The Incredible era of Social Networking…II

When this happened I got some sound suggestions asking me to get on the network bandwagon. A lot many things can happen and the traditional you-apply-i-select approach is past gone. One has to get in touch with the folks there, the community guys. Raise a few questions, get some insight into the developments going on. Talk to prof, find out about the R&D going on. In simple words “DUDE Grow UP, you just can’t afford to live alone…”

First and foremost I joined orkut, then brushed up all my contacts on Facebook which I had joined to keep up with my lieterary itinerary. And I am yet to begin any of those I have initially planned to do. A really sad irony, ain’t it? I know. Time is one of the reasons I can site but heck 24 hours is way too much time. Frankly I am not at all happy with the progress that’s happening and to be absolute frank again I digressed quite a bit...

This is about my findings. And here are some of the best ones I have come across after literally trying out and testing almost all the ones there. Believe me the list doesn’t end just yet. There are way too more and I will test them later. I do wonder though who in the world are going to use so many but I just hope these would fascinate you as much as it did to me….

Let’s start with

Kosmix - An incredible search site which brings news from almost all the major sites out there in whatever format you want - video, news, pictures, tweets. A little high on bandwidth but visually it’s mind blowing. Have been using it for quite sometime now. It just bloody rocks!!!

Del.ic.ous – hmmmm…yummmyyy…mouth watering eh? Ya I know it’s one of the biggies out there. But that was the first time I got the slice of the power in it.

Sphinn – In the same lines of digg, propeller, furl, etc it just sounds cool…AIn’t used it much though but time pass guaranteed.

Mixx – Your blend of the web says the tagline and it’s one heck of a site. No wonder CNN, Reuters, USA Today are some of it’s partners. All standard social rules apply. This is a must visit site.

Current – You see you don’t have to look far away for innovation. It’s there in everyday lives. This is one of the prime examples for it. Go for it…

Just to get the feel of how many there are I am going to list out ‘few’ of hundreds out there – BallHype, Blogmarks, Blinklist,Diigo, Furl, Fark, Faves, Hatena, Kaboodle, kirsty, Link-A-Gogo, Mister Wong, Multiply,Propeller, Simpy, Tip’d, Tumblr,Xanga,

Here are some of the major players – twitter, Facebook, Digg, LinkedIn, Technorati, FriendFeed, WordPress, Blogger, Add to BX, Google Bookmarks,

Then there are all sorts of innovation in search too that are trying to get at least 1% of market share of google. I have discovered there is also a site for these search engines too to search – AltSearchEngines. Through this I have found one of the coolest search engines ever - KallOut.

KallOut

is a application that needs to be downloaded and installed. With this you don’t need that search bar again. It’s the most unobstructive way to browse or search in the web. All one needs to do is highlight a word you want to search. You get a small icon like this. Hover the mouse over it and watch the magic unfold as you click on it and are welcomed by an open palette where your results will be displayed. This is just one part of the story though. The absolute essential feature that I have fell in love with this is it’s ability to integrate with IMDB. I faced this problem countless number of times especially, when I want to download movies – I copy a movie name, open up a tab, search the movie and then come back. That little extra effort always bugs. With Kallout all that is history.

Sadly though I am not getting the panels and all my results are getting displayed in a seperate IE window :( ... if any of you folks get this working as is shown in the window, please do let me know in the comments. I also mailed them twice, once through direct e-mail and once through the feedback form. Didn't get any response so far. Currently CoolPreview of Firefox is doing some wonders in my ways of browsing the net, but I would still love to have kallout.

In the mean time to get some cool special effects to make my blog much more jazzier I cought up on Zamenta which promises to do so much but I just couldn't get the whiff of it. I mean through firefox extension I tried beautifying it, but it just didn't work. Luckyily RWW came to my rescue and provided me with this beautiful thingy (software/web 2.0/widget/extension/call it whatever) Apture

which makes your linking life so easier and it certainly does wonders which I think you folks must have definitely been awed by now!

Just to be on the same tech side through these umpteen lazy hours here are some of the best sites about the Web technology, news and analysis. Mind you, not a day goes by without me reading through all these sites. Let me rephrase it all 90% of my day is spent reading all the articles being posted- a real tough job you know – so much information to assimilate and comments to go through. Anyways here goes the list…

Read Write Web – My current favorite. A pro-twitter, pro-apple, ambi-Microsoft website with tons of information with whatever is happening throughout the web world.

TechCrunch – Will let them do the talking – “as a weblog dedicated to obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies.”

LifeHacker - Again Won't do much talk talk talk...coz this just hacks into your life with so much gyan vyan, it's just too incredible a site to let go..

Well, folks there ends my 2.0 journey...see you soon.. adios..amigos...

The Incredible era of Social Networking… I

Very recently, almost a week now, I have become a relentless pursuer of the new upcoming sites/wikis/blogs/mashups – call it whatever you feel like. It all started with checking out few comments posted on one of the articles in Counter Currents. After I closed the window I clicked on the ‘Share This’ button and it was the first time I really paid close attention to all those tiny things listed out there. Then it was like -Common… gimme a break!..When does this stop? It’s like these things keep mushrooming and the end is no where in sight.

It’s quite interesting to go back in history and start from what actually was missing for someone to go onto networking. I mean first and foremost it started with chat. Every guy/gal you knew had Yahoo! . The fun of chatting was just too good to resist. Going into chatrooms with psuedonames, looking for a specific kind of people and ending up with ASL constantly. And then you may/may not realize that all the rooms are filled with these kinds. Some go in for the kill and might have been successful, that’s another story. Mails too played the integral part of communication. We so much needed it in exchanging notes, ppts, photos, etc. err, they still do? Ain’t it?

Well unknowingly my first brush with networking started with Orkut. You know back in those good old you-scrap-i-scrap-what-a-crap days , it was so much fun. Things started to simmer down, came out of the s’crap’s. Then my blog happened which again wasn’t serious networking per se. Still with few comments here and there, getting some readers (follower’s concept wasn’t there back then) kept me active. There was something missing still – the interactions were not fast enough, the blogs weren’t small enough and certainly the frequency was just not long enough to keep anyone hooked. But the immense happiness I get looking back at my old blogs or the times when I post new ones or the times I get comments (got it? Comments? ) is something I can’t express. It keeps my spirits alive the whole day.

Anyways, in middle of this there was again unknowingly I was part of another network StumbleUpon – one of the coolest add-ons ever I have ever installed on Firefox. This was a must every time I installed Firefox (and that happened heck of a lot times). The idea of just getting the sites of your interest on just the click of the mouse is a nirvana to all those lazy bums who have no clue what to spend the time on the net for. Gosh! I was one heck of a stumbler, some of my finds have been just amazing and my main interests included – U.S. Imperialism, Anti-war, Internet, Athiests, and so on.
Well things moved on and here in brief this is how it happened..

• Came to Bangalore


• Part of great company, great project


• Project ended, next project.


• Project 2 lots and lots of free time and I mean a lot!!!!


• Blogs, blogs, blogs… didn’t really post comments/feedbacks and all but heck discovered hell lot of blogs. Still wasn’t part of the networking ‘wave’ as such.

So as it stands these three –stumble, blog, mails kept me on. Then things started changing/rather about to change… Next part …