Thing 23: ?

Where's my prize? :D

I mentioned this in my survey, but figured I could blogit here and ensure I got credit for Thing 23 :D Yes, I confess, I want a prize! I started this really excited about it and soon came to realize how much of a challenge it was. I couldn't imagine anyone else doing it who was less motivated or knowledgeable about this than myself, especially when given this as a mandatory work requirement. As such, it is very difficult to fit this into work doing 15 minutes here, 15 minutes there. I can't see that. It was a struggle for me to do this at work and have a good conscious about it. I did fairly well up until Thing 16 when I just could do it at work and had to take it home. I wanted my prize! :D

The reason I mention the whole work/home front is that in some libraries, the line is plainly stuck in between. There is no taking home some of the work. For example, I can't check my work e-mail from home. Nevertheless, I can e-mail my e-mail from work to a personal account and this would be OK, sorta. Other work environments are different, like my time in the Marine Corps. Work is work until you get the mission done, no matter where you do it.

These 23 Things have many applications, and I predict the lines of home and work can easily be blurred in the Library 2.0 world. For me, that works, but when expecting this of others, in certain work environments, it is unthinkable.

So, again, where's my prize? :D

Thing 22: Staying Current or Staying Above H2O in this 2.0 World?

The relevant question is, what do you mean by staying current? Sort of like what is the meaning of is? I would love to stay current in this sea of information that I love. This is partly the reason I chose to become a millionaire....I mean...librarian. Freudian slip? Probably not. I love information, of all sorts. Though these 2.0 things only make it harder on someone like me who already has trouble keeping up with all the good news. I love my local news, state news, national news, world news, the environment, politics, statistics, psychology, philosophy, technology, information organization, design, music, economics, finance, travel, self-growth, music, history, self-help, etc. etc. etc. Now my choices have gotten larger and I have to work harder at prioritizing. And I'm sure 23 Things account for only perhaps a small percentage of all the great things.

I admit, I really like some of the Things, but I'm frustrated at the get go, knowing that the Thing I find may not be the best of it's kind, the first of it's kind, or the last of it's kind, and it is limited with respect to other things that it may not be friends with or compatible with, and this Thing will soon be a different Thing and I may have to choose between staying with this Thing or leaving this Thing for another Thing.

I do admire the startup of all these Things nonetheless. I know they're not perfect and I know they will change and some better Things may come by to replace these Things. It's a real battle to reah out to these things, spend the time and do these Things.

Looking back at my first Thing, I admit I was much less knowledgeable then than I am now about all these Things. Nevertheless, I had an advantage many people do not. I was somewhat aware of some of these Things, including Delicious, YouTube, MySpace, Flicker, Facebook, iGooogle, and Ning, and I was somewhat interested and motivated to learn more about them. I feel bad for my fellow 23 Thingers who had no knowledge of or desire for these Things. Many Things took way more than 15 minutes, even to get through the reading, let alone posting, commenting and adding bells and whistles. As a requirement for work and training in the library, I could not imagine having done this through Thing 16 on work time with only a little time each week and knowing any less than I already knew. I give kudos to all participants for at the very least attempting 23 Things, even if it was by force from a supervisor. I made it to Thing 16 at work before I had to play the catch up game by playing on my home turf. Even then, I contributed a few bells and whistles from my home computer for Things 1-16.

I also admit that I am much more familiar with the whole blog and rss feed than I was before, even though I knew of them before but found no interest, time or purpose for blogging. I might actually come up with a few other blogs library- and non-library related and then maybe some day create a book or two. Until then, I will have to go back to the planning board and figure out where I should dedicate most of my time.

Overall, it's been fun! Though I haven't felt this much pressure to finish something at home since I was in library school. On to the prizes! :D Moving on to 23!!!!

Oh, and yes, I added a few things to my RSS blogger blog feed generator discombobulator. I picked the LIS news, Tech Source, and 43 Folders, or did I? Hmmm.

