I’m probably enjoying my Google homepage too much. I have upwards of thirty RSS modules, most of them from news sites. Two of my favorite feeds, though, are from decidedly more personal sources. One is Flickr’s Recently Added, from the popular community photo-sharing site. Every time I refresh my homepage I see a random photo of some stranger’s Indian wedding, trip to Europe, or 21st birthday party. Sometimes the pictures are surprisingly lovely. True, every once in a while it’s a close-up of some dude’s knob, but in my opinion the good outweighs the bad. My other favorite is del.icio.us (thanks, Oscar!), a social bookmarking site. I don’t use it to store my own bookmarks (yet), but it’s interesting to see the variety other people are saving. Today there was a link to The Gallery of Inuit Art in Vancouver, a site I’d never have known about, or even thought to look for, otherwise. It had some great prints, including the one shown here. I’m sure all this sharing is a form of voyeurism/exhibitionism, but a socially acceptable, and even healthy one. I guess it’s clear which side of the equation I’m on: I like the feeling of getting a glimpse into a stranger’s online life, and while I read the comments on Fark and Slashdot, I never post them myself. So what sites are other eightandfivers enjoying? And what do you feel is next for community sites? I am, as always, curious.
Props: The painting is The Sun and the Moon, by Germaine Arnaktauyok.
Is that a Giant Paramecium Kilt you’re wearing? Or are you just happy to see me?
I actually like to read a lot of Government sites including Federal, international government, state and local city government sites and local newspaper sites. I have indexed all 32 NFL hometown newspaper sites for Fantasy Football purposes and other things.
ESPN.com is the all-sports website. Especially since they absorbed Sportstalk.com in during the dot-com gold rush.
Ready.gov is just funny.
Every now and again I will read forums on random websites but I think they generally degrade pretty quickly.
I sometimes look up movie stars at fecinfo.com and even ordinary people to see who is giving money to whom. I like to search by company name and see how much our top execs give.
IMDB.com is a fun website. Sometimes I waste time on the Oracle of Bacon at Virginia.
I like Wikipedia as a starting point for research, but I do not like it as the “end all” source for everything. A Wiki, by definition is short and fast, it is NOT a final source.
I like Webshots.com too, but now my proxy server at work blocks it.
I also wish I could remember my password for the SETI @ Home project at U of C Berkeley.
Lastly, I am actually opposed to Blogs and I think Blog reading is for the unenlightened. Blogs were never intended to be serious journalism - they were initially intended as personal freedom of expression but once politicians noticed the power of unregulated, no-cost dis-information campaigns…they fucked it all up.
Fuck George W. Bush.
planzo.com is interesting, its a communal scheduling site. Also, I think Bongo’s dis on blogs is valid but short sighted. The more people that participate –the more fact checking that happens, sure blogs can be used for misinformation but at least as readers we know what to expect, with the mainstream media there is an air of credulity often should not exist (foxnews).
Well, I was a bit harsh on the Blog-O-Sphere perhaps…but I think blogs lose something when a well-funded team of sharks are running the blogs:
http://www.gop.com/Blog/
http://www.democrats.org/blog.html
These are NOT examples of blogs, these are examples of group masturbation.
I concur about your observation of these fascist blogs.