Thing 9 - Browsers

I have particularly enjoyed this 'thing' since I have come to appreciate that  the five main browsers do have some nuances and whilst on the surface of it may not behave that differently, can in fact offer quite distinctive features. Having played around with them for some time I can quite confidently say that I certainly have my favourite and would also gladly avoid one or two altogether.

There was once a time that I thought all web browsers essentially did the same thing. When using a PC I would faithfully stick to Internet Explorer, and on my Mac, Safari would be my browser of choice. On discovering Firefox I found that it ticked all the boxes and did all that I needed it to do at the time.  More recently I tried Opera and although it claims to be the 'fastest browser in the world,' I'm not sure I agree. Then, one day, I discovered Chrome.....

I ♥ Chrome

Chrome is a browser developed by Google, so if you are already a fan of the Internet giant then it makes sense to check it out. Some sources say it is the world's most used browser (although I must say I don't know many people who use it). What I like about Chrome is that I can log into my profile from anywhere and I can access all my bookmarks, favourites etc. I also have the option of creating more than one profile so I can have a google account associated with work, and a personal account as well.

The Chrome web store is also a welcome addition and features some great apps including Google web lab, Evernote, Tumblr and Google web highlighter. I could probably go on for a while about how much I love it but I think that makes me sound quite sad so I shall leave it there...or at least after a few pros and cons:

Pros:

Web-Store - loads of excellent add-ons to make life easier. From my toolbar I can pin images to Pinterest, open my Instagram feed, add items to my universal Amazon wishlist, bookmark articles with Diigo....

Easy to customise - loads of themes to choose from and you can have a different theme for each profile.

Integration with all other Google accounts - easy to access Google reader, Picasa, Google Drive, Gmail from your apps page (see image above).

Cons:

Some compatability issues -  From a work perspective this is quite irritating as I have to switch between Explorer and Chrome when I'm using certain programmes, although Library Chat works well and has a little pop-up which is welcome as I can now mute my speakers!

It's Google and some think they are evil.....http://www.wired.com/business/2012/06/opinion-google-is-evil/

Things 7 & 8 - Doodle

Image credit Sean Macentee

Ok so not a fan of Doodle - for 4 main reasons:

1. Too complicated and too many emails circulating for the sake of making one appointment. When I sent my invitation I received about 5 emails including notification that I had initiated a poll, a link to the poll, and that information had been provided on the poll by both myself and the invited party. I wish I had just sent a text.
2. My first poll disappeared somewhere into the ether. Where did it go? 
3. Annoying flash adverts all over the site.
4. Unable to sync my Outlook account. Permission denied.

I am sure that Doodle has its place but it's not for me - I find that Outlook meets all my appointment making needs and I am quite satisfied to stick with this for now.

Thing 8 - Added Doodle to Netvibes. This was straightforward but I still don't like Netvibes. I'm being really rather negative aren't I?? Still, with twitter on the horizon things might be looking up......

Library-related amusements: no.2

Library book returned 55 years late!

http://consumerist.com/2013/02/06/book-returned-to-new-york-public-library-almost-55-years-overdue/



Image - Fort Washington Branch Library via The Consumerist

Gives new meaning to a 'Long Loan'......



Things 4, 5 and 6 - Netvibes and RSS Feeds.

Although I am pretty familiar with RSS feeds and personalised dashboards, Netvibes is entirely new to me. Or so I thought, until I tried to set up a new account and was told that an account already existed. With absolutely no recollection of ever signing up, I concluded that Netvibes couldn't have made a lasting impression on me. Returning to it now I do indeed find it pretty forgettable. After an initial panic that I wouldn't make sense of what looked like a complicated and messy page, I did manage to begin to navigate the features and have come up with a dashboard that I am quite pleased with. However I don't think I will be using Netvibes with any kind of regularity. In fact I am still very content with plain old Google reader.

My Netvibes page

After playing around with backgrounds, customising it and giving it a library theme, I then created various tabs for organising all the feeds I had added. The page above shows the libraries tab I created and here I have added feeds including the British Library, Phil Bradley's netvibes page, the Soton library page and of course the Sot23 things updates. Although it is neatly laid out and you can play around with how the information is displayed, adjusting size of text etc I still find it quite sterile and uninspiring.

In terms of collecting RSS feeds then I will continue to use Google reader and further explore a relatively new platform Feedly, which is a stylishly minimalistic news deck that syncs with reader and integrates with twitter, facebook, instapaper etc. Although I found it very straightforward to add the Sot23 Things blog page to Netvibes, I still prefer a more traditional feed aggregator, without all the fancy widgets that Netvibes encourages.

In conclusion, even if I never proceed to use netvibes, simply being aware of it as another way to collect and organise information is worthwhile. Similarly, although I have some experience of RSS feeds and use Google reader regularly, playing around with a different platform and just being aware of it's existence has made this exercise useful - even though I plan to stick to what I know and feel comfortable with. Change is hard!