14 DAY TRIAL // Google has announced that all the users of the Blogger platform will soon have greater opportunities to tighten the bonds with the other users of Google's blogging system. “Following,” a new feature that will be implemented in the next couple of weeks in all blogs, allows bloggers to interact more with the other members of the online community.
The feature makes it possible for users to get updates on who follows their blog - which means, for those who are not accustomed to the whole blogging community terminology - who added them to the “favorite blogs” sidebar. Bloggers who have already reached a steady audience can now show their appreciation for the support received so far by also adding some of its members to the public list of “supporters.” This means that, if someone likes your blog and is not shy about making it public, you can return the favor by displaying their pictures, names and weblog addresses on the side of your blog, using the “Followers” feature.
The more solid interconnection between bloggers can create an augmented sense of membership to a dynamic community. Also, it can help people who only read certain blogs easier develop a database of favorite personal webpages to follow in the future. This is because the followers are usually interested in the same subjects as those who are tracked using the new feature.
The same also goes the other way round. Bloggers who decide to follow a colleague's personal page will get automatic updates whenever they publish a new post. The subscription to “Following” can be made both publicly and anonymously, because some may not want, for various reasons, to appear in their favorite bloggers' followers side list.
The team at Google is also preparing a new application for blogs – Google Friend Connect, which promises even more engaging social experiences. Although a good idea, the “Following” feature can cause something that may be easily labeled as discrimination because, although bloggers who use the Google platform can add other bloggers who use different platforms on their friends list, the opposite is impossible. And, if someone doesn't add you to the list, you may want to give them the same treatment, which comes against Google's call for socializing and friendly behavior.