Delicious vs. Google

I'm still in the Halloween spirit, so I did a Google search for "Ghost Hunters". I wasn't really looking for a bunch of links about the show on SyFy, but that is primarily what I got in return. I did a search for the exact same term on Delicious and came up with more along the lines of what I was looking for with my initial search. While there still were a couple of links regarding the television show, most of the links were to sites with stories about ghosts and haunted houses that I had never read about or heard of before.

Unfortunately, the Delicious search did return a couple of dead links (no pun intended), leading me to believe the Google search is more up to date.

Google search

Delicious search

Flickr - Creative Commons Licensing

I just signed up for Flickr today and if I didn't already know about it, I wouldn't have realized that changing the licensing status of my images was even possible. There is a very small link on the lower right hand side of the image page that says "All Rights Reserved" with an even smaller "edit" button next to it that allows me to change the licensing of my pictures. Even once there, it doesn't really detail what the different licensing options mean. I feel that a more broad tutorial on this process and what the different licensing options entail would be a beneficial change.

People should allow their photos to be shared as long as they are not private. For example, if someone went to the Ohio State game today and uploaded the pictures to Flickr, it would be nice to see pictures of the game from a different perspective than the television.

Displaying Images

Below I have posted two instances of the same image. The top one was uploaded directly from my computer and the second one is embedded from my Flickr account. Personally, I prefer storing pictures on a site such as Flickr or Photobucket rather than having to upload the pictures from my computer. In my opinion, the biggest advantage of this is that you have the freedom to be on any computer with internet access, and being able to post your pictures. If I was on a friend's computer and wanted to share the photo below, I would have no way of doing it unless I had previously uploaded the picture to Flickr. On the other hand, an advantage of storing pictures on your computer is privacy. If someone were to get your Flickr password, they would have access to all of your images.

Amazon offers RSS feeds

Now that I have become familiar with the feed reader, I did some searching and found that a site where I frequently make purchases from offers RSS feeds. Amazon offers feeds for best sellers, new releases, and items that are most gifted and most wished for. I find this feature is highly convenient for myself, especially the feed for new releases. Below is the link to where I located this valuable information.

Amazon RSS feeds

Feed Reader

I had never used a Feed Reader before until a few days ago. It wasn't difficult to set up and a lot of the sites I normally visit had links easily accessible to add the feeds. The Feed Reader definitely saves time normally spent browsing from site to site. Only real drawbacks that I can see are the lack of familiarity for someone who has never used one before, and simply the time it takes getting used to using one. These are things that are becoming less evident to myself as a new user.

Super Bowl XLV

One of my favorite plays from Super Bowl XLV!

Three of my favorite websites

www.netflix.com - This is one of my favorite sites because of the wide selection of movies and television shows available to watch any time of day or night.

www.rotoworld.com - I visit this site multiple times a day because it always is updated with the latest sports news.

www.youtube.com - I visit this site daily to watch things such as movie trailers, music videos, and sports clips.

Introduction

My name is Robert Martinez.  I am a student at the University of Toledo and will be graduating in December of 2011.