WEB 2.0 AWARD SITE

Wow! I was blown away by the list of sites on the 2.0 Award Site, so many categories to chose from. Our class just skimmed the surface of 2.0. I was surprised at how many sites we covered in our class. Blog Guides and Social Tagging were newest to me.
But, for this lesson I was most floored by the Pod Services provided by the PodOmatic. The layout for the site is so orderly. There aren't many
pictures or much clutter on the web pages at all. I found the site easy to maneuver
and not over stimulating - even though it was chosen as number three in Pod Services.
I could surely see this being used in Library Services. It is user friendly and so easy to navigate. Customers can get pod casts for whatever they want.

GOOGLE LABS

Google Labs seems like the place to mesh creativity and science. Experiments are going on all the time. That would be the place for me. I viewed many of the lab ideas and was impressed.
I like the idea of Music Trends. Here you can get lists of best selling artists from around the world.
Transit seems to be a tool worth developing. It includes cities and countries tourists frequent. It would work well with Ride Finder. Customers could use these sites to make one good mash-up. Patrons could book transportation before going on a trip or to find shuttles after arriving at their destinations.
Suggest, I think is unnecessary along with Trends, and Related Links. These tools duplicate functions that are already in existence like MySpace and Technorati.
Ride Finder and Transit would make swell graduates from the Lab. Go Google Labs !!!

WEB - BASED ONLINE PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS has me surprised. I was thrilled to learn there are software applications you can use no matter where you are. Not only that, they are compatible with Microsoft Office and other software. Sign me up. I just purchased an older computer from the the library. I am adding to it features I will enjoy. I am interested in these tools for sure. I did explore the word processing possibilities more than spreadsheets etc. Another cool fine!

Exploring Search Engines

I was looking forward to this part of the lesson, a chance to explore the nuances of different search engines. I am familiar with the Google Search Engine, but stray from it very little. I navigated three of them: Yahoo, Mooter, and Wink.
Yahoo was similar to Google in its results. It gave links to: news, entertainment, and facts. The homepage reminds me of the American Online Homepage. It has your mail, maps, sports, news, radio, weather and many other opportunities at your fingertips.
Mooter Search Engine was also pretty cool. Mooter combines information in clusters. If you search for a rock star your results provide quick links to music, video, history, lyrics, news, people, movies, eBay... you name it.
Wink however is horrible... Wink is a Free People Search. Real persons can create their own profiles and share personal info. The way to find a person requires: first and last names, or user name, city, state, zip code or province. This social search engine is small and poorly put together with limited information. I didn't like it.
I did enjoy learning about different search engines. I am glad to share my opinions about Yahoo, Mooter and Wink.

LIBRARY 2.0

I read the perspectives from two articles: Away from Icebergs and Into a New World of Librarianship. I was surprised to find out that circulation of library materials has dropped 55% in the the last 12 years. I agree the library no longer has a monopoly on information for it users.

Customers use the web more for information. People want to access information at work, play, home, school and even during the commute. Libraries will have to digitize collections of journals, books, photos etc.

I think that is great. It will require lots of data entry. I'm glad we can get a question answered, within a matter of moments from the web. But, I'll always like the printed format. Give me a dusty ole' book!

I'VE VISITED THESE STATES IN THE USA

create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

Online Image Generator

Online Image Generators were a challenge for me. I used the Flickr generator. I read the lessons and thought I'd just get through it in a zip.... Wrong!!! I do now have a better understanding of what a "jpeg" file is in comparison to what a word document is. I had been saving my pictures and other images as word documents, so I was not able to upload my images.
Frustration mounted, then I remember Robin saying, "You must save your pictures as jpeg", some years ago, during another computer class. I have always had beginners luck, then after that I've had to work real hard. You think I'd know this by now.

Here's the link I used for the online image generator: http://bighugeslabs.com/flickr/deck.php