Do you find yourself wishing your online shopping experiences were more rewarding?  If so, consider PriceBlink.  PriceBlink is a Firefox browser Add-on that will automatically search for lower prices or coupon codes for many online products and services. Although, PriceBlink does not have entries for every product I have every purchased online, it has saved me from paying a higher price multiple times. I don’t know about you, but for me, saving money is fun.

Feel like a beach comber when surfing YouTube?

YouTube is one of the most successful uses of internet technology and Web 2.0 that we see today. The “largest worldwide video-sharing community” has provided procrastinating college students and bored office employees with hours of entertainment. YouTube also gives companies and celebrities yet another promotional platform, enables amateur filmmakers to easily release their art to the world and is a source of thousands of useful instructional videos. Unfortunately, YouTube has also spawned many millions of boring, irrelevant and meaningless videos. Their owners: teenagers who somehow believe the rest of the world wants to see their foot-high back yard bike ramp being put to use and middle-aged hillbillies who want to share a 10 second video of their new brood of puppies.

This isn’t a rant about me not caring about these people’s lives; it’s a statement of concern for the growing ocean of garbage on YouTube. A similar problem is the endless copy-and-paste videos! How many “Charlie Bit Me” videos do we really need? And why is an official music video buried amidst dozens of fan videos featuring nothing but lyrics or nature pictures? I fear that YouTube may suffer from the plague that so harshly affected MySpace. As more and more noise is added, the good videos that drew us there in the first place are becoming drowned out.

Perhaps YouTube needs to be more exclusive about who can upload public video. Would it be possible to automatically delete clips that have less than fifty views after the first month of existence? I have no suggestions for a quick fix, but I would like to see a higher standard enforced.

Do any readers have suggestions for improvement? Please comment below!

Before taking this course, I was clueless about Google Analytics and what keywords are. Although I learned a few things about these, this clip definitely taught me a few things about maximizing good use of key words. Check it out.

Here is what Seth Godin and Tom Peters have to say about the wonders of blogging. Short clip – but very important.

High Dynamic Range(HDR) Photography is something that has really sparked my interest recently so I thought I would share a little bit about it. The technique consists of taking multiple pictures of the same thing with a range of exposures and then layering them on top of each other. In order to do this, you need a camera that is able to adjust EV (exposure value) settings and some kind of HDR software (I have been using Photomatix). Here is a Youtube video that describes the process very well.

After the necessary processing, a well done HDR image is trully breathtaking. Seeing the scene from every possbile exposure gives it a very surreal feel and often looks more like a painting than a picture. Check out some beautiful examples at http://www.2expertsdesign.com/inspiration/85-examples-of-beautiful-hdr-photography

Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that is free and openly edited by anyone and everyone, is easily my favorite site.  The amount of knowledge it contains is unbelievable.  The best part is that it’s all (usually) true!  While most professors cringe at the idea of students using the site in anything even fractionally academic, the site is a goldmine of opportunity.

Wise students (well, in my opinion…) may consult Wikipedia for two reasons – brainstorming and source locations.  When looking for more information on a topic, or ideas on what other information to hit up regarding a subject, Wikipedia is the place to go.  The site is chalk full of informational goodness – whether historic, scientific, sports-related or otherwise, the articles are endless.

Additionally, while citing Wikipedia would be an unforgivable offense, looking for sources through the site is a useful and perfectly legal idea.  The sources at the bottom of each article often reveal solid sources with which to go to for help – whether online journals, academic sites, books, or what have you, the site is filled with good links with which to gather more research in addition to the traditional source search at the library.  For some students, this is already a popular method, but for others, it’s time to not worry about the hype against Wikipedia’s open and editable system and just use it for what it is.