PPLD Thing #16: Explore Technorati and discover how tags work with blog posts.

So now that you’ve been blogging for awhile, you might be wondering just how big the blogosphere is. Well, according to Technorati, the leading search tool and authority for blogs, the number of blogs doubles just about every 6 months with over 51 million blogs currently being tracked by the site. If the blogging trend continues, it is estimated that Technorati will have tracked its 100 millionth blog in just 5 months.
Yes, these numbers are astounding, but as you’ve already seen for yourselves, blogging is so easy that these publishing tools are being taken advantage of by almost every industry, including libraries.
There are a lot of new features that have been added to Technorati, including new ways to search for blogs. You can search for keywords in blog posts, search for entire blog posts that have been tagged with a certain keyword, or search for blogs that have been registered and tagged as whole blogs about a certain subject (like photography or libraries).
Resources:
Technorati Discover & Popular features
Exercise:
Search for a blog in Technorati and subscribe to it in your Bloglines account (RSS Feed).
OPTIONAL: If you're up for a challenge, learn how to tag your blog posts with Technorati tags so they can join tag searches. Create a post about something. It can be anything you want and add the HTML code to the bottom to tag it as “PPLD.” You may also want to consider claiming your blog and creating a watchlist.
NOTE: When adding HTML code, you'll want to make sure you're in Blogger's Edit HTML window. There's a lot to explore.
Technorati Tag: PPLD

 

Ok, everything above is copied verbatim from the PPLD's 23 Things website. There were so many things listed to do I just wanted you to have some idea of what I was writing about.

Blogs, blogs, blogs and more blogs. In a nutshell that's what Technorati is. It is probably the largest blog directory on the web but it is also like having cable TV...200 channels and nothing on. I have spent at least an hour searching through blog listing looking for one that caught my interest enough to subscribe. I finally found one.

Check out The Thinking Blog. I liked it because it doesn't stick to one subject or theme, it just goes with whatever comes up. A warning though the "Pictures Worth A Thousand Words" series does contain some disturbing images that may upset some individuals sensitive to depictions of world hunger and strife.

Alrighty then, I have another complaint about Technorati. I have spent another hour trying to claim my blog and have been denied regardless of how I have typed in the URL. I have searched through the support FAQs and forums and have found no answers as to why. In the discussion forums, someone will complain about not being able to claim their blog and the discussion mediator replies with "we have fixed that for you" or "you should be able to claim your blog now". There are absolutely no answers. I can only assume that their processes are so error ridden that they fix problems on the fly and don't tell the people reporting the problems how they did it so they don't look bad. I finally e-mailed them and got an auto-response that a support person would contact me soon.

Good luck to all who try to use Technorati. I hope you have a lot of patience.

 

Technorati Tags: PPLD

PPLD Thing #15: Learn about tagging and discover Del.icio.us (a social bookmaking site)

Exercise:

1. Explore del.icio.us. Click on bookmarks, view tags, look at user lists.
2. Create a del.icio.us account for yourself and discover how this useful bookmarking tool can replace your traditional browser bookmark list.

This is an interesting site. I exported my favorites list from Internet Explorer and it worked quite easily. MSN Explorer is another matter though. You need a third party app and some inkling of where Windows hides the MSN Favorites file. I'm giving up the search for now but I'll be back.

I can definitely see how del.icio.us can be useful and will probably look into it further even though I'm not sure I want to share my favorites with everyone.

Now, where is that @##$%! Favorites file? 

PPLD Thing #14 - Discover Ning, a customized social networking site

Exercise:

1. Create an account in Ning and join the PPLD site
2. Blog about the things you learned this week.

 

Ning is another social network site. It appears to be for a person to set up networks for very specific groups or subject matters such as the PPLD site. It also allows subgroups with in each network so you could break out your network into departments. It also has the bells and whistles of other network site such as forums, video, photos, blogs, etc...

Learning 2.1 was an interesting network. It was much like the 23 Things and is geared towards learning Web 2.0 and its many uses and gadgets. I'll probably go back to this site and check out the forums in more detail.

A Grown-Up Schedule!

Talk about something that makes you happy, how about switching from a 3 nights a week work schedule where you work every Saturday to a  1 night a week schedule where you alternate Saturdays and Mondays off. As Ann, one of my co-workers, calls it, "a grown-up schedule".

Sure, I'll alternate between a one day weekend and a three day weekend and I'll have to work 4 hrs on approx. every 6th Sunday but I also get to spend a lot more evenings with Evelyn (my wife).

I really wasn't aware how much the 3 nights a week affected me but since I started the new schedule on this week I've had a much better attitude and apparently have been annoyingly happier. Apologies to my co-workers on that last one.  

To show how happy I am, check my avatar from www.meez.com.

 

 

And by the way, the background was chosen because it looks like the places Evelyn has been describing for our next vacation. Although you can bet she wouldn't let me go to the beach without supervision as long as there were girls out sunning. Maybe she won't notice them in the background.