Google Friend Connect, I want to say goodbye my old friend. You will be sorely missed, Google Friend Connect made the web better, for me, for you, and especially for Facebook!
Yesterday, 11-23-2011 Mike Elgan caught the Google+ news that Google Friend Connect was now on the list to be closed, by the slimmer and fitter Google+.
So, before every blogger with a keyboard says Google Friend Connect was doomed from the start, or worse, let’s set the record straight, and give Google+ Friend Connect a proper farewell, shall we?
Let me take you back in time, to a time Chris Lang was not a Google Social Marketing fanboy. A time when MyBlogLog and Digg ruled the world of social media traffic, and Chris Lang was a fanboy with out a cause, shall we?
Google Friend Connect Timeline
- This story starts in 2007, when Digg, Delicious and MyBlogLog were king, and Twitter and Facebook were just sites that we did not have time for… I was the new kid on the block, and Jack Humphrey was the social marketing king, with 13,000 friends on MyBlogLog alone… (jealous i was too)
- May 12, 2008 – Google Friend Connect is announced. I say NO WAY, Google Friend Connect will never be on my blogs!
- Sep 16, 2008 – I make my first video, after seeing Google Friend Connect being tested in the Blogger Follower widgets on blogger. Most cry “Purple Elephants he sees”…
- August 17, 2008 – I discover Google profiles and Google Reader sharing, write monster blog post, no one cares…
- October 2008, Chris Lang launches the Google Friend Connect blog, no one cares….
- December, 2008, Google Friend Connect is released, everyone cares
- Christmas, 2008, Facebook imitates GFC and Facebook is blocked as a phishing site for almost 12 hours, no one cares, but it’s interesting news, we all laugh
NOTE: See the big guy next to me? John McGowan is one of the smartest guys I have ever had the pleasure to know. I miss my friend dearly and always will… RIP BTW, give me some slack, it was my first video, OK?
And The Rest Is Google Social Networking History
This is about where most of you come in, Rocque, Whitney Pannell, and Boomhauer, you were there, and I was somewhat full of myself, yes I was….
So, what replaces Google Friend Connect You Ask?
Well, I am glad to announce that Google+ pages and Google+ Pages badges carry on the next evolution of Google Friend Connect, bringing a clean new look to Google+ Pages.
Before you ask yourself if you should create a Google+ Page, read this Google+ Brand / Pages article…
Next if you are a Non Profit or Google+ Community, take a deep look here…
If you are a Local Google+ Page Geo Targeted business, take a look at the tools Google+ has to offer Google+ Local pages soon…..
Now, if you are ready to jump into the new Google+ Marketing Tools, then create your Google+ pages here…
Then, create your next generation Google Friend Connect Google+ Badge here…
Many thanks to Mussie Shore and Chris Messina, two visionaries that the OpenSocial web owes many thanks, as I do :]
One last word…
Let me take a moment to say, Google Friend Connect and the developer team that worked so hard and got little thanks, THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART! You have inspired me and brought out the best that I did not know I had. You have helped me become a better person, a recognized thinker, and soon, made Chris Lang a published author.
All I can say is…. “What A Long Strange Wave It Has Been…” – Chris Lang
All the changes are for the better I think. I had stopped putting Friend Connect on pages awhile back. Can’t even remember why exactly, but the G+ badge is going up on everything now.
And what about people who still use Google Friend Connect? Any tools to migrate to Google+? I wasted a lot of time to gather many friends to my website and now what?!
Badges? I wondered when we would get some stinking badges! Thanks for sharing the news.
I am so sorry to hear about the loss of John. I think I even talked to him a long time ago, and he was a good friend to you, Chris.
It has been great knowing you for all these years because you are still one of the most honest and caring people I have met in this “be nice to you til I get your money” jungle we know as web sales.
Most of the time you never even ask for anything but someone to buy you a beer.
Ok, enough of the sentimental journey.
I am looking forward to the next step in the life of Chris Lang. Maybe I will write the Biography.
Thank you for the information provided, but for now I need time to study them further.
Hi Chris
yes Iwas one of your greatful followers in those days (still am) and I still have the google freind connect on many of my sites. I started adding the google+ bandges to my sites as soon as they cam out in the developer forum so we will see what the effects are. hopefully better than google connect was.
Geoff Lord
Hand over my 3000+ member community to Google and place a G+ badge on my site instead?
I have some questions to the California Billionaires before I do that:
– Will Google the share the ad-revenue of my community on G+?
– How long until you shut down G+ too?
– Or will you start charging on a short notice for G+ like the translate API, Maps API or App engine?
So this makes me wonder then, what will happen to the followers gadget which is automatically generated on blogger blogs?
GFC was a good start point for Google and connecting people. Goodbye GFC … Long Live G+
I am somewhat devastated by the closure of GFC. It was a a great way to encourage people to leave me messages and ask questions, the sort of people who wouldn’t join FB or a forum. And the newsletter feature was excellent too.
(I have built a G+ page, and embedded a badge, but it really doesn’t have the same impact. Maybe I need to read a bit more about it to make it more noticeable, but unless I can automatically add the 30,000 people who joined my GFC account, this is really bad news for me.)
Tim, check the link, it says Google Friend Connect will close on blogs, and remain open on Blogger.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/more-spring-cleaning-out-of-season.html
@Lynne Hand, I went to your blog, very impressive, 30,000 GFC followers!
But I don’t see your G+ badge anywhere. Take a look at my site at http://www.gadgetmvp.com/blog
Notice I use the large, fully featured version of the gadget and it’s posted prominently at the top right….
Hi Chris,
Yes, I added my G+ follow this person thingy (top right), but haven’t added the page, yet. It’s too depressing to go from 30,342 members to 16. I have been trying to find out if you can embed the Google Plus page in an iframe, but it doesn’t seem to work.
I am currently writing a newsletter to explain what’s going on, but to be honest, I feel somewhat despondent. :_(
My gosh, Chris, the wealth of information on all these links will keep me busy for days if not weeks!
Thanks!
And keep bringing some of these old videos of you… I remember a few that cracked me up!
Welcome to Google Plus Circle.
But how about the current Followers on GFC? Google should move it to Google Plus Circle too, I think.
How does this affect your followers? How will they follow and how will we follow them? I’m so confused. why are you getting rid of this? Bloglovin doesn’t work for me cos it won’t let me change my old URL over to my new one. I’m facing losing all my followers. Sob. X
I am not very computer savvy. I am following a LOT of craft related blogs through GFC and don’t have a clue what to do now!!
Why does everything have to keep changing?????