Thing 21: S2dent tu.0 2ls

I didn't really see the point in this for libraries at first, but was pretty impressed after trying to schedule a research paper for psychology. How do they know what to do? I wondered. Nevertheless, I like the instant gratification of knowing that my assignment can be broken down into segments and that I can get some insight and clarity for my paper along the way. This is a really neat tool, both the Assignment Calculator and the Research Project Calculator. I have to admit, though, I wonder what the actual practical usage would be like. Don't get me wrong. I think really dedicated students (perhaps the top 10 percent) will find this very helpful. But most students, I imagine, would see this as only one more chore to do on their way to making it through school. Teachers can definitely make good use of this, however, and try to encourage their students to use it. Librarians, to a smaller extent, can use this too. At the very least, they can encourage students to use it. I would actually like something like this for my life, not necessarily for school. Something that would allow me to put in what I want, and it would tell me how to get it and give me a timeline. How about a budget? I put in that I want to save $5,000 in the next year, I plug in some numbers and wha la! Here goes my plan. It could be lifetools2.0!

Thing 20: Book 2.0000000000000000000000000...

This was an overwhelming thing. The book is definitely changing, though I imagine perhaps slower than perceived. This just increases the gap between the haves and have nots. The well-known digital divide is so ever-present here. Having to cope with literacy is bad enough, but then the issue is complicated by having to tackle the new technologies, whether online or through a new gadget.

The Kindle 2 looked really neat on video. I wasn't really a fan before, but I really liked the portable audio book setting. This might actually be a good investment, though it will take some time to get the most use out of it. You can get newspapers and books, though costs may vary. It seems like a nice toy for the avid reader, though I almost laughed about the part in the video that suggested taking it to the beach. Are they for real? They must not live in Florida. I can imagine the kindle not lasting long in the Florida humidity. Then you have to wonder if it will go blank with one accidental drop. Is it waterproof? Can I read it in the pool? Or how about the tub? :)

I can definitely see the changes in reading. Content has changed to some dismay. I admit, I'm part of the newer generation that likes things quick and simple to read. Though I value and engage in longer reading because I know this is important too. As time goes by, however, there is hardly any more time to indulge in a long reading of a book. I get overwhelmed reading about the latest trends, latest news, latest interests, latest fads, latest innovations, and then find time to dive into a book for fun, read a book for information, or sift through online sites to find the best article or site for a school paper. And then there's blogs, 2.0, social networking, new networking, then go and find the latest of the latest again. Get on the phone, log in to your 50 2.0 accounts, sign up for one more and then bring them all together in a mashup.

I made a goal for this year to read the most read book of all, across the world, and I'm struggling to keep up with that. Needless to say, I could only devote a quick read to this Thing. Should I have given it more time? Sure, only to see something else go to the wayside. More like 2.0verwhelming.

Although I browsed a few sites and found some interesting, like the "what's next" and the "series search" and the book interest groups, I was not as impressed as I was with LibraryThing and WorldCat (with mobile features). I don't really see myself reading a book on my phone. With that amount of time on my phone, can't I just check the book out at the library or sit down on my computer. I tried to read a book online once and just couldn't find time to finish it. My eyes may just bust out eventually with the electro thinga majiggies that light up my screen.

I must say, however, that the audiobook is perhaps the best thing I've discovered since I started working in the library and listening to others talk about their experiences of listening to books in their car. This is definitely a time-efficient tool. I've been listening and reading the King James Version of the Holy Bible for the first time and I don't think I could have made it this far without the audiobook. I got this for Chrismtas as an MP3 audiobook on 3 cds and I've been able to burn it to the computer and MP3 player and put the discs in the car. Thus far in April, I'm making it past Chronicles, and although I've had to read many parts over and over again, I have many thanks to the MP3 to have gotten me this far.

Thing 19: Social 2.0

Wow! Just when you thought you knew everything about social networks. I admit, I heard of Ning before, so I was glad to join the group in this thing. I have a mentor that was a member of Library 2.0 on Ning, so I was glad to finally join the group, though I needed to wait to get accepted.

WebJunction sounded familiar, and while I tried to join the group, I was glad that I was able to log in with my membership to WorldCat. Sweet! One less log in to remember. It was actually very informative.

I didn't find much use with Gather, though I imagine I might find it useful if I indulged in it long enough. One thing that came to mind was togetherweserved.com, which is a networking site for veterans. It's actually very good for veterans because it's custom tailored to almost everything military. You can post duty stations, medals, etc.

I didn't get much out of the other sites. The movie sites would be nice if they had free movies. Flixter had a few free movies. To create an account without free movies, I would probably go to imdb.com, my favorite movie database. Playlist was interesting, and I've seen it on myspace.com before, but I'm not sure if I should really use this, especially when considering a broad and professional audience.

