Last week many bloggers received an email notice from Google that triggered an OMG moment, except that the “G” stood for Google. The firm announced the imminent shut-down of support for those who use Google’s FTP site to post their blogs.

Though less than 1% of active blogs are published on FTP, the medium “remains a significant drain on our ability to improve Blogger,” writes Rick Klau, the company’s Blogger Product Manager. Thus Google will turn the lights out on FTP on March 26 2010. You can read the full text of his announcement here.

“FTP”, which stands for “File Transfer Protocol,” is a common and convenient method for transferring or exchanging files between computers over the Internet. Most blogger platforms like Blogspot, WordPress and Drupal do not rely on FTP. Those that use Google’s FTP may not realize the huge impact on Google’s server. Every time you upload a new post via FTP, Google’s server republishes and re-synchs every previous single file, image, archive page, and link. If you’ve been blogging for years, the hit on the FTP is mammoth. Savvy bloggers have been wondering when Google would finally pull the plug. “It was too good to be true,” one told me.

Those bloggers that do depend on Google FTP are going to have to scramble to migrate their blogs to another host. Google has offered all sorts of support to make the transition as easy as possible. First, they’ll issue more email information in coming weeks, and have created a dedicated blog which you may visit here. In addition, they tell us that…

• We are building a migration tool that will walk users through a migration from their current URL to a Blogger-managed URL (either a Custom Domain or a Blogspot URL) that will be available to all users the week of February 22. This tool will handle redirecting traffic from the old URL to the new URL, and will handle the vast majority of situations.
• Blogger team members will also be available to answer questions on the forum, comments on the blog, and in a few scheduled conference calls once the tool is released

Klau expressed his regrets, acknowledging that his company’s decision “will frustrate some users.”

Frustrate? How about opening their veins in a tub of warm water! If you’re working your blog through Google’s FTP feed we strongly suggest you put your backside in overdrive and find an alternative.

Richard Curtis