Thursday, September 27, 2007

When I was first introduced to Rollyo, it wasn't love at first sight. Who would want to embrace a search engine that requires preparation work in advance? I was too comfortable with Google or Yahoo search.

On the other hand, I did have problems managing my favorite and/or useful websites, most were buried under “bookmark” on my browser, so I decided to give Rollyo a try.

I went into Rollyo with low expectation and high skepticism. I cataloged my favorite websites, assigned them to different searchscrolls that I had set up, and remained unconvinced along the way. The Aha! moment came only after I had put the “Rollbar” on my browser, all of a sudden, the mission of Rollyo became clear, it's about one-stop searching. One click on this "Rollbar" button, a Rollyo search box appeared. I typed in a word or a phrase, chose a specific searchroll, and Rollyo began to search my subject in the websites that resided in that searchscroll. I also added the site that I was visiting to one of my searchscrolls, it was fast, easy, and efficient, the preparation work really paid off and I was on a roll.

Rollyo has won me over, I even created a searchscroll to keep my favorite “23 Things”. It has occupied a permanent place on my browser, or at least until the next great search engine comes along.

Such is life in the wild wide web!



Wednesday, September 26, 2007






“Library Thing” is a people's library. Its entire collection is built and powered by over 275,000 people who love to read. In this
virtual world, you don't need to create an avatar to join, all you need is a few books that you want to share and you are in. The goal of “Library Thing” is to connect as many people and books as they can, it is designed to appeal to both the professional librarians and regular readers. I don't know how useful the site is to catalogers, for regular readers like me, there's plenty to like.

First, to search for a title is fast and easy. I can search by title, author, ISBN, or one of the 23 million tags if I'm ambitious. There are 2 ways to search, for me, the easier way is to use the “Search” button. This feature allows me to view information of the book before I add it to “My Library”. The second way is to search through the “Add a book” feature. The disadvantage of this method is that I don't have a chance to get to know the book first, a click on any entry on the search result list immediately sends the title to the “Recently Added List”, I have to take the next step, to go to “My Library" and see if it's the right book.

Once I'm inside “My Library”, I can sort my titles by author, title, date, tag, and rating. These options are not easily accessible at first glance, I have to poke around the page to find them. I do like the tools that I can use to organize my books. Subject headings and tags used by others can be borrowed or I can create my own. After working with the catalogers for so many years, I'm really tickled that I finally have a chance to try my hand at cataloging.

I also check out the site's Chinese language collection. 23,539 titles are listed, the majority of them are English translations of the original works. I did find a few titles written in original Chinese language, I also found a few Japanese titles mixed in with the Chinese ones. The titles are not arranged alphabetically and no sorting tools are available here, I hope this will improve when the site becomes more global and demand for Chinese books grows.

After a trip to a virtual world such as “Second Life”, I'm happy to settle in this book world. Thanks to my fellow readers, every page is filled with interesting information, each tag leads me to many new discoveries, each click makes me want more.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Thing 9: Finding needle in the vast ocean

Instead of focusing on library-related blogs or feeds, I decide to approach broader subjects to see if some of the search engines mentioned in "23 Things" and I are up to the challenge.


My first search is for "Barrack Obama". "Finding needle in the vast ocean" is exactly how I felt when more than 590,000 posts related to him came up in Bloglines. As more and more people publish in the web, how do I search? How do I pinpoint the feeds that are relevant to me? Most search engines like to show you what they have but they don't want to tell you how to find them.


Of the 5 search engines listed in “23 Things”, Bloglines, Feedster, Topix.net, Syndic8.com, and Technorati, Feedster is the only one that provides a useful “search help page” and the search tips are fairly easy to follow. In Technorati and Bloglines, I have to pore over their FAQ page only to find unsatisfactory answers. I'm unable to locate the Blogfinder mentioned in "Technorati tutorials" in "23 Things", it seems I have to sign in as a member first to have access to this feature, hopefully I will learn more about it in Thing 14 . Topix doesn't even include a “Help” button on their home page, they expect me to find my own way.


Lack of sorting tools is another major problem for me. Most search engines define search options or categories such as feeds, blogs, citations, hottest news, music, religion, etc. for us, feeds can usually be sorted by dates. However, a lot of these classifications are still too general for me to narrow the feeds down to a more manageable size.


