Where Have My Favourites Gone?

Until today, one of the gadgets in the sidebar of my blog was one called "Some of my favorite blogs", giving links to some of the blogs I read most often - and support - along with a thumbnail photo and the title of their latest post. Now this gadget has disappeared. Why? Who removed it - not me, that's for sure. I'm presuming it is yet another instance of the drive by Google to take over the world and prevent any of us mere mortals having any say at all in the way we run our lives!
Has any one else had a similar experience, or have I been singled out for special attention?
I have a dilemma now. Should I try to re-create my list (I probably can't even remember all of the blogs that were on my list), or should I just wait for a while in the hope that Dear Old Google will put things back the way they were?
And Yes, I have used the "Send Feedback" facility - but I hold out little hope of any response from Google, let alone a positive one. I have used this facility before, and it seems to be just a worthless one-way traffic.