Update: I am no longer using Google Friend Connect – I strongly suggest you focus your efforts on Google+ instead. Read this article: How Google+ is Different.
Adding Google Friend Connect to your WordPress blog is easy. Friend Connect provides a cool way to add another dimension of “community” to your blog or website. I added it to my sidebar as a WordPress Widget, and I’m starting to see side conversations develop, in addition to the comments on individual blog posts.
It is also nice because people that frequent your site can meet each other, and discover other websites or blogs that like minded people are members of.
How To Add Friend Connect To Your WordPress Blog
On Twitter a lot of people who are saying they’ve been “whitelisted” to be part of the Friend Connect program, so I assume that it will get easier and easier to have access to it. Here are the steps to add Friend Connect to your WordPress Blog.
1. Log into Friend Connect at http://www.google.com/friendconnect/home/
2. Click on the “Set Up A New Site” button. This will walk you through a short process.
3. Upload files - canvas.html and rpc_relay.html to the root directory of your blog.
Note: Google has simplified this step and you no longer need to upload these files. The process will ask you for the name and URL to your website that’s it! (as of Oct 2, 2009)
4. Get the code for the “Members Gadget”
5. Go into WordPress Admin -> Design -> Widgets (this assumes you are using a widget enabled theme.)
6. Create a Text Widget, give it a title, and insert the HTML code into the the Widget.
Now people can join your site as members. They can see other members on your site and meet them. You might want to consider adding some other Friend Connect Gadgets to the site now.
I use the “Wall Gadget” so people can leave comments and start discussions. There aren’t very many Friend Connect gadgets available yet, but the next one I plan to try is the ratings and review Gadget.
What about you – are you experimenting with Friend Connect yet? If so, leave your website url in the comments, or better yet – become a member of this site by Joining in the Friend Connect gadget in the right sidebar!
Update: I am no longer using Google Friend Connect – I strongly suggest you focus your efforts on Google+ instead. Read this article: How Google+ is Different.
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Not work in my site
why?
Now work on my site
I must add javascript and that it. I read on GFC forum
Thanks for the post!! The gadget looks real nice. Dhini, make sure you have gone to Google’s site to get the code for the page you are using.
Wow! I was busting my butt using the wordpress instructions and in less than two minutes I got the solution from you. Geez. You are great and for sure will connect with you from now on.
Thanks! This is a great tip. Can’t wait to try it out on my site.
How do I add the javasrcipt to the html code? Im confused.
Hey, great post, you really put your time and efforts into your posts, good content on the brain, very interesting.
Thanks CAMPBELL.
These directions are out of date and no longer work. This plugin is now deprecated. Use a different Plugin, see code.google.com for a different one.
@beadon – can you tell me what is not working for you? The right place to get the code from is http://www.google.com/friendconnect, not code.google.com.
Although I have moved to Facebook Connect for this website, I know the Google Friend Connect widget is working for many people still. Can you share with me what didn’t work for you?
For the life of me I can not figure out how to insert a friend connect gadget into my wordpress blog. I have tried everything but all I see is html code on my blog.
@Kama, I see you are using a WordPress.com blog – unfortunately this won’t work with blogs hosted on WordPress.com, only self-hosted WordPress blogs.
Sorry!
Well, THAT should be noted somewhere in the instructions to save us a bit of time!! LOL Oh my head hurts….
Agreed, Amy! I just kept copying and pasting and saving and checking my blog and deleting the widget and copying and pasting….
My head hurts, too!
I was having the same problem. I finally realized it won’t work if I don’t have it hosted. Funny thing though it works on tumblr with just the code.
At least nice to find out that I am not wrong. The only mistake I have made is not to google “insert google friend connect wordpress” earlier. :/
I recently purchased my own domain name but wordpress is still hosting my blog. Does this mean I can’t install a friend connect gadget either? I followed the steps and when I upload, all I see is the html code on my blog as well. Is there anything else I can do? I would love to be able to have ‘followers’ but don’t know how.
