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We feel Fine is a bit of a misnomer as the site aims to collect the feelings
of the world's bloggers and social networkers by scanning such sites for words
like sad, happy, in love and well, any human emotion really.
The 'Open We Feel Fine' tab launches the application which downloads a tiny
applet or program needed to view the site onto your computer. Enter a world of
moving dots which begin to collect around your cursor so you can click on them -
each one represents a person's feelings based on a recent blog.
At the bottom left you can change the way this information is shown - the
Montage button shows pictures, the Weather button splits up the mini blogs by
what the weather was like when they were written.
At the top of the page you can define the sort of blogs you want to include -
by the authors' age, gender, location and other criteria.
So where do all these feelings come from? Well, the website scans the pages
of many public blogs and photo sites like MySpace and Flickr. When it sees the
words "I feel," it copies a short section of the entry for the site.
Because this program knows how these sites are constructed it can glean other
information like location and age of the writer and where they live.
By cross-referencing the location and time a blog was written with global
weather information it can make - or at least try to make - some kind of
connection between the weather and how people are generally feeling.
The gallery option has some great photos and allows you to go to the original
page where the blog was posted if you find something that interests you.
It is utter madness but great fun and inescapably addictive whether or not
you feel it has any great value.
But even if We Feel Fine does not interest you - it is worth knowing what
other sites out there are doing with your information when you create a blog or
social networking page.
If what you post is in the public domain, aggregator sites like these are
completely above-board.
