Thing 9: Google Reader

Reflection:
I was already familiar with Google Reader so it wasn't a new experience for me. It's a great way to stay updated and provides all the updates in one place - this can be great to check up on multiple websites. I only wish that the look/design could somehow be improved so that we didn't have to scroll so much.

Thing 8: Deli-ci-ous Beer

Check my delicious bookmark to read some interesting facts about BEER

Delicious is a great tool. It neatly organizes any webpage that we like or might use in the future and since it's in the web, it can be accessed anywhere. In college work, this is great especially when working on papers and such. When I have to write intensive economics papers, I literally have to search the internet for hours to find the reference papers or data to write my paper. If I lose the links to the website all the hard effort of hours will vanish. So, Delicious can keep those safe and help me with my research papers. 

After college, it can still be used to just save some book I might want to buy, or a good travel coupon that might pop up somewhere or even great electric guitars that might be for sale that I hopefully will be able to afford after I graduate. 

My Delicious Username: pranav.srest

Thing 7: Tweeeter

Currently I'm following: Charlie Sheen, Paul Krugman, The Rolling Stone Mag, Shaq, NFL, NBA, Pearl Jam, etc.

Twitter is a very different experience. When I started using Twitter, I didn't exactly "get it". I think that has been one of the reason why many people from my age group haven't turned to Twitter. It's not as intuitive and Tweeting isn't the same as putting stuff in Facebook, the way it's laid out is very confusing at first and it seems that with the rate people tweet, whatever you put up in the Twitter Universe just gets lost. So there's no incentive for people to tweet if it just gets lost among a million other tweets. Maybe I will get used to it, may be not. I'll give it a try for a month and we'll see what happens.

My Twitter add: www.twitter.com/pranavsrest

Thing 6: Why Comment?

Commenting in a blog is equivalent to buying a ticket and attending an event. It shows participation, encouragement and feedback. Some online communities are built entirely on commenting and participation - take Facebook or any other forum websites as an example. For professional writes and PR people, commenting can help get them great feedback on non-biased third party perception as well as for marketing people, it's also a tool that helps them count the ROI (Return On Investment) in their online advertising/marketing efforts. Currently I am following Garrett, Nick, MJ, Meredith and Katie's blogs.

Thing 5: Mind Map - World War I

This really worked well for me. I really liked the tool, it was very easy to use and was very intuitive. The colors are very rich and it is very good to look at. I am not sure if I'd prefer this or on paper, it really depends on the context and on the timing. However, I would work on this if I was doing all my research on computer, mainly because it is so easy to edit.
Other situations where this can be used is any sort of planning: such as events, travel, fitness plan, art project, etc.