Thing 13 - Google Docs, Wikis, and Dropbox

Google Docs: Google again! Praise Google. But be careful with Google because things you put in their systems are subject to their copyright which, last I heard, gives them rights to anything you shove in Google Docs. Some workplaces think Google Docs are awesome without realizing that they aren't copyright secure. So, as always, mind what you do with Google and cover your ass.

Wikis: I love these. Wikis are beautiful. It's like having knowledgeable monkeys at typewriters happily updating about things they love. Granted, it means Pasqualina is a fine Irish name, but these things happen.

Here is some advice about setting up a wiki: use templates and make rules about appearance. My experience with wikis has generally been through hobbies. While wikis allow multiple people to update, those people mostly have different ideas about what looks good on a page. They like to be different, so there will be different background colours, different fonts, thirty million pictures, unnecessary banners, and a whole host of other design 'features' that look like crap. Templates, templates, templates. It may seem draconian to limit the maximum pixel size and number of images allowed, but these things can and will be abused. Even if you're in love with the idea of multiple people editing a webwork of pages (like I am, I would marry it but I don't think it's interested in me), you want those pages to look the same. A wiki needs to be a unified whole even if it has a bunch of different writers. This means moderation and upkeep. The less control you keep over your wiki, the less professional it looks and the harder it is to navigate.

Dropbox: This one I don't know. The little video presentation in the CPD23 post is behaving oddly for me, so I'll just say this: this sounds like a great idea! I like the part where multiple copies aren't floating around. I'm not sure how it deals with various file formats/compatibility issues. Is there a limit to file size? Is this going to lead to music file sharing? What's the copyright like? I'm tempted to set one up now, but I have no idea what I'd put in it to share so I think I'll pass and try to remember this in the future.

What do you use your Dropbox for? Have you ever contributed to or maintained a wiki?

Thing 8 - Google Calendar and Eggs in Baskets

It's a civic holiday today, and you know what that means! It means I go to my grandmother's and help move stuff around. It also means I can catch up on my neglected little blog.

Thing 8 for CPD23: Google Calendars! They seem pretty useful. I'll admit I've tried to use them now and again but they never stick. Google Calendars do remind me a little of the shared calendars I use at work now. I have to put any meetings or training seminars I'm going to into said shared calendar. It's not the most intuitive name to look up, either, but it'll do. It also flashes little warnings when meetings are coming up, which would probably be more useful if I was actually at my computer and not in a file room.

And now for a cautionary tale: do not put all your eggs in one basket, especially if that basket is Google.

You may have heard that Google+ has been deleting accounts. There are a few reasons, but some people are being locked out for not using their real name, or at least what Google thinks is their real name. This is not so good news for people with screen identities, but the greater problem is losing access to your entire Google account if you have been storing all your data there. DON'T DO THIS.

Keeping all your stuff in one online 'cloud' is an interesting idea. Access it from anywhere, blah blah blah, but always keep backups. Actually, make the cloud your backup. Think of all the things Google can manage: calendars, correspondence, contacts, documents. Now think about what would happen if you suddenly lost access to that data.

On July 15 2011 you turned off my entire Google account. You had absolutely no reason to do this, despite your automated message telling me your system “perceived a violation.” I did not violate any Terms of Service, either Google’s or account specific ToS, and your refusal to provide me with any proof otherwise makes me absolutely certain of this. And I would like to bring to your attention how much damage your carelessness has done.

My Google account was tied to nearly every product Google has developed, meaning that I lost everything in those accounts as well. I was also in the process of consolidating everything into my one Google account. (…)

While the long post the article quotes the paragraphs above from has been taken down, there are other examples of this happening.

I would like to introduce you to something. That black box to the left is an external hard drive. Anyone who's ever had a computer meltdown and lost their data can tell you how much that stinks. This external hard drive allows me to back up all the files I would very much mind losing. It is small, portable, and has a lot of space. This is where you put the kinds of things you don't want to lose.

To the right is something called a day planner. They are also small, portable, and come in a delightful array of styles and colours. You write down your appointments and notes in them. These are both very useful tools.

Please remember, if you hand all your data to Google (or any other one 'place'), you may rue the day.

Given In to Google+

I was curious and I gave in. I have a Google+ account. I poked around a little and have very little idea of how to use it. From what I can tell, I can spam at least three different streams with blog posts. Kind of. In any case, I've been reading up on it. Voila: Tips on How to Use Google+ Plus with bonus Chrome extensions for Google+.

Google vs. the Content Farms

Google says it has tweaked the formulas steering its Internet search engine to take the rubbish out of its results. The overhaul is designed to lower the rankings of what Google deems “low-quality” sites. That could be a veiled reference to so-called online “content farms” such as Demand Media's eHow.com.