Thing 18: FaceSpace

Finally, the long awaited social networking! I started on MySpace a few years ago to connect with old friends living far away. Then I got onto FaceBook. MySpace had more flexibility in design, but FaceBook has definitely grown in popularity and many more applications. I'm guessing MySpace may die out and relinquish it's domain to FaceBook eventually. Though I must say that I hope everyone is aware of the new policy guidelines for FaceBook. Basically, all that stuff we don't read but agree to anyway is now telling us that FaceBook owns EVERYTHING we put on there; pictures, content, etc. Not necessarily a bad thing, just something to keep in mind.

I've gotten a chance to connect with many people, old friends, coworkers, etc. through these sites. Nevertheless, the open doors have led me to be a little more conservative in what I post. I'm glad to have the diverse group of friends however.

I haven't indulge too much since my first few weeks on MySpace, where I went crazy expressing myself and changing designs. Now I just check on my accounts on the go through my phone. I'll be adding friends and sending messages on my phone which is very convenient. Nevertheless, I haven't indulged too much in groups and other applications. Maybe I'll look into these in the future. For now, I joined a few library groups including Library 2.0.

Thing 17: Podcasts

I enjoyed the common craft show video on podcasts. It gave a really good explanation of podcasts. I tried podcast.com first, which allowed me to browse their podcast collection by different subjects. Although I didn't find anything library related, with links to education, government and others, I finally settled on a few news sites. These included Fox News and CNN, which I can definitely see as helpful.

I tried searching for "reference" on all the sites, podcast.com, podcastalley, yahoo, education podcast, and itunes, but didn't come up with much library-related podcasts specific to "reference."

I liked podcast.com and podcastalley over all the others and I must admit they might be helpful if I search into it enough to find something. I liked finding the link to sirsidynix podcasts for the latest updates, but this required itunes, which I don't have, nor really want. With so many things to upload and so many things to clog up the computer, this can really be a challenge, especially jumping from one computer to another.

Overall, podcasts are much simpler than I envisioned.

Thing 16: YouTubING

YouTube is the Google of videos. You can find almost any video on there.

I've used it to find election coverage during the presidential elections, browsing reruns, watching movie trailers, and checking out music videos. Of course, you need a good internet connection, and I couldn't imagine doing it with dial up.

The library videos on Neflin's 23 Things were funny, and I can imagine putting YouTube to good use with things like the Common Craft Show videos. Those are really great.

Here is a music video that recently came out by Enya this past winter. It's nice to be able to embed it onto a Web page.



Going back to the classics, here's a video of the intro to an 80's tv series...



Any favorite movies anyone? Here's the trailer to one of my all-time favorites...



Neat stuff!

Thing 15: Rollyo...yo...yo your boat...

I thought the concept of Rollyo was really great. I love the idea of customizing and personalizing things. Nevertheless, I was a little disappointed with the outcome.

I was reminded of a service offered a while back called "Yahoogle" that allowed you to conduct one search while looking at search results from Yahoo and Google simultaneously. I tried this with Rollyo but was warned it wouldn't work effectively with search engines.

So then, I tried a new search with government sites and tried to find food stamp applications and other E-Government tools. I didn't really get pinpoint information and therefore gave up on Rollyo.

Perhaps if I find sites that are worth searching through, I may try this again, but I just can't really find a use for this right now, either personally or professionally as a librarian.

Thing 14: Online Productivity Tools....Whoa!

Finally! We get to the long-awaited iGoogle! This is indeed one of my favorite things. I've had an account for some time now and couldn't imagine hardly anything better. I admit, it's not as innovative as Scrybe, but Scrybe would not allow me to register (I guess it was full), and you almost have it all with iGoogle.

Let me count the ways...gmail, gnews, gtime, gcalendar, gtodo, gweather, gmaps, greader, gchat and any other widget you can add to it. AND, it is accessible on mobile devices.

I must admit though, I'm not a big fan of a public online calendar. Terrorism awareness anyone? Or am I just being insecure? And then, if I make it private, what if I have no internet? Scrybe had a neat offline option with sync capabilities, displayed in a dynamic fashion, but then again, registration is currently closed. And then do I really want another username and password? Mobile capabilites would be nice also.

