Feedjit widget

My friend Kathy wrote about this cool new widget on her blog, and I was intrigued enough to add it to my blog.

I have made my blog public and have not thought much about making it private (until recently), and I always wondered if I was benefitting at all from allowing complete strangers to read my entries. Or were there strangers reading it at all? I know there are some regular readers (thank you Kathy, Meg, Gina, Rachel, Bob/Jo, Janet, Anne and a few others) but I only knew that because I would get comments or emails related to things going on in my world that I only posted about online.

Having the Feedjit widget allows me to see the general location of my blog viewers although the disclaimer is that it's not always 100% accurate. So if you live in Vallejo it might actually show that your location is Fairfield (it's probably listing where your cable/internet operator is based), or if you lived in Boulder it might show you as far away as Superior.

I was pleased to find that my blog has been read internationally as far away as Yemen and Edmonton, Alberta. I wonder what that viewer in Yemen found interesting, if anything at all.

Anyway, I think it's cool that I can see what's getting traction. I see what sites people come from (some of the time) and also see what they click on when they get here. And don't worry, I'm not obsessing about the Feedjit stats or trying to invade YOUR privacy, but I think it helps me see what people find interesting and what they'd like to see more. Hopefully it will make my blog better.