Oops! I forgot to add my site address! Sorry!
Eugenia,
Go to Google Friend Connect, set up a new account. Don’t add the code they ask you to. Instead you have to download the code here:
http://code.google.com/p/wp-gfc/downloads/list
Then to install it, follow the steps listed here:
http://code.google.com/p/wp-gfc/wiki/Installation
It worked for my site. There are a few little things I’m still trying to sort out, but this worked great.
Hi Eugenia,
I’m sorry but I don’t know of any way to add the Google Friend Connect gadgets to blogs hosted on WordPress.com… I wish I had a better answer for you!
-Don
I had a Friend Connect widget on my WP site (self-hosted), but a few months after placing it on my blog, all the info disappeared and never returned. I’ve tried adding it to my site again, however, it’s the same thing – the widget is simply empty. I can’t seem to figure it out… Maybe it has something to do with my WP theme – I run on Arras, however, I’ve learned that other bloggers have experienced this phenomena as well.
Michelle – I don’t think this would be a theme problem, unless there is a JavaScript conflict between the theme and the FriendConnect widget.
More likely, there is a problem with the embed code – have you tried going back to Google.com/FriendConnect and getting the embed code again and re-embedding it? If not, that might be worth a try…
hi, I want to migrate my blog from xxxyyyzzz.blogspot.com third level domain to a first level domain (with wordpress). My answer is: my supporters, with this widget, remains unchanged ?
@Michelle, here’s the fix, right from Google.
http://www.googlingsocial.com/?p=449
It has to do with the WordPress version, usually not the theme.
Good morning. I installed the Google Friend Connect widget with few problems and it works great. The problem is when I enable the messaging, two things happen:
1.) all previous Wordpress messages become hidden (they’re still there, when you disable the messaging they come back)
2.) the “Comment” link at the bottom of my posts disappears. You can comment when you click on the header for each post and go into each individual post, but that’s not very convenient and I don’t think very many readers will bother looking that far.
Is there a solution to this problem allowing both the Wordpress comments and the Google FriendConnect comments to co-exist?
Craig Derosby
Just read in the comments that this wasn’t supported on Wordpress.com site, I was trying to help a user who was having trouble and looked it up.
Great Idea for Google Friend Connect in wordpress. adding Google Friend Connect in your blog makes more traffic to your site
Ok but what about notifications? I thought this friendconnect was allowing us to send “updates” to the people who subscribed..
@Kevin,
There is a notification capability in Google Friend Connect. You can set up a Newsletter in Friend Connect (see this screen shot) that will allow you to notify subscribers.
Hello,
I’ve got a blog hosted on WordPress.com, but how do I get a self-hosted WordPress blog?
And where can I get the best guidance for ‘making more of my blog? At Word Press they answer often that if you don’t know ‘this’ they can’t help you… but I recently started my blog, so everything is new. Where to fire my questions?
Thanks!
@FashionGuitar – to self-host WordPress, you can sign up with a hosting provider (I recommend BlueHost for these reasons) for about $6.95/month and install WordPress in just a few minutes.
Also, here is a post that describes Moving Your Content from WordPress.com to WordPress.org (self-hosted WordPress.)
Is there a way to move an existing GFC from blogger to WP.org? I initially set up my account with a .blogspot address. I bought my domain about 9 months ago. I didn’t have a problem while still in blogger. I just can’t get it to work in wp.org. Thanks!
Hey, thanks for the tips….loking a lot far such a WP gadget.
It working,
Thanks a lot, all the time I trought will never have GCF on my wordpress blog
I tested this plugin last night and it works great on all the newest versions of WordPress. That other Google Connect plug-in is a little bit different – doesn’t have all the same features.
