see ya reader

Have you heard the news? Google Reader is going bye bye on July 1st. I'm super sad, as this is my preferred method of staying connected with my favorite blogs.

The most popular way to keep in touch with finer feelings post-July 1 is through bloglovin'. Check out the button on the right side bar to follow along that way.

Many bloggers use Facebook to keep their readers and friends involved. Having recently deleted the FB app on my phone (and SO happy with that decision), I don't see a finer feelings page making its way to your feed anytime soon. Facebook has proved to be an effective way to gain readership; however, it is just not a platform I believe to be a good fit. Unfortunately I find it to be more of a place for one-upping and narcissism than for sharing enlightening stories and supporting each other (there are of course exceptions to this at times).

I do appreciate all of you reading and following along, and strive to continue the growth of this little space of internet. That being said, I sure hope you continue to follow along here. I would love to hear your opinions on Facebook, and of other blog reading websites that may be a decent replacement for Google Reader.

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creep fest

I realize this might be something that goes against my blog mantra, but I find it interesting/informative and thought I'd share. By now I think we're all aware that little BIG spiders/bots/companies track our every move on the internets. They collect data on where we browse, how often we're there, etc etc CREEPY. I'm not going to get in to the techy mumbo jumbo because frankly, I don't really understand it. I still can't figure out how my TV gets Cam, Gloria, Phil and the rest of the Modern Family crew in my living room every Wednesday.

Yesterday I discovered a nifty little gadget (they, the techy people, call these "add-ons") called Collusion. Disconnect, Inc. has made it their business to keep what you do on the web your business, to a certain extent.

One of the most popular add-ons allows you to "disconnect" from Google, Twitter and Facebook so their bots aren't stalking you all over the place when you're not even logged in to those sites. You can still get on FB like normal, they just won't receive notifications when you visit one of their over one million connected sites that can push your info to third parties.

I haven't downloaded Disconnect just yet, but I did install Collusion, which shows a map of all the websites currently tracking you. Get ready for a creep fest. I went to 3 websites (just 3!) after installing Collusion, and here's what my map looked like:

should we sign up for the Witness Protection Program????

So all these little guys have a snippet of my personal information and will continue following me until they decide not to anymore. There's nothing I can do about it, except install the Disconnect gadgets which will help a bit.

Just for full disclosure, the three websites I visited were Yahoo! Finance, Gmail, and this cute blog post sent from a friend. I don't think I want to know what happens when I get to AmEx, eBay or J. Crew.

Pretty freaky, huh?

unfriends

You might think by the title of this post that there is nothing fine about this subject. Don't get me wrong - losing friends is a sad occasion, whether it's from lack of communication or a big argument. Unless, of course, the friends you are losing are those people on Facebook that write about the weather, their day at work, political epiphanies, how super stressed they are and ask what they should make for dinner every night. You know who they are.... the over-sharers. Vom.com.

Only a few months ago I realized you can simply unsubscribe from said people, so they're still technically your "friend" but you don't see any of the jargon/games/bazillion pictures of their cat pop up on your feed. No feelings hurt, right? But did you know that now you can see who unfriends you? All you have to do is download the Unfriend Finder, which will tell you if anyone removes you from their friends, or deactivates their Facebook account. Try it out - it's really easy and could be interesting!