WordPress has used social networking integration for quite some time now. I use it on my own personal blog to point people in the direction of my Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts. WordPress, however, figures that this information could be put to a better use – finding friends who also use WordPress.
WordPress announced the new Friend Finder tool today. It allows users to find out which friends are using WordPress so they can follow their blogs for updates about their cats, jobs and even the family vacation that ended up ruined because they realized their father was actually Chevy Chase.
To use the new function, just authorize WordPress to have access to your Facebook, Twitter or Google accounts and WordPress will go sniffing. If you’re worried that WordPress will use your social contact information to spam you with sponsored posts and the like, worry not as the company vows not to save any of the information.
Once your friend list is up, just click Follow by the names of those people you wish to become more acquainted with through the magic of blogs. If you’re new to WordPress, these people will show up in the WordPress reader under Blogs I Follow.
If another friend is looking to add you, only your primary blog will be viewable by them in the Friend Finder. This is important for those of us who have multiple blogs. I care more about my video games blog so I will want my friends to see that instead of my music blog appropriately titled, “More Hipster Than You.”
I checked out the new application for myself and can confirm that it presented me with people that I had yet to add to my innocent WordPress stalking list. Funny enough, it turns out that I have more friends on Twitter using WordPress than either Facebook or Google. Regardless, the tool has helped me add 10 more friends to my follow list on WordPress. I can’t wait to forget their blog exists to only rediscover it a year later which leads to me spending five hours reading a year’s worth of blog entries.
Try it out for yourself to see if you have any better luck. Maybe you have more cool friends who use WordPress to tell other people about their lives and things they like.