Search engines : Google and an IPO, Google and Blogs [ResourceShelf]  5:00:01 PM   [Feedback ]  

Weblogs : E-mail out - RSS In.

Corante blogs about RSS replacing e-mail for content:

"Until recently there has not been an alternative. As consumers and enterprises adopt weblogs and aggregators a critical mass of users is already available in early adopter segments."

"By contrast to Lists, Feeds are not opt-in or opt-out -- they are optional. In a decentralized structure, multiple Feeds in aggregate constitute an equivalent function to a List. Authors are Readers and as an Author has a choice to offer a Feed, as a Reader what to consume. We subscribe to people we trust not to waste our time. New Authors are revealed through social filtering (subscribed Authors referencing them). As Readers, they have the lowest transaction costs available for administering their consumption." (via movableBLOG asides)

Agreed. I don't get any spam or viruses in my aggregator. I only get content that will interest me (well, mostly). I have been e-mail alert free since last month and have been extremely content with the results. I have also had the wish to get my POP3 e-mail in my aggregator as well, and I think I would like to rescind that wish at this time.

I hardly use e-mail to converse with friends/colleagues anymore, relying mostly on IM (which is on for most of the day either at work or at home). So, down with e-mail and lets all join the RSS fray. All of us...even Blake.

[Library Stuff]  4:57:46 PM   [Feedback ]  

Weblogs : Blogging for research.

Liz Donovan has writtten an interesting article about weblogs and news researchers. A quote:

"I'm a blogger. I almost hate to admit it, since the word 'blogger' seems to dredge up all sorts of uncomfortable images. We've all been bored silly by blogs that spout personal opinions, political rants, and ramblings of bored teens."

"But there's another kind of blog out there, and journalists and news researchers are increasingly embracing them as a useful tool."

"In my case, I decided to put together a Web site with my favorite links for research. While I was at it, I thought I might as well update the page with some of the great links I find every week while browsing for research. Since I'm adding them to the newsroom intranet, why not put some of them online, too?" (via Feedster)

[Library Stuff]

  2:44:55 PM   [Feedback ]  

Weblogs : Getting the Blog Rolling.

Melissa Mytinger says:

"We're thinking that a lot of interesting information -- some of it benign gossip, some of it factually correct, but all of it relevant to readers -- crosses our desks and paths every day. This blog is an effort to share as much of that news as is warranted. I'd love the postings to be timely, and, of course, intensely compelling reading, but, hey, no promises. Give us a bit of time to adjust to a new-found forum, one that opinionated booksellers find awfully seductive but one that'll take getting use to, and we hope a posting here, a posting there, will be of interest to you." (via Bookselling this Week)

Remind me again why librarians shouldn't be writing weblogs...?

[Library Stuff]  7:35:03 AM   [Feedback ]