One of the tricky parts about Google Friend Connect is finding other blogs with Google Friend Connect installed. Sure, there’s a Google Friend Connect Directory but it’s a bit sparse at the moment. So, I wanted to share with you seven eight great bloggers who have the Google Friend Connect community widget installed. Check them out and join their community. They’re all very solid reads. While you’re at it, scroll down and join my Google Friend Connect community in the right sidebar. All you need is a Google account. Over time, as I add some Google Friend Connect features (recommendations looks interesting) you’ll already be setup to use them.

Before we dive into the list, let me point out a great resource for finding out more about Google Friend Connect that one of my commenters pointed me to. It’s written by Chris Lang (who also appears on the below list) and is a very well put together guide to installing and utilizing Google Friend Connect.

Bloggers with Google Friend Connect

1. Stuart Foster – The Lost Jacket

Stuart blogs about the social media trends, techniques, and best practices at The Lost Jacket. Not only is it an informative read, it’s often quite hysterical too.

2. Justin Wright – Life of Justin

Justin is a digital nomad and member of The 42nd Estate. He writes about blogging, traveling, technology and the digital nomad lifestyle at Life of Justin.

3. Marko Saric – How to Make My Blog

Marko delivers tons of great tips about how to style your blog, write great content, and promote it effectively. For anyone with the Thesis theme, How to Make My Blog is a must read as he delivers tons of great tips on how to customize Thesis. Marko just recently added Google Friend Connect and gave me the scoop that he’ll be writing a post about his implementation of it soon.

4. Jim Gaudet – SEO and Web Design by Jim Gaudet

Jim is an IT guy living the good life as an expatriate in Costa Rica. He blogs about SEO, web design, his adventures on the beach and random cool stuff he finds online at SEO and Web Design by Jim Gaudet.

5. Mike Volpe – Marketing with Mike

Mike is a Vice President of Marketing at HubSpot, an inbound marketing firm. He writes about inbound marketing (shocking, eh), social media, conferences, SEO, and other good info at Marketing with Mike.

6. Jason Falls – Social Media Explorer

Jason is the Director of Social Media at Doe Anderson and an all around knowledgeable dude. He pumps out great content on marketing and branding in the social media age. It’s a real solid read and he usually goes into a good amount of depth on each topic. The 500 words or less post is a bit of a rarity at Social Media Explorer (that’s not a bad thing when the content rocks).

7. Robert Scoble – Scobleizer

Skipped over the Scoble the first run with this post, but as Chris noted in the comments, Robert has been using Google Friend Connect on his blog since his new design. Scoble blogs about the social web and hypothesizes about where it will all lead. Scobleizer is a great read for anyone who wants to read about how Web 3.0 or the 2010 Web will look and feel like.

8. Chris Lang – Google Friend Connect Tactics

Chris’ blog is one I just discovered via his comment below on my blog. Google Friend Connect Tactics is a perfect addition to this list as Chris writes about using GFC, new features, and other Google and social news.

9. Jack Humphrey – Friday Traffic Report

Jack is a late addition to this list but is another great blogger with Google Friend Connect enabled. He writes about blog marketing strategies, including SEO, link building, and social media at Friday Traffic Report. Note, the Google toolbar only came up for me when I visited his individual posts, not his homepage. So if you don’t see it immediately click through to a post.

10. Coree Silvera – Market Like a Chick

Coree comes from a sales and marketing background and over time migrated into network and internet marketing. She writes about marketing (of course!), social networks, and female bloggers and entrepreneurs at Market Like a Chick.

Do you have a blog with Google Friend Connect enabled? If so, share it below in the comments so we can check it out and connect!

Still, I must admit that at least some of these schools imbibed some educational material in me, some more than others. I’ll be the first to admit that some of the best learning moments of my life happened outside the classroom, whether it was walking around the City of Boston while (rarely) skipping class at the Boston Latin School or just hanging out in my dorm at the U. of Southern California and meeting all kinds of random and diverse people from all over the world, to driving through little country towns in North Carolina during my time at Chapel Hill, I realized life is too hectic to spend in a classroom. If you don’t get out there and start living it doesn’t matter how many degrees you stack up!

So, without further ramblings and justifications from this well traversed mind, here are the top five best schools I’ve attended, judged from an educational standpoint.

5. Northeastern University
4. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
3. University of Massachusetts at Amherst
2. University of Southern California
1. Boston Latin School

Now, I can see how that list might be surprising to some, but I assure you 80-90% of the BLS alumni reading this list are nodding their heads, going yup.

Sumus primi.