Are You Being Unfollowed? Check With These Apps and Plugins

In my opinion, one of the best things Facebook ever did was to let users “unfriend” each other without any notifications. There have been numerous examples where I’ve regretted “friending” someone, and I’ve avoided tons of drama thanks to this unfriend-in-secret feature. Now, there are apps and extensions that will let you monitor when people unfriend or unfollow you on Facebook or Twitter.

The procedure to figure out who is no longer friending you is quite simple: simply compare your current friends list (Facebook) and followers list (Twitter) to a previous record and look for differences. If someone is no longer friended to you or following you, then the conclusion is obvious.

If this is something that you’d like to know, then you can use the following services to track your unfrienders and unfollowers.

Unfriend Finder [Facebook]

Unfriend Finder is a simple extension that works across all of the major browsers: Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Maxthon. It began as a Greasemonkey userscript (which you can still install) but now it’s a widely recognized unfriend tracker extension for Facebook.

Over time, Unfriend Finder will notify you of unfriends and friends who have deactivated their Facebook accounts. In addition, whenever you send out a friend request, Unfriend Finder will let you know when that person hasn’t yet accepted the request – even notifying you if they chose to ignore your request.

Who Deleted Me [Facebook]

Like Unfriend Finder, Who Deleted Me will track changes to your friends list in Facebook. Instead of being an extension, however, it’s an app for which you need to grant Facebook permissions. Once you grant access, the tracker will update you with daily emails regarding changes (unless there were no changes).

The site has been running for just over 2 years now, and has over 100,000 users. It’s a great service if you like receiving email notices instead of browser-based notifications. One downside is that users can hide themselves from Who Deleted Me, which may result in slightly inaccurate friends tracking.

TwentyFeet [Facebook & Twitter]

TwentyFeet is a social media stats tracker that works on both Facebook and Twitter as well as a few other popular social networking services, like MySpace, YouTube, and Facebook pages. It can send you updates through email, RSS, or right on the website with charts and histories. If you use multiple social networks, this is a fantastic service.

Unfortunately, TwentyFeet’s free package is a bit limited. It lets you track one free Facebook account and one free Twitter account. For additional accounts, or for YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook pages accounts, you’ll need to upgrade to Premium. Payment is done through “credits”, which can you purchase on the website.

Who Unfollowed Me [Twitter]

Who Unfollowed Me is a service that tells you who unfollowed you since the last time you visited the site. All that’s required is a few simple clicks and nothing more. Not only that, but it’ll tell you who you’re following that isn’t following you back AND who’s following you that you aren’t following back.

This is great for people who don’t want regular emails or direct messages on Twitter but would prefer to check manually every once in a while. The feature set is pretty simple, though, so if you’re looking for something highly customizable and powerful, this may not fit the bill.

UnFollowers.Me [Twitter]

UnFollowers.Me is very similar to Who Unfollowed Me but with a few extra bells and whistles. Not only does it show you who unfollowed you, it has a dashboard where you can perform simple actions like following/unfollowing, blocking/unblocking, autofollowing people who follow you, sending tweets to multiple users, inviting users to follow you, and more.

You can keep yourself updated by visiting the site whenever you want, or you can set up simple email or tweet notifications over regular periods. Overall, it’s a fantastic service that is easy to use and quite useful.

JustUnfollow [Twitter, iPhone, Android]

JustUnfollow is a website that has a number of Twitter management tools: automatically unfollow those who don’t follow you back or users who are inactive; automatically follow fans who follow you; tracker for users who unfollow you; tracker for users who follow you; follow the users that another account follows; whitelists and blacklists for more user control.

The best part is that JustUnfollow comes in two mobile app varieties: one for Android and one for iPhone. Now you can manage your Twitter followers remotely through your phone, which is exponentially more convenient than using a traditional website dashboard!

Conclusion

In the end, knowing when someone unfriends or unfollows you can become a big burden. You may end up offended or you may feel betrayed, especially if someone you thought was a good friend does it. That’s why I personally don’t use these services. However, if you’re dying to know, then these services will help you.

Are there any other apps and extensions that track unfrienders and unfollowers that I missed? Please share them in the comments!

Image Credit: Follow Button Via Shutterstock

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Use Windows 8 In Style With These Amazing Metro (Modern) Apps

As a Windows Phone user since the platform launched in 2010, I had a hope that Windows 8 would be a big success for Microsoft, if only to see some imaginative implementations of the tile-based user interface once known as “Metro” (and now referred to as Modern).

