Hey folks,
Today we are talking about a classic topic: What should we use the internet for?
Mashups and 3rd Party's
I think that once someone comes up with a wonderful application, like flickr, the masses feel compelled to add little ancillaries to it. Whether this is helpful or a hindrance depends from widget to widget. Looking through these various widgets I ask myself what would be fun and cool to add to this blog and what is actually helpful. Through one 3rd party affiliate Librarything I can include book covers of what I'm reviewing. Librarything links the covers to Amazon and any one who's interested in the book has a great link to get a copy themselves. Pretty awesome right? However I also find an affiliate like Mappr where I can visually show which states I've been to. Whereas this is a fun little thing, unless you know me personally, it really has no application to helping readers find the books I write about. The best widgets in my mind actually combine fun and functionality.
Topix, Synd8, and more on Technorati
So here's some more search sites to ponder. I saw very little difference between Topix and Technorati. Each employ similiar search engines using tags, however I would only use these to search for current events/pop culture topics. Again very little application to library usage beyond that. I did search each site for info on the new Watchmen movie (March 2009 yay!) and each gave 5 different sites for a total of 10. Please note that none of these were the official site blog.
So onto Synd8. This site was incredibly helpful when it came to finding RSS feeds. What are RSS feeds? Either they are incredibly awesome or an amazing time suck. You be the judge. For me I like using RSS feeds to be able to know when the blogs and websites that I follow have updated. I don't need to check those websites individually and I can sort out articles I actually find interesting. At Synd8 I was able to find several great RSS feeds on any subject. However I was completely turned over by the bare bones/very little graphics appearance of the site. Maybe this makes me shallow. I just need my sites to be somewhat pretty. Library applicable? Not really. Kinda fun? Yes.
Again this shows us the two sides of the internet. There are applications that are simply there for fun and time suckage. (This is a preview to next weeks entry which is all about time suckage) A website/application can exist solely to entertain or feed into our base hedonistic needs coughporncough. However there are great applications that can be used to facilitate the search for information. Apparently both now have a place in our lives forever, like television. Whether you use it for good or evil is up to you.
Happy St. Patrick's Day! Erin go Bragh! Book Slave.
Showing posts with label Technorati. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Technorati. Show all posts
2008-03-12
2008-02-28
Some Web food...
Hello,
Tonight we are going to kill a few birds with one stone. Tonight it's all about some wonderful new sites that I've explored on this great World Wide Web. Enjoy!
Technorati
I actually found this to be very interesting to me personally. I have been on the hunt for a good Blog search site. I'd found Google Reader to be difficult to use. So here's a site that is easy to use, thanks to tags, and can lead me to what I'm interested in. However, I see the library application is slim to none. Again a lot is dependent on key word search, which can lead you through a maze of blogs that are far far away from where you started. Two hours later you are reading someones opinion about Marion Cotillard's dress at the Oscars (which I thought was fabulous BTW!) and not an explanation of the country's current sub-prime mortgage crisis.
LibraryThing, Goodreads, Shelfari
Well this site basically eliminates the idea of keeping a book journal or filling out 3 X 10 cards. Each site has a very easy interface and the visuals of the covers is marvelously appealing. However lets not forget that this is another version of social connectivity where we don't even need to ask you face to face about what books you are reading/have read. I'll just look you up on LibraryThing and there it is. All fears of our society's move towards an inability toward human contact aside, I will say that these sites are a lot of fun. I joined with LibraryThing because I like the library credibility of it. (It's there in the title!) And I did link it to this blog here. Although I will only be listing the titles I talk about here in Reviews. I also found it very savvy that by clicking on the covers you will instantly be sent to Amazon.com. Those crafty buggers at Amazon! Of course for library usage this can be incorporated into Reader's Advisory. It is so much better than What to Read Next.
Well there you are folks some web food for thought. Have a good week! Book Slave.
Tonight we are going to kill a few birds with one stone. Tonight it's all about some wonderful new sites that I've explored on this great World Wide Web. Enjoy!
Technorati
I actually found this to be very interesting to me personally. I have been on the hunt for a good Blog search site. I'd found Google Reader to be difficult to use. So here's a site that is easy to use, thanks to tags, and can lead me to what I'm interested in. However, I see the library application is slim to none. Again a lot is dependent on key word search, which can lead you through a maze of blogs that are far far away from where you started. Two hours later you are reading someones opinion about Marion Cotillard's dress at the Oscars (which I thought was fabulous BTW!) and not an explanation of the country's current sub-prime mortgage crisis.
LibraryThing, Goodreads, Shelfari
Well this site basically eliminates the idea of keeping a book journal or filling out 3 X 10 cards. Each site has a very easy interface and the visuals of the covers is marvelously appealing. However lets not forget that this is another version of social connectivity where we don't even need to ask you face to face about what books you are reading/have read. I'll just look you up on LibraryThing and there it is. All fears of our society's move towards an inability toward human contact aside, I will say that these sites are a lot of fun. I joined with LibraryThing because I like the library credibility of it. (It's there in the title!) And I did link it to this blog here. Although I will only be listing the titles I talk about here in Reviews. I also found it very savvy that by clicking on the covers you will instantly be sent to Amazon.com. Those crafty buggers at Amazon! Of course for library usage this can be incorporated into Reader's Advisory. It is so much better than What to Read Next.
Well there you are folks some web food for thought. Have a good week! Book Slave.
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