- Google tweaks search to punish ‘low-quality' sites, Globe and Mail

Google doesn't like content farms. They updated their algorithms. But did it work?

Blind Search

Also snitched from Closed Stacks, Blind Search!

Welcome to BlindSearch, the search engine taste test.

Type in a search query above, hit search then vote for the column which you believe best matches your query. The columns are randomised with every query.

The goal of this site is simple, we want to see what happens when you remove the branding from search engines. How differently will you perceive the results?

...I keep picking Google.

5 Myths About Google

Why not get the first Google entry of the new year out of the way quick? How Stuff Works presents The Top 5 Myths About Google:

5 - Google Doesn't Make Any Money
4 - Google Is Making You Dumber
3 - Google Knows Everything About You
2 - Google Earth is Spying On You
1 - Google Wants to Own the Internet


I'll admit part of number four irks me:

Defenders of the Internet make the opposite argument: Google has made us infinitely more intelligent by giving us instant access to all the world's collective knowledge. They argue that Google is the smart solution to a technologically "dumb" and outdated library system. With Google, we can gather up-to-the-minute information from myriad sources with blazing speed.

You can't find everything on Google!

LISNews: Ten Stories That Shaped 2010

Back in 2009, LISNews posted their list of the ten stories that shaped that year and this blog covered at least half of them! When it was only three months old!

LISNews has posted their list for 2010, which includes:

1. YouTube Sensations
   
2. Libraries and DVDs and Netflix, Oh My
   
3. Piracy Crackdown
   
4. Under New Management
   
5. Gizmo of the Year: iPad
   
6. I For One Welcome Our New Media Overlords
   
7. Web 2.0 Fatigue
   
8. Sign of the Times: Libraries = Offices for Unemployed
   
9. Google eBookstore Opens
   
10. Wikileaks Freakout
    

While I did not bother posting about the Old Spice Guy bit, I did have a mock version. I also had Gordon Pinsent reads Bieber, which wasn't a sensation but should have been. I will count that as one.

I didn't bother with the story about DVDs and Netflix, mostly because we didn't even have Netflix in Canada until recently. Nothing about the specific piracy concerns mentioned in LISNews, but a bit aboutWarner getting sued for Antipiracy Piracy as well as Confessions of a Book Pirate. Something about calling for new privacy laws as well. Maybe point five?

Outsourcing libraries! That's a solid one!

I made fun of iPads but failed to report on how libraries were using them. Point five. New media, case covered, one point. Web fatigue? The last time I mentioned it was in 2009 in a disparaging manner. I still think there's too much arm-flappy wailing, so no point there.

While I mentioned libraries being important for the unemployed and their job searches in at least one college essay, I failed to mention it here as far as I know - that's another zero. I talk about Google so often I have a 'google again' tag. Believe it or not, I actively try not to constantly blog about Google, so I did not mention this topic. Zero! One mention of WikiLeaks, but nothing on the freakout. No point there.

The total is... 4. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

Chuck & Beans: Life Before Google

20 Things Learned From Browsers and the Web

A cute little online book* made by the folks at Google called 20 Things I Learned From Browsers and the Web. This site explains internet workings in simple terms and is probably a good starter. It refers to Google a whole lot but the info's still good.


* Not an ebook, more like an actual book. That is online. With pages you turn. Just go see.

Library Reinvention

An LA Times article about libraries reinventing themselves as they struggle to remain relevant in the digital age.

And a rare dissenting opinion, at least in the articles I've come across:

Some traditional librarians worry that experiments aimed at making libraries more accessible could dumb them down.

"If you want to have game rooms and pingpong tables and God knows what — poker parties — fine, do it, but don't pretend it has anything to do with libraries," said Michael Gorman, a former president of the American Library Assn. "The argument that all these young people would turn up to play video games and think, 'Oh by the way, I must borrow that book by Dostoyevsky' — it seems ludicrous to me."

I'm still trying to get my head around organizing bookshelves like book stores, without the Dewey Decimal System and with books organized around topics. Not that Dewey Decimal isn't grouped by topic - that's kind of the whole point. Isn't there maybe a middle ground between strict adherence to the DDC and loose book store arragements?

Note the small mention of Google Books.

The Google Generation

Professor David Nicholas talks about how we've all started seeking information differently. People skitter now - they don't stick around or come back.

Really? I skitter some, but there are some old reliables I revisit pretty often. You know, bookmarked. I need to watch all of this sometime when my brain isn't full of studying French.

Adding Library Catalogue Results to Google Searches

From LISNews to Musings on librarianship: adding your library catalogue results to Google searches.

