Another "del.icio.us" surprise from the Web

photo by google images

I can’t even express in words my growing astonishment, so maybe the picture you see on the left can help you to imagine my expression during the whole of Wednesday lesson! I still have difficulties in realizing how many things that I couldn’t even think of do exist out there! When I say “out there” I mean in the Web: the more the weeks pass, the more it seems to me that the Internet is actually a top hat and we are becoming some sort of “techno-conjurers” able to pull a rabbit (and the whole farm!) out of it!! This time the new “trick” has a very nice name: “del.icio.us”, and it is for real! Let’s try to summarize in few words how this innovation works.
First of all, as you can read in Wikipedia, it is an example of what is called social bookmarking: ”In a social bookmarking system, users save links to web pages that they want to remember and/or share”. Maybe you are thinking that there’s nothing new: one of the first things you learn when you start surfing the Web is to bookmark your favourite websites so that you can have them at hand whenever you need. However, those pages are saved in your own pc, so what happens if you use a different computer and you don’t remember their url? You will have to look for them by using a search engine, wasting a lot of time, and finally you’ll give it up. Well, that will no longer happen if you subscribe to del.icio.us: you simply have to save the websites you find remarkable in the area “your favorites”, tag them with some keywords that can remind you their content and you’ll always find your way back to them wherever you are! What a brilliant idea!
But the best is yet to come! As Sarah explained us, your bookmarks are public and not only do you share them with the other subscribers, but they share theirs with you as well; this means that if you need to know more about a topic, you can visit the websites that other people consider interesting. I think it is an amazing advantage: instead of checking the thousands of pages Google would list (many of which are often completely useless and unsuitable), you limit your search to those websites that have already caught other users’ attention. In sum, the best of the best! You can also create your own network, that is a list of the people whose suggestions you are more interested in, so that you can easily check their bookmarks. Simply unbelievable, isn’t it? :-o

photo by pdonaghy

I had the proof that this new tool does work when I tried to have a look at what my friends had saved as their favorites. Compliments, girls, you all did a great job! I checked some of your suggestions and immediately understood the power of sharing! I noticed that many of us saved a link to an on-line dictionary: they could seem a bit old-fashioned compared to what we have been learning for about a month, but they are irreplaceable! The Free Dictionary Giovanna found also has special sections to look for medical, legal or financial terms; it contains a Thesaurus and many others interesting information such as “the quotation of the day”, “this day in history”, “today’s birthday” and so on. And what about the irreverent Slang Dictionary and Translator? My brother bought it for curiosity’s sake, but now that I found it on line, I don’t need to steal it to him, thanks Marta! Get ready, girls, from now on I could write in my messages something like “l8r”: I’ve just discovered that it means “see you later”, how cool! I invite you all to visit My language exchange too: as Sara explains in her description, it is a community where the members help each other to learn and practise a language. You draw the profile of the partner you need and the community will find a person corresponding to your description, it is a sort of virtual tandem learning! If you need to improve your listening and speaking skills, you can click on “voice chat”: there you will find a link to download Skype or Paltalk and enter the challenging world of face to face communication! I think I will definitely add this website to my favorites! I will also include Classic Short Stories, one of the websites that Martina saved: it provides a long list of short stories that can help us to rediscover the pleasure of reading. It includes not only English authors’ works, but also Spanish, Russian, French writers’ texts and the link “Bibliography” enables you to find more information about them. I think this page is very well done and useful for a literary thesis.
Oh my goddess, another interminable post! I’m sorry, there was so much to say…
CUIC (see you in class)