Do it is advisable know how many individuals are visiting your web site? The place they’re coming from? What pages they like best? What you need are analytics – software program to let you observe who is visiting your website, and what they’re doing there. There are various, many several types of analytics applications on the market – most of which work by analyzing your server’s hit log records. However these may be tough to arrange and use, since setting them up varies depending on how the web server itself is about up. Google Analytics works in a different way – you merely add some code to all the pages you want to observe on your web site, and also you’re able to go!
aloha my friend , i just want to say thanks for the instructions on how to add google friend connection, it was fast and easy , mahalo you friend mendel creager
Thankyou alot for explaining the way to add google friend connect ..
Looks like GFC simply will not work on Wordpress.com blogs. There is supposedly a fix on the google site, but apparently Wordpress strips out Javascript for security reasons. I’ve messaged them to find out if they can do anything helpful, but I doubt they will change policy.
I moved from blogger to wordpress (self hosted) in January. I’ve added my exisiting Friend Connect widget to my sidebar and it shows up fine. Problem is no new posts are showing up in google reader or their blogger “following” list. None of my followers are getting my blog updates. What am I doing wrong?
I went into my GFC settings and added my new url.
Hi! I installed a “Members” Widget in my sidebar and its been working great until recently. The widget only appears on the homepage of my blog, not any of my posts. Any idea what to do?
~Thanks in advance
~Vivi
This tutorial is kind of out of date. I wrote one a few months back that is up to date and accurate: http://lastshredsofsanity.com/2010/06/how-to-keep-your-google-friendconnect-when-you-switch-to-wp-or-your-own-domain.html/
Hi – I have just moved my blogger blog to wordpress and I’m trying to add my current GFC to it so my followers stay the same. When I add the code to my text/html box all I get is the html showing – no image, etc. Do you have any idea how to fix this?
Thanks for your help!
i am having the same problem:( in the wordpress forums forums it says wordpress does not allow javascript of any kind for security reasons yet some say they were easily able to add GFC to their wordpress site. :confused:
afnp – If your blog is hosted on WordPress.com then you cannot add JavaScript. If you are self-hosting your WordPress blog then you can do whatever you want. That’s where the confusion may be.
ahhh i see. well that clears that right up! thank you for the reply.
Tina,
Where are you pasting this – into a WordPress blog post/page or into a sidebar widget? Is your site hosted on WordPress.com or are you hosting it with another hosting provider? (The GFC widget will not work with WordPress.com sites.)
Great post,
thanks for sharing
great tutorial thank you. i should intergrated google on my widget
Hi Don,
Why do I have to join Word Press before I can leave a comment on my friend’s blog when I have no trouble leaving one on yours?
Kind Regards,
Lyn (ancient grandmother of 7)
Hi Lyn,
It’s possible to set your WordPress blog to require login before someone can post a comment. I have it so that anyone can post as long as they enter a valid email, and I moderate all comments.
Thanks Don, I thought it might be something like that. I’ve e-mailed my friend to check her settings
Finally it looks like a solution the the problems I’ve been having. I’ll give it a try tonight.
Thank you for this post. It WORKS!
Don,I have a wordpress website selling local seo and this is a great idea that should help boost traffic,thanks.
I have tried to add this friend connect to my blog and all I’m seeing is the code. Why is that?
I can’t figure out how to add GFC to wordpress.com site.
http://www.daytodaymoments.com
does it need to be .org to work?
Thank you!
Great site, as much as many bloggers prefer the versatile WordPress as their blogging platform of choice, Google’s Blogger remains a very popular (and adequate) blogging platform, too. figured out a few new things! subscribed for later, hope to see more updates like this one.
Great, this is a nice article..thanks for share..
hi there,
is it possible to add GFC to a wordpress blog that is not self hosted?
as in, like how my blog is http://iomoo.wordpress.com?
i can’t find a way to get it to work at all!
please help me out
sara
Not at this time Sara.
I just put the google codes in a different file and call the file using iframe.
Thank you! It worked and was just what I wanted… now to rebuild followers
Great article! Thank you!
Bookmarking this!!!! thank you
Thanks to great explanation I found it easy to add Google Friend Connect.
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