Unfortunately, we have recently become increasingly concerned that the site has become overly antagonistic and inappropriately controlled by a disproportionately loud group of users. In all honesty, we no longer feel that the processes of our site are producing a unique, high quality blend of content. Instead, the magical blending of diverse topics on the Clipmarks home page has seemed to dissolve into a battleground for extremely hostile politically oriented users who are overwhelming the rest of the site. Because of this we are working on making some fundamental changes to the way the Clipmarks site works. We will do our best to make changes that improve the site and will continue to iterate until we are comfortable that it is just right.

Whenever we have intervened in matters on the site, we have often been accused of censorship; specifically in ways that people believe further our personal views. To those people, let me say that you couldn't be more wrong. We have always been grateful for those users and clips that caused us to rethink some of our ways, see things from different perspectives, learn something new or most importantly, realize that we were wrong. I think it's obvious to anyone who understands the way clipmarks.com works that if we wanted a web site that solely reflected our views and opinions, we never would have created clipmarks.com in the manner we did. Second, our decision to substantially alter the way the home page content is determined is something that everyone who works at clipmarks unanimously and passionately supports…and that includes people on both sides of the political aisle.

The changes we're working on will hopefully be introduced very soon. We just wanted to give you advance notice of these changes and the reasons behind them.

I've decided that I'm not going to get into the details of all of these apps/plug-ins/extensions/whatever you want to call them, as there are a million blogs and sites that already do that for you.  Yet after saying that, I'll explain a little about the new app I found today, Cooliris Previews.

Cooliris Previews makes browsing, which used to be called surfing (just threw that in for my own humor), the web a lot easier.  It gives you a preview of any link before clicking on it and going off into a lost world on the internet, which I call 'information overload,' and will discuss at another time.  It takes these previews, yes, plural, previews, and keeps them on the side, so you can continue to check out what you originally started to, and doing so in a neat, organized and accessible manner.  I just found it, so I haven't used it extensively enough to give it a 'thumbs up,' or four stars, but I can say it looks pretty cool.  If it works as good as its 'sister' application, Piclens, it's going to be top notch.

I started surfing with Firefox3 last night.  Today I'm using Firefox3 for all my regular online things.  So far I'm really enjoying the new features.  The add-ons and plug-ins are definitely interesting!  My favorite one so far is Clipmarks.  Instead of bookmarking entire pages, Clipmarks allows you to highlight and clip specific sections of text and pictures.  I've only a clipped a few things so far, but I really like the ability to clip and share specific text/pictures with friends and family.  It's also interesting to see what others are clipping (you can make your clip public or private).

If you haven't tried Firefox3 yet, it's worth the time to check it out!  I'm really enjoying it so far (my husband is probably going to say, "I told you so!")

The internet is the new library.  You'll find reading material about everything and anything you can imagine, and it's free. 

Now, don't get me wrong, I love the classic brick and mortar library.  I think it is incredible that you can walk into a library and you can borrow any book you want.  For free!  However, the library isn't open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  Luckily (unless you are still dialing up the old modem) you can still read new materials at any hour, on any day, online.

I am constantly amazed and excited when I find another book lover like myself.  Reading has always been on the back burner of cool, regarded as a nerdy activity most enjoyed by four-eyed geeks who wear socks with sandals and run from social interaction.  Therefore, it's been almost a secret addiction of mine.  However, over the years, I've learned that in reality, the majority of the population loves reading.  And none of these people fit the nerd stereotype.  In fact, they're pretty darn cool.  I just found out tonight that one of my fantastic co-workers, Anna, is a fellow book lover.  Anna and I even discussed starting a book exchange in our office with Charlotte, another reader/co-worker.  This was inspired by my friend Jennie, who already has a book exchange set up at work.  Book lovers, rejoice - you are not alone!

Okay, so it's late.  The library is closed, and you just finished the last hardcover from the stack of new books next to your bed.  You're looking for something online to read.  Websites and blogs can offer fresh reading material, and I've got a few suggestions. 

If you check out my blogroll to the right, you'll see some of my own personal favorites.  You can also check out my Delicious page, which links to articles, pages and websites I've bookmarked as worthy of sharing with others as I've come across them. 

Here are some other favorites that I've been enjoying recently:

• Friday Playdate - Mommy blogger Susan Wagner writes about life, shoes & booze.  She's a funny woman and a really cool person.  Yes, she's in my blogroll, too.  But I had to point her out here, too.  Even if you're not a Mom, you will enjoy her writing.  She also writes for Parent Dish.
• E! Online - The Soup! - I absolutely love this show.  It makes me laugh out loud every single week, guaranteed.  The blog is almost as good, but at least it fills my craving until a new episode. 
• New Brahmin - Also in my blogroll but worthy of extra promoting.  My co-worker Lindsey's roommate and her friends blog about fashion, shopping and style in Boston.  A must read for Boston area ladies, but enjoyable by everyone.
• Sarah Lacy - She is a BusinessWeek blogger who also is an active member of the social media world and provides some entertaining and intriguing insight.
• Yahoo! Buzz Log - A new service by Yahoo!, which basically is an interesting summary of what's hot on the Web.  The links within the page are cool and the writing is easy to understand.
• Word Wise - Edelman and PR professional in Chicago who writes about, well, words.  If you're a fan of Lynne Truss, you'll love his writing, too.
• Chowhound - Want to see what local foodies are chatting about in your town?  Check out this bulletin board out of Chow.com.  Fascinating and funny discussions abound!
• Alltop - Fairly new blog aggregate site from social media influencer Guy Kawasaki.  Basically, pick the topic you want to read about, and it provides some of the top blogs, with links to recent posts.  Hours of entertainment!