I heard of 30 boxes before, but it seemed a little cluncky.

Thing 13: Library Thing ... ROCKS!

I visited librarything a while back but never got a chance to get into it much. Now I have the opportunity, and it's been awesome! I don't know if is more of a personal benefit or professional benefit, or maybe both, but it is so awesome! In the past, I've had so many books piling up that I wanted to read and couldn't find the time to do it, that I finally started making a list. This takes it to a whole new level!

Not only can I make a list, but I can share the list with others, rate it, find others with similar interests, read comments about it, catalog books, search for books, share my books, find similar books, on and on and on. And I feel like I've only scratched the surface!

I set up a profile, added a few books, then went back and added some more and I could hardly stop! This is perhaps my FAVORITE thing of the Things thus far, although it faces tough competition from Delicious, Newsvine, Digg, and Meebo, and I have yet to see other mashups like iGoogle.

I can't say enough about this Thing! Although I couldn't find any local events, I'm sure this is slowly growing.

Feel free to browse mylibrary.

Lastly, I just recalled finding out about the new and improved Worldcat through a Florida Electronic Library workshop. It allows you to set up an account, rate books, buy books from different companies, and even has a mobile feature. Check it out if you get a chance.

Thing 12: Wikis

Wikis are wonderful-someone should make that a motto. Many people hate perhaps the greatest wiki of all - Wikipedia, but it's great. It's a fantastic idea.

I know, I know, it's not the best source, but sometimes it may be the only source, or at least the quickest source. I confess, I refer to it a lot, but when I usually get information for others from it, I say something to the effect that I got the information from a source that may not be that reliable.

Let's face it. People want information, and they want it now! Most probably don't care if it's right or not. Wikipedia usually provides a good starting point to find more reliable resources.

The idea is fantastic - provide a platform for anyone to make their contribution. Talk about collaboration and collectivity (is that a word?) to the Xtreme! This can be especially helpful for work groups. I can definitely see wikis useful in libraries or any work setting, including schools. I am disappointed that PB Wiki charges you to create a wiki though. I haven't tried, Wet Paint or Zoho, but they look promising.

A great real life practical example for the wiki includes a PB Wiki currently used for the Sunshine State Leadership Institute (for it's participants). I only wish it was a little more user-friendly. It just takes a while to get used to it and updates aren't always blatantly obvious. (This is coming from a former online student using BlackBoard for library school, however - I liked using Blackboard for school). I was able to use my current login from the Institute for the 23 Things Wiki. Great!

I also recently discovered 2 great wikis that have been started for work on eGovernment in Florida and through ALA. I have yet to become a member, and will, but I haven't found the time yet. On to Thing 13, perhaps the most highly anticipated one yet!

Thing 11: Social Media "I'm lovin' it"

Love it, love it, love it.

A news channel like no other - this is something I can really use, personally or at the reference desk. It eliminates the problem of going through several different news sites to figure out what's out there. I realize the most popular stories are on the top headline or news Web site, but there are sometimes really great and informative stories that don't make it that far. These social media examples help with that. I took a look at the different sites and was surprised with the quick demos. Here's what I thought.

Mixx-not a particular fan, but the options seemed many, and the layout seemed to provide all the necessities in fine fashion. I came back to this however and created an account because it was listed as a way of sharing on cnn.com and I could Mixx stories without logging in! Mixx this public librarians! Unfortunately, the story didn't mention she went to the public library to type up her letter.

Digg-dug Digg, looked a little more professional, but I had to register to Digg it! Maybe when I have more time.

Newsvine-love it! professional, and looks like my one-stop shop for news. I had to create an account though and it wasn't listed on CNN :(

Reddit-and wasn't impressed. Not very fancy, it was very simple, but this may also be a good thing if you want just the text (headlines).


The only downside to all this was that I don't know which one of these I should really indulge my time in...time will tell, I have to get back to work!

Thing 10: Tagging and Deeeeeelicious!

I love Delicious! I couldn't wait to get here.

I set up an account a while back and loved it. I love saving Web pages, tagging them and sharing them with others. I have really gained a great deal from exploring other users that save the same sites as I do. You can essentially explore the sites that other like minded users have saved on their Delicious accounts. It's a WONDERFUL exploration tool!

I would really like to see this used at the Reference Desk in libraries. I think it's great! I would also highly encourage patrons to use this.

