It appears that Google is starting to roll out a primitive feed reader within the Gmail interface. (Link via Kottke)
If you've ever wanted to get all of your bookmarks into del.icio.us, but didn't want to engage the tedium of doing it one bookmark at a time, then you might like the del.icio.us loader for Firefox. Disclaimer: I have not used this, so I can't assure you of its functionality. Seen at lifehacker.
I know that no one reads this blog anymore, but if you happen to be here and haven't tried out Amazon Light yet, go do it right now. Basically, it's an alternate interface to Amazon, but most noteworthy in that it incorporates Jon Udell's Library Lookup functionality right into the search results page. That is to say, look up any book and (once you've selected your library in the Settings) on the book detail page there will be a button check for that item in your library's catalog. Sure, it's exactly the same as the bookmarklet, but I implore you to acknowledge the coolness of incorporating this application into a much broader suite of nifty features (including BlogThis, del.icio.us, Netflix and Gmail functionality). Trust me, just go check it out already.
Update: I see that Mr. Fagan and Mr. Cohen beat me to this one. I may as well point out that my source was the always entertaining kottke.org remaindered links weblog.
For all you content management fans out there, Objectis is offering freely-hosted Plone and Zope accounts. You can choose either and when you register, you get your own subdirectory of the objectis.net domain. My as-of-yet unused site is at http://openstacks.objectis.net. We played around with Plone some in my Network Technologies class back in grad school. Loads of potential. Now I just need a good excuse to invest some time in it.
I've read about Furl a number of times as a product similar in function to del.icio.us. Having put del.icio.us through its paces, and on the encouragement of creator Michael Giles, I gave Furl a test drive this evening. The following message is my response to Michael after having played around a bit (although here I've properly capitalized Furl, which I did not in the email):
Hey Mike,
Thanks for the push (and for checking out my humble blog). I've been meaning to give your baby a go-around for a while now. And I must say, it's very nicely done.
Let's take it for granted that I like the things that make Furl unique: archiving of pages, full-text search, selective privacy of links, easy-to-use toolbar (even as over-toolbarred as I am!). In the interest of either making Furl better or becoming a better Furl user, let me point out some things I like about del.icio.us (hereafter dlish) that appeared (to my novice eye) to be different/missing in furl.
First, one of my favorite things about dlish is the ability to apply multiple categories to a link.* Now I see that I can add keywords to a archived page, but there doesn't appear to be a way to browse an index of those keywords as you can with the topics. Adding that kind of functionality would appeal to me. I also like that dlish shows me the number of times I've used each of my topics. Perhaps you have included a way to view that info, but not in an obvious way. If not, I suggest adding it, since it allows users to analyze their classification schemes for maximum utility.
But I think the central difference between the two managers is the relative emphasis on social bookmarking. While both offer it, dlish makes it the priority, presenting the collective bookmarking of its users as the primary content. Furl comes off as more of a power user tool whereas dlish feels something like a community blog, much like Metafilter without the wit and sarcasm. This is in no way a criticism, just an impression.
Mike, I think you have a great thing going. I would be happy to discuss it further and hope you won't mind me posting these general impressions on Open Stacks, so that others can join the discussion and be encouraged to experiment on their own.
Might I also suggest you get a development blog going. I'd be interested in learning about ways you are moving furl forward. And if you do that, please share the feed URL!
Keep up the great work,
Greg
* [I will save discussion of the relative merits of offering a controlled topical vocabulary (furl) vs. natural language (dlish) for a different time. One can create their own topics in furl, but some people won't go through the trouble; in dlish, they have no choice.]
Anyway, at this point, I think I'm still a del.icio.us user, but given Mike's interest in the opinions of potential users, I can't help but want to help him succeed in making a convert of me. He offers a ton of great features, most notably archiving of actual pages, which allows for full-text searching of your bookmark content. I highly suggest checking out Furl and offering opinions/comparisons either here or via the contact form. Let me know which you'd prefer to use (and why, but I'm sure I didn't need to tell you that).
I found an interesting concept linked from Kottke's remaindered links. The idea is to create an XML-based book list (with the help of an easy-to-use interface), put it on your site and notify this site with your zip code and distance willing to travel. You can then be matched with others in your area, peruse their lists and connect with them to set up a swap. Nice way to trade out some of those dusty books from your shelves. It will definitely need a critical participation mass to be useful, but the seed has been planted.
Although I didn't notice the word privatization anywhere, Peter Scott linked to presentations from a conference entitled Outsourcing library and information services: threat or opportunity?, which at least acknowledges the inherent tension in the concept.
Saw an interesting new RA tool posted on Metafilter today:
Whichbook lets you choose from up to four appeal factor extremes (unpredictable vs. expected, for instance) and set your preference on a sliding scale. It then returns suggestions based on your parameters. You can also set character, plot and setting preferences through similarly nifty interfaces.
Bookslut posted a link to Time Magazine's 50 Best Websites. Most of the selections will be pretty familiar (read lame) to a web-savvy (and pop culture loving) information professional, but there are some noteworthy selections, including the Bookslut herself. My main issue with the list is its apparent NY-obsessiveness (is there a word for that? - Bigapplophilia?):
Gawker as the best News and Info Blog?!?!?
These sites are all well and good, but there seems to be a suspicious level of bias (and mainstreamness) that repels me from taking their suggestions seriously.
For those of you who couldn't make it more than fifty pages into Ulysses (admittedly, I've never tried), might I suggest Ulysses for Dummies? A sentence or two per chapter coupled with some ancient-looking "animation" makes for a quick laugh or three. And somehow, I found it educational.
I was checking out the winners of this year's Webby Awards and found some really fascinating stuff I hadn't encountered before:
Plumb Design Visual Thesaurus - Offered in both an online and desktop format, this reference tool gives you a manipulable graphical representation of your selected terms, allowing you to explore interrelationships between words. Really engaging stuff.
BrainPop - An educational site filled with great animations, quizzes, games, etc. There are many sites that work in the same domain, but this is amongst the elite.
Theban Mapping Project - Working toward a comprehensive archaeological database of Thebes. Be sure to check out the Atlas of the Valley of the Kings - a genuinely worthwhile timesuck.
There are many other sites worth exploring amongst the nominees, so check it out.
I learned from the liblicense list today that the Lund University Libraries have put together a directory of open access scholarly journals. While I have little love for scholarly publishing in general, I am a big fan of open access and efforts to aggregate resources, especially when they are "free, full text, quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals." Nice work. Hopefully, this project will encourage others to venture into open access publishing. And let's hope for enough open access LIS publishing to warrant its own category.