Go Go Gadget Gadgets!

So, last week I was on holiday and missed playing around with gadgets and widgets. I'm catching up with them now!

They're useful. There are so many Web 2.0 tools, it's nice to have something that makes it possible to pull them all together- to put my flickr on my blog, or my bookmarks on my iGoogle, or my RSS reader on my iGoogle or whatever. The whole interplay of the different platforms is something I really like about Web 2.0. So yes, this was a good week.

First I put my Flickr photostream at the bottom of my blog, then changed my mind and put it on the sidebar. It's not a very interesting display at the moment (pictures of a card catalogue we were offering), but it should be better when I upload my Easter holiday snaps! I also changed the colour scheme for the blog, as I decided the black background was a bit irritating.

I didn't fancy having Google headlines on my blog, so didn't bother with that additional thing. Oh, how rebellious!

I don't like the delicious gadgets, and I don't really like delicious. So I fiddled with them a bit before abandoning them in favour of my trusty Google Bookmark widget. I took this chance to put in two new Google Bookmark widgets- this way all my links tagged "Cataloguing" will be in one widget, all my "House hunting" ones in another and all my "Re-enactment" ones in a third. Excellent!

But although the Delicious Widget is a Nay, Gadgets and Widgets in general are a big Yay!

We're half way there...

So, thought I'd do a bit of a review. Which of the 23 Things have been useful and which do I think I will I keep up?

I was initially anti-iGoogle, not seeing the need for it and disliking it's clutter. But, having set it up so it just showed me things I'm really interested in, it's now proving invaluable and is my homepage both at work and at home. I've also embraced (because they work so well inside iGoogle) Google Reader for getting RSS feeds of blogs & podcasts and Google Bookmarks so I can access all my bookmarks wherever I go. If only there was a good Livejournal gadget!
I'm also a big fan of Flickr- being able to upload higher resolution versions of pictures is excellent, I've always hated Facebook for it's compression.

Picnik was fun, but I'd rather use Picture Publisher. Guess I may use it if I'm at a PC that doesn't have an image manipulation program? I didn't like Delicious for personal use- my bookmarks are for my personal reference, not for everyone else, and Google Bookmarks sits better in Google Reader. But still, I can see Delicious could be good for libraries to advertise online resources and so on.

So yes. Despite my initial cynicism and belief I'd already seen every Web 2.0 tool that mattered I've now become addicted to a whole bunch more. I'm not sure this is neccessarily a good thing, but oh well! There's another 6 weeks to go, and I dread to think what I'm going to get hooked on next...

What's the Buzz?

So, yet another Web 2.0 tool is released. This one, Google Buzz, seems to be a mix of Twitter and Facebook. I like the way it can pull in data from other sources - it'll tell everyone if I update Flickr, or share items in Google Reader, or if I update a blog. And it's nicely integrated with Googlemail.

Yeah, not a bad platform.

I must admit, I'm increasingly considering returning to blogging properly. I used to do it on Livejournal and stopped a few years ago, but this 23 Things has reminded me about it. It would be a good way to re-establish contact with old mates...

Flickr

Well, it was fairly simple to sign up to Flickr. So that was good.

Uploading was relatively quick and simple, and then all the pictures showed up in a nice list. I liked the functions to batch add them to a set or to add tags to all of them, very neat.

I very soon hit the monthly limit of uploads. Which is annoying, now I have to either wait 3 weeks or pay them money before adding more pictures... At least Feb is a nice short month!

Joining the 23 Things flickr group was also easy, and they responded very quickly (thank you!)

The Creative Commons and Map View features are nice. I've changed my settings so all photos uploaded now have a very open Creative Commons license- changing them individually was a bit of a slog.

So... Overall thoughts? I like Flickr. It seems better than Facebook for some types of photosharing- it's more public and people can see photos at larger sizes. Facebook is probably still best for photos of parties with friends, but Flickr seems to be the place to share pretty images. Oxford in the snow, cute kittens, impressive sight-seeing, all those sorts of pictures would probably be best put in Flickr not Facebook. It seems I've been guilty of the Cardinal Sin of Web 2.0, using the Wrong Tool For The Task.

Yep, I'm converted! But I'm wavering between voting "yay!" and "meh?" because I do still have a major niggle with the monthly limit. Sooooo... Is it worth paying the $24.95 for the 1 year pro account?

Google Reader Poll

In last week's poll, 5/5 votes for Google Reader were Yay - making it the most popular Web 2.0 feature yet in our 23 Polls.

This week's Flickr poll is now up. Can it beat Google Reader in popularity?

23 Things & Web 2.0

So, I'm making this blog as part of the 23 Things program run by Oxford University Library Services (or should that be Bodleian Libraries?) I'm James, and I work at the Oriental Institute Library.

Why am I doing 23 Things? Hmm. Difficult. I already know most Web 2.0 sites- I set up and run the blog and facebook page for OIL, for example. So I'm really looking just at filing in the gaps in my knowledge. I'm particularly looking forward to the photo ones- I've got a new camera recently, and have been planning to join flickr.
Plus the Amazon voucher is a good incentive!

I'm personally ambivalent about Web 2.0. I think that many sites have Web 2.0 features that just aren't neccessary, and jump onto the Web 2.0 bandwagon just for appearances & to try and keep up with the Kool Kidz. I also think that a lot of Web 2.0 features make webpages messy and cluttered. So yes. No doubt I'll need convincing on some of the 23 Things...