Thing 33: Travel

I was eager to get to this Thing, because my primary blog is a family-travel blog and I also do some writing for another travel site, Uptake, which should fall into the Travel 2.0 category, as it aggregates info from Yahoo travel, TripAdvisor, and more.

Notes from the Road is one of my favorite, if for no other reason than that beautiful blog layout/header.

I've used TripAdvisor many times in the past for trip planning. A new site that's similar for family travel (but doesn't yet cover the Midwest) is trekaroo.

The travel journal sites are interesting, but I don't know that I'd ever post my trip on one of them. Maybe that's because I already have my own travel blog.

Wines and Times is an interesting niche mashup; the wi-fi directory is user-submitted and therefore not very complete.

In a library setting, having links to these sites for people travel-planning would be useful. Seeing others' reviews, adding your own pictures, and viewing other reactions is very useful in planning a trip.

And of course, featuring my Travels with Children blog as a local resource would be an excellent idea!

Thing 32: Maps and Mashups

Ah, yes, Google Maps. I've used them often, from vacation planning, to geotagging photos, and sometimes for fun.

The mashup I created was for a blog post I did last fall on 13 places with Halloween-ish names.


View Larger Map

Really, I did embed the map into this post, but it's stuck on "loading" for me. :-)

I did have a bigger plan in mind for Google maps, that of mapping locations for children's museums around the country, but I found one big limitation (after hours of input)--there's a limit to the number of places that will show up on the map. (I think it's 100.)

I also like the integration with Google Earth. When I geotagged some photos recently, I was able to see exactly where the photo had been taken by looking at the combination of roadmap and satellite image.

Thing 30: Delicious and Feeds (Hungry, anyone?)

I read the article on seven tips for RSS reader and found it to be interesting, but I'm not sure how many of the items I'd actually use. I do agree with the first item, oversubscribing, as that's exactly what I do. I have my feeds in Google Reader categorized, and then I scan them periodically, skimming the titles and reading the ones that interest me. It's a lot like reading the newspaper: I don't read every article, but make a judgment based on the headline. I might read the Travel section one time and the Social section the next, and just mark some as read if I don't have the time to get through them all, while still continuing the subscription.

I did think it was interesting that Google Reader has problems with 1000+ feeds. I have trouble keeping up with the 250 I have.

Delicious still baffles me. I understand having bookmarks online for ease of access, but the social element of bookmarks--sharing, tagging for others, subscribing to people's bookmarks--still confuses me. I'm not sure I want anyone subscribing to my bookmarks. Maybe it would be different if I used Delicious for research projects, etc., but for my personal bookmarks, I don't get it. (Someone feel free to enlighten me on this subject.) I usually put my bookmarks in igoogle so I have access to them but no one else does.

Thing 29: Google Tools

I've used Google Alerts now for a while. I have an alert for my "minnemom" moniker and another for my blog address. This allows me to see when people are referencing my "name" or blog on other sites.

Google Web History is kind of fun to look at, but I don't see it being particularly useful. I deleted my web history; I can put up with privacy concerns if there's a use behind a product but don't want that info available if I'm not going to put it to good use. (On a related privacy note, I have more problems with the info in the Google profile being so public and have stripped nearly everything out of that profile.)

I tried gmail's interface a few weeks ago after hearing many good things about it. I thought it was all right, but was frustrated that every time I deleted a message, it took me back to the message list, not to the next message. I played around with the theme and some lab items, but in the end went back to using Outlook for all my mail. If I'm going to use a web browser e-mail app, I still prefer Yahoo Mail's interface.

I've also had good experience with inbox.com's e-mail as a free pop3 provider.

While I don't use Google's calendar for my personal use, I can see good applications for group projects or calendars for special tasks. I was hoping to find that I could sync Google calendar directly to my iPod Touch, but it looks like the only way to do that is through Outlook.

I use Google Toolbar and Google Desktop all the time. For the toolbar, I specifically like the Autofill element, which saves me from retyping my name and address on website forms. I use a few Desktop gadgets, but what I really like is the ability to search my hard drive from the interface. It's much better than XP's search, in my opinion.

When I looked at my account, I was surprised to see how many Google products I currently use, and how many I don't.

Thing 28: igoogle, you google

For this thing, I chose igoogle because . . . well, because I already have and igoogle account and I'd rather look for ways to enhance it than to start all over.

I had set up an igoogle page quite a while ago and used it as my home page for a while. I had a twitter feed on it, several bookmark gadgets, weather, etc. I'm not sure why, but I seldom use it any more.

I tried the Blidget thing to put on my Ning page but it wouldn't accept it using the Ning code. I have an existing feed widget from springwidgets so I'm going to stick with that. I did get the Blidget on my igoogle page but it's not sized correctly for the space. I do like RSS feed widgets.

One way that I have used igoogle is for my kids. I set up a separate igoogle account for them and have it installed on the computer they are allowed to use. It has parental controls on it, so they can't search for things, but I can set up safe sites for them as an igoogle bookmark and it's accessible to them with each of their logins.

I also made the Show Yourself widget and put it on my ning page. Not sure why I'd put it on my igoogle page, but it could be useful for social media.

One thing that I do like in igoogle is having a section for Google Docs. I find that it's an easy place to keep track of the Docs I've created.

