META: Chrome Plug-In Makes Amazon Purchases Count

TL;DR Version

There is a plugin for chrome available that helps to ensure everytime you purchase something from Amazon, MGoBlog (or whoever else you want the money to go to) will reap the benefits.  This plugin is available at this link right here.  Steps for usage:

1. Download chrome attachment

2. Navigate to this option site

3. Enter "mgoblog-20" into the input box

4. When visiting amazon, ensure the URL bar has this image-->  on the far right

5. ????

6. Profit

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Cool Story Time:

As I was working through a typeahead.js/knockout bug today, I came across a GitHub issue for it.  The owner of the repository's tagname happened to match up with a tagname of one of my old friends, so I clicked it, which ultimately led to his blog.  In this blog, I noticed a project called Philanthropist, which is the aforementioned Chrome extension to ensure Amazon purchases give value to whomever.  I quickly downloaded it, and as I went to figure out the mgoblog tag, i noticed a "list of associate ID's".  In this list, mgoblog was included, which confused me because there was no way a github repository was reading my browser history.

After looking at the author's Linked-In profile, I discovered that he is a graduate of University of Michigan.  The MGoBlog tag now made sense to me.  Pushing it a little further, I searched the board for "Philanthropist Amazon", and only found one relevant post.  It seems the author of this extension would certainly support his plug-in being used for MGoBlog.

Anyway, if you are like me, most of your Amazon purchases are pretty impulsive, and this is a nice way to ensure that someone (read: MGoBlog) will be rewarded at no cost to you.