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/

 

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Digg

Digg has been in the news a bit over recent months, with stories of its demise and failure to stay relevant. Personally I think such talk is premature, though certainly it did fail to listen to its members and its membership dropped as a consequence. This has all changed now and the site has again been overhauled, more in keeping with the wishes of its users.

Digg is a social network where members ‘Digg’ news stories that appeal to them as they surf the web. This can be done by posting the link of the story on the Digg site, in browser extensions/plug ins, etc. Digg is a very user interactive site, where the users likes/dislikes help to promote stories or bury them. If you are a website owner, you can integrate Digg into your site with various widgets and buttons. In short, Digg allows the users to share web content with friends and others within the Digg community.

You can also use Digg to explore news articles and content, simply by visiting the site and looking at the current listings.

Visit Digg at:
http://digg.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/

Boomerang for Gmail

Boomerang for Gmail is a Firefox and Chrome plugin for Gmail. It allows a Gmail user to take control of when they send/receive emails. It is currently available by invitation only – however you can apply for an invitation.

See more at:

http://www.baydin.com/boomerang4gmail/

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/

Google URL Shortener

If you’re a Twitter user or use a similar type of Blogging platform, you will know that it can be difficult to fit large URLs into 140 characters or less. Google has now created a URL shortener application. URL shorteners are certainly not new and there are plenty about, but if you already use Google a lot (like me), it is very convenient to have Google do this for also.

Have a look at:

http://goo.gl/

BlogCatalog: A Blog Directory

BlogCatalog is a Blog user submitted Blog Directory – and it claims to be the biggest in the world. They may well be right.

BlogCatalog is another way to explore the Blogosphere.

http://www.blogcatalog.com/