July 18, 2008
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Somebody’s watching me…
I am being “mined for business intelligence” !
My illusions are all shattered!
The Xanga Team came out with a fun (or is it?) new feature today!
If you look at your foot prints page you will see it. On the left side, what used to be only a xanga name or a destination, is now labeled!
Occasionally I see a blog from someone excited about their foot prints.
“Someone from Cote D’Ivoire is looking at me!They stopped by twenty times!” or “Oh no… the District of Columbia is recording everything I do!”
Yes, there is a touch of conspiracy theorist in all of us.
I would patiently explain to them what most of us who have been around awhile know… that they are web crawlers searching for information and not to be concerned, simple computer programs.
I get prints from all over the world. One inparticular from Belgium, fascinated me. Because of its timing, random and always an individual track, not fifteen or twenty of them at once, what I would expect a web crawler to do. I thought for sure this was someone who maybe liked my blog and would check up on me when it was convenient for them… I do this with a few blogs that I enjoy (they use other blog services that shall remain unnamed) Curtis McGuire, Loonachic, Suzi Blu, just to link a few.
Anyway I would see Belgium and think… Hey! Someone there must like me… they are coming to see MY stuff!
But now… *sigh* I find that it is just another computer… like all of the others…
I am being ”mined for business intelligance”
My romantic notion of some person on the other side of the world being entertained by my quirky stories or random photos is shattered. Ah well… I will survive and adapt.
It is time to get excited about the fact that… I AM BEING MINED FOR BUISNESS INTELLIGENCE!
What do you think about the footprint feature?
Do you like knowing if it is a person or a bot looking at your page?
Does it make a difference to you?
Comments (45)
I have always wondered why someone from Malaysia was having a probe at my site. I get the District of Columbia one a lot aswell. Well it puts everything into perspective now. Ho hum indeed.
I block the bots, so it does matter to me. And I just posted a rant about “lurkers” today, so yeah, I’d say I like this feature… information is power, honey!
@Shirlann - If you were on a different blog service I would lurk you. ;-b
I too, always thought it was kinda cool to have someone from Russia or Malaysia look at my blog, but did think it was a little weird that it was always 20 footprints in a row, and not just one or two like usual. I think it’s a good feature, and it’s why I had the sign in lock on for so long.
@angi1972 - I KNEW you were that kind of gal!
i still can’t tell what’s what. i mean i know the obvious ones. but what’s gecko?
‘mined for business intelligence’ sound a bit spooky to me anyway……..maybe the mystery was better….
@jaems - Nothing to worry about… just a software…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gecko_(layout_engine)
Well, I live next to Belgium. Does that count a bit? lol
Not at all.
It doesn’t bother me one way or the other. I don’t care who sees my stuff.
)
@nattata - YES! YOU count! ((HUG))
I don’t care about bots. Everyone and their cat thinks that they’re being stalked and when they learn it’s computer programs giving them hits, they freak out because they watch too many movies that play tricks on their minds.
Yes, I care. I don’t want creepy family members that I don’t like mining for the next wave of gossip…
I have my site’s privacy set so that people have to be signed and and can’t browse anonymously.
I honestly know nothing about them or what they even mean.
isn’t that good? at least someone sees your stuff,..but it’d be more cool if these are your friends
I love little footprints, but I don’t have many.
Oh well.
I love seeing the difference,it is a great idea..
I come over to absorb your talent~
@seedsower - I think it’s a great idea too! very fun to see where they are all coming from.
You can’t do that! I absorb your talent! lol
Doesn’t bother me. But I do have a little bit of the conspiracy theorist in me. In the end though I think that this is out of desire to make meaning. Coming up with a story for a “viewer” from Mexico City is much more gripping and interesting than acknowledging the existence of a bot and an IP address.
wait, if you and beth are absorbing each other’s talent, does that mean you’ll become beth and she’ll really be you?…but you’ll still look the same, right?
re the footprints, I couldn’t care less. I think I was on here for almost 2 before I even looked at them.
