Tuesday 26 March 2013

Hey Clue-y People, I'm Confused...

I'm confused about the fuss with Google Reader closing.

To read the new posts of the blogs that I Follow, I use the list that appears on my Dashboard page, next to Reading List. I just click on the blog name or post name, & go read it... then when I am finished reading/commenting on that post, I just close & go back to the list. Simple, apparently. Never used Google Reader.

Now I am reading all over the blogs about Bloglovin... & the hoops that some bloggers have gone through to get established there. So here are some questions:

If I do not connect Hibiscus Stitches with Bloglovin, will I lose my Followers? & Will I lose the blogs that I Follow? Will my blog be harder to find? And what is this about 'claiming' my blog name?

I have read that some bloggers have had to set up Facebook pages as part of their Bloglovin sign up... As I do not use Facebook (& never intend to) does this exclude me from using Bloglovin?

I have clicked over to the information about Reader, to see if I can find out some of these answers, but as usual, no answers are to be easily found. And it seems that I actually HAVE to sign up to Bloglovin if I want to actually find out anything about Bloglovin in the first place.... 

I might sound simple here, but I thought the idea of having those blog post updates on my Blogger Dashboard was so that I can just read them at my blog, so to speak. Why would I want to go sign in to another site/place, just to read updates on the blogs I Follow, when they are already on my Dashboard?!
For people who Follow & read blogs, but do not have their own blog, a site like Bloglovin makes sense, but not so much for people who Do blog...

Clearly, more research is required from me... yes, I am not very techno-savvy, so all this signing up & linking & importing of lists... it leaves me scratching my head. It sounds like a case of managing my blog from two places, not one.
Advice... tips... links... facts... information... any plain-speaking brain-unscrambling is most welcome!

25 comments:

Kelli Fannin Quilts said...

I set up a FB page for fun, since I was making changes anyway, but I never heard of people making FB pages as part of setting up a reader.. it's all very confusing to me too. I usually read blogs like you do, from my dashboard, but i did it just in case, to cover my bases I guess.

Unknown said...

I'll be interested to read your comments Anthea as I'm in the same situation. Sharyn:)

Chookyblue...... said...

To rewind...........when you put up a new post it sends out a message (in the background) RSS feed.........now there are programs designed to grab these RSS feeds for you for blogs you like to visit. Other things send out RSS feeds like news site etc. It's a way to keep up to date without having to constantly open the site to check.
So google reader, feedly, bloglovin, bloglines, are some of the names you may hear thrown around and they are RSS readers. You sign up to them.........in your case - subscribe to to the blogs that you want to follow and then each time the blog does a new post it goes to that reader service.
EG
when you are down the bottom of your dashboard looking at the follow posts you will see in the right hand corner a little button that says "view in google reader"............you will see all the blogs you follow in google reader. As you read the post and scroll thru it marks them as read as you go. If you want to comment on a post click on the title of the post and it opens the blog post up in a separate window.

Now your questions
If I do not connect Hibiscus Stitches with Bloglovin, will I lose my Followers?
No you shouldn't. But I am unsure if google reader going will affect the followers thing

Will I lose the blogs that I Follow?
Again same answer as above which I can't find an answer too......does google reader operate in the background for your followers on the bottom of your dashboard????? NOT SURE

Will my blog be harder to find?
Shouldn't be

And what is this about 'claiming' my blog name?
no idea (where did you read about this)

I have read that some bloggers have had to set up Facebook pages as part of their Bloglovin sign up... As I do not use Facebook (& never intend to) does this exclude me from using Bloglovin?
I am unsure of this answer but if I have to set up a FB account I won't be using bloglovin.


SO what am I going to do - well I am unsure yet. Bloglines said it was going to close down and everyone swapped to something else (mostly google reader) and then at the last minute it was brought by another company so it still exists now.
I will be looking into a few things and see what my options are and then i will post about on my blog once I am happy with it. We have plently of time til July so I won't be changing yet. I am hoping they change their minds.........google reader works so well.

I have used a RSS reader for many years prior to the "follow" bit at the bottom of the dash board.........it saves opening up blogs only to find no new posts. I had very slow internet and little usage amounts so it was wonderful. I can very quickly get thru a lot of posts.

Goodluck..........if you have any questions ask.......I hope this all makes sense........I am home from a day at work and tired so have not re-read it..........

Sharon - Lilabelle Lane said...

When one signs up to Blog lovin' you have the option of signing in with Facebook or creating an ID so no you don't need facebook. It is also my understanding (please don't quote me though as I'm not tech savvy)that you will be able to continue to read your blogs the same way. Google reader is just a blog reading program and it is my understanding( and I could be wrong)but that's the only thing changing. Previously any blog that we followed we could then read in google reader, there was no need to do anything else. Now we can still follow people in the same way "Google friends" but we need to add that new blog to our blog reading program which is why people are adding the blog loving buttons to their blogs. Hope this is somewhat clearer than mud and please if someone else know different, let me know!

Chookyblue...... said...

Whatever you do it should be FREE........I have seen a couple that charge.......

Jindi's Cottage said...

Bloglovin' aint' that hard...you do not need a facebook page, just use your gmail account to sign in. Claiming your blog just means that when you go to your profile you have a little stats page...again, it ain't hard, just copy and paste some html code into a blog post, hit publish and away you go. I then went back and deleted said blog post with no ill effects. It's just for the purpose of bloglovin' finding you so it can put your blog into your profile.

