Google Labs and beyond

I found the Google Labs very interesting. To see some of the things they are working on, and being able to comment was great. My favorite "in processing" tool is the one "Google Suggests". I have trouble coming up with the correct word or words for searching. I have an idea of what I want, but not always in the terminology that others use. This gave you some ideas on what else to search, and connects you right to that search. I hope it graduates from the lab to the main Google sight. I know it would be very useful to beginner Internet users, that are not quite up to par on the jargon, or how to write a question. I really didn't have any major problems with this tool. I hope it doesn't get dropped. I also explored some of the graduates-many of which I was familiar with. Google maps, and Google definitions as well as the phone book. I liked the sounds of Google alerts, and may choose to sign up for it, if I find something I wish to know the latest news about.

Well, I have been exploring some of the web-based productivity applications. At first I thought why would I use these features, if I had Microsoft office. Then I read a little more and realized that you could do a great deal of this work from another location, or if you were doing a group project, it would be easy to collaborate in real time. Both of these applications made sense to me.

I tried to look at Jot Spot- but found that Google had recently bought them, and they were busy upgrading, so I couldn't get a look at that one.

I looked at 30 boxes, and realized I would not like to publish my personal life on line in that format. So, that was a negative one for me.

Zo-ho, Thinkfree, and Google all seemed to offer the same services. Just in a little different format. I think, if I were to subscribe to one of these I would pick Google, mainly so I wouldn't have to have another name and password. It is kind of nice to have all the resources available in one place.

I do have a question about all of this "stuff" (flickr, myspace, wikis,etc.) What is the reward for all of these internet advantages. Do they get a monetary reward by using adds? Do they just do it for fun? What is in it for them???

Searching Search Engines

Finally, I am on solid ground. I have had some exposure to Search engines, through Summer Institute, and our own Staff Day programs. I found all of them fairly easy to navigate. It took a little getting use to the "clusters". Personally, when searching for something, I prefer to get the list of my "hits", and not get distracted by the cutesy. Anyhow, I searched Mooter, Clusty, and Yahoo. My usual search engine is Google. I found all four of them similar, once I got past the clusters on Mooter and Clusty. It was interesting that of the three, only one URL showed up in the top 5 of all three. My search was for "crockpot recipes". Southernfood.about.com/library/crock showed up on all three. Mrs.Dash.com showed up on 2 of them from the sponsor end. I thought I would have more similar hits. I guess the "spiders" do investigate different links, and therefore would give me different hits. It opened my eyes, as far as branching out and checking more than one search engine. I did try one more search engine, after reading a blog posted by one of our bloggers. They mentioned dogpile. com. I really liked that search engine. It combines google, yahoo search, MSN search, and ask. That is very convenient to get them all in one fell swoop.

Web 2.0

Well, here I am on Library 2.0. I am not too sure what I am doing on Library 2.0. To me, it is very, very confusing. However, I do not think I am alone in this observation. To me it sounds mainly like a proposed blue print on where Libraries are going, but not really how they are going to get there. I am concerned about patrons who are not able to jump on the band wagon of change. Many of our older patrons are not as resilient; they need to be shown how, even if it is only a click away. This statement doesn’t totally agree with Rick Andersons, reliance on user education. “But if our services can’t be used without training, then it’s the services that need to be fixed—not our patrons. One-button commands, such as Flickr’s “Blog This,” and easy-to-use programs like Google Page Creator, offer promising models for this kind of user-centric service.” If it takes a map to get to the one-button command, then it is still going to be confusing. (I found this to be so on some of our lessons) Many of the older adults rely on the printed materials. Many have a great deal of trouble navigating the web. I personally like the fact that I can verify my source with written materials, some of what I get off the Web is questionable.
I do agree with this statement made by Rick, “No profession can survive if it throws its core principles and values overboard in response to every shift in the zeitgeist.” We need to take our time and not jump on the band wagon with both feet. Think it through, and not “shoot from the hip”. As the population gets older, the computer literate will eventually become the seniors and then maybe the 2.0 will be beneficial. (But then it might be the 3.0 or 4.0) But let’s not run with this quite yet. Baby steps sound good to me. Change is fine, as long as it is necessary, not reinventing the wheel, and implemented slowly, so as not to lose those who aren’t quite as computer savvy as the people leading the 2.0 revolution.
In conclusion, I feel like I have rambled on in a very unorganized manner, however, that is how Web 2.0 made me feel. Rather unorganized, and not sure of where I was heading.

My map-at last!

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! I really, really wanted to do this exercise- just to see how much of the US I had covered. Finally,I was able to do it. However, I was not able to do it with the URL. I saved the picture to my computer and then uploaded the picture. Every time I would put in the URL, (ten weeks ago I didn't even know what that was) I would get a white box with part of the address in the gray writing area. I'm not sure what was wrong, but I do know there is "more than one way to skin a cat". Just put the Pinball Wizard philosophy into effect (hit a brick wall -go the other way). So, if someone can tell me what was wrong with trying to load the URL- I would greatly appreciate it. I would like to know how to do it both ways.

Well, here is my Map!?! Since I couldn't find the link to make one, I get to make something on the online image generator. Guess what I made --a game of Wheel of Fortune. ( my fortune will be the M240 player if I ever make it to the end). Of course, it is beyond me on how to make it actually work. I guess maybe that will be in the more advanced lesson.

Fun, Fun, Fun now that I have conqured: generators

Well, this was a very interesting lesson. I really liked the "feed" that you gave us in the tutorial. I was able to do a rebus note, color some virtual eggs, and put a new picture on my desktop. I liked doing it, but of all the choices on the list, these three were about all that interested me. I attempted to google image generators. Found several sites I thought I would enjoy going to, but could not load any of them. I did find a site at www.tweakyourpage.com/Generators/Scrolling_Image/
that I enjoyed going to. I found a glittery Hello sign which I was able to load onto myspace. I felt like I really, really accomplished something. This lesson will be helpful to me if I need to make some catchy signs, or to amuse some friends in an e-mail. I am glad I was introduced to generators. A lot of this information I will probably not utilize, but it has given me more confidence in surfing the web. (Which, until now was the big,black hole in the super highway)