4 Reasons why Bloglovin is my new Bestie

I am now so glad that Google forced me off Google Reader – I was annoyed at the time but really Bloglovin is a much better option for me.  This is for 4 main reasons:
 

One -     It's easy to group and read the blogs I follow – I am keeping up with them much better.

Two -   When you look at a post via Bloglovin, that blog gets a page view – this didn't happen either on Google Reader or when looking at a post in your Blogger Dashboard.

Three - Bloglovin emails me every time a new follower signs up to follow – so I can then check their blog out and follow them right on back.  You need to set this up in your settings – you can choose other notifications as well.

Four - Bloglovin also helps you find new blogs to follow.  If someone you follow is on Bloglovin you can see who else they follow or who is following them.  And you can also look at popular posts or blog types or use the search function.

I do find Bloglovin to be a bit slow at times.  Hopefully they will sort that out.

Ps  It is sad that Recipenewz has disappeared – hopefully it will either come back or someone else will set up another site like it!

Get started with Bloglovin' right now!

Ok, it's official - I am a complete convert to Bloglovin'.  I thought I would never recover from the imminent loss of Google Reader - but what do you know - I like Bloglovin better!

It was easy to sign up and very easy to transfer my Google Reader blogs over to Bloglovin.  Everyone needs to do this (with Bloglovin or someone else) - within the 3 weeks left until Google Reader disappears for ever.

The things I really like about Bloglovin include:

• They send you an email every time someone follows you so it is really easy to check if you are already following them and to follow them back if you aren't
• When you use Bloglovin to read posts, the blog you are reading gets a pageview out of it - this did not happen in Google Reader (I have noticed an uplift in my own pageviews which I suspect is because of this)
• It is very easy to keep up with blogs you follow - I have put them into different folders so I can quickly go to want I want.  Whereas with Google Reader I never seemed to catch up I am now finding it much easier to manage.

So don't delay - make the change - you won't regret it.

Testing a replacement for Google Reader – Bloglovin

I have now signed up for Bloglovin and have imported all my Google Reader Feeds into it – this only requires a single click to do (although it did take a while). I am going to run both readers in parallel for a while to judge whether Bloglovin is the best alternative for me.  I'll let you know how it is going.

It was easy to put the follower widget onto my sidebars, so that worked well.

At this stage I can't figure out how to get a more compact view – apparently there is a way to change your view settings – but do you think I can find it?  Anyone out there know what to do?

The shocking news about Google Reader - tell them if you are upset about it

I'm sure many of you are just as appalled as I was to see that Google is going to "retire" Google Reader - what!!!

I don't know what I'll do as an alternative yet and will be looking out for some good advice.

In the meantime, I have signed up to the 2 petitions to save it - one on Change.org and the other on keepgooglereader.com

I have also put messages on Google's forums.

While I don't have a lot of hope that Google will relent, it would be great if you also expressed your views as Google users.