Buh-bye Google authorship

So for a while there you could get your Google+ profile photo and name listed as a byline in search results. But making that connection required a Google+ profile (and all that implies) and some fussy attention to technical detail. Sure enough:

A whopping 70% of authors made no attempt to connect their authorship with the content they were publishing on major web sites.

And so now Google authorship is dead, and good riddance. I definitely felt like Google was over-reaching with authorship. “Nice search rank. Shame if something were to happen to it. But I’m sure it’ll be fine if you join Google+.” I already have to make nice with Google in far too many ways. I really did not want to mess around with this too. And most people never did.