As for your followers. No you won't lose them. They are signed up through Google Connect and that isn't being shut down, they will still in your dashboard, when you click on the hyperlink that says how many followers you have you'll still be able to see them.

You don't have to use a reader, that is purely a personal choice thing. But it turned out I already some followers on bloglovin' and gained a few more in the first few days after linking with that site. I really only wanted to use a reader as I like to subscribe to feeds and delete them as I feel like, when I find I am really wanting to follow a blog long term then I get around to "joining" through Google Connect - and sometimes it's because I'm lazy and want to be able to go back to the blog without properly following that day because I can't be bothered and then I can go back when I have time and follow properly.

It's free. It is web-based so you can sign in from any computer just like Google Reader.

if you want to join Bloglovin' and it's doing your head in email me and we'll go through it together, I'm home tonight :)

Maria said...

Anthea I'm completely confused :-/

Anonymous said...

There is a lot of confusion out there and I'm only just arrived in blog-land, but I've found the following...
- You don't have to read in Bloglovin', it's only a program to find the blog posts you follow in a format that some people find convenient.
- You can set it up so that you receive one email once a day with all your new blogposts; or an email for every new blogpost individually or none at all.
- you can choose to link to Facebook (but you don't have to) so a link to your own new posts automatically appear in your facebook when you post in blogger
- you can "claim" your blog on bloglovin, but don't have to. The only thing it does as far as I can find, is give stats about how many followers you have. But you can see that in Blogger as well.
- When you set up in bloglovin (put in username and password, I used the same as for logging into blogger/gmail), you can try it out. And if you don't like it just go back to using you blogger dahsboard (or any other reader you may want to try/use). I tend to use either depending what mood I'm in, or what I'm doing when I think of checking up on any blogfriends...

Jindi's Cottage said...

I forgot the bit about how the blogs you follow will still be on your dashboard....oops!....if you read them from your dashboard anyway then nothing will change...

marina said...

glad you asked those questions, and thanks for those that have given advice. I have been very confused about it all too.

Maria said...

Yep!!! I am also completely confused.....

Susan said...

I just use my dashboard too. I think I'll worry about it if it becomes a problem.........

Kaye R said...

Great post, I have been wandering the same things but did not know how to word the questions....... Will follow Chooky and a couple of others to see what they come up with. I blog but am but a basic concern. I do not want to lose contact with the community established via this media.

Christine M said...

OMG! This is just too much for me! LOL! I just read my blogs through my blog list on the side. Am I the only one who reads blogs that way?

Simone Harding said...

I use Bloglovin as it us great on the iPad as the updates are there. Have a friend sign up without Facebook also loves it.

Kate said...

Anthea, looks like your questions have all been answered so I thought I'd share what I really like about Bloglovin'. Every night they send me an email showing all the newest blog posts for the day - and you ask so what's the big deal... there is none except that when we're away so much during the summer it's hard to keep up with new posts on my blog list. With Bloglovin' I will be able to keep up with all the new posts simply by opening each Bloglovin' email - I won't miss anything anyone has posted.

Melody said...

Hi, I'm just like Christine and read
new posts from blogs I like that are listed on my sidebar. It works for me and while it works I'm going to keep doing it this way. I never used Google Reader, don't want to use Bloglovin', and won't sign up to Facebook so I'll just wait and see what happens.

Susan said...

I'm with Melody. Christine & others.

Any blog that I want to keep reading I add to my Blog List - if that blog does a post - its on the top of the list so I just read them that way - I like to comment on almost every post so I have to actually go to the post anyway.
Maybe if I get too many blogs I am reading, I'll change . . .
But thanks for all the info everyone...

Wendy said...

Thanks for asking the question, I was unsure about it all too!

Lin said...

I'm with Susan and am going to wait and see if I need to change when it comes to it. All very confusing.

Cheryll said...

I only use my blog list too... so I'm not changing anything just yet. Lots of good advice in above comments though. :)

Jeanette said...

I decided to wait & see what people would say. I've never used google reader. Didn't see the point when i just read the blogs off my blog list on my side bar. So i don't see any point joining bloglovin unless forced too. If it comes to being made to use thing i have no wish to use i'll just stop blogging all together.

Marilyn said...

I also either use the list on my side bar, and also Reading list on Dashboard as sometimes I havent linked newly followed blogs to my sidebar. I am quite happy to keep doing that for now and will wait till nearer July to see if there is any advantage in using some other way.
Thanks for asking the questions that it seems a lot of us have had.

Valspierssews said...

Love the comments. I tend to be conservative and hate change but wouldn't it be wonderful if this was a multiway discussion in google plus. It took me a long time to see the benefits of google plus. I finally signed up to Facebook a while back so people can find me that way but I never use it. So when bloglovin turned up I jumped right in because I was more used to trying things out. I follow lots of blogs that I haven't put in my side bar so it was good to get the email update from bloglovin. It also notifies me when someone follows me so I can visit them. The profile image in bloglovin is connected to the Facebook image. Since I was already on Facebook it was easy to update my profile picture. I never used google reader because I had to go there and never did. I always just looked in the dashboard list. I love bloglovin. I love Pinterest. I love google plus. Just my two cents worth :)

Valspierssews said...

I clicked the g+ 1 at the bottom of your post. If everyone who commented or visited did this it would mean that your post has a greater chance of showing up at the top of the search list when someone googles bloglovin to find out about it. All the comments were very interesting and might be helpful to others. I also shared your post through google plus.

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