Blogging Without Google+After Massive Data Exposure

Google + Comments is Going Away April 2nd

Do you use Google+? What do you know about it? Want to use it? I have been using it for years and it has served its purpose for comments here on my blog and for sharing to G+ in communities to help promote my blog posts and events of all kinds. I bet you have too! I have spent hours growing my G+ followers and following hundreds no actually thousands of bloggers. You see when you post something and use the + you could add the person’s name it helps to show up in their stream, kinda like Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.

Well if you have been thinking about joining its too late. Yep, that’s right no more Google+. As of April 2, 2019, it will be gone, actually, it has already started in some parts of Google+ and that will also mean comments on your blog, they will stop working.

Find Google Announcement Here

So what now, what do you do? But first, let me tell you why it is shutting down.  You see in about in March of 2018 there was a security breach, a massive data exposure of up to 500,000 users and while Google tried to quell the news, Wall Street Journal reported it in March of 2018. The company found a bug that allowed People API’s access to Googles + profiles which included names, emails, gender and age. Note: For privacy Google only keeps API’s for 2 weeks, but during the time of the problem, they could not tell actually who it impacted.  So last year Google stopped the long-standing practice of scanning email for advertising purposes. Yes, they were snooping in your email to see what kinds of things you like to shop for, for their advertising purposes.

So Google+ is considered a [social network] for consumers but will no longer be available after April 2nd! Some features are already being affected.  But Google is keeping it for enterprise customers who use it. Called Google Posts…more later

So what does this mean to a blogger, well it means you will need to remove the G+ icon from your blog, newsletters and email anywhere you have it displayed? And for comments on your blog you will need to switch over to your own blogs comment system or find a commenting system that will work for you. Suggestions are your own blog’s comments, Akismet, Disque, Facebook, and there are others which has the option of sharing to FB. And there are others, but you will need to decide. But if you are on WordPress you can check your Plugins and activate one.

If you are currently using Google comments on WordPress, that means deactivating that plugin.

But there is more about Google+ , it also means that all those communities you joined and have been using….Go Away… But if you take action now you can download and backup your data, it just depends on if you want to or need this information. You can read more in-depth on Dummies.com

And for bloggers that use Blogspot, I found a tutorial on the Widgets that have been available on your blogs. the 1+ Button | Google Followers | Google Plus Badge as those will all be going away and you need to know how to handle this. I have other blogs on Blogspot too so I will be making the necessary changes by using the tip sheet I was able to make the changes in just a few minutes. The Latest Tips on Blogger 

Also on the Tips On Blogger, there are other tips to help you with your blog so be sure to go through and read as there are tweaks you can use on the Blogspot blogs.

BUT WAIT. I’m not done yet, remember I mentioned Google created Google Posts, so what Google is offering is a Google Business Listing for those that want their business to be found, watch for my next article on ways to promote your business. You do want your business to be found right, drive more sales? Want my next article signup here so you wont miss it.


What kind of blogging platform do you use, Blogger or WordPress? At this point what commenting system have you been using and what have you found that works best?

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