Movies & Social Networking

I have spent a goodly amount of time this evening trying to find a social networking/web application experience that will allow me to share what DVDs and movies I own, as well as sharing my reviews, ratings, etc. Try as I may (and have), I am yet to find a place that will allow me to do all of this in one place and that will share all that experience to my Facebook timeline. There must be a place – but I can’t find it.

I have tried Keepio and Bagcheck, but these don’t really do what I want. They are probably good for listing your items (not just DVDs and movies), though Keepio is not allowing me to add any more than one item at the moment for some reason. Bagcheck is way too public for my liking. So I have accounts at both, but I’m not likely to use them for this particular purpose.

I use Flickchart and Flixster, which have proven to be very good for rating and reviewing movies, but not so good for listing the DVDs and movies I own. I do like both of these sites and will continue to use them. I will probably use something like Listgeeks (where I also have an account) for listing what movies I own, unless I find something else.

One other avenue I haven’t really explored at the moment are the various iPhone apps, so I’ll do that next.

Anyone got any ideas – I’ll be grateful for that ‘place’ that will do it for me. Someone? Anyone?

So what started all of this off? It was buying and watching ‘The Grey’ last night – it got me to thinking that I should get around to doing this part of the social scene. My review can be found at Flixster – http://www.flixster.com/movie/the-grey-2012/ .

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BookYap: Book Recomendations

I am about to start using a new web application called BookYap. Put simply, BookYap is an application that recommends books based on criteria you enter. There are over 650 000 books in its database, so chances are it will find a book for you.

You can search for a book by using keywords or the filters it has available (based on personality types). By becoming a registered user, the application learns more and more about you and your reading habits, improving the recommendations it makes for you.

Books appear with thumbnails of their covers and book ratings. A brief description appears by hovering over the thumbnail. You are able to interact with the application and associated community by sharing books you have read and your reviews of them. There is connectivity with both Facebook and Twitter also.

You are also able to add books to a reading wishlist if you like. Books can be purchased from Amazon when you choose a book to read.

Visit BookYap at:
http://bookyap.com/

 

FullyFollowMe

Today’s link is to a site called ‘FullyFollowMe.’ This is a new start up and is seeking to become a site where contacts/friends/visitors can follow you on whatever site you are connected to via FullyFollowMe. So far I am connected to Facebook and Twitter on FullyFollowMe and these are the only sites (apart from LinkedIn – which I am not on) I am currently connected to via FullyFollowMe. It is only new, so it will be interesting to see where it goes with this idea.

Fore more, visit:
http://www.fullyfollow.me/

placebook

Today’s link is to a site called ‘placebook.’ Sounds similar to another site called Facebook doesn’t it? Placebook is a place where all of your friends on facebook are plotted on a map of the world, along with various statistics about Facebook and your usage of it. Simply log in to placebook with your Facebook log in details and the site goes to work plotting your friends on the map. You could say the site is ‘cool,’ but I’m probably getting a little too old for such descriptions these days.

Fore more, visit:
http://geographics.cz/socialMap/

FriendShuffle

Friendshuffle is somewhat like StumbleUpon, except Friendshuffle is for following what your friends on Facebook or Twitter have been looking at via their links and likes. It allows you to share in the web surfing activities of your friends, via what they post on either Facebook and/or Twitter. Whereas StumbleUpon learns what you like by what you click on as being liked, FriendShuffle merely adds what you like to your profile, so that you can share it with further friends.

Friendshuffle can be a fun way of entering into what your friends are discovering on the web and then sharing that with others. It is also an easy tool to use. You simply log in with your Twitter/Facebook accounts and you can then start shuffling through what your friends have been looking at.

For more visit FriendShuffle at:
http://www.friendshuffle.com/

I Rate My Day

I Rate My Day is a rather simple daily Blogging type tool. All it is is a simple way to let your friends and family know how your day is going. It is a simple micro-blogging site, with very brief notifications posted as to how the day is going for you. You can also link your ratings to your Facebook profile.

