Social Networking
This image has nothing to do with the text in this post... but any excuse to post a daily photo is welcome :) I just like the bright pretty colors. This was a flower in one of the gardens outside the Jordan River Temple that I noticed this past Saturday.So I've finally been tinkering with my blog as of late, adding this and that. I'm just a step away from getting the banner replaced so that it's really personalized (yeah. Just have to create that banner...)
You'll notice the addition of some dynamic content in the two columns
on the right-- one is a Twitter feed, and the other a little widget
from last.fm-- a couple of social networking sites / utilities (not to mention I've actually linked other blogs from mine-- I'm no longer a complete dead end, woohoo!). Social
networking is all the rage these days, and thankfully it has matured
and advanced technologically well past the old myspace. Many other
social networking utilities and sites exist, but these are a few that I
use for now. If you already know all about these utilities-- you can just skip reading this post ;) It's my lame attempt to try to get more people sucked in to the madness that is social networking, hehe.
Twitter provides some functionality I've long wanted. It acts as a sort of mini blog-- so now I can post little inane things that just aren't worthy of a full on blog post. And aside from being able to embed your Twitter feed on a blog or other social networking site, the service itself allows you to network with other Twitter users-- you can both follow the updates of others and allow other people to follow yours. It's kinda like status updates on facebook, only that's ALL it tracks, so they're all in one place, you can kinda see what people are up to. Whether you share something you're doing, a funny quote someone just said, or say something to another twitter user-- good stuff. It's also great that I can submit "tweets" via text message.
Last.fm-- I've seen this widget on some other blogs, and only today realized that it was set up not to show what they were listening to on Last.FM's site, but what they were listening to on their iPods and iTunes libraries. Very cool-- music is one of those things I love, and it's fun to both see what others are listening to as well as share what you're listening to from moment to moment.
Last.FM seems to do that well, it provides a way to social network with other music listeners... you can see who else is listening to the artists you are, how many people listen to it, etc etc. It's also cool just to be able to look at your friends' listening habits and tastes. (Note that it also works with Winamp and Windows Media Player, it's not limited to iPod/iTunes). There's more to Last.FM, but this is what I like so far about it. Check it out.
I suppose the next step for me may be flickr. I have an account but have never used it. I've seen that on peoples blogs now for quite some time-- you just post photos (with descriptions if you like, perhaps), and have a feed to your flickr photo stream with thumbnails of recent photos somewhere on your site / blog. It's just another way for people to share what they're up to. Whether it's photos intended as art or just photos illustrating every day life, people can follow your photo stream and comment on your photos. Rather than being a private photo album, it's the social networking version of a photo album.
It may well be more convenient than creating a blog post for each photo that I decide I want to upload, while allowing me to be part of a community rather than just keeping to myself over here at sloanie.com.
Twitter provides some functionality I've long wanted. It acts as a sort of mini blog-- so now I can post little inane things that just aren't worthy of a full on blog post. And aside from being able to embed your Twitter feed on a blog or other social networking site, the service itself allows you to network with other Twitter users-- you can both follow the updates of others and allow other people to follow yours. It's kinda like status updates on facebook, only that's ALL it tracks, so they're all in one place, you can kinda see what people are up to. Whether you share something you're doing, a funny quote someone just said, or say something to another twitter user-- good stuff. It's also great that I can submit "tweets" via text message.
Last.fm-- I've seen this widget on some other blogs, and only today realized that it was set up not to show what they were listening to on Last.FM's site, but what they were listening to on their iPods and iTunes libraries. Very cool-- music is one of those things I love, and it's fun to both see what others are listening to as well as share what you're listening to from moment to moment.
Last.FM seems to do that well, it provides a way to social network with other music listeners... you can see who else is listening to the artists you are, how many people listen to it, etc etc. It's also cool just to be able to look at your friends' listening habits and tastes. (Note that it also works with Winamp and Windows Media Player, it's not limited to iPod/iTunes). There's more to Last.FM, but this is what I like so far about it. Check it out.
I suppose the next step for me may be flickr. I have an account but have never used it. I've seen that on peoples blogs now for quite some time-- you just post photos (with descriptions if you like, perhaps), and have a feed to your flickr photo stream with thumbnails of recent photos somewhere on your site / blog. It's just another way for people to share what they're up to. Whether it's photos intended as art or just photos illustrating every day life, people can follow your photo stream and comment on your photos. Rather than being a private photo album, it's the social networking version of a photo album.
It may well be more convenient than creating a blog post for each photo that I decide I want to upload, while allowing me to be part of a community rather than just keeping to myself over here at sloanie.com.
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