Review: Update all your Web 2.0 Sites in a snap with Ping

If you're like me you probably have accounts with MySpace, Facebook, Hi5, Diigo, Delicious, Wordpress and more. With all the Web 2.0 sites popping up every where and all the accounts we have to keep up with different networks, friends, or family updating these sites are getting out of hand. Well I'm here to tell you that it has become easier thanks to Ping.fm who is here to relieve some of that pain.
Ping.fm is a service that allows you to update your status, blogs and micro-blogging of all your Web 2.0 sites from just one site. You can send your updates through your PC browser, phone, or e-mail.
Before Ping.fm I use to have to log in to Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and Hi5 and update my status in all sites. Now with Ping.fm, I just visit i.ping.fm from my iPhone and by updating my Status here, all these sites get updated automatically. How cool is that?
These are the Web 2.0 sites you can update with Ping.fm:


By clicking on the Add Network link next to the site name you can set up your log in for each web site and specify what information will be updated on that site. For example, if it's your Twitter account you're setting up, you would probably want Twitter to receive all micro-blogging and Status updates.

This service is very easy to use but just in case, you can find a quick tutorial at: http://ping.fm/blog/a-tutorial-for-you/

Oh for iPhone users, here is a tip. After visiting i.ping.fm on your phone press the + sign to Add an icon to your Home Screen.

Try it, you have nothing to lose - it's free. Let us know if you're using it already and how it's going.

VS: Bookmarks vs Red Delicious App

If you're like me and do a lot of research then you are a big fan of Social Bookmarking. My favorite
site is Delicious and I was happy to see the Delicious app appear in my apps store some time ago.

The app that I was using is called Bookmarks, and it's free. You can program your Delicious username and password, and it will display all yours tags. By just touching the tag name, the websites you have tagged are displayed and you can navigate to the website by of course, touching the name of the site on the screen. Download it to try it out, it's free.

The app was working fine for me but then last night I decided to visit the app store which I had not done for a while and I noticed another app called Red Delicious. The icon is the same as Delicious, the only difference is that they blue area in the Delicious logo is red. If you're buying through iTunes, the app is filed in the Social Networking category which is different from the Bookmarks app which is filed under the Utilities category.

The Red Delicious app is only $1.99 and I think it's worth every penny. To start, as soon as you open the app a list of the most recent tags you used appear. At the bottom of the screen you have your standard icons to navigate to Recent, Bookmarks, Search, Features, and More....

The app defaults to the Recent screen which again displays the most recent tags used which are linked to the most recent sites you've bookmarked.

My favorite thing is the search, I'm a Googler at heart and search for me is very important and it works very well. The Featured screen shows you the featured bookmarked sites on Delicious which is another great feature of this app. Download it now.

There is another app called "My Delicious" which looks very similar to Red Delicious. This one I haven't tried because it's another $1.99 and I read in the reviews a lot of complaints on the app crashing.

By looking at it on iTunes, it has the Bookmark screen which shows you the sites you've bookmarked, including the title, notes, and tags which I like. It also has the search feature but that is all I see. This one is filed in the Productivity category. Download it now.

Have you used any of these apps? if so, share your reviews or any other app you're using to bookmark.

Top List: My Top 10 Favorite Web 2.0 Services

For those of you that don't know me I'm a huge web 2.0 fan and spend most of my free time playing around with new tools. There are so many services out there and a lot of them do the same that sometimes you don't know which one you should use. So I've decided to share my can't live without sites with you, and give you at least one reason why I prefer these services to help you out.

Here I go by category:

Blogs
Blogger - To me this is by far the best blogging service and it's not because I have a free hosted blog. Other blogging services (like WP) restrict you from customizing the look and feel and also don't let you add a lot of cool things available through widgets or code.

Social Bookmarking
Delicious - I use to be a Favorite's fanatic until I discovered Delicious... no more browser favorites for me. This social bookmarking service is easy to use and very convenient. The only thing I didn't like was the site design and they just redesigned it. Looks great, kudos to the designers at Delicious. By the way, feel free to add me to your network.

