entirely insensitive to the needs of "the little people" -- namely, we the hard-working bloggers, who have taken YEARS to build up our following. Many of the comments left on this article point out that fact. The article "helpfully" suggests that we contact those of our followers that do not have Google accounts, ask them to sign up for such accounts, and then re-follow our blogs. SAY WHAT?! First of all, these followers have been removed from one day to the next, so bloggers have lost their contact information. Second, even if we still had this information, how many of these former followers are going to go to the trouble of opening up Google accounts, and THEN re-following each and every blog they used to follow before Google's mighty hand swooped in and took them out with one swipe? Seriously. Furthermore, it would be the height of arrogance for me to expect any of my FORCIBLY-REMOVED followers to accommodate my desire to have a healthy number on that blasted GFC widget.

 

I'm trying to breathe. I'm trying to stay calm. But this is a REALLY UNFAIR thing Google is doing. 

On the other hand, it might be pointed out that we who use the Blogger blogging platform don't pay for the service, so Google, who is the owner, has the right to do whatever they want with it, as well as with any widgets associated with it. Well, that might be something to be considered, BUT, and this is a HUGE "BUT" (no pun intended....maybe), our free blogs DO provide ADVERTISING REVENUE for Google, which is most likely why Google does not charge for the use of the Blogger platform. So, we're right back to this being UNFAIR, as well as totally uncalled for. 

At this point, I can think of only two alternatives.

1.) Bloggers (including myself) can stop using the  Blogger platform, and switch to Wordpress, or some other blogging platform.

2.) We can stop displaying the GFC widget on our Blogger blogs, and only offer Bloglovin', Linky Followers, and mail subscriptions as follow options. Of course, there's also Google + (I really don't feel like giving this one as an option, though, for obvious reasons), Twitter, Goodreads, and Facebook (although I have a grudge against Facebook, too, but that's another story).

On yet another hand, I'm also thinking that the number of GFC followers is really a totally meaningless number. Do all of my GFC followers interact with my blog on a daily basis, by leaving comments? Obviously not. Some of them might read my blog posts, but, of those that do, very few leave comments. True, having that nice, big number displayed on a blog does look good. Besides, authors and blog tour companies wanting to get their books reviewed by bloggers always want to know how many followers the blogs have. They are usually referring to the GFC followers, as this figure is a very public one. Of course, it wouldn't make sense to offer a book for review on a blog with less than 50 GFC followers, for instance. 

This topic has been discussed by other bloggers before. Just how meaningful is that GFC figure? Just how useful is it, in terms of evaluating a blog's popularity and dynamic interaction?

I would say that, regardless of how you look at the issue of how valuable and ultimately useful the number of GFC followers is, it still hurts to see these followers suddenly start disappearing in DROVES. It hurts an awful lot....

As for my first suggestion above, I really don't want to go to all the trouble of transferring my blog to Wordpress, even though they do offer a free blogging option. This would just be too much of an inconvenience. I am therefore considering the second suggestion, and just not displaying the GFC widget anymore. I don't know which will make me feel more depressed -- not seeing the widget at all in my blog sidebar, or seeing a steadily diminishing number of followers every day..... Somebody will probably be thinking, "This is a no-brainer." Yeah, maybe it is.... So, if you visit my blog one day, and no longer see that GFC widget in the sidebar, you'll know why.

***UPDATE***

As of 12:15 PM today,

I am down to 1,238 followers.

(That's a total of 83 followers gone.)

This seems to be a stable

figure for now, but who knows

if my numbers will continue

to go down?

If they do, I will DEFINITELY

remove the GFC widget.

What do you think about what 

Google is doing?
Have you been losing  your
GFC followers, too?

What suggestions can you offer to those of us who use the Blogger platform?

Please leave a comment below!

Thanks!!