1) Google Wave would be a great way for small groups or committees to collaborate across the county without having to drive to Admin, and Google Buzz would be a great tool for sharing new reference resources or any other resources that might be useful to various staff or librarians at branches across the system. I don't currently use anything that I can think of, but I used to work at a university where I sometimes had conferences via webcam at my desk. That was kind of cool at the time... kind of commonplace now.
2) Google Maps on my phone! I'm always getting lost... I need this. I already have my gmail account synced to my phone. As for the Google Search app, my phone came with a Bing app, so I'm good (not that I ever use it). I really don't see myself using the others too much because I hardly ever use my mobile.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
The Web According to Google #87: Google Reader
1 & 2) I don't currently use a feed reader. I've tried in the past, and I just can't get into them. I think it is because I'm just generally not into surfing the web on a daily basis to begin with. I check out the book reviews weekly on two websites and that's usually about it. I tried out the Google Reader and subscribed to the NY Times Book Review feed. It looked like other readers I'd tried in the past, and honestly, I prefer the site with the pictures. So my verdict on RSS is still: meh.
The Web According to Google #86: Calendar and Documents
1) This was my first time using Google Calendar. I think I'd have to play with it some more to decide how much I'd want to use it, but I do like being able to have it send me an e-mail reminder for appointments or special dates. For right now I think I would use it more for personal use than for work, but that could change as I work with it more.
2) While I've been using Google Docs for a while, I did not know it could double as online file storage. I'm glad to have learned that! Like I posted earlier, I've created group accounts with people to team write papers, and that has worked really well, but I think Zoho works fine for that too. Sometimes formatting in Google Docs is a little wonky compared to what I'm used to in Word, but overall the transportability of it is very nice, i.e. you don't have to worry about a computer having compatible software for your document, you just have to be able to get on the internet.
2) While I've been using Google Docs for a while, I did not know it could double as online file storage. I'm glad to have learned that! Like I posted earlier, I've created group accounts with people to team write papers, and that has worked really well, but I think Zoho works fine for that too. Sometimes formatting in Google Docs is a little wonky compared to what I'm used to in Word, but overall the transportability of it is very nice, i.e. you don't have to worry about a computer having compatible software for your document, you just have to be able to get on the internet.
The Web According to Google #85: Resistance is Futile
1) I use Google for searching and that includes web, images, video, Google Books, Google Scholar, maps, and news. The Google Books and Scholar features have come in really handy for interlibrary loan research as I have often found items for free online through these products and been able to save the expense of ILL. Obvs I use Blogger (as in right now), and I use Docs--I've used Docs since library school as a way for teams to be able to group write papers remotely. I also use Gmail for no other reason than it was trendy to get a gmail account ages ago and I don't want to have to change my email address and notify all of my friends of a change.
2)As for Google Labs, Image Swirls and City Tours looked cool and worth playing with. Something I will *definitely* use that I'd not noticed for that is not a beta is the Google Patent Search. How did I not know they had that!?!?
3)Like I mentioned above, I've been using Google Books for a while. It's a great resource to look into before requesting ILL (along with Project Gutenberg), and it's important to note that even though it's "Google *Books*," it has magazines too! The browse feature is addictive, btw. And yes, they had the book I experimented w/: Thus Spoke Zarathustra!
2)As for Google Labs, Image Swirls and City Tours looked cool and worth playing with. Something I will *definitely* use that I'd not noticed for that is not a beta is the Google Patent Search. How did I not know they had that!?!?
3)Like I mentioned above, I've been using Google Books for a while. It's a great resource to look into before requesting ILL (along with Project Gutenberg), and it's important to note that even though it's "Google *Books*," it has magazines too! The browse feature is addictive, btw. And yes, they had the book I experimented w/: Thus Spoke Zarathustra!
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Searching #78: Video
1) I searched for video of the Zidane headbutt against Materazzi in the 2006 World Cup final. Truveo results seemed to be more focused on actual video of the event, while blinkx pulled up a lot of silly animated videos.
2) We could start by adding content, I suppose. I'm not sure of what, though. Perhaps highlighting a program or available resources.
2) We could start by adding content, I suppose. I'm not sure of what, though. Perhaps highlighting a program or available resources.
Searching #77: Images
1) I don't know how many clicks as this site is not working today 2/24/10 5:27 PM.
2) I'm not sure flickr is such a great resource unless you are looking for pictures of people's beach holidays and house parties, but I liked the categories feature in freedigitalphotos and thought the photo quality quite good.
3) I run the book club so this could be useful clipart:
@jupiterimages
2) I'm not sure flickr is such a great resource unless you are looking for pictures of people's beach holidays and house parties, but I liked the categories feature in freedigitalphotos and thought the photo quality quite good.
3) I run the book club so this could be useful clipart:
@jupiterimages
Searching #75: Google and Beyond
1) I tend to use Google; however, I chose Bing once when I searched "A.R. Ammons" and Yahoo twice when I searched "Texas CHIP" and "Team Canada Hockey". I have been trying to use Bing since it came out in order to become familiar with it, but it might be worth going back and playing around with Yahoo again (it used to be my search tool of choice pre-Google).
2) According to Hitwise, the bulk of usage volume went to Google (70.95%), then Yahoo (14.72%), and then Bing in third (9.65%). Based on my experiment above, these numbers don't match my choice, but they do mostly go along with my day-to-day usage.
3) Exploring the search features in Yahoo, I like the SearchScan which is similar to what Google has, but I really thought the search pad was interesting: It's like having a place to take electronic notes that go beyond just search history because you can save them for later use, print them out or even e-mail search notes and links to friends or co-workers.
2) According to Hitwise, the bulk of usage volume went to Google (70.95%), then Yahoo (14.72%), and then Bing in third (9.65%). Based on my experiment above, these numbers don't match my choice, but they do mostly go along with my day-to-day usage.
3) Exploring the search features in Yahoo, I like the SearchScan which is similar to what Google has, but I really thought the search pad was interesting: It's like having a place to take electronic notes that go beyond just search history because you can save them for later use, print them out or even e-mail search notes and links to friends or co-workers.
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