This Just In!

I wanted to share some sites I recently ran across that are super cool and exciting!

Juice is a great browser application that allows you to drag and drop chunks of text or pictures into the sidebar and "juice" other mentions (video, articles, etc.) on the topic. I just started using it with Firefox and so far, it's a fun way to discover more about the things you are interested in on the web.

Hakia is a search engine that provides credible results that are recommended by librarians. It uses relevancy instead of sites that pay to be at the top! Yay to librarian input and results!

Searchme is a visual search engine that has an "iTunes" type feel to it. You can choose from a "stacks" of material related to your search terms. For example, if you type in "black cats", the stacks "cats", "Halloween", "music", "history", "blogs", etc. all come up to search through. The pages also highlight your search terms much like the Google cache feature. Very cool visual search tool that is currently in beta (Searchme widget is at the bottom of this page).

One site I recently came across that is using the age-old "school textbooks are too expensive and not interactive" adage is Flat World Knowledge. It's a great example of how the internet is forcing the printed book to change! It's not yet in production, but this is a site to keep and eye out for - especially for students!

Yahoo! Pipes looks like a free alternative to InfoDesk. I haven't tested it out yet, but from what I read, it's pretty powerful in terms of aggregating all the sites and RSS feeds you subscribe to.

Clip Syndicate is a cool tool that allows you to search for TV news sites and turn them into RSS feeds.

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Bringing it all Together...

When it comes to remembering all the different options for online searching, news, image and video sites, etc., it's hard to know if you are using all the relevant sites. I have been introduced to InfoDesk, and it is AWESOME! Any feeds that you are currently receiving from Factiva, Nexis, RSS, Google Alerts, etc., can all be managed through InfoDesk. And, they are an aggregator - not like Alacra where you are charged per article or database you access.

The options are endless...do you want to pull together all the technology news you are receiving from Nexis, Factiva, CNN.com, RSS alerts, and the like? Do you want to create newsletters quickly with all the most pertinent information for your constituents? Are you having trouble with maintaining feeds on your SharePoint webparts (you can't modify what is put on the part or how many articles are added to the widget?)?

Here comes InfoDesk!

A competitor to this product might be Alacra - but really, it's not. They don't have the capability to aggregate feeds from multiple sources, or provide newsletter templates...and they charge per viewing - not so with InfoDesk! NewsEdge, a big name in the early 00's, was the head cheese when it came to this technology, but InfoDesk has ripped that title right off their head.

I love InfoDesk.

Thank you for understanding what Librarians need. Why have I never heard of you before?

This gets me thinking and wanting to share some other "all in one" sites with you. They are NOTHING like InfoDesk, but they are places to start when you want to use mulitple sources for searching.

I think Intelways does a really good job at pulling many different options together for certain subjects of interest and providing appropriate sites to use. While it's definitely not a comprehensive list, it's a good place to start a search if you're not sure where to go.

If you want to find a web 2.0 application for a specific subject, or if you just want to browse all the amazing sites, Go2Web20.com

Another one I like is Silobreaker

Another fun search engine that I like that is refereed (not by librarians, per se) is Mahalo. I've been unimpressed by Mahalo in the past few months. I would put it at the end of your list of where to go, but still a site to keep an eye out for.

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Get Zen With Your Inner 2.0

We all feel overwhelmed - here are a few questions that come to my mind when I think of internet and implementation:

• There are so many sites, so much news, so many things I don't know. Where do I start?
• Where am I supposed to go? What am I to do?
• Google = good. Is there anything else I'm missing?

Relax.

Ask yourself these questions, and choose one to begin with:

• Do I want to connect with old friends/classmates/colleagues?
• Do I just want to read news and stay up to date?
• Do I want to share my opinions with the world? Am I more interested in news than anything else?
• I kind of want to do all of the above.

In my next posts, I will give helpful sites and tips on how to best use the internet for your purposes. Not everyone cares about everything. I want to give you free alternatives / options to what you really want.

Stay tuned!

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