Monday, June 30, 2008

Thing 14 - Technorati blog search

I have been very curious about Technorati since it has been referenced many times in this 23 1/2 things adventure. I explored keyword searching which helped me get to the right area, and then tag searching to follow out specific themes such as "library_love" to watch the latest video submissions on You-Tube. I am quite sold on tags. I also did some research on solar energy blogs on Technorati and on Google Blog Search. Both pointed me to excellent sites, although different ones on the top 10, so I think searching in tandem is the key -- not sticking to just one site.

It wasn't really surprising to me to see that the most popular blogs at the moment are technology-related (with the exception of The Huffington Post probably because it's an election year). I think things change so quickly in technology that blogs are the only way to keep up with things. Educationally speaking, I think this site is more geared for older students and professional development. I did see some interesting videos promoting the library which gave me some ideas for creating one for our elementary library this year. I found so many more blogs of interest to me on Edublogger.

While I explored the widgets I chose not to join Technorati because I feel I'm getting spread too thin. If I get too many things going, I won't develop the habits I need in any depth. At least I know what the site is if I need it again. There were no tutorials for using the site either which makes me feel that the site is really for techies, not so much for educators.

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