Yeehaw

I finally caved in to Google's attempt at information-domination and linked my blogger account with my Google account. I don't know about you, but I sorta liked the web better a few years ago when all this stuff wasn't linked together. It just sorta creeps me out now. I used to have a few different email addresses and alternated between them to sign up for products and services. Now, it's like everything is linked through my Google Account. They have my credit card information, they manage my blog, they know my "other" email address (since you needed one to sign up for Gmail initially - very crafty, Google), they know my friends and family from pictures (but I still love Picasa), etc. The only things they do NOT know (but will find out when they purchase Yahoo!), is my account/login info for amazon, myspace, slashdot, and a few other sites I discovered before I had my gmail account.

Also, revisiting a few things (partly because I'm almost finished with Emergence, which reminded me of such things), you really should check out Stumbleupon or Alexa. Stumbleupon has been described as "channel-surfing" for the web, but it's smart. You rate which sites you like and which you don't, and it gives you more pages that you're likely to enjoy. It's sort of like Pandora but for the web instead of music. Alexa can be used as a similar tool, but I believe does not have an option for a Firefox toolbar, whereas Stumbleupon you can download as an extension for Firefox.