Top 5 Bookmarking Sites

they all have their pros and cons. I particularly liked Magnolia's interface. It's clean with lots of white space. I like the fact that my eyes don't get jumbled up. When I first saw del.icio.us on the social bookmarking Powerpoint, I felt kind of intimidated. It looked so crowded that I felt I didn't even want to bother with it. But now that I've read the review of the top 5 social bookmarketing sites, I like the whole concept and the fact that the article tells me what to look for when choosing a site.

Social Bookmarking

They certainly are right about how challenging it is to remember all the websites we look at and where they are found. Sometimes when I'm looking at a site I really like and then click away from it for a while, I suddenly remember that I didn't bookmark it. I have to go back and and try to find. Sometimes it's embedded in other sites that I had forgot I was in. So I understand the importance of bookmarking.

But to have someone else share my bookmarks and I share there's is awesome. Sometimes I find some good stuff and I know other people do to. Some people are really good at conducting some deep research and finding better stuff. Why not share it. This makes the internet even more powerful and what we can do on it to help each other .

Library of Congress Photos

The photos on the Library of Congress website in Flickr are so beautiful. They are rich in color and really stand out in black and white. And furthermore, they are free of copyright, therefore they can be tagged and distributed anyway you like. As was mentioned on the website, It would be interesting to see how people categorize them with tags and how they will be used. These would be good to use if anyone decided to use them as part of our assignment in Unit 4.

Folksomonies Tap People Power

Imagine all the thousands of photos being uploaded per day by people from all over the world. They could get lost out there! That's where the power of the people come in. Taking responsibility for what we upload or put one the internet. If we tag our material, photos, and so forth, we provide greater usability for others.

"Tags are great, but the thing that is hard is getting people to use them," said Caterina Fake, who co-founded Flickr with husband Butterfield. "But the thing that has happened recently is they've become part of a social arena in which they are valuable not only to the individual but to the group."

The above paragraph says it all. the more we tag, the more valuable and usable our photos are to us as well as others who are searching for them.

48 Percent YouTube Users

If you had a choice between reading about a topic and watching a video on that topic which would you choose? I would choose the video, of course, because I’m a visual learner. But, even if I weren’t, technology is the driving force that dictates the use of high-tech videos. Not only are video-imaging websites popular, they’re fun to watch and educational. Amateur viewers are also making their own videos to put information out on the web. These are sometimes fun and funny to watch. At times, viewers who search the web are suddenly bombarded with pop-up windows containing YouTube videos. So it’s really hard to get around them. Once, I just wanted to find out more about a topic I was interested in, I typed my topic in and a whole slew of YouTube videos were listed. I enjoyed them so much that I lost track of time.

Shifting Demographics of MySpace

When I first saw someone using MySpace I thought it was just kids stuff. All the colorful graphics and pictures. I figured it wasn't for anyone my age. Even my little niece was using it and she's in elementary school. I don't know if she was faking her age or what to register, but I didn't think anything of it. Although I did consider it to be pretty and the users are very creative when building their sites. I've seen some beautiful ones. One day a student at my school was on the computer and another student said to him, "Man, are you still using MySpace? That's old. People are using Facebook now." So it doesn't surprise me that the demographics are changing on MySpace. The young people discovered it and are now moving on. They sort of paved the way for older people. Usually in life it's the other way around. The older people pave the way and the young people follow. Between August '05 and '06 there was a decline of users between the ages of 12-24. During this same time, ages 25 to 55+ increased dramatically. At that rate, in '08, I suspect there's been a continuation of this trend.

Continual Evolution of Social Networks

I guess the internet, when it comes to social networks, is pretty much like buying stock: buy when it's low and sell when it's high. Under the topic "Major Players Jump on the Bandwagon, I see some heavy hitters are "cashing in" on the trend. Who knows where these networks are headed, but just the same they're being swiped up anyway.

The thing is, everybody's still trying to figure out the financial profitability of social networks. But despite that, Rupert Murdoch has purchased the owner of MySpace; Yahoo recently bought Flickr; Amazon has invested in 43 Things, a network approach to marketing; and Monster Worldwide has purchased Tickle, a testing and matchmaking site. But whether these sites are making money now or not, the evolution of the internet is well worth investing in its future.

Social Networking Goes Professional

Reading this article has made me think twice about this whole social networking thing. Before this class, I didn't care about any of this. But now, I'm beginning to see just how important it is now and in the future, as long its creators keep tweaking the sites and making them better. And it seems this is what they're doing. I've gotten to the point where I find myself searching for sites for different professional areas just to see if one exists.

I found Sermo.com to be quite interesting because "doctors are generally more interested in getting treatment advice and access to other doctors' experiences." This is a remarkable way to network and pick the brains of other medical professionals without having to know or see them. This is valuable technology for the medical field. However, since the site does not require users to give their real names, it is crucial that identities be verified to make sure imposters are not posing as doctors and giving misleading information. According to the article, Sermo does hold and verify the identifies of those who register. But on the other hand, I'm sure doctors or any professional worth their credentials will verify any information they get before using it.