Google Labs...

Oh what fun!

First I went to Mars...well Google Mars. They are created detailed maps of Mars made by NASA scientists! It was fun to play with.

I headed over to Google Trends. It was interesting but I don't know how I would use this in a library setting. Hopefully more people will post on this and give me some ideas!

I enjoyed Google Suggest. You start typing in the search box and a drop down menu appears that gives suggestions. The cool part is along with the suggestions it also gives you how many hits you're going to get if you choose the suggestion. I thought that was neat. The hits aren't any more relevant than a regular search on Google but I found it hinted with words I hadn't thought of to get to what I was exactly searching for. I could see this being used in a library setting. In fact I would rather search this way then in regular Google.

Soon, Web 3.0 and the semantic web!! :} Ok sort of...

"I'm blind, and I see more than any of you, because I don't look. " Stick in Elektra

and now for a Spring break...

http://flickr.com/photos/allmxdup1980/

"Whatever happened to playing a hunch, Scully? The element of surprise, random acts of unpredictability? If we fail to anticipate the unforeseen or expect the unexpected in a universe of infinite possibilities, we may find ourselves at the mercy of anyone or anything that cannot be programmed, categorized or easily referenced. " Mulder in the X-files: Fight the Future

Sodo, Mojo, Zoho...

Wow! This looks pretty fancy! I have moved over to Zoho writer. Another free writer on the Internet. I can't decide which one I like better. I guess they both do the trick. This one seems to have more bells and whistles. Emoticons are always fun! This one also Auto-saves. Nice. Ωα special characters.

OK I am having to much fun with all the editing features!! Although I just attempted to use the spell check and it changed my special characters. Now I am mad!!

I am going to cut and paste this over to blogger...here goes...

OK, I am at Blogger now and it did not copy over my emoticons. That's no fun! Now I am sad! :(

"Oh yeah, the Great Bambino. Of course! I thought you said the Great Bambi." Smalls in Sandlot

Google rules the world...

So, here I am in the Google (who owns the world) Docs and spreadsheets. I thought I would write my bog post here and then move it over to Blogger. I liked in the 'quick tour' the quotes by people who use this service and like it. There was an author who said he can quickley write ideas, there was the business person who had people work on a letter, there was a sports person who kept scheduling updatd for something (now I can't remember what it was) and there was the student who writes their blog posts here and then posts them. I liked that you control who sees the pages. One person, many people or no one.

I like this idea. I like that if my computer crashes, which has happened to me before, my document is safely stored.

I see that this just automatically saved this document. Nice, in case I forget.

Since this is on the Internet and free I thought this would be clunky. It's not...so far. I wonder how we get patrons, who can't even open Word, to use this? I am starting to think maybe we need to teach a patron class called Learning 2.0! It would be a series. It would be for the patron who already has an idea how to use the computer and the Internet.

And just because you or I might not be able to think of any reason we would use this, you never know who is out there right now saying "Wow, I sure wish I had Word on my computer so I could write letters. Oh well, I guess I am just out of luck!"

"But I like the cookie" Hammy in Over the Hedge

Web 2.0

I found all the articles very interesting.

My favorite article was "to more powerful ways to cooperate" I think the collective (not the Borg) is always going to be better and more exciting than one person calling the shots. I liked the idea of "Harnassing Collective Intelligence".

"This means expanding our definition of “collective intelligence” beyond the library professional to faculty, researchers, library patrons and others by building into our systems services that encourage these users contribute their expertise to the cooperative."

Very cool stuff!! This is an exciting time for librarians!!

Side Note-there is an interesting article about Web 3.0 in PC Magazine April 10, 2007 issue. It talks about the semantic web/the 3D web/the media-centric web/and the pervasive web.

"Do you know what I am doing, Miss Kenton? I am placing my mind elsewhere while you chatter away." Mr. Stevens in Remains of the Day

Roll-Y-O and Google search...

I really LOVE the idea of this especially for libraries. Every community Library making their own search engines sounds wonderful. I can imagine a sub that doesn't live here being able to look up on Google Search or Rollyo for instance what's going on at the Parks Department. Other examples come to mind also. We all have had to wade through tons and tons of irrelevant sites to find what we are looking for. So this sounds good to me.

I thought I would really like Rollyo (it just sounded so darn cute) but when I searched using it I was horrified to discover, yes...you guessed it...junk! There were ad sites along with the chosen sites. Blech! So although Google seems to be getting everything from everyone lately I headed over there and it was not only much nicer to look at but it looked familiar and so I chose to make a google search engine. I have linked to it below this post.

side note-I was pondering where they got the word Rollyo. It dawned on me being a child that not only grew up in the 60/70's but born in Eureka, California that it might mean
RollY(our)O(wn). hehehe

From Daddy Day Care -
The Flash: We need more chasing bad guys!
Marvin: Hey, that's an excellent idea!
The Flash: Like the Joker!
Marvin: No, you see, buddy, that's Batman's bad guy. You're the Flash, you need to be fighting...
The Flash: Lex Luthor?
Marvin: No, that's Superman. You need to be fighting Captain Boomerang, Gorilla Grod, the Reverse Flash...
The Flash: How about the Riddler?
Marvin: [to Charlie and Phil] What are you doing to these kids?

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