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Posted By:
ChrisLang
76 days ago
Topic Type: News Story (Jump to http://rssautoresponders.blogspot.com)
Category: Google
You can try out Google Friend Connect full version and add it to your Blogger blog right now! Sneaky Google called it Following so it got right past me.
10 Comments
Comments
Did anybody else catch this or did the Following moniker get it past you too?
Something odd is going on now, instead of the full version of Friend Connect we are seeing the Blogger disabled sub version. Even on my own Blogger blog that is at the end of this post I am getting the Blogger pre release version.
After calling a few of my close Google Social friends they are reporting the same thing. I joined my own blog thru Friend Connect just before submitting this to Propeller I got the full Friend Connect interface. Now I am getting the Blogger version that was out last week.
The surprising news is that when I have someone join my Blogger thru the widget I am getting a friend request in my Google Reader friends module. Google may have been testing Friend Connect on Blogger or rolled the full experience back during peak traffic this morning.
I can say that this site is still running the full Friend Connect code.
http://jrsays.com/2007/09/social-networks-might-ac..." rel="nofollow">http://jrsays.com/2007/09/social-networks-might-actually-be-semi.html">http://jrsays.com/2007/09/social-networks-might-ac...
I just added a new friend thru the full version and it move REALLY slow as opposed to last nite when it was blazing fast.
Something really strange is going on with Google. Friend Connect disappeared on Blogger around 1PM AZ time. It is still showing as the Blogger subset and the sites that do offer the full version are hideously slow and barely work. Real strange. What I want to see is if late nite to nite we we the full beta version of Frined Connect back on Blogger and working lickety split as it was this morning at 5AM.
It will be interesting to follow this development ... I believe they are preparing for a full scale launch just before or after Christmas ... hopefully sooner.
Keep us posted!
Actually for a short time early morning today I saw the Google social network complete and running. Even though it is down now I know how it is going to work in it's entirety. That was worth working 24 hours straight. No if it would come back up I could take my blog post front page on Digg.
I could not figure why I kept not getting any comments, emails, Diggs, Sphinns or sales. It was because as soon as I got the hang of how it is going to integrate the darn thing went down.
Either that or Google made a mistake and it should have never been using the Friend Connect interface. Right now it is still running the Blogger subset. The only real difference is that Friend Connect uses AJAX and is blazing fast.
Right now on the few beta sites it is barely loading the avatars and just looks at you when you try to click anything. Does anyone know if the hurricane has caused outages along the backbone that runs thru Texas to Atlanta? It was not just Blogger but I had alot of problems with the Internet in General, server resopnses and such not returned.
I wouldn't worry much about it, remember the Google Bucket Test back in May. In May, at least I am sure it was May, Google tested a new "digg-like" interface and then removed it before too many people had a chance to see it. It could be that they did the same thing this morning.
The slow loading avatars bug me, that almost sounds like someone is working on the system. How quick are they loading now? Then again it might be the internet acting up because of possible damage in routing. We'll probably see what it looks like tomorrow.
Isn't the widget a lot like Blog Log and Blog Catalog? I saw the one now where you can follow the blog, and you have to have a gmail account to do so. Plus if you have more than one gmail account you have to be logged into the account that you are using for your Blogger account. This morning when I was looking for the widget I could not find anything and I thought that Chris was seeing purple cows or pink elephants.
Google is definitely changing lately. Now they have Google Sites, too, which is somewhat different than Google Pages. I heard that they removed Google pages but I still have access to them. Google Sites allows the owner to grant permission to a team that can go in and make changes to the site. I am still not sure of how to use something like this, but I have used their other sharing feature on Google documents before and it works great.
Please keep us posted on Google Watch.
Thanks!
Chris,
Excellent post explaining about the new changes going on with Google's friend connect and the sneakiness of blogger.
and Groc I noticed it was much like the MyBlogLog and BlogCatalog widgets.
@Groc,
I caught either a bucket test or Google was going to see if the code would run at load, it definitely was full friend connect and it was running on my Blogger blog too.
Then is slowly started to error and balk and then it was gone.
Here is a blogger blog that is still running full friend connect and it is not listed in the beta testers on the friend connect sub domian.
Since this is really my home forum / networking site I will give you all the full lowdown.
Google is removing the need for RSS experience and blocking out any other reader too.
Stay with me here this is way powerful and I should not even pass this on but in the spirt of sharing real information here we go.
Go to this site, it is a Blogger blog with a 301 on the domain.
http://jrsays.com/2007/09/social-networks-might-actually-be-semi.html
Widget is on the top right.
Click the join button and make sure you are logged into the Gmail address you want to use with Google social.
This will open a pop up window and ask you to confirm, click ok.
You just added the feed to your Google Reader. No more RSS links, right into Google Reader.
Now look back to the widget. Click one of the avatar icons.
It will give you the "+ add friend" link, click it.
Now you can add a introductory blurb and send the friend request.
When the person accepts your friend request they will be added to your Gmail chat, GTalk and their Google Reader shared items will be added to your "Friends shared items" in Google Reader.
Now your new friend is portable and will be shown as a friend on any Friend Connect enabled blog as that option rolls out.
I expect this to be VERY soon.
Friend Connect is the social glue that will make your web experience portable, more engaging and a indespensible marketing tool.
You can learn way more about Googling Social (no one knows the name so don't tell) by joining my email list here:
http://www.keywebdata.com/seo-tactic.php
No this is not blatant promotion, this is the chance for you to get a HUGE leg up on what will be the new social network and I am betting my last dollar on it!
Feel free to email me or call me if I can help you with Googling Social in any way.
Cheers = Chris Lang
Google's Friend Connect is still running slow on the 8 sites I have found running it. What is really interesting is that the friends I have made thru it have no idea of the full scope and how it integrates into Gmail, Gchat and Google Reader.
One guy said that Friend Connect had nothing to do with the rest. That is how disjointed Google has spin doctored each application. They are seriously hiding the big picture and testing heavily behind the scenes.
What I really want to know is what is to come that I have not been able to find thru my rather dilegent analysis and theorizing? So far everything I have been thinking has come true and more. What have I not foreseen?