Delicious vs. Furl

Delicious and Furl are two social bookmarking sites. When browsing both of these sites I found them to be fairly similar in the services they provided however I preferred Delicious for a few reasons:

-I had better search results when I used Delicious. For example, on both sites I wanted to add BBCNews as one of my bookmarks. When I searched on Delicious the results was the BBCNews Front Page, or main news site. On Furl the search results were all individual news stories on the BBC page. Although when I searched for CNN on Furl the first result was the main CNN page, so perhaps it was just something with BBCNews?
-All the most popular bookmarks on the Furl main page were from the New York Times, on Delicious there was much more of a variety
-Furl offered users Furl Groups, on Delicious this was considered your network.
-Delicious allowed users to add tags to bookmarks and also search for bookmarks by specific tags. I couldn't find any tags on Furl.
-I liked the look of Delicious, it was more user-friendly than Furl and much easier to search
-Furl had advertising! I kept accidentally clicking on the "Add URL" Google Ad, it was distracting and frustrating

I will definitely continue to use Delicious for social bookmarking, as I was not very impressed with Furl.

Digg

Several people I know often read Digg or share something they've read on Digg, so I decided to finally check the site out for myself. Digg is a site that allows users to share content-news, blogs,videos,images-taken from anywhere on the web with other users. Once something has been submitted, other users can "digg" it and the most popular submissions will placed on the front page. Users can also discuss any topic they'd like.

Digg struck me as sort of a one-stop shop for interesting tidbits found on the web, sort of like Boing Boing. Signing up for Digg was free and quite easy. Adding "diggs" was extremely easy and took effect immediately. Overall I think Digg is an interesting site for finding information, however I felt like I was suffering from information overload. I think with bloglines, delicious and other sites I check on a daily basis I'm already getting tons of information in a day and its information I personally find more interesting. For me, I'd rather not peruse Digg to try and find something that sparks my interest. I love the interaction of Digg though. I think its great that users control everything on the site, you're getting information that other people find interesting, not an editor. I think Digg is a great site for interested users, just not my cup of tea.

Information Overload

Prior to this class I had never used an rss/rss aggregator such as bloglines. When I first started using bloglines I was amazed, all the information I wanted could be found in one place. After a few uses I began to feel a bit of information overload. I wondered why I really needed library blogs, national and local news, online magazines and entertainment news in one sitting. I started to miss visiting the individual sites one at a time. As I've continued to use bloglines the site has really grown on me. I love that it's a one-stop shop for everything I'm interested in reading. RSS is definitely a mitigator of information overload. With bloglines all the information is presented in a organized manner that's easy to use and follow. Additionally users can always choose to ignore feeds, so they don't suffer from an overload, while being sure to not miss any information.

TinyChat

TinyChat is a free service that allows individuals to create chat rooms and then invite others to join the chat. TinyChat is similar to group chat on various instant messaging services, except TinyChat works right in your browser and there's no need to download software. Anyone with browser access can be invited to join the chat and once you're finished chatting all chat data is removed.

I've never heard of this service before and randomly found it on delicious. I've previously used group chat on AIM and wondered why gchat didn't offer a similar service (unless they do and I've just completely missed it). I've found group chat to be a great way to communicate with a bunch of people at once, especially if you're trying to make plans. I remember using group chat throughout college to keep in touch with friends back home. It's a fun way to communicate with a group.

I can imagine group chat being utilized in a library or learning environment. This service could be used by libraries to create virtual book clubs or provide chat reference to patrons. What impressed me about this site was how easy it was to use. I remember trying to show my mom how to use AOL instant messenger a few years ago and it was quite a process. With TinyChat there's no downloading required and the person can type right in their browser once they've been sent a link. I like the ease of accessibility with TinyChat and I'd be interested to see if this service could be used by libraries.

Save NJ Libraries

Some or most of you in NJ have probably already seen this but since I posted in it my personal blog and emailed friends and family, I figured I would post it here as well. The New Jersey League of Municipalities is trying to cut the funding (from taxes) for NJ libraries in half! I don't work in a public library myself but all of my classmates who do say that public libraries are being used now more than ever. With the recent increase in job losses and downturn of the economy people are using their local library for a number of services. It's crazy that as the use of libraries increases, the funding decreases. Here's an article explaining the situation. And here's a site provided by NJLA where you can contact your assemblyman. All you have to do is provide your zip code and the site takes care of the rest. I've already hassled everyone I know in NJ to do it and I urge you to do the same!