The Google instinct is very strong indeed. The danger here is students might be just happy with what they get in Google (Wikipedia I'm looking at you) and be done with it. What if a plugin could be installed such that whenever the student did a search in Google/Yahoo etc and it would automatically overlay library catalogue results next to it? This leverages the user's strong "Google instinct" and without any additional effort he can see the library catalogue results together with Google's.

And a comment on LISNews' post:

Things to come

Sahil here, from the WebMynd Team. Thank you for your comprehensive post around our new Content Concierge Platform!

I would love to share a few clarifications and upcoming features that we are excited to get out of the door:

- We are excited to announce that as of next week we now allow users/publishers to add an unlimited number of advanced widgets (as opposed to last week's constraint of just 1 advanced and unlimited simple).

- We do work with sources that require logins such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Gmail etc. - In general, if a user can get to a source and search it manually, we can create an advanced widget for that source. In the next week we will allow anyone to create widgets that require users to log in to an authentication server.

- Also in the next week or two we will complete our revamp of the "User Control Panel" allowing registered users to actually go back and edit/remove any sidebars created using our Content Concierge Platform. We also pushed a build this morning that will generate your search sidebar in <1 minute!- These sidebars are already fully compatible with all other major search engines...Yahoo!, Bing, Google, YouTube - across your major browsers, IE, FireFox, Chrome and soon, Safari.- We are working on a solution that will add more comprehensive logic as to how your verticals appear (in which order) in the sidebar. Currently, we place the vertical/widget that loads first at the top. Soon you will see your widgets that you have added will be locked in the order you enter them in the creation process!- Finally, we are looking to introduce a Content Concierge Gallery that will allow users to browse other generated sidebars - look out for this in November!We are very excited to have you and all your readers taking a look at our product. Any additional feedback is monumental in creating a platform that will serve as an incredibly useful utility for a wide range of publishers/users. Keep an eye out for a few more exciting additions like a full redesign of the sidebar and redesigned customized user landing pages!We are always interested in gathering feedback and helping anyone create a perfect search sidebar for their content consumption needs. Feel free to reach out to to the WebMynd team at support@webmynd.com with any feedback or questions/help requests around the creation process and we will get back to you ASAP.For all of you who do not wish to create a sidebar of your own, please feel free to visit our website: www.webmynd.com, scroll down and download our latest WebMynd Search Sidebar - Turbocharge & personalize your searches with the sites you care about most!Regards,WebMynd Team

Very cool. But WebMynd? Didn't the 'adding Y for I' craze die down in the late nineties? No? Damn.

Lagomorph Watson
Through the Stacks and Down the Rabbyt Hole With a Wannabe Lybrary Technycyan

MY EYES ARE BLEEDING

Interview With Thomas Mann

Snicked from librarian.net, Joshua Kitlas interviews Thomas Mann.

"I would like to see [reference] change in the way it’s taught. My impression is that the way it’s taught is how to think critically about websites. There’ a lost more to it than that. For one thing, we need to do a lot better job in telling people about the amazing range of sources that aren’t on the open Internet to begin with.

It usually involves looking in so many more places than one. Library of Congress Subject Headings are critical ñ what are the terms that are best suited for searching the source you’re ñ controlled headings and descriptors, or uncontrolled keywords? There’s an enormous difference between subject and keyword search–and citation searches or browsing the stacks or using bibliographies or talking to people. Each will show you something different. Changing the search technique
changes what you see in the results."

"The profession is radically getting dumbed down. There is so much more to search than Google or OCLC. You need to see relationships between subjects and their headings. Tags by users are simply no substitute. They’re okay as supplements to
controlled vocabularies but not substitutes. There’s a need to go beyond the internet and look at the systems librarians and publishers have developed that are not accessible by Google or the other engines."

Agreed. Every Friday in my reference class, we have an exercise which involves answering a series of questions using books the teacher has selected for us - Ulrich's Guide, Encyclopedia indexes, directories, whatever's useful for whatever type of reference question we're looking up - and you can only get so far with the internet, even including the e-journals and other resources we students get access to from the Learning Resource Center's site. (I was so happy to discover full-text New York Times articles I could look up at any time without registering and paying!) Some things you can look up; it's also useful for filling in little blanks in information to guide you to which print resources you need to look into.

Just this Friday, a group of students were passing reference books around and looking up our reference questions and one said, "I didn't even know any of these books existed." Most of us didn't. We're new! And most people never will, since they're not taking librarian courses, so it's up to librarians to help them. And that is pretty cool. I geek out just thinking of how much information I have access to now that I'm learning where to look, and how wonderful libraries are, and and and... neat!

