Recently, Blogger unveiled a new feature called "Blogger Following." It essentially takes some aspects of a feed reader like Google Reader and melds them into Blogger (not coincidentally also owned by Google).
For the life of me I can't figure out why they did it (well, I can kind of, but nevermind that for now). To me, it seems akin to Yahoo Mail starting up a new system called Yahoo Mail Child, in which you get messages for your messages.
Now, if you weren't already using Yahoo Mail (or a feed reader), I can understand why you might like to use the Following feature. Aside from being a feed reader in and of itself, it also gives Blogger users a chance to show off who their following and who's following them (though one could argue that the "Blog List" feature does the former as well).
Short story long, I'm afraid I just can't use this, and I ask you to not be offended if it doesn't look like I'm "Following" you. The fact is, I have 103 subscriptions through Google Reader, and duplicating the time it takes to either read or mark as read all the posts from all those sites is not something I'm looking to do. Likewise, I'm not looking to replace Google Reader - if it's not broke, why fix it?
If you really want to know if I'm following you, just ask. Or check your subscription stats - if you see someone from Arizona, it's probably me.
4 people have chosen wisely: on "A quick note to my Blogger brethren (and sisthren)"
Good points here. I put a toe into it and am finding it's not any different than the reader, other than that you can add a widget that boasts about who's following you. I'll give it another couple of weeks and then maybe step out of it.
Wow - I need to stop typing after a certain time at night. I just re-read that post and it makes almost no sense, or at least coherent points. It made sense in my head.
Sorry, folks. Put it this way: if you are on Blogger and use a reader, Following duplicates the "work" of reading any blogs you read while adding few (and small) benefits. So just don't think I'm a horrible person if you're following me and I'm not following you.
*concerned voice* Are you following me? *concerned voice*
It's cool Fletch. I know you are following me. You should seriously put out a comprehensive list of everyone you have in your readers though. We all want to know who Fletch is following. Plus it would boost all of our egos a little bit.
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