That Blue Bar

I was advised that it might be a good idea to point out some of the features/purpose of the blue bar at the bottom of the site.

The blue bar is called a Social Bar. It is part of Google Friend Connect and lets people interact with blogs and websites. When you visit a site that has Google Friend Connect, you can join/follow it using a log on you already have; Google, AIM, Yahoo, OpenID. Once you join you can see other people who have "joined" or "followed" (the "Followers" gadget on Blogger IS Google Friend Connect) and see some information about them; other sites they have joined, sites they link to, their recent activity, and friends they have made via Friend Connect. When you follow a site, it is automatically added to your Google Reader. Friend Connect creates a social network, but it spans across many sites, not just one. You can customize as well, pick what profile you want to use, what links to show, and what activity to show. For example, if I do not want my activity on www.iloveponies.com to be seen, I just uncheck that box in my options and no one knows about my secret pony obsession.

Clicking on the bottom left brings up your menu

People can leave also comments and ratings if they are enabled, post YouTube videos, share sites and pages with friends via Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, email, etc.

Clicking on the bottom right brings up the Members and lets you invite/share

Clicking on the Comments section lets you add comments or YouTube videos

OK, so whats the point? Whatever you want. It can be to make new web friends, attract more people to you blog or site, find new sites that you may enjoy, share a site with friends or just spout off your thoughts. Either way try it out, leave a comment in the Social Bar, Click on someone's face and view their links/activity, share a (or this) site with friends via Twitter or Facebook. Try it on your site.

This PSA is now over.