#cam23 Google Docs

Embedding Google Docs in a website is something that I hadn't realised was possible until Thing 9 and the example of Faculty of Classics Library book recommendation came along. This has much potential in a library setting, and I'd never realised that these kind of things could be generated by Google Docs and not some complicated and expensive software - a pleasant surprise! As well as the classic things like book recommendations, comments and suggestions, I'm sure there are many other uses for the forms that can be generated. I had a go at creating a form for people to sign up for an imaginary cake-eating contest at the library (must have been feeling hungry when making it!), and found it fairly straightforward, although I haven't quite got as far as making it look nice when embedded in a blog post.

I sympathise with Murmation's post about how Google Docs could have saved her worrying about emailing copies of documents to herself, and saving them to memory sticks then trying to work out which was the most up to date version. Despite having used Google Docs before to share documents with other people, I never think to use it for this purpose, and resolutely stick to using memory sticks (if I have one to hand at the time) or emailing documents to myself (if I don't). I'm not too sure why, perhaps it's just habit? Next time I need to work on a document on two different computers, I'll try and remember about Google Docs...

Pushnote

Since I've already talked about Twitter and RSS feeds in an earlier post, I'm just going to add that I have been using Google Reader a little more over the last few weeks. It seems I've been converted now that I am following more blogs (some cpd23 and some Cam23 2.0 participants).

Onto Pushnote, then - a tool that allows you to rate and rank your favourite websites and share this with others on the web. The principle of sharing information about useful websites is one that I'm sure most cpd23ers support, and Twitter is often used as a means of sharing useful websites via Bit.ly links. Having set up an account to try out Pushnote, I think it's unlikely that I will use it though. Many people like to rate things and give them scores, but this side of Pushnote isn't something that really appeals to me.

I managed to find some other cpd23ers on Pushnote and look at their latest and favourites lists. For me, a drawback of Pushnote is that (unless I missed something) there doesn't seem to be a way of organising or tagging the sites you rate and comment on. If I was going to use it, I'd like to be able to search for sites that have been rated on a particular topic (such as 'libraries' or 'technology'). If Pushnote really takes off, it could be used by libraries to rate the websites that might be useful to their users, as another form of useful links page. For most libraries though, I imagine this would only work if you could organise the links in some way. Just seeing a list of people's favourite sites may appeal if you have time to browse and like the serendipitous approach, but this isn't something I will use. However, Pushnote is only in Beta so perhaps this facility to organise your favourites may be added later. Personally, I would rather share information and learn about useful websites via Twitter and blogs. A useful feature of Pushnote then, is that you can share your favourites via Twitter and Facebook.

For me, the most interesting part of Pushnote is the browser extension, so that you if you come across a website you can click on the Pushnote icon and see how users have rated a site.

Overall, a mixed review from me. Some useful features, and I'm sure some people will enjoy using it, but it's not something I can see myself using at the moment.