I know of at least one library that makes great use of this for eGovernment! in Pasco County, FL.

Delicious may not be the best source for links, unlike crafty Web sites with drop-down menus, but they are certainly a great resource for Web site exploration.

Thing 9: Sharing - slides-"neh", photos-"neh", databases-"hmm"

Well, finally! I'm getting over 9! This was a tough one for me.

I'm still not a fan of sharing my pictures and I could never decide on what pictures to find from the Web to create anything I would feel remotely satisfied with, so I tried skipping slides and photos.

I looked forward to databases but couldn't get it to work. I guess I'm not alone though, because there was a message about this on the NEFLIN's 23 Things blog and, of course, I sent them a message as they suggested. That did me no good, however, since I had to get back to slides and photos! Ugh. I guess it wouldn't be bad if I had a good, large collection to work from, but I don't.

Soooooo...
After spending much time with a broken database, I made a quick mosaic of a few ACLD locations. Can you guess which they are? I know...not too hard for ACLD staff. Nevertheless, 2 can be tricky...

Thing 8: Communication - Web 2.0 Style

I admit, I was already familiar with AOL, Yahoo, MSN, and MySpace instant messengers, but I was not familiar with Google Talk.

This may be especially helpful to add with all the other Google products. Is there anything Google doesn't do? Okay, maybe even in 2.0 land, there's still room for Google to grow, in particular, I would like to see Google in Meeboland.



I was especially glad to see Meebo, since I had heard about it before. I knew it could be embedded into a Web page, and saw a reference to it in the Virtual Reference at Nebraska video, playing in the background as I'm typing this. I really loved being able to aggregate several Instant Message accounts into one though. Personally, this helps to stay in touch with friends that use other IMs, but in the library, it also helps reach out to many different users. I would really like to see this implemented at reference desks since it seems just about as justified as a phone, in my opinion.

I created a Meebo account for the first time and added Google Talk to it. This is really great.

Thing 7: Online Image Generators

So many online image generators, so little time.

I wonder if my U.S. map for Thing 6 leaked into this Thing, but since Big Huge Labs was listed under both I might be safe. :)

I couldn't come up with a toon on ToonDoo that I liked and many toons wouldn't let me change them, so I moved on. So much for humor.

Creativity is a challenge for me at work, so this was tough. I finally decided on trying out SuperStickies and Image Chef. They seemed much simpler than the rest. I created a SuperStickie...



It was a little lame, I confess, so I went with one more in the spirit of 2.0...

Thing 6: Flickr Mashups

I wasn't too crazy about continuing with Flickr, but decided to give it a try nonetheless. I'm a big fan of mashups, though iGoogle is probably the most practical and useful for me thus far. Nevertheless, I tried checking out the Flickr mashups.

The clocker was neat, but I got too frustrated trying to figure out how to upload it to this blog.

The "Flickr Color Pickr" was also neat. I could find this especially useful if I'm trying to find a photo with a certain color, although I wasn't all that interested to upload this to my blog.

I didn't find any of the others particularly interesting or useful. Perhaps if I had more time, I might explore them in greater detail.

Finally, I decided to revisit them and check out "Big Huge Labs" in greater detail. That's when I found the "Map Maker." This is always fun, though I've never been able to find one that actually works like I want it to. I decided to make a U.S. map of all the states I've visited. I don't know if this will work or not, but here goes a try. Thank goodness for "Preview." I like being able to change the colors.

Visited States

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

Thing 5: Flickr

I confess, I wasn't looking forward to Flickr for a few reasons.

#1-Why would I need a Flickr account at work? - I can see it useful for the library to post pictures, although I know there are several considerations, like copyright, parental permission for kids, "public domain," etc. I just didn't see myself getting a Flickr account and posting my photos on Flickr for the whole world to see.

#2-Redundancy - I already post my pictures to myspace and facebook. So why would I post them to Flickr also?

I do like going to Flickr to search for images though, and I like being able to tag them and find them with tag names though.

I also liked using the map to see what places look like. I would really like to be able to use that for all the scenic shots I've taken, but this will take quite a while to load.



Instead of setting up a Flickr account, I decided to search for images instead. My main searches were for "Pepsi," "Gainesville" and "Otto NC".

Pepsi gave me several images, few of which I liked.

