Showing posts with label internet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label internet. Show all posts

Saturday, February 11, 2012

DeGroodt Digital Dash Week 6: Tagging and Social Bookmarking


Tag you’re it!

Well, not really, but you can tag the items you post on sites like Pinterest and Twitter to make it easier for others to search for them. This means that you are adding a special character called a hashtag to your keyword to make it searchable. For Example, typing in #chicken means that the when someone searches for the keyword “chicken”, your post will come up in the list of results. Some databases like Blogger have a tag field box where you would enter in all the words you would like to make searchable. When using a field box, you do not always need the hashtag. Sometimes the words need to either be written as one word no spaces like “chickenrecipe” or listed with commas separating the keywords “chicken recipe, fried chicken”.

When you are in Facebook you tag your friends in your posts by adding the “@” symbol before their name. This means that your post will also appear on your fiends’ timeline and they will receive a notification that you have “tagged” them. Twitter also has this feature when you want to “mention” a person. It will also send a notification.

Social Bookmarking uses this concept of tagging to help you organize your bookmarks. Sites like Delicious are very handy web 2.0 tools that allow you to save websites to lists or boards that you can access at a later date from any computer with Internet access. This comes in very handy when you have hundreds of sites bookmarked and you are looking only for the one that has a certain subject.

You can even tag items in the Brevard County Libraries’ DiscoverCard Catalog . Tagging an item in the card catalog makes it easier for others to search for an item. Examples of tags you might want to use would be series names, volume numbers, or even character names from the book. All tags are moderated before they are posted for others to see.

Here we have expanded the tag box for the book Civil War on Sunday by Mary Pope Osborne. If you were to search for any of those tags, this book would appear in your search results. You can also see at the bottom there is a button to “Add Tag”. This is what you would select if you wanted to submit your own tag to the list. One possible tag for this entry would be “Magic Treehouse” which would make this book appear in the list if the space was forgotten from “Tree House” in the series title.

Have you tried tagging before? What do you think about it?





Thursday, January 19, 2012

DeGroodt Digital Dash:Week 3 Social Media


Social Media  is technology we use on the Internet and on mobile devices to communicate with each other. There are six types of social media: collaborative projects like wikipedia, blogs like Blogger and microblogs like Twitter, content communities like Pinterest and Youtube, social networking sites like Google+ and Facebook, virtual gaming worlds like Minecraft, and virtual social worlds like Sims and Second Life. Social Media is basically anything on the web where you are encouraged to communicated and discuss with others. It is Web 2.0. Collaborative, user-centric, and forever changing.

Twitter is quickly becoming a source for breaking news with updates from people who are experiencing events as they happen.  Facebook keeps friends and family updated. What social media do you use? What do you love about it? What do you dislike?

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

DeGroodt Digital Dash: Week 2 ----Google



©2009-2012 *SE7ENART

Google is one of the best search engines available on the internet. By simply typing some keywords in the search box you can get thousands of results. We use it so much that back in 2006 it was officially added to the Oxford English Dictionary with the definition: using the Google search engine to find information on the internet. We are not just searching, we are googling.

You can fine tune your search by using certain options like:
            Images
Finds images related to your keywords
            News
                        Finds news articles related to your keywords
            Videos
Finds videos that are related to your keywords 
Trivia: Google acquired YouTube back in 1996
            Shopping
                        Finds products for sale that match your keywords
            Maps
Finds maps, addresses, and information regarding locations that match your search

Trivia:Did you know if you type an unlisted phone number in the search box, Google will match the number to a listing?

Yes, Google is great at finding information, but did you know it can do so much more than what is listed at the top of the page? Click on More and you wil get a list of all of google’s fun features like:
            Translate
Translates text and web pages into different languages. If you use the Google Chrome browser, Chrome gives you the option to translate web pages from other countries into your primary reading language.
Allows you to keep a digital calendar of all your important dates and schedules that can be synched to your mobile devices like android and apple devices.
Not only does Google own the popular blogging service Blogger, but they also have a search database that will allow you to browse blogs on various topics.
Allows you to search and preview millions of books online. Some books allow full access and some are only excerpts based on publisher restrictions.
Allows you to search scholarly literature across many disciplines and sources, including theses, books, abstracts and articles.
Shows real-time stock quotes & charts, financial news, currency conversions, or track your portfolio.
Keeps track of your favorite RSS feeds from blogs and websites to make keeping as simple as reading emails.

But wait! There’s more!

Your personalized start page featuring favorite Google tools like the calculator, calendar, and translate
Picnik    
Free photo editing
Picasa   
Photo sharing site
Social Media site for sharing information with your circles of friends, colleagues, and the rest of the world
Online word processor, spreadsheet, and presentations. Create online and access anywhere
Get amazing offers at the best places to eat, shop, and play
See where your friends are right now
Explore the world from your computer
Explore and share photos of the world
Build 3D models quickly and easily
Share your life online with a blog - it’s quick, easy and free
Create mailing lists and discussion groups
Share what you know
Meet new people and stay in touch with friends
Visualize, combine, host, and share your data tables
Developer tools, APIs and resources

Trivia: Did you know the Google logo may spontaneously change appearance? Google Doodles are the changes made to the logo to celebrate holidays, anniversaries and the lives of famous artists, pioneers and scientists.
Play with some of these Google apps and tools. Leave a comment below on which was your favorite. Have fun exploring! 
Trivia: Last month searchers were surprised by a freak snowstorm on their desktop browser when the search keywords “Let it Snow” were typed in the search box. “Easter Eggs” are the little bits of code that make searching on Google so much more interesting. Check out this article with a listing of all the hoaxes, gags, and Easter Eggs and here.