To cut through the clutters, I've finally learnt to be very specific with my keyword search. In Feedster search box, I put in as many words, phrases, dates, and reliable sources as I can think of , as a result, I am able to reduce the 48,945 feeds on “Obama” to 3. I've also learnt if I want to find feeds for a specific news story, I can always go to the Washington Post website where many stories have a feature called “who is blogging”, it is operated by Technorati, through which I can read all the feeds that are related to a specific story.


To find local news, the best search engine is Topix.net. To start a search in Topix, I can either go to their website or to the CNN.COM homepage and look for the local news box, a zip code is all I need to find out the latest local news. Most sources come from local news media. "Ellicott City News", for example, draws the news from Baltimore Sun, Howard County Times, Columbia Flier, WBAL-AM, and WJZ-TV, etc., readers can submit their own stories too. I can also post a comment on "Ellicott City News" forum, one of many topic-driven forums offered by Topix, this is as close to a town hall meeting as you can get online.


My last search is for a popular food blog called “Chocolate & zucchini”. Syndic8.com is the only search engine that delivers. I typed in the phrase, no more, no less, Syndic8 gave me 3 entries that matched exactly what I was looking for, I didn't have to browse through thousands of unrelated feeds or blogs. However, unlike most search engines, Syndic8 does not display brief description nor source for each entry upfront on the result list, it seems people in Syndic8 really love statistics, I had to go through a couple of pages of mysterious codes and detailed statistics before I could see the actual blog or posting.



Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Thing 8: What's on sale at Target this week?


Through Bloglines and the Target RSS feed I subscribe to, now I can find out their sales with just a couple of clicks, no more flipping through newspaper ads, no more going through several screens at their website to find the sales, what's not to like?

Thanks to 23 Things, I also find out that one of my favorite websites, “Chocolate & Zucchini” has RSS feed, now I can read their delicious blogs everyday. Don't get too excited though, my friends, I don't often practice what I read.

I wish stores like Trader Joe's, Giant, Safeway, and Papa John's Pizza would have the same feature, that would certainly make my life easier.


Monday, September 10, 2007

Thing 7: They call me Mimi, meet me at the Simulcast


Mimi is one of the main characters in La Boheme. Washington National Opera is going to perform this opera on Sept. 23, 2007. The performance is also going to be transmitted simultaneously to 32 schools around the country for FREE! Locals can watch this performance on the Washington Monument grounds. Wouldn't it be nice if the Library could become the 33rd institution to receive this simulcast?

Friday, September 7, 2007

Thing 6: This "Retrievr" is a golden mashup

I used to think Flickr was not for me. I don't take pictures, I don't own a camera, I keep all the Kodak moments in my mind and my heart, I have nothing to share. Now "23 things" forces me to take another look at Flickr and the mashups that are used with this service, the results are fascinating. I particulary like the combination of Flickr and Retrievr and this is how it works. First I draw a sketch, then Retrievr will display matching images that are taken out of the Flickr collections. It doesn't really matter if the images actually match with what I draw, it's the anticipation of what Retrievr can come up with makes it exciting.

It's a fun way to search photos and it's addictive!!

Thing 5: A Flickr moment


on approach
Originally uploaded by matt knoth
An image I took out of Flickr.

Nature is one of the most photogenic objects, point and click, and you have a stunning picture.

These are salt ponds near Fremont, CA.

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Thing 2: 7 and 1/2 lifelong learning habits


Two words jumped out of the screen at me when I was getting towards the end of the tutorial, BE COURIOUS.

Many of us are so bogged down by responsilibites, demands and challenges of our daily life, we forget to “be courious”, we become indifferent, passive, and cynical. Be curious, we need to remind ourselves. Life without curiousity is a dull life, be curious, many doors will open, we'll go in and...

PLAY!



Thing 3: The Impossible does the Unthinkable...

She owns a piece of real estate on the internet by creating her own blog, something she didn't even dare to dream of a couple of weeks ago. Compared with the spread that some of her coworkers, the bloggers extraordinaire, have put together, this is a rather primitive abode and a humble beginning. She doesn't know what this is going to lead her to, she is ready to explore.