I wonderd what that was about?
I’m absolutely convinced that people from all over the world are looking at your page, Angi!!! Forget about being mined for business intelligence. That’s just what they want you to think so you won’t get too conceited!
Awesome post… I quit looking at footprints… I was always freaked out by the number of footprints I had from Washington DC… I was beginning to feel like a target. Weird, huh? Of course I have a cousin who works for the government. That could be it, right?
Hugs, Tricia
I’m scared that these bots are mining what we have to write! I know there is no privacy on the internet…but stillllllll…
I liked the old Footprints……which I hated!
just a week ago, *I* was a person on the other side of the world being entertained by your quirky stories or random photos!!
Angi, I love you.
I’m one of your stalkers.
@angi1972 - Aww that was sweet!
Love that featrue, love knowing more about all of this. I don’t mind. Best post for me was like 900 hits – and about the dark nkght of the soul, Theresa of Avilla, a mystic lady nun in the what? 12th century? what????? but I had posted a hand drawn thing from this really obscure book, it IS copyrighted, but extremely obscure.
Was glad to see not ALL were bots. but that is great too. If some bot can link me…..this helps Google etc you know…..GREAT! I have had many comment re Googling something, and getting my site! I feel so proud! wow.
Hey, change the color of your links, it is hard to see against the black.
I could also say a mean little sister comment about looking for business intelligence..but I will refrain.
I think that the Russian Federation is terribly interested in my blog. Really! Stop trying to burst my bubble!
I actually don’t care about the feature.
Yes! it is nice to look at a footprint and no what type of animal left it…
It’s still kind of creepy. I check the footprints every once in awhile and I’m not sure but I still think my own visits are being counted. Today, I got visited by Iran, Islamic Republic…and a ton of “unknown crawlers”? It’s either all google reader or just one very lonely person from Virginia who stops by several times a day.
My numbers are so low that somedays it’s not even worth the electricity to check the stats.
Awww….. man! You just had to go and burst my balloon, didn’tcha?
Here I was thinking I was also being read by the world. Hee hee!
I’ll tell you an interesting thing — I recently had a friend, with whom I am very close but cautious about revealing too much of my spiritual intensity, recently was over and made a passing reference to my being “ideaguy,” which made me wonder about who is finding my site. I didn’t think he knew anything about it. So, it does make me realize that in this new post-modern society that loves keeping separate the disparate groups we construct, the partitions are very, very thin.
searchbots are constantly gathering data…this is unavoidable, as they in all honesty can NOT be blocked, unless you don’t publish an rss feed…even then, your search engines record data on your private web searches as well…i am used to that, and don’t mind…the fact that my ex-mother-in-law reads my site, and make derogatory remarks about the content (“does everyone have to read about each time Laurel and Mike have sex?…trust me, “ex-MIL” i have a lot more sex, than i talk about, lol) bugs me…if she has a problem with that, she shouldn’t read it…if you are troubled by a real lurker, one step, while an aggravation, is to periodically change your screen or site name…this shakes off the habitual lurkers and lookyloos,….good post, Ang…hugs…animal
It actually doesn’t make a lot of difference to me–long as they’re not planting little gremlins in my pc
mindest thou me not. I am a bot. Mindest thou me not. I am a bot. huh, what? oh. right.
Um, interesting post and all. thanks for letting us know how much we might gain from marketing to you romance novels, Belgian coffees, and information about trips to Washington, D.C.
@James3_1 - Thanks for the giggles James… make that Belgium chocolate please… no coffee for me. ;-b
I like the foot prints, but seeing how I’m so busy lately I don’t get on xanga as much any more. So I don’t get as many footprints as I used too.
i love the footprints feature… because like most females, i am an attention junkie. and, even if someone doesn’t leave a comment, it feels good to know they are paying attention……
I don’t care about footprints either. However I imagine the computer software would be annoying to someone that does care.
I like it that xanga is a quiet community of bloggers anyway.
thanks all of ur comments..you encouraged me.:D