I’ve been an avid blogger for some time now and know my way around an RSS feed and such but I was stumped by Google’s Friend Connect when “blogs I follow” started showing up in my feed reader (twice). It turns out Google decided to show the “Blogs I Follow” from your blogger dashboard in your Google Feed Reader. Except I already added those feeds to my Google Reader. I don’t actually use Blogger any more (been over 5 years now) but unfortunately some Blogger users still limit comments to other Blogger users (silly, I know). I guess they feel that this gives them some sort of anti-spam protection when all it really does is stifle conversations. And let’s be honest, spammers are a lot smarter about this then you and I are so just moderate all comments and be done with it.
But I digress.
The point was, I wanted to stop following said duplicate blogs but surprisingly enough couldn’t figure out how. In case you didn’t catch my sarcasm – I wasn’t all that surprised. Google’s been slowly undermining everything that was good about it in favor of over connectivity (and cuteness).
Unfortunately, to stop following blogs you follow via Blogger is a little more challenging than you would think. Luckily, I found the answer thanks to the help of a user called Late Night Guy. The trick is, Blogger uses Google’s Friend Connect to follow blogs, but hasn’t fully integrated the two products.
On your [Blogger] Dashboard page, click on the “Manage” button at the bottom of your Reading List. When the “Manage Blogs I’m Following” page opens up, click on the “Settings” link across from the title of the blog that you want to stop following. A box will open so that you can log into “Google Friend Connect.” This is necessary because Blogger’s Following feature is powered by it. Next, click on the “Settings” link again and a new window will open where you can click on the “Stop following this site” link. It will then ask you to confirm your choice or cancel it.
So if you find yourself following people you don’t want to follow (in that way) hopefully this post and Late Night Guy have helped.
Thank you for these instructions! I have been trying without success for a month to un-follow several now defunct blogs, and I just removed them! Happiness!