How I Surf

I have really gotten into reading blogs for the last couple of months, and just recently discovered Google's application, Google Reader. What Reader does, for those who may not already know, is aggregate a large number of blog subscriptions using folders, tagging and additional methods to help you sort through enormous amounts of information in an easy and seemless interface.

I love how once I read an article, it disappears from the main list. I also have the option of creating a blog roll of my favorite articles via javascript that I can add to other websites (see Shared Items in the right column of this blog). Finding and adding new blogs is a breeze, thanks to the ability to either browse by categories or keywords.

A couple of blogs that I am finding indispensable, in no particular order:

• Boing Boing
• Wired Top Stories
• Newsweek Top News
• Slashdot
• GigaOM
• Hackzine
• Drawn.ca
• CSS Beauty
• Ma.gnolia: Recent Bookmarks in Web Design

I have also found myself spending an inordinate amount of time browsing DeviantArt. If you are an art fan, then you really must take a look. The sheer breadth and scope of talent will keep you distracted for hours.

I am also a little ashamed to admit that I have also jumped onto the MySpace bandwagon. I used to scoff at the idea of social networking, but I suppose that as I grow older this has simply become an easy way to find and keep in touch with old friends and coworkers.

If you find yourself in a rut looking for new things on the net, then you probably haven't heard about social bookmarking. My favorite site for this is Ma.gnolia.com, simply because it is easy to use and beautiful to look at and easy to browse and share bookmarks with other members. They also have a javascript roll which will add your most recent bookmarks to another website if you so desire. The neat thing about Ma.gnolia is the ability to rate each bookmark, give it a really long description, see a thumbnail of the bookmarked site and, yes, even add and remember tags for all of your bookmarks. This site exemplifies all that is good with Web 2.0.

Last, but definitely not least, is Yahoo's Flickr for photo hosting. This is hands down my favorite site. I am simply blown away by the usability of the site. It could not be any easier to edit titles and descriptions for your photos, as well as organize them into albums. I have also discovered several new groups that have been keeping me busy of late. Great interface, networking and all for free. What more could I ask for?

Oh, and I should also mention that I am posting this using Flock, a new mozilla style browser with some nifty built in tools for posting to blogger and uploading pictures to Flickr. I have to say that so far I have been very impressed by the functionality this new browser has to offer. Although, the new Safari 3.0 does seem awfully fast...

Blogged with Flock