Thing 26: Tweet, Tweet

With 2,391 followers, I think I've figured out twitter.

I've used twitter to get recipes, tech support, book-read ideas, travel tips, discount codes, and more. I've asked random questions (What is your favorite apple?) and gotten a ton of responses.

The key to twitter is to follow people. If you follow, most will follow you back. Follow as many as you feel comfortable with. 20-50 you can probably keep up with all their conversations. A few hundred you can glance through once a day. More than that, and you can jump on as often as you wish and catch a few minutes' worth of the twitter stream.

I recommend using a twitter app like twhirl or tweetdeck to help you organize and keep from having to refresh the screen constantly.

I'd love to see more libraries on twitter. It would be quick and easy to send out a tweet: "Don't forget book club tonight at XYZ Library!"

If you have twitter-newbie questions, let me know and I'll try to help. Follow me. Send me an @ reply. I enjoy twitter conversations.

Thing 26: The Ning

I joined the 23Things Ning back before I figured out how to register for the actual things. (Yeah, the learning curve... I'm much better at this now.)

I hope the Ning becomes more active/interactive this time around.

I'm a member of two other Ning groups that have great conversations. Nings that don't move seem to die out, but good ones can be very useful. One thing that worked well on another Ning that went from 0-5000 members in a few months was to have a welcome wagon. Welcome posts from other members were received very well and added to the friendliness of the group.

I tweaked my page, added some feeds, and jumped in on a discussion. Don't worry, I'll be back to the Ning!

Thing 25: Gotta Have Tools

Ah, yes, widgets and gadgets. In Wordpress, there are plugins. They can be useful, they can be fun, they can be annoying.

Here's what I looked at:

• Disqus: Looks like a neat thing, but clunky install method. Made me nervous to be messing with my entire template file.
• Click Comments: I've never seen this used on an actual blog. It seems very juvenile to me. I don't care for canned comments. I'd prefer real written comments, or none at all.
• Outbrain: Could be useful in some situations (review blogs, for example). I don't want people rating my posts here; there's really no need for it.
• Clustr Maps: OK for the curious, but decided not to use it.
• Typealyzer: Interesting. I got different results for my own blogs than for the group blogs I write for.
  

Didn't bother with:

• Snap previews. I used these in my blog once, but as I visit more and more blogs, I find them to be highly annoying. They just get in the way. If I want to check a link, I just open it in a new tab to look at later.
• Things that talk or have video or play music. Unless my blog has a real need for these, I won't use them.
  

Ultimately added:

• RSS feeds from my other blogs. I used to wonder what good this would do, but now that I write more blogs, I get it. It shows post titles from other blogs I enjoy and/or write.
• Subscription buttons, to make it easy for people to subscribe.
• Google Analytics. This is a very powerful tool, and I use it on my other blogs already. Am waiting to see if it's configured properly, however. Only downfall to this one (besides configuration) is that you can't see current-day stats.
• Add This: Another one I've used before, is useful, and easy to install.
• Recent Comments: Surprised that this isn't in the layout choices. This was very easy to install.

One hour of widget-hunting and I'm done unless I come across something else that looks really good. The benefit of reading a lot of blogs is seeing new things in action.

Thing 24: What's Changed?

Wow! Has it been almost a year since I did Thing 1? At that time, I had a little baby blog, hadn't even tried Flickr, and didn't know a thing about Ning.

Since then, I've:

• Grown my blog, Travels with Children, enough that I'm becoming known in the travel-blogger world. I moved from a free Wordpress setup to a self-hosted blog with plugins and theme variations. I've learned about SEO and monetization and other things that go with having a serious blog. Instead of random posts, I have a pretty strict posting schedule of 4-5 times a week.
  
• Begun blogging for Uptake, a travel aggregate site. It's nice to get paid (a little bit) for blogging.
• Started a review blog that complements my travel blog.
  
• I'm also writing for Midwest Parents. A group blog is an interesting thing to work with as well.
• Joined two other Ning sites, and jumped in with both feet. I was one of the first 200 members of Twittermoms, a Ning group with 6000+ members now. It made my day to be named Twittermom of the Week a few months ago.
• I've also grown fond of Twitter, as my twitter grade shows. I've found Twitter to be useful for throwing out those tidbits that I just want to tell someone, as well as for gathering information. Twitter has been useful in a variety of ways.
  

What do I like about blogging?

• Sharing information with other people. I'm not a this-is-what's-on-my-mind-today kind of blogger. My blogging is primarily to inform about things with which I have experience, like taking a 3800-mile, 17-day road trip with four young children in December and January.
• Making a little money. Not much, granted, but enough to pay for hosting fees and Flickr memberships.
• Having a written record. Since much of what I write is experiences with my kids, we'll have a permanent record of our adventures.

Have I found other blogs to read?

• Um, yeah. I currently have 254 blogs on my RSS reader. . .

Do I comment on others' blogs?

• Yes, daily. I don't comment on everything I read, but I do comment on things that strike me as interesting or useful. As a blogger, I enjoy getting comments, and I like being part of the blogging conversation. A lot of networking has been done through comments.

I guess I'm walking proof that the 23 things were useful. I came, I learned, I put into practice.

And I'm excited to learn a whole lot of new Things!