This is just a small smattering of what's out there.  If you search deep enough you can find E-books as well (do a Google search - it's amazing what you'll find), which are brief online publications shared typically for free and normally in a PDF format.  There's news sites, communities, bulletin boards, and more.  Go exploring! 

And interact, too!  The web is wonderful because it is a world of give and take.  Post comments on blogs, start an account on Facebook and add friends and post on their wall, start your own blog, or join the Twitter conversations.  Start your own Delicious or Digg or StumbleUpon or Clipmarks account and share your favorite sites, too.  Add RSS feeds (the little orange square with the white stripes you see on websites) to your Google Reader, which will update once a new post is up.  (Shameless plug: add my site, too!)

You'll be surprised what you can find or accomplish with a little turn of a page, whether it's paper or electronic.  What are some of your favorite things to read online?

This is so meta...

clipped from teacherhax.wordpress.com Posted by farmerfresh in cool apps, teacherhax. add a comment , edit post clipped from teacherhax.wordpress.com I don’t know about you, but I do a lot of web research before presenting students with an idea or subject matter. I have discovered that by using a web clipping tool like Clipmarks or Google Notebook I can save sites for students to browse with just a click of the mouse. See my Google Notebook here. GNotebook puts all my clips together in a blog format that I can organize by topic. I can just direct students to go there to read the reading of the day or research my preselected list of sites so they don’t waste time searching aimlessly. GNotebook and Clipmarks have different strengths that are well discussed here. I think it’s an extremely handy tool for busy teachers who want to easily maintain a dynamic website and bring kids along on our web travels.

For news and other feeds I started off on NewsFire, but the disadvantage of that is of course that it's a standalone application and so is only on my laptop. Enter NetVibes: salvation! All my bits and pieces in one place so I can even skive at work! But, ah - there's another element to it, and that is the option to share online.

Share? What's that all about then? I've shared photos on Flickr and other sites, but that's about as far as it's got so far, other than FaceBook and a messageboard. But this seems different. Share what exactly?

Then I realise there's a whole world of internet sharing out there. Not just blogging, no, that's in the ha'penny place really: a blog is just not enough. It seems that to share properly we have to have del.icio.us, Digg, Reddit, Stumble, LastFM, Pipes, Muxtape, Remember The Milk, Scribd, Zemanta (which I forgot to use for this), ClipMarks, OpenID... and these are only the ones I can remember without looking up. Is this what is meant by Web 2.0? And what exactly are we sharing? Other websites, interesting bits and pieces... anything original? I don't know yet. I realise this is just scratching the surface and the serious techy stuff is probably a whole new level, but for now this part is absorbing me, and holding my interest.

In the last week I have opened accounts for just about all of the above, and heaven only knows why. For example, Pipes: I've registered there too, though how I'll ever use it I have not the faintest idea. I just feel the urge to get in there and join up. 'Don't leave me out!' my inner child cries! 'New toys! New toys!'

And as for OpenID... do I really want it? Do I want everything all linked up and my whole life (such as it is) available to all? I saw this interview (from one of my RSS'd blogs) just after I had written my first blog and linked it to my Flickr, Twitter and MySpace accounts.

Then I realised that I too have different identities in different places, so I hastily unlinked my MySpace account. I'm still not sure how much of me I want online, and so a degree of separation suits me fine, for now.

But what a learning curve there seems to be. I'm following in Twitter, and RSSing, a few techy blogs as well as some creative types, and there seems to be so much going on that's really interesting, I want a slice of it. But like a kid in a sweetshop, I really have no idea what to choose and what to leave behind, and I seem to be sampling it all in soundbites rather than sitting down properly to absorb fully what it's all about. But with Twitter links coming at me right, left and centre, and all these interesting blogs to read, how can I filter what's useful and what ain't, and have a normal life too? I don't yet know, but finding out is half the fun.

Dx

If you prefer to keep using clip mode, you'll now find options for switching the default in the settings of our iGoogle and Netvibes widgets, and also on getaclipcast.clipmarks.com .

We've also changed the name of the ClipCast to simply be the "Clipmarks Clip Widget". While we liked the name ClipCast, it was confusing to new users, and the word "widget" is becoming widely understood as a small application that you can take and embed elsewhere to display information. At the core, that's exactly what our Clip Widget does, so we've changed the name to match.

Along with the name change, stay tuned to this blog for more updates as we roll out changes to the site over the coming weeks!