The subscribe-by-email feature that had been integrated into Blogger since 2011 may finally be ending, nine months after Google told us it would a year ago.
There were still some instances of subscriber emails going out last week, however.
Update: Some emails still going out as recently as April 9!
Bloggers may recreate a similar subscribe-by-email option using third-party providers.
A year of shrinking functionality
A message at Feedburner, posted in March, says,
In the coming weeks we will complete the migration we announced last year onto a more stable, modern infrastructure and start turning down non-core feed management features, including email subscriptions.
The notice also says,
All existing feeds will continue to serve uninterrupted.
signifying that the other feed-management features of Feedburner are continuing.
Unfortunately, barring another delay, this means my subscribers won't read this post! Perhaps they will discover it anyway.
What still works
The two remaining services are feed-based readers:
- following via Blogger's built-in reading list
- following via any other feed reader
Feeds are a basic internet technology analogous to a broadcast. No subscription is involved, so there is no way to know who is following your blog.
Blogger's "following" is a feed wrapper with the option to follow publicly. Information about your public followers is available from the Stats section of the Blogger dashboard.
Timeline
March 2011
April 2021
- Subscribe to be turned off
- Why that's my fault
March 2022
- Google says they really mean it, subscribe will end in March
April 2022
- Some blogs are still generating emails to subscribers
- What now?
It's been very odd that it hasn't been shut off already. It's like they forgotten to flip the switch.
ReplyDeleteWell, you know what happens to stuff when Google gets bored with it.
DeleteMy first draft, in March, was about how it had ended. Rewrote it when a blog post of mine got emailed on April 1.
But I think it may really be done now.
Today I can't even get into either of my blogs! The Deign, New Posts, etc everything is Gone! All of my Followers are gone! What have they done???? I'm in a panic....
ReplyDelete@Voo, you really need to take problems like this to the help community.
DeleteI do not do private support here, and in its face your problem does not even have anything to do with the subject of this report.
I hope you get your blogs back.
July 1, 2022. My feeds still function and so is yours.
ReplyDelete@krupami, do you mean that subscribe-by-email is still working for this blog? I never know, when I publish, if it will go out in email or not.
DeleteOur feeds are not affected, thank goodness! Feeds are an essential part of the internet.
I discovered something new regarding the email subscription system. If you go to the "Invite more users for broadcast notifications" section in Settings and enter the e-mail address of the reader who wants to subscribe, and if the reader approves the confirmation mail, every new post will be sent by e-mail.
ReplyDelete@İsmail, that is a different function. You have to invite each reader, and there are or used to be a limit on the number you could have.
Delete