Wikis
WetPaint - If you need a Wiki I highly recommend this service. They have several features that other wikis don't have. For example, when you create new pages they automatically appear in the navigation, you can create sub-pages from the start, they have a photo gallery, it looks very professional, and if it's an educational wiki they remove the ads for free. You can check out one of my wikis to see what I mine - Web 2.0 Applications review or Cynthia Medina.

Microblogging
Twitter - The first time I heard of microblogging I asked myself "why would I do that?" Well let me tell you that the best resources I've gotten have been through Twitter. This is the best way of keeping up with your network, news, friends and family. You can Twitter using your computer or phone which makes this service very addictive. You can follow me on Twitter.

Social Networks
Hum - It's hard for me to pick a favorite in this category. I'm in several social networks because the people I keep up with are completely different. I use Facebook to keep up with siblings and coworkers, MySpace for friends in the U.S, HI5 for childhood friends and cousins in the Dominican Republica, and Ning for work related communities. Now if I go by the features I would go with MySpace hands down because just like blogger they are not restrictive and I like to put my creativity to work. I also like Ning, they actually let you create your own social network for free, and it's very easy to set up.

Video Sharing
YouTube - Do I have to explain?

Readers
Google Reader - The application looks like an e-mail inbox which makes it easier to use, and most of the RSS widgets have their one step icon for subscribing.

Online Photo Sharing
Here I have to admit I've been using Shutterfly way before all these other sites were launched and I still use it. They just finally added a community feature to it so I'm a little excited. It's hard to change photo sites after you've been saving your pictures for years some where else. Now from the newest sites, I like Photobucket and Flickr. These two sites just make sharing so easy, they have lots a cool features, and you can embed your pictures in other web 2.0 sites in a few clicks.

Photo Editing
Picnik - Why pay so much money for Photoshop when you can do a lot of photo editing online, for free and without having to download anything. You can also edit pictures that you have saved on other online photo sharing sites.

Creating movies
Animoto - You can create free movies using up to 10 pictures, and you can add music and credits to it. They also have a paying option for larger movies which you can also download and save on your computer. What I like is that your pictures appear to the beat of the music and they look very professional. They also have their own music selection but you can also add your own which is a great feature as well.

For more services and reviews you can visit my Web 2.0 Applications Review wiki.

OK, these are my can't live without sites, what are yours?

Going Web 2.0 or not?

My organization is ready to embrace the addition of Web 2.0 tools in our training programs. Will we take that leap? I sure hope so.

Currently our Training department is the one that owns the development and maintenance of our Corporate University, and of all classroom and virtual training programs so the shift to Web 2.0 will bring new and exciting changes that I think we can all embrace.

Last year we attended the Learning Conference 2006 which is all about using Web 2.0 tools that enable learning. We came back with so many ideas, and we put together a team that was in charge of researching blogs, wikis, social networks, videos, podcasting, avatars, and audio. The result of this research lead to incorporating audio in our eLearning courses and to beta test an mLearning module which we had great results with but I think not too much chance was given to blogs, wikis, and other tools.

We just came back from the Learning 2007 Conference and this year the speakers focused more on actually examples of how to use Web 2.0 tools in your training programs so can you feel the excitement? After presenting all our ideas to Management, it looks like we will try to implement some of these tools. So I’m very excited, I’m a loyal advocate of these new tools. I've used them with my kids, siblings, friends, and for my professional development. I've learned more through blogging, wikis, communities then by reading books and attending seminars. And of course, thanks to Google I have found great resources.

Going by my experience and what I’ve heard from teachers, trainers, and other educators it seems that this technology is working. So why not give it a try? The concerns we have I know are the same that other corporations and educators have. We are very concerned about wrong information being posted on our wikis and bad comments being left on blogs. We don’t have too many resources that can continuously monitor these tools so it’s a little scary.

The fear is there and they only way it will go away is if we leap into this new world and we don't fall flat on our backs. I think we just need to let go of the ownership of the content, and let others contribute to our success. Like Brad Anderson from Best Buy said “Getting other points of view and other pieces of knowledge into our learning system that might otherwise have escaped is key to our success as an organization." And I think we understand this now.

From my research and experience with some of these tools, I’ve compiled a list of concerns and solutions that I think will help us deal with these issues. These will be posted in other articles so check back with us soon.

What has been your experience with Web 2.0 tools in the classroom? What tools work best for you? Any one?