I’m an avid follower of Google technology. I try to find Google productivity solutions when it comes to graphics media, document management, as well as email. Sometimes, however, Google fails me…as in the case of their badly-realized Google Buzz. While it was a promising initial venture into social media (like Orkut), the lack of any solid privacy controls forced me to dump Buzz and delete my public profile altogether.

Google has something of a negative reputation when it comes to private information (though not as horrible as Facebook). Because of the numerous services they offer, Google has been inconsistent in handling personal information. Personal info that has been kept hidden in one service could be wholly exposed in another Google service. But attempting to try out a new service could also be curtailed if you don’t make public certain personal info.

Buzz caused me a great deal of frustration. Another great concept called Google Friend Connect has become another source of aggravation. While I felt that the idea had merit (using an OpenSocial standard), the execution falls short of working. Initially, I attempted to use Friend Connect to show my support of Blogger-hosted sites, mostly related to gardening. Because I wanted to keep it separate from my main Google account, I logged in using a Yahoo account, then changed it over to an email address from my own personal domain. (Lacking the option to use a private domain login was a precursor of my Friend Connect woes.) Of course at this point, I was attempting to “follow” several blogs, little realizing that the list of sites was only accessible via the gadget on those sites.

According to the documentation I read, this list of blogs that I followed would be available on my Blogger dashboard. WRONG! Because I created a separate ID to follow these blogs, that Blogger dashboard actually did not exist. I had to manually create a new profile on Blogger to see my dashboard. Once I created the Blogger profile, I thought everything would start working as intended.

WRONG again! Apparently Google Friend Connect and the Blogger dashboard don’t communicate with each other, despite all the documentation I found on the web stating otherwise. I tested this out when I “followed” a new blog through Friend Connect, then check the dashboard to see if the blog added. Nada. After 3-4 blogs failed to show up on my Dashboard via Friend Connect, I was disgusted. I then manually added the blogs with Blogger’s Reading List “Add” tool to force them to show up. I had to perform this step with every site listed in my Friend Connect dialog.

Next, I tried it the other way, following blogs through the Dashboard–but then they failed to show up under my Friend Connect list. At this point I’m thinking: how utterly useless! I figured after the countless hours I spent trying to solve the mystery, I decided to just use the Blogger Dashboard from now on until Google can work out their Friend Connect issues.

Meanwhile, it seems Blogger has been experiencing service issues, so perhaps that may explain the problems I’ve been experiencing with Friend Connect. Maybe.