Gainesville gave me images from Georgia and Florida (since there's a Gainesville in Georgia)

Otto NC surprisingly had some images and mapped them, which I really liked. Not much a collection though. I would almost prefer going to the new Google map images available now. It would be great if Google Maps also gave you the opportunity to post your photos onto their site of all the scenic shots people take in their travels.

And for this Thing, I'm going to add a link to one of the photos I found on Flickr ...

Pepsi

Thing 4: RSS and Newsreaders

Sweet! Thing 4 was easy, especially with Google and the Google Reader. I had set up an account before, and (thanks to Google) I could easily find it and manage it. I'm glad to see Blogger is a Google product, as is Google Reader AND iGoogle (which I hope is coming up in one of the "things". Essentially, I can log in to one of these and get logged in and manage all of these Google products together.

I found the video “RSS in Plain English” to be simple, helpful and informative. I had already set this up before, but confess that I never used it after. I think I'll try to log in more often, especially since I like keeping up with the news. Nevertheless, I prefer to log into iGoogle to see my news (through all my subscription gadgets) rather than log on to the Google Reader. I guess it depends on individual preference.

I definitely like the idea of avoiding ads! That's wonderful! I'm a little frustrated that I can't add HTML code here with links though. Maybe I'll try using that "compose" button up on the right.

Thing 3 - Blog Search Tools

I chose
Technorati (as suggested) and
Google Blog Search (because it is after all Google).

My search was: “Library 2.0”

Technorati: 4494 results
GBS: 4,244,939 results

Technorati:
1st page of 10 results were a little off, not real indicative of library 2.0, results like
Winamp 5.52.1800” and
“Html and Uri String Encoding without System.Web”
GBS:
1st page of 10 results were a little muddled, not too enticing, like “Library 2.0/Church 2.0…02.04.09 « The Proverbial Lone Wolf ...” and
“» Book Review Group Members Adventures in Library 2.0”

Technorati:
Had 4 search filters for the results, definitely a plus, along with links to related videos interspersed within the results.
GBS:
Had a “Related Blogs” feature at the top, definitely a plus, along with a date/time sorter and an advanced search feature.


I’m amazed and a little overwhelmed by all these blogs out there. I’m sure I’ll come across some good ones in the future, mostly through hearsay I suppose. But maybe I’ll get lucky and find one through a search engine. Either way, it will take a while for me to find a few good ones, especially since I tend to be so thorough and time indulgent, with so little time - that’s assuming I don’t push it aside and forget about it.  I believe blogs have a lot to offer, but it will take a while for me to adapt and get the most/best use out of it.

Thing 2 . 0

Web 2.0, Library 2.0 (L2?), and now Thing 2.0. I might as well go through a personal self-improvement program and change my name to OTTO 2.0 to keep up with the times :) After reading John Blyberg's blog post, I can understand the confusion.

Web 2.0, in my understanding, is a term for making the Web more interactive. The original Web was more of an informative tool that went one way, from source to surfer. Web 2.0 gets information back to the source. In essence, we all become contributors to the Web with Web 2.0.

Library 2.0 (L2?), in my opinion, tries to make use of Web 2.0 tools in the library. I agree with some that say libraries have had elements of 2.0 in the past. Although this is true to some extent, I think the Web has taken it to new levels, in particular with new programs like blogs, social bookmarking tools like Delicious, etc. Nevertheless, I feel Library 2.0 is only one part of the whole library spectrum.

As for OTTO 2.0, maybe I should engage in more Web 2.0 tools :)

Thing 1: Blogs Reloaded...

Okay, my first attempt was at creating this blog was insufficient. I only now realized I'm officially supposed to label it "Thing 1." So, since I fell of the bike the first time, I'm giving it another spin.

I created a blog before, to join the Millhopper staff blog, but never got much further than that. It seems nice, I just haven't had the time or incentive to continue. So here I go. What did I learn? I learned there's a lot about blogs I have yet to learn. I've seen some colleagues with really fancy blogs. I haven't gotten there yet. I visited a few of my other colleagues and read their interesting posts. It'll take me a little longer to get more familiar with this though. I'm taking this as a work in progress...

Remembering my links...

In case I wanna search for blogs of interest in the future, I need to go to either...

http://blogsearch.google.com/ or
http://technorati.com/

Starting my 23 things...

Here we go, my first post.