In any case, I think Mann would approve of the methods taught by my reference instructor. I intend to read more stuff from this guy.

The Waldo Ultimatum

From Neatorama:



"He's at the North Pole, look up, idiot!"
"That's a giant candy cane!"

Also from Neatorama: Waldo on Google Street View.

Instant Searching

Google Instant isn't really big news, though it does seem to be irritating people. Looks like a bit of a knee-jerk reaction to me; searches function like they always did, and sometimes it is faster to just pick one of the suggestions from the drop-down bar. Does it really save that much time? No. Has it been done before? Yes, actually.

Also amusing: the Google Instant Alphabet.

Handy Google Search Tips

Mostly I skimmed this article on Huffington Post from Catharine Smith and David Vines, but toward the end there were things I hadn't heard about before. Here's the full list in the article:

• Weather: Typing weather and a zip code will show you the weather for that zip code.
  
• Music: Searching an artist will allow you to listen to some of their songs.
  
• Calculator: Put in simple math problems and Google will solve 'em. Use * for multiplication, / to divide, and + and - to, well... you know.
  
• Convert Measurements: What's 5 litres in gallons (1.32086026), how far is 56 miles in kilometres (90.123264), that sort of thing.
  
• Dictionary: Define works like a dictionary. (Like define: lagomorph)
  
• Specific Site Search: You can get Google to only search a certain site by including site:www.whatever-the-site-url-is.com after your search terms.
  
• Directions: Not just driving! Also walking, public transportation, and biking.
  
• Time: Time in places you aren't at. Just type time: city, country-province-state-whatever .
  
• Area Codes: Type in any three-digit area code and Google will tell you where it's from.
  
• Feeling Lucky: Go immediately to the first result of your search, skipping the result list. I consider this one vaguely dangerous. There are things you cannot unsee.
  
• Convert Currency: Dollars to Euros! US dollars to Canadian dollars!
  
• Sports Stats: Search new york mets and get the stats for the Mets.
• Search with exclusions: Perhaps you want information on oil spills, but not the BP oil spill. Type oil spill -bp.
• Numerical Ranges: Now we're getting into stuff I didn't know about. Use like: canadian prime ministers 1934..1956.
  
• Document Types: PowerPoint presentations on whales? Search whales filetype:ppt. Neat!
• Stocks: Type in the stock's name, like GOOG for Google or AAPL for Apple, get stock information.
• Cached Pages: Google often has cached versions of pages stored when you look at your result list - older versions. Apparently helpful to get around employer-blocked sites and times when a site's current contents may not be available.
• Addresses: Don't bother going to Google Maps, just type the address into your search bar.
• Related Terms: A tilde (~). This shows you things related to the word you're searching, like ~scissors will call up results for the word scissors, but also the words clippers and shears.
• Traffic Forecast: You must go to the live traffic page, where you can change the traffic from current to forecast, complete with day and time (like Monday 8AM).
• Phrase Search: Put a phrase in double quotes and the results will be for the exact words in that order. Like looking for "upon the gears and upon the levers" will bring up the rest of that famous speech I couldn't remember last night. This is also helpful when you need to ID a song - I will try to remember a line or two from the song to look it up later. That works best by attaching the term lyrics to the "quoted search".
• Tracking Packages: UPS, FedEx, and USPS. Just put in the tracking number.
  
• Translation: translate.google.com allows you to translate cut and pasted text, upload documents, or put in a web page URL.
• News Archives: There's a timeline option to narrow your news results.

Google Wi-Fi Data

It's just been so long since I mentioned Google here. So here is a disturbing article about wi-fi data Google collected that lots of people would love to get their hands on. Privacy? What?

Google said it didn’t realize it was sniffing packets of data on unsecured Wi-Fi networks in dozens of countries for the last three years, until German privacy authorities questioned what data Google’s Street View cameras were collecting. Street View is part of Google Maps and Google Earth, and provides panoramic pictures of streets and their surroundings across the globe.

Google's Safe Search Maybe Not Safe for Schools

Google, the big scary entity that oversees quite a lot of information, might not be allowed in American schools anymore. Google's new encrypted search option violates the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), which requires schools to monitor and sometimes block certain websites.

Typically, schools and filtering companies respond to an "offending" site by blocking access to it. However, in this case, blocking Google's encrypted search is complicated by the potential ripple effects.

Google Adds Suicide Prevention Hotline Result to Suicide Queries

Google has added a link to a suicide prevention hotline to results of a suicidal seeming query. I approve of this. It seems like a step toward responsible information access without censorship.

FAQ: Google, China, and Censorship

WIRED.com has made an FAQ (a list of Frequently Asked Questions) regarding Google, China, and Censorship. It is useful!