Visit at:
http://www.iratemyday.com/

skinnyo

As I try to get back into Blogging on a regular basis again (yeah, I seem to be struggling with that at the moment), I thought I might use my daily posts on this Blog to offer up some links to some more web applications and social networking sites. I generally think that most of these are applications of some type or another, even though some of them will have a social aspect to them.

The first is skinnyo. Skinnyo, as the name probably suggests, is about getting ‘skinnier.’ It is an application to assist the user in loosing weight. Skinnyo gives you a personal weight loss diary that includes embeddable graphs and a photo history for tracking weight loss – which also includes a target goal that you can set and aim at.

If however you are unable to find the motivation to stay on track by being a private user of the application, you can also pull in friends and other users to assist in your weight loss efforts. This is done by setting challenges and/or joining other challenges set by others. This is where the social side of the application and community comes in. Of course there is also a status and news feed of others within your circle of skinnyo friends, so you can keep track of your friends weight loss efforts and share your own with them – setting up something of a support network.

As for showing others your weight – that doesn’t happen. Skinnyo will only show your differences in weight (that which has been lost – or perhaps gained). So no need to be too embarrassed by it all.

There is interaction available with both Facebook and Twitter accounts as well – should you wish to do so.

There is also a widget that is available allowing you to embed your weight loss efforts in a website or Blog (only showing the weight loss – not your weight).

Did I mention it is free to use?

Me? Well, I’m on my way loosing weight and to reaching my goal.

Check out the site at:
http://www.skinnyo.com/

Blogging with Tumblr

It’s no secret that I use wordpress.com a lot for Blogging. I have close to 10 Blogs/sites hosted at wordpress.com. These days there are a large number of Blogging platforms to choose from – many of which provide a very easy and simple user experience. My platform of choice remains wordpress.com, though coming in at a very close second is tumblr. I do have a tumblr Blog which is called ‘Daily Dribble,’ which is a Blog that captures posts that I don’t post elsewhere. I love to Blog and often find myself thinking that I’d like to post that website/article/thing somewhere, but it doesn’t quite fit into what I’m doing on any particular Blog that I have set up – this is where my tumblr Blog fits. It captures this overflow if you like.

There are many things to like about tumblr, apart from the fact that is very simple to use. You don’t need to be a HTML expert to use it, though you can use HTML for your posts should you choose to do so. Since I like a certain formatting appearance I choose HTML mode for my posts and it really is quite simple to do (if you know a little HTML of course). If you don’t know HTML tumblr remains very easy to use and is one of the very simple Blogging platforms out there for people just getting started in Blogging or for those with more experience.

I also use the Chrome browser from Google and the little Chrome Extension I have for posting URLs straight into tumblr (with the post) is a fantastic way to add content to my Blog. You can also set up your tumblr Blog to post straight  to your Twitter account or to Facebook, which is all very convenient.

There is so much more to having a tumblr account – all worth checking out at:

http://www.tumblr.com/

My tumblr Blog is at:

http://particularkev.tumblr.com/

The Fridge

If you’re interested in setting up a group/community/social network, perhaps you might like to check out ‘The Fridge.’ The Fridge is a place where you can set up a free group/community/social network. There are plenty of places these days for setting up a group and/or a social network. You could of course try Google Groups, Grou.ps and/or Yahoo Groups. If you are happy to pay there are other possibilities including Ning. The Fridge is not a site I had even heard of until a few days ago, but it could be worth a look or worth experimenting with for a while.

A member of a Fridge group gets a personal profile, which has a wall similar to Facebook. You can also post a photo for your profile. It really is a very simple social network providing a very basic service. It really seems to be a way of having very basic communication with other members of the group. You can post a picture with a post. So basically it provides a secure and private place for communicating. I guess email really accomplishes the same thing to some degree.

Have a look at:

http://www.frid.ge

Facebook: Things to Hate About Facebook – Perhaps?

Today’s post adds a little balance to the Facebook posts of the last couple of days. The link will take you to a list of 25 things that someone hates about Facebook.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/eliot/25-things-i-hate-about-facebook-26q