Bloglines vs. Google Reader

As someone who's been using Gmail for a few years now (and loving it), I expected to prefer Google Reader over Bloglines. However, I found good and bad things about both. I found Bloglines to have a better layout, it was cleaner and more organized. I also found the side menu of blog feeds easier and more intuitive to use. Overall Bloglines was more user friendly and had a better look. What I liked about Google Reader was that I could sign into one account and check my subscriptions but also my Google email and calendar.

As far as subscriptions it was easy to add a specific URL to both, however I had trouble adding the "Bloglines Quick Picks" to my account, I kept receiving an error message. Adding "feed bundles" worked better on Google Reader. Eventually I was able to add the Quick Picks I wanted, I just had to do it one subscription at a time. If I had to pick just one service to continue using I would go with Bloglines, since the services are virtually the same and I much prefer the look of Bloglines.

LibraryThing

Believe it or not a social software site that I have never used is LibraryThing. LT is a site that some of my fellow students have casually mentioned in class but because it sounded so similar to NoveList, I never bothered to check it out. LibraryThing allows users to create "library-quality catalog of their books". Once users create their library they can rate and review books as well as add tags. LibraryThing connects you with other users by allowing you to see who else has the book in their library. LT will also recommend other, similar books that you might be interested in reading.

Like I said I've never used LibraryThing but I have used NoveList. What I like about this site, and other similar sites, is the access to book recommendations. A large portion of the books I read for pleasure are books recommended by others. In fact, most of the books and/or authors that I've loved have been recommendations. Browsng a site like LibraryThing can also turn users onto books they may never have heard of or thought to read otherwise. I think it's great that users can create their own library. Best of all, LibraryThing is free!

In the future I hope to work in a public library and provide users with reader's advisory. So far I've only done reader's advisory on a personal basis, haven't had the need while working in an academic library. Just recently I was trying to help my mom find books for my dad. My dad is a fairly picky reader AND he's at an age where he needs large print books. My mom was having a hard time finding new books for him, so I helped her out using Amazon and NoveList. LibraryThing is another site that can be extremely useful in reader's advisory. This site might also be great to encourage teens and young adults to read. The social aspect might appeal to your teen patrons and the library can encourage these users to have fun by creating their own library and hopefully reading more books in the process.

I've previously used LiveJournal for both personal use and for past classes, however I'm totally new when it comes to using Blogger. I've noticed a number of similarities between the two and a few minor differences.

• Both LiveJournal and Blogger allow you to create a user profile and upload a user picture or icon
• Both sites let you insert images or video into your post
• Both sites allow you to link to other blogs. On LJ these are considered "Friends", on Blogger you can "Follow" other blogs. I like the friends set-up on LJ better, seems more organized and more easily accessible.
• The actual journal and blog layouts are quite similar, and on both sites you can customize your layout
• Both LJ and Blogger let the poster diable or disallow comments
• LJ allows you to make your posts "Friends Only", "Private" or "Public" and create custom friend groups. I haven't seen anything similar on Blogger. Definitely an advantage of using LJ
• LJ lets you join various LiveJournal communities- another huge plus for LJ
  

Overall, I found these two services to be very similar. I think LJ has a few bonus features that aren't available on Blogger. Generally I prefer using LJ over Blogger, however in a professional or library setting I would use Blogger. I find the appearance of Blogger to be more professional than LJ (I think b/c I've also used LJ for personal use in the past, I have a hard time imagining using it in a library).

Best of Blogs

I'm not one to frequent many library blogs but one blog I do enjoy reading is the Highland Park teen librarian's blog:

http://hpplteenblog.blogspot.com/

My major reason for liking this blog is the sense of community it creates. I think this blog touches on the basics- book reviews, film reviews, interesting tidbits and library events- but also adds a more personalized touch. One of the reasons I would love to work in a public library is to really be a part of a community. A blog similar to this one is a great way to interact with your patrons and share personal information. Library patrons can get a feeling for who you are and what you contribute to the library. I like that this blog creates a direct connection between the librarian and the teen patrons (although it would certainly be nice to see more participation from the teens, most posts have no comments).