Google Changes and Follower Numbers

This information came from a fellow blogger, Sandi at Rose Chintz Cottage, posted as to why our numbers are dropping and if you've been one that have noticed a big change here is the reason. 

Attention: Blog Friends and Followers

Hello dear friends ~ Have you noticed a decline in your blog followers lately?
Then I noticed an announcement on my blog. This is what it said....

December 21, 2015

"In 2011, we announced the retirement of Google Friend Connect for all non-Blogger sites. We made an exception for Blogger to give readers an easy way to follow blogs using a variety of accounts. Yet over time, we’ve seen that most people sign into Friend Connect with a Google Account. So, in an effort to streamline, in the next few weeks we’ll be making some changes that will eventually require readers to have a Google Account to sign into Friend Connect and follow blogs.

As part of this plan, starting the week of January 11, we’ll remove the ability for people with Twitter, Yahoo, Orkut or other OpenId providers to sign in to Google Friend Connect and follow blogs. At the same time, we’ll remove non-Google Account profiles so you may see a decrease in your blog follower count.

"We encourage you to tell affected readers (perhaps via a blog post), that if they use a non-Google Account to follow your blog, they need to sign up for a Google Account, and re-follow your blog. With a Google Account, they’ll get blogs added to their Reading List, making it easier for them to see the latest posts and activity of the blogs they follow."

I hope that this will clear up the issue for some of you. Hopefully any of those following with a non-Google account will be able to rectify the problem.

So from now on when I'm joining any bloggers, instead of following Google Friend Connect, I just copy and paste their blog name onto my google reader and follow that way. 
I hope this clears up the issue that many of us have been experiencing lately.
Blessings,
Noreen