Dave Winer just made a post about whoisi.com, singing its praises and awesomeness.

I checked out the site. Cute, another follow this person aggregator. Searched for my “EricaJoy” (if I learned anything at Google, it is branding) and found nothing. Went through the steps to add myself (for uh testing purposes) by adding the site I own (heh, you’re reading it) and waited for the magic.

Nothing happened.

I clicked the “Add another site button” and waited for more magic.

Still none.

I then screamed at my computer (I do that, don’t you?) and closed the site.

What was the cause of my frustration? The fact that here is Yet Another Social Aggregator that wants me to add info into it instead of being smart and finding my info that I’ve already put on the internet eleventyhundred times.

>>>WEB THINGY DEVELOPERS READ ME<<<*

The Social Graph API is your friend. It is my friend. It is smart, charming, sexy, and the life of any party. Other API’s are jealous of it. Here’s what it does:

With the Social Graph API, developers can now utilize public connections their users have already created in other web services. It makes information about public connections between people easily available and useful.

Oh ho, what was that? Did that little block quote just say it can use the public connections I’ve already created on other sites to help figure out  “who is I” (see what I did there)?

Let’s see what the social graph API knows about me:

I’ll be damned, look at that. Based off one URL, 6 of my other identities have been discovered.

Lets make like some hypothetically very well done site has used this API and presented me with these 6 sites saying something to the effect of “Hey thanks for adding ericabaker.com, these look like they might be you too. Are they?” to which I respond “Why yes they are, thank you for asking,” by clicking on every single one of them to add to the data about me. Now the site knows that These Sites Are EricaJoy’s and can do another API query to find even more sites that belong to me.

Oh snap. Look at all my identities out there for some smart web site to associate with me. Where is my Staples easy button when I need to press it?

Executive Summary:

I am lazy. Use the Social Graph API instead of asking me over and over and fricking over again where all my profiles are.

*Sorry, that was obnoxious. But effective, no?

No related posts.

Online hermit? Maybe. My friends/following/contacts lists are full of people I either went to school with, work with, or met somewhere along the way in life. Don’t get me wrong, I will approve the requests of people I don’t know but only if they come with a reference from someone I know. Take DYKC. I didn’t know him, but Baratunde did so I added him on Twitter and now we’re friends. I didn’t know Baratunde but calinative did and so he made the lists. For me, that is how social networking is supposed to work. I don’t subscribe to the theory that its a huge free for all, where strangers are to meet strangers that have no connection to them whatsoever. Thats what dating sites are for.

Moving on. I got my iPhone. Woo! Thats about as much excitement as I can muster at the moment, however I do love it. Best device ever, so on and so forth. I have a question about something for the legal eagles who may be reading. Is it legal for Apple to force me to activate my phone before I am able to use the Apple Care that I’ve already paid for?