Twitter questions

What's correct etiquette for Twitter? I know how to not be annoying, but are you supposed to follow people who follow you? All of them? Are you supposed to send a message to people thanking them for following you? What's the deal?

Thing 30 - More Ways to use RSS and Delicious

I love RSS. It has made my life so much easier over the past year, I can't imagine living without it. I looked back at my posts from the first round of 23 things, and apparently I thought it was stalker-ish. Twitter is way worse, and I love that! My RSS is through Bloglines and I still find that easier to use than Google Reader. I check it at least once a day to make sure I don't get overloaded with posts. I don't really sort my RSS. I follow some other 23 things participants, and I do have those in a separate folder. And during primary season, I had all my political blogs in a separate folder (they were taking over). The others I just keep alphabetical.

I tried using the RSS locater. Maybe I was doing it wrong, but it didn't seem to come up with anything useful. I looked at some of the examples that were on the thing page, but none of them fit with what I use RSS for. If I lived in a city larger than Fargo, the Travel updates would probably be pretty cool.

Delicious. well.......... I haven't use it since last time. I tried to sign in and apparently didn't remember my password, so I had to set up a new account. Then I realized that I don't use bookmarks. I did in college, but haven't in years. So I didn't really know what to do. I'll check with some other people here in Moorhead and see what they use it for.

Thing 29 - and another thing

I haven't tried Goog-411, but I'm putting it in my phone. I may need it someday. I wish it had a less-annoying name...

Thing 29 - Google Tools

Looking through the options for thing 29, I'll admit I wasn't all that excited about this thing. I didn't want to use Web History because of the privacy issue. I clear all the private data off of my home computer at least once or twice a month. I don't necessarily think that anyone's gonna steal my information, but I just don't like having it there in plain sight.

The Google calendar has been really useful here at the library. We use it to set up a schedule for the use of our meeting rooms, since it's easy to access at any of the staff computers. In my personal life, I have a pocket calendar that's always in my purse. You don't always have access to a computer when trying to schedule things, so for me - a hard copy is better.

I already had a Google account that was automatically created when I signed up for Blogger last year, and I've used gmail for a computer class before. Thing is, I've been using hotmail since 1998. I'm usually resistant to change, but hotmail has been acting up lately and has big ads all over the place, so I'm giving in and switching to gmail. Everyone here at work tells me that this is a good thing.

I've also set up Google News. I already use an aggregator and have both CNN and InForum feeds, but I'll use both and see which one wins out.

Thing 28 - Customized Home Pages

I set up an iGoogle page during the first round of 23 things, but I have not used it a single time since then. One of the reasons I love Google so much is that it's so simple. Google is actually my homepage at home, but just the plain one. I get distracted very easily and usually when I go to look something up, I'm doing so right away so I don't forget. If I have tons of applications on there, I'm going to see something else and read that instead.

I signed into my google account, just to see what the page was like. I put a lot of really stupid stuff on there last year. I figured it was probably going to be easier to start over with a new site than rebuild my Google page. I tried Netvibes first, but I couldn't figure out how to modify anything and all the news applications were through CBS. I would rather get my news from almost any other source. I gave up on Netvibes and tried PageFlakes. That was really easy. I could move stuff around. It was very customizable. At first I couldn't figure out how to make applications go away, but I figured it out.

I'm going to try to use it more often this time around. We shall see.

Thing 27 - Twitter!

I've heard of Twitter before; some of the blogs I follow have mentioned it every once in a while. Personally it seemed like a waste of time. Now that I've tried it, it's amazing!! It's like updating your Facebook status, but better. This is stream-of-consciousness blogging, which works really well with my ADD. I can put random thoughts on there or use it to make a to-do list or some other thing that I'll just need to be reminded of later.

It was unbelievably easy to use; you just sign up and go. I was even able to add a widget to my blog! I'm still trying to see how this could be useful in a library setting, so I'm following the Hibbing Library to see what kinds of tweets they're doing. Maybe if I were attending a conference, I could use Twitter to put up quick thoughts on different presentations.

A hint to other users: if you want to share links, but your tweets are getting too long, try using tinyurl.com I've seen a few more experienced Tweeters? twitterers? using it to make long URLs fit within the 140 character parameters.

Thing 26: Join the 23 Things on a Stick Ning

I signed up for the 23 things Ning during the first round, but didn't really use it. I played with it a little more this round and I think I have a better understanding of how it works. I added another video to my page, commented on a couple others, changed the layout of my page, and joined the NLLN group. As a whole, I think it's a good idea to have a place where people can go and discuss issues that arise while they're working on the different things, but for some reason I can't see myself using it much. There doesn't seem to be much organization throughout the site. I'm going to try to keep going back to see what's been added.

Review: CORALINE

Review: CORALINE

Posted using ShareThis

Thing 25 extras

Just for fun, I took the Blog Readability Test and the Typealyzer. I'd be really interested to see what results other people got......

Typealyzer = ESTP - The Doers

The active and playful type. They are especially attuned to people and things around them and often full of energy, talking, joking and engaging in physical out-door activities.

The Doers are happiest with action-filled work which craves their full attention and focus. They might be very impulsive and more keen on starting something new than following it through. They might have a problem with sitting still or remaining inactive for any period of time."

Movie Reviews

Thing 25 - Bloggers Toolkit

I looked at the videos about widgets and there was a lot of good information included. I looked through Widgetbox and Google to search for some widgets to put on my blog. I found that both were easy to navigate, but I liked Widgetbox a little better - it had better categories and it gave you live previews of how the widget would actually work in your blog!

I've used some widgets before. I had LibraryThing on my blog during the first round, and then added RSS at the beginning of this round. I also used Clustrmap on a wiki that our library set up for Teen Read Week. I added 2 new widgets for this Thing, a digital clock on the bottom of the page and a movie trailer widget. I took the movie trailer one off already as it took you off the page. Isn't the whole point of widgets to get people to stay on your blog?

The best widget I've seen looking at other peoples blogs was a Super Mario widget on Shane's blog. Although I lost right away, it was fun!