The Friday mail has been hijacked yet again…
The positive feedback (“you geek” – thanks, Cassie) from the last Friday email I wrote has spurred me to have another go. The loose theme is, once again, characteristics of the modern web…
Twittervision http://twittervision.com
Twittering is blogging for the ADHD crowd. It’s microblogging if you will. You might have engaged in a spot of microblogging this morning without realising it – it’s what you do every time you update your status on Facebook (soooo 2007 but there you go). Twitter is just a discrete microblogging application. You can send your updates (‘I just ate some blueberries’, ‘lmao some guy outside just fell over LOL’ etc.) through instant messenger, SMS or the twitter website (twitter.com) and share your micromessages with your friends who subscribe to your pearls of wisdom. Twittervision.com grabs all those twitter updates and displays them through Google Maps in a great example of the open web – separate information coming together in new formats (known as a mashup).
Having said all that, personally I can’t stand Twitter, and given this platform I’d like to express that through haiku:
Empty tide roars
The cloud darkens noble thought
Banality spreads.
Flickrvision http://flickrvision.com/
Any website that exposes its data (as modern websites should do) can be used to create a mashup. Flickrvision uses the same approach and constantly updates a Google Map to show the geo-location of Flickr uploads as they happen. It’s a big world out there…
WonderHowTo http://www.wonderhowto.com/
The internet is an unparalleled medium for settling arguments. Did people really used to have to march down to the library to prove their assertion that bees don’t, in fact, have knees? It’s also pretty good for learning new skills. Want to get a dent out of a ping pong ball? Hankering for some tangy creamed spinach? Yearn to play the Halo 3 theme tune on the piano? Then http://www.wonderhowto.com/ is the site for you. Best of all, none of that tricky reading – they’re all videos created, rated and commented on by the great internet public. Rejoice!
BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/
So obvious it’s easy to overlook, it’s the new(ish) iteration of the BBC site. The design is heavily influenced by the web 2.0 chunky-text-and-rounded-corners style so prevalent over the last few years. It also takes a lot of core functionality from such sites, like personalisation and the drag-and-drop interface. Personalisation is key, allowing users to choose that they want to see and how they want to see it. Power to the people and to the Beeb for finally getting on board with the modern web.