It's about exploring and sharing my creative adventures (mostly sewing these days) ~
~those activities that sometimes obsess, usually inspire, occasionally frustrate
~and always provide a delightful maze to wander through.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Google Reader and Bloglovin'


Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Well.   I log in to my Google Reader (after too long an absence) only to discover that Google is whipping said Reader out from under our feet!  Starting July 1, no more Google Reader!  :(   People have had some nice things to say about Bloglovin', so I thought I'd give it a whirl - with just a tad bit of research, it turns out to be pretty easy to transfer all of your blogs over, and add a Bloglovin' widget. (this is specific to blogspot blogs - I think the process for wordpress is similar though)

Here are the steps:

  1. You will need to sign up with Bloglovin' at bloglovin.com   I only saw two options - sign up via email, or through your facebook account.
  2. You now need to "Claim" your blog by going to "Account", and "my blog" - type your blog name in to the box (or click on it, if your blog name shows up in the drop down menu)
  3. Copy and paste the link into a new blog post on your blog
  4. Go back to bloglovin.com and click on "Claim your blog"   This should verify your blog, and the link should show up in your blog post.  (this is the link that is showing up at the top of this post)  

To add a bloglovin widget in a blogspot blog, bloglovin' has made the process easy as it could possibly be!

  1. Under your Account in bloglovin.com, select "add a Follow button"
  2. A page will open with a variety of bloglovin' icons.  Choose one and click on "select this icon"
  3. A window will pop up that says "Add Widget".   Click on the Add Widget, and your Layout page for your blog will automatically pop up.   The bloglovin' widget will be at the top of your widget column.  Simply drag it to the location you want, Save, and you're done!

Bloglovin appears to show only the first paragraph of a new post, so you need to click through in order to read the entire post, but other than that, it appears to be much like Google Reader - yay!

Now to figure out how & where to save all of my favorite "starred" posts that I wanted to have as handy references.....

An aside:  I haven't been a very active blogger lately, (but I HAVE been sewing!), and sewing posts will follow, as soon as I organize myself and get some actual pictures taken....

Meanwhile, happy sewing and blogging, and remember that the only constant in life is change, so we might as well enjoy the changes as best we can :)

EDIT:  badmomgoodmom added this info in the comments as a way to store your starred items (note:  it isn't working for me on my Mac, [yet], but if I figure it out I'll add that info too):

"http://www.dataliberation.org/google/reader

then click on:
this link  ...(that's what it says when you get there)...

then go to:
https://www.google.com/takeout/?pli=1
login with your Google email and passwd

Select Choose Services tab at the top of the page.
Select Google Reader and build archive.
Wait for it to build a file of all of your reader data.
Then download the file (mine was 5.3MB) to your own computer.

Your blog subscriptions are in xml.
The rest of the stuff is in json (JavaScript Object Notation) and can be read by many other programs. (I heard that Chrome can read json, but haven't tried that yet.)"

Another Note (from me) on the starred items:  I also downloaded Feedly, and discovered that the Starred items from Google Reader show up automatically in Feedly!   I may do another post with my own feelings about the differences after I've played with feedly and bloglovin for a bit.....

17 comments:

glorm said...

OK

shams said...

Thanks, Jillian. I've been meaning to do this, but you pushed me to do it! I am also on bloglovin' now.

glorm said...

Whoops--somehow that message didn't get finished! Looking forward to seeing what you have been sewing.

Karin said...

Thanks for this, I am trying to get to grips with these changes and you have given me a boost along the way!

Martha said...

Thanks, Jilly. I *think* I was successful with this! Martha

Miasews said...

I'm on Bloglovin but I also have links to all my favorite blogs (of course, yours!) on a sidebar of my blog...I follow all my favorites that way.

Unknown said...

Glad to know you're OK!!!

RhondaBuss said...

You are always so great about researching info and passing it along. Thanks so much Jilly. I actually ended up getting an email from Bloglovin because of the post I did. It was interesting what they had to say. I am going to ask for more information on the background of the site. From what I was told. Bloglovin was created especially for women.

Jillybejoyful said...

Thanks Rhonda - I just checked out Mary's post through your blog - I've been hearing a lot about Feedly too, and I may sign up for that one as well to see which I like the best. I'm curious to know what all you find out about Bloglovin.

Anonymous said...

I am so sad that Google Reader is going to be taken away....haven't decided which way I will go yet. I have heard good things about Feedly, but when I went to check them out, the server was down....hmmmm.

Adrienne said...

Thanks for your tutorial. I am going to have to make the switch too.

Adrienne said...

Thanks for your tutorial. I am going to have to make the switch too.

badmomgoodmom said...

Thanks for this tutorial.

I guess we just need to find the Google Reader "data liberation" instructions to save our starred posts and metadata tags. Sigh. I hate having technology ripped out from under me. Why mess with something that works for so many people? The user base may not have been growing, but it hasn't shrunk either.

badmomgoodmom said...

http://www.dataliberation.org/google/reader

then click on:
http://www.dataliberation.org/takeout-products

then go to:
https://www.google.com/takeout/?pli=1
login with your Google email and passwd

Select Choose Services tab at the top of the page.
Select Google Reader and build archive.
Wait for it to build a file of all of your reader data.
Then download the file (mine was 5.3MB) to your own computer.

Your blog subscriptions are in xml.
The rest of the stuff is in json (JavaScript Object Notation) and can be read by many other programs. (I heard that Chrome can read json, but haven't tried that yet.)

My largest file in the download package was the starred items. I was happy to see that it saved all the info for posts I starred. My tags are in the notes file.


Jillybejoyful said...

Awesomeness!!!! Thank you badmomgoodmom! I haven't figured out yet how to open the json files on my Mac, but I'll edit and add your info to my post for others to find - MWAH! :)

Kay said...

Thanks Jilly - I finally did some bloglovin today thanks to you! :)

Victoria said...

OMG, thank you SO much for posting this! I had so many blogs I follow telling me how to follow their blogs but couldn't find any instructions on how to add it to my own blog...until I read your post! Thank you!!!