Are you confused about what social media is, or why it’s being hailed as the next big thing? For starters, try Social Media in Plain English ( http://www.commoncraft.com/socialmedia ) a video from Common Craft that explains social media by telling a simple story about Scoopville, a town that is famous for ice cream. For another stab at the same topic, read Robert Scoble’s What is Social Media?.
One of the most popular trends of Web 2.0 design is a glossy badge with highlights and reflection. But creating them from scratch takes skill and talent. With Web 2.0 Badges , however, you can make badges for free by simply pointing and clicking. Badges can be customized with your choice of text, color, and shape.
One of the advantages Google Spreadsheets has over a client-side spreadsheet such as Microsoft Excel, is access to live data look ups. Using the GoogleLookup function, data lookup for many kinds of standard facts is simple. Standard facts include, for example, population figures for cities and countries, capitals for states and nations, and places of birth for famous people. For exact syntax and more examples see the Google Docs & Spreadsheet Help Center .
Avid readers have long swapped books with friends. Now, with online book-swapping sites acting as middlemen, we can trade books with complete strangers. Although the basic concept is the same, each of the following sites handles the mechanics of postage and mailing labels slightly differently. Take a look at Bookins, and Paperback Swap. For more choices, here’s a longer list of book, CD and DVD swapping sites .
If you are comfortable with RSS feeds, then you are technical enough to use Yahoo! Pipes to create a new web service. Yahoo! Pipes is an exciting feed aggregator that gives non-programmers a way to create data mashups: merging web content from a variety of sources to create a unique output. This is the sort of tool that gets more impressive as you work with it. To learn more, peruse the Yahoo! Pipes discussion forum or read Alex Iskold.
A tag cloud is a weighted list of keywords, visually designed so the more popular tags are displayed in a bigger, heavier font. Tag clouds are frequently used on social networking sites where individual users tag their own entries, as well as those of others. Some notable examples of tag clouds can be found at Flickr and Del.icio.us.
Adding a picture to a MySpace comment isn’t that hard if you know a little HTML. Here are the basic steps. First, upload the picture to your MySpace account (or somewhere else on the Internet.) Second, figure out the URL of the uploaded picture. Third, add the appropriate HTML to your MySpace comment. For complete instructions, read Ask Leo’s “How Do I Put a Picture in a MySpace comment?” ( http://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_put_a_picture_in_a_comment ).
Ning.com is a free, online tool that creates custom social networking sites. Possibilities include photo sharing, video sharing, ratings, reviews, bookmarking, blogging, group networking and more. It’s easy to use, fast to setup, and free. Start by registering a username, selecting an application template to copy, and then choosing a name for your very own Ning site.
Web 2.0 is buzzword applied to the transition of the Web from a collection of informational websites to a platform for shared data and web applications. Social networking (such as the wildly popular MySpace.com ) is often cited as a Web 2.0 application. Google’s recently released browser-based word processor and browser-based spreadsheet are also examples of Web 2.0 trends.
Online social networking isn’t just for humans anymore, nowadays it’s for pets too. Dogs, cats (and their owners?) can join the fun at Dogster and Catster where dogs and cats are joining by the hundreds every day. FYI, most popular Dogster dog breed is a Labrador Retriever, and the most popular cat name on Catster is Chloe.