Sadly, Windows 8 hasn’t quite taken off yet, but this shortcoming certainly isn’t due to a lack of apps. After all, there are several years’ worth of traditional Windows desktop apps to fall back on! As for those optimized for use under the Start screen and the Modern UI, however, there are several that really take advantage of the platform and its new visual style.

Whether you’re using a Windows 8 RT device (such as the Microsoft Surface) or a standard Windows 8 computer, the following Windows 8 Modern apps will help you to realize the true power and potential of Microsoft’s new consumer computing paradigm.

Fresh Paint

Windows has never really shipped with anything nearing an effective paint toolbox since the 1990s. Although the traditional Paint application (the same version that was updated for Windows 7) is included, the Windows Store offers Fresh Paint (covered previously on MakeUseOf), a free app that has proved extremely popular among users so far.

This touch-based app can be used with a mouse, but it is for fingers that it is really optimised. Several brushes are on offer, along with background color fill options, pencils, backgrounds textures and the ability to take snapshots of your finished images.

In addition, various DLC is available, free and premium. The Finding Nemo pack might cost a couple of dollars, but the there is also the free Fun Pack full of paint templates to get you started. As Fresh Paint itself is free from the Windows App Store, this makes for lots of fun for no expense!

Ideal for younger users, Fresh Paint has potential beyond just colouring in. Add a stylus and you have an instant sketch pad!

Fhotoroom

While it doesn’t attempt to replace high-end tools such as Photoshop, Fhotoroom is a free app that enables you to easily crop, resize, edit and adjust the colours on images and photos that you have saved to your Windows 8 computer.

Optimised for touch, you can also add frames and various exposure alterations as well as some interesting filters for the Instagram-esque approach. Most crucially, this is a very easy-to-use application!

Note that Fhotoroom – which must be installed from the Windows App Store – isn’t entirely free. If you want to pay for the pro version you can unlock additional filters, but you should find most of what you need is available in the free app.

OneNote

While I’m not what you would call a OneNote enthusiast, I do admire its ability at cross-platform syncing of notes, and have used it often over the past few years since I bought my first Windows Phone.

This latest version is available free and independently of Microsoft Office from the Windows Store, and offers a fascinating new touch-based user interface.

As you type your notes, a small arrow appears, and upon tapping it you will be presented with the menu wheel, a great new way to offer the traditional Microsoft formatting options in a compact, contextual setting. A different menu will appear if you have text selected, for instance.

With the ability to sync your notes via SkyDrive to other devices, OneNote is an unmissable Windows 8 application! You’ll find OneNote in the Windows App Store.

7digital Music

Music lovers who want to grab the best new music, download it to their computers and sync with other devices should make a beeline for the 7digital Music app, which offers the latest albums and individual tracks in MP3 format, complete with preview listens and competitive pricing.

You will of course need to sign up to use the service, but with low prices and regular sales you should easily find the music you want to listen to and own.

Wikipedia

Barely a day goes by when I don’t check Wikipedia for information (usually system specs, or the birth and death dates of a notable person) and while its natural home is surely a traditional web browser, the Windows 8 app for the website is pretty astonishing.

As you can see from the screenshot, Wikipedia is optimized to run in landscape mode, although as with most good apps it easily switches to portrait mode when the tablet is rotated. Amazingly, however, this app turns the famous online encyclopedia into a virtual book – just like a traditional encyclopedia!

In other words, into the encyclopedia that Wikipedia has always wanted to be! You’ll find this free app in the Windows App Store.

Skype

It should come as no surprise to anyone who has been keeping abreast of developments in the technology world to learn that Microsoft’s most recent big acquisition, Skype, is available as an app for Windows 8.

While not as integrated as many users (and Microsoft) may like, this piece of software is pretty much vital for communications and messaging, particularly as Windows Live Messenger (formerly known as MSN Messenger) is to be retired.

The touchscreen interface on Skype is quick and effective, making it particularly useful for the tablet/hybrid users. Favourite contacts can be specified while the links that you will need to use to buy credit or get a subscription are present, although these open in the browser rather than allowing transactions within the app.

Free to download and use when calling other users, the Skype app will of course require you to setup a subscription or a pre-pay account for calling landlines and mobiles.

Conclusion

Windows 8 may not be everybody’s cup of tea, but there can be no denying the fact that publishers that are supporting the touch-based platform are doing their utmost to present a selection of stylish, cool and usable apps.

If you’re planning on trying to sell the idea of a Windows 8 computer – particularly one of the tablet devices – to your friends, then make sure you have installed these apps, and use them at every opportunity!

Remember, these apps will work with both Windows 8 RT devices and standard Windows 8 tablet, hybrid and desktop computers.

Do you have a preferred Windows 8 touchscreen app? Let us know!

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