iGoogle becomes easier to use…

A recent article on Mashable spoke about the new addition to iGoogle and it’s even easier system of navigation.  Those who use iGoogle or Google Reader are familiar with “Canvas View”, which is a way to read a full text of all of your news feeds from multiple sources on one web page.  This new application to google allows you to view Google Reader and dozens of other applications/websites in full text within the iGoogle interface.

In addition, you can now access ‘canvas view’ on iLike and Flickster.  A lot of new sites such as NY Times and The Wall Street Journal also are offering ‘canvas view’ gadgets, which also allow you to read full text within the iGoogle interface.

This addition to Google seems to navigation even easier.  I think the fact that websites keeps getting easier and there are more ways to access them definitely contributes to the increase and amount of user generated content.

Darwin*s Journey comes to Second Life

An article posted on Wired Campus on Oct. 16th revealed the new addition to Second Life.  In celebration of the 150th anniversary of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, the University of Cincinnati (close to home..well Miami) has recreated the Galapagos Islands, where Darwin did some of his famous research, in Second Life.  As we have learned, Second Life is becoming a useful tool for some classrooms and eventually more in the future.  This could be a great way for students to learn about Darwin and his ideas and travels.

By January 2009, all Second Life users will be able to retrace Darwin’s steps, starting from his 1832 journey to South America.  In addition, archived audio and video clips and live events will be available.  Chris M. Collins, project manager for the Second Life Project at UC believes this could be an effective learning tool for college students and will teach them things they cannot get from a textbook.  In my opinion, this is a great way to enhance learning in the classroom of history.  With pictures, visual aspects and the recreated journey, students can actually feel like they are retracing his steps without actually having to be Galapagos.  I think if the trend catches on, it could be a great way for students to learn history and will enhance the connection of Second Life and Education.

how to build your own social network.

I found an insightful article on TechCrunch explaining how to build your own social network.  It explains that companies are trying to take features that MySpace and Facebook, for example, use and make them commodities on what they call “white label” social networking platforms.  They allow the users to build their networks from scratch and specify particular networks according to the interests of users.  White labeling is done in order to try to make the platform provider as invisible as possible and to organize the network so that it appears it is completely managed by the users.  There are three companies that have emerged as white label social networking.  The first deals with do-it-yourself solutions, the second provides software for downloads and installation, and the third works very closely with clients to build a social network according to their needs.

Velcro Crops vs. Beware of Velcro

Ali Hobbs

Alex Vikartofsky

Trish Garmon

Andrea Bosco

1. Purpose

The velcro crops website is explaining droughts and weird rainfall.  The beware of velcro website is explaining writing and english.  They are talking about transitions between sentences and ideas. The purpose of the first article is to entertain and the purpose of the second is to inform.

2. Coverage

The first article contains fiction information on crop growth.  They believe velcro grows out of the ground.  They are both pretty detailed. There is a link on the first article to Ken Umbach’s biography.  The second article covers how to use transitions between sentences and ideas. 

3. Authority

We felt that the second article (beware of velcro) was more credible because it was written by a professor at Harvard.  It seems like something that would be a handout in class.  The second article is an .edu (an authoritative organization).  The first article is .com.  

4. Accuracy

The first article is bizarre and lists farming rituals that we do not believe actually happen or take place.  The entire article is fiction and the only credible fact for the author might be that he has his biography attached.  We found a website (proscenia.net) that proves that the first article is a fictional website. 

5. Currency

The first one was written in 1993 and the second in 1998.  Both have no updates.  

6. Presentation

The California Velcro Crops website contains graphs.  The second article is formally written by a Harvard professor.  It seems as though it was used  as handout in a course on writing.  The second article is unorganized and bold/italics are used occasionally.

MSNLivesearch vs. Google, MSNLivesearch vs. Blinkx

Ali Hobbs, Trisha Garmon, Alex Vikartofsky, Andrea Bosco

Image:

We searched “George Clooney.”  Both websites pull up head shots of George Clooney.  MSN live search has better capabilities for searching and it provides you with related people to search.  However, Google gives you a description of the image.  MSN gives you option of viewing a lot of photos at a time and when you roll over it, the picture gets bigger.  Google brought over a million searches back and MSN only brought 60,000.  Google had some duplicates.  MSN allows for a safe search, where you can filter out sexually explicit images or filter by language.   You can do the same on Google.  When you click on the image on MSN it opens a ‘frameset’ where the website page is on the right and the images are able to be scrolled on the left to continue your search.  We prefer MSNLive to Google.

Video: MSNLive vs. Blinkx

Google video is set up a lot like MSN image when you roll over the image and also when the side web page opens.  On MSN, related videos are present.  So, if searching for a George Clooney video, a Julia Roberts video can come up as a related person.  One advantage of Blinkx is that you can compile your search results and save your material.  Blinkx has triple the videos as MSN, but MSN still has better navigation.  On Blinkx, the navigation is only on the right hand side and it plays the video only on the left.  Blinkx has annoying unavoidable advertisments.  Blinkx does have a very quick video buffering response.  

Basically, MSNLivesearch kicks Google’s and Blinkx A$$$$$.  The speed of Blinkx is great and the fact that you can save video could be helpful in research.  Therefore, we prefer MSN, Blinkx, and Google..in that order.

social media jobs.

Mashable had an interesting article about social media jobs, job security and the prevalence of social media jobs.  The article talks about social media and how it started off as only web 2.0 and social networking and has grown to include social networking, blogs, podcasts, user-generated content, social bookmarking, microblogging, and lifestreams.  This increase has created a demand for social media positions as large and small companies.  Companies such as Google and MTV are hiring qualified people for these small social media roles.  The article goes on to question if social media jobs are here to stay.  Companies have main goals of increasing profits and with the growth of the internet these jobs will only increase.  Companies that ignore blogs and online responses are only hurting their revenue.  Since there is so much user-generated content available online, there will be need for feedback, need for advertising and consequently need for qualified workers to fulfill social media positions.

The lovely Donald Trump is hiring

one web day.

Today, September 22nd, 2008, is One Web Day.  Created by University of Michigan law professor Susan Crawford, this day is a way to recognize our need Wi-Fi on a day-to-day basis.  Our lives depend on the Internet each day and is compared to ‘running water’ in this article.  I think we all realized how much we couldn’t do or thought we couldn’t do during the Blackout without internet access.  People all over the world are holding events in effort to celebrate this day and the age of the Internet.  Specifically, in the greater Cincinnati area, people will be able to attend a town meeting with representatives of the Obama and McCain campaigns present.  People in Oxford, England can learn about creating blogs and attend a photo exhibit featuring Iranian bloggers.

user-generated content via iPhone.

An article  posted on TechCrunch today talks about the expansion of user-generated content through a program done by CBS.  It’s a program called Eyemobile for iPhone and it allows users to submit video and photo content to CBS’s citizen journalism site, CBSeyemobile.com.  Users can view other’s photos and comment on the uploads as well.  This is yet another expansion of citizen journalism and provides a voice for users to further traditional news sites.

google chrome.

Behind the new browser…Google Chrome.

Making the browser new and innovative for the public, was Google’s intention on the creation of their new browser Chrome.  In this article, they note that many people spend so much time working in a browser whether it’s shopping online, chatting, banking, or reading the news.  They wanted to start from stratch and create something that includes all of the elements necessary.  They needed to create something modern and simple but with all the amenities and then some.  It is now up and available to use. 

internet memes.

I found an interesting website that contains a timeline of the first creation of memes dating back to the beginning of the internet in 1970.  Some of which we talked about in class, such as Chocolate Rain, are included.