I decided to spend some time this morning playing with some different kinds of social networking sites. Two of the sites - Reader2 and Last.Fm are of the standard “share your favorites with others” sites, and another - Squidoo - is the “lens” site I wrote about a few weeks ago, which I’ve finally gotten around to playing with.

Reader2 is a site where users can list books that they’ve read, or are in the process of reading, write reviews and recommend the book to others (or tell them to stay away). Right now, the user base is somewhat small, but they have an impressive array of books and topics. There’s a handy search tool, which links to Amazon to help you find books that haven’t been added yet. Users can tag books as well - creating their own tags (I invented the tag “folksy”) and use those recommended via others who have tagged the book. At the moment, its heavy on the SF/Fantasy genre, but I anticipate that this will change as more users join Reader 2. You can check out my profile here to get an idea of what one looks like.

Last.FM is a music version of Reader2. Users can add music via an application that uploads music you’ve played on iTunes or Windows Media Player, or via Last FM radio, which lets users create custom radio stations based on music they like. After several attempts to use the iTunes/Last.FM plugin, I switched to the Radio option, which runs on the Last.FM site. The Radio option is easy to use, and I found songs I was into instantly. My only complaint is that Last.FM doesn’t let users upload or input bands/songs in by themselves - for example, I can’t type in “Johnny Cash” and pick songs I like by him unless he pops up on the Last.FM Radio player (I’m hoping this will be included at some point). To get a feel for what it looks like, you can take a look at the music page I created here.

Squidoo is something I’ve written about before, and finally got around to playing with (and actually creating a few lenses) today. In order to get a feel for creating a lens, I started two on things I know a lot about - podcasting and knitting. Unlike my first time playing around with Squidoo, I found it really easy to create a lens, though I still wish each category was explained a little bit more.

Slashdot, highlighted an article by Jakob Nielson discussing why talking heads on the internet are boring - and why most video blogs will be boring. While this isn’t a huge revelation (a few views of video blogs or online video of people just talking *at* you would help you figure this out yourself), Nielson backs up his discussion with eyetracking studies. Evidently, people are easily distracted by items in the background of a video, text boxes, etc, and Nielson includes a sample eyetracked video in his blog post.

Late post today, because like many of you, I was busy getting ready to head out for the holidays. I spent a good chunk of time updating my iPod with podcasts (and a good deal of iTunes music) and I thought I’d share my favorite podcasts with everyone, in case you’re looking for something to listen to on your plane ride, drive, or while you’re in the mall searching for last minute gifts (just get them an mp3 player). This is an overview of what’s on my iPod, and is by no means a definitive guide (and you may be able to sense a theme):

The Dragon Page Mondo Feed - comprises Slice of Sci Fi, Dragon Page Wingin’ It and Dragon Page Cover to Cover. If you’re like me, and you luuuurve Sci Fi, these three podcasts are for you. Michael and Evo (along with their cohorts, the Kickass Mystic Ninjas) keep you up to date on all things Sci Fi - in tv, books, movies and the ‘net - along with a healthy dose of humor (and a love of beer).

This Week in Tech is a great show about all things “Tech” - I love thier banter, humor and unabashed geekdom. Check out their new show, Inside the Net, which is great, and focuses on Web 2.0-ish tech.

The Ricky Gervais Show - If you’re a fan of The Office (the British Office) and enjoy hearing Ricky Gervais talk about all sorts of stuff, then this is your podcast. I listened to the first one a few weeks ago while in the car, and almost had to pull over because the banter was *that* funny.

GeekFu Action Grip - One of the most amazing women in podcasting, Mur Lafferty writes essays and talks about geek culture. I never miss a show. If you’re a struggling writer, check out her other podcast, I Should Be Writing.

If NPR is your poison, check out a few of my favorite public radio shows-turned-podcasts, check out my three favorites - Le Show done by Harry Shearer (of Simpsons and Christopher Guest films fame), Studio 360 and On the Media.

Finally, I just picked up a few additional podcasts which interested me, but since I’m planning on listening to them while traveling, don’t have my seal of approval - however if you want more than this, here is my list o’ podcasts I’ll be checking out this week:

Lockjaw Radio - Billed as “Casual witty talkfest on marketing, ideas, technology and branding.”

Slashdot Review - Podcast of all things Slashdotty.

Podiobooks.com - I downloaded a few audio books from this website that has serialized audio books in a podcast format. I’ve subscribed to two books - one is done, and one is a work in progress. I’ll report back after the holidays.

I’ll be out of pocket until my return from the holidays on Tuesday. Until then, Happy Holidays (and if you love, or hate, something - you know what to do.)

So lest everyone thinks that I walk through the holiday season with a giant “Scrooge” on my head, I wanted to take the time to point out some great ways you can make the holiday season about more than the hurry you get in leading up to it. You can do some great work by helping out loads of charities, many of which make online donating easy. Here’s a few that I like:

Network For Good - is a great site that connects you, the user, with your favorite charities via the internet. They work with loads of charities on both the national and local level, and its not hard to find the one you want to work with. If you’re short on cash this holiday season, but still want to give of your time, check out their volunteer page. The best part is they work year round to connect internet users with charities, so the good work doesn’t stop after the holidays.

Child’s Play Charity is a charity for gamers to give a little bit to the community. Created by the guys over at Penny Arcade , the Child’s Play Charity has worked with local hospitals to create Amazon.com wish lists for each hospital. You can go visit each wish list and order something to be sent to the hospital. There are big and small items - and I easily found something I could send to my local Children’s Hospital that were within my budget.

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children is a great charity you can donate to. NCMEC helps prevent kids from abduction and sexual exploitation; helps find missing children; and assists victims of child abduction and sexual exploitation, their families, and the professionals who serve them. Their work during Hurricane Katrina exemplifies the dedication they have to helping reconnect missing kids and their families. Their donate page is can be found here.

Finally, another little point to remember - giving shouldn’t stop just because its January 2nd.

It’s that time of the year when, if you’re like me, you keep waiting for the ringing doorbell to signal that the UPS, Postal Service, or FedEx delivery person is outside the door with presents. Or you’re frantically clicking the “tracking page” of the presents you purchased over a week ago and aren’t here yet because you accidentally chose “Ground” delivery instead of “Overnight” – only to find out they’re somewhere in Illinois and won’t be here until after you’ve left for the holidays.

A good chunk of us will buy at least some of our presents online - comScore’s most recent Holiday Shopping update predicts that the 2005 November/December “holiday shopping season” will exceed $19 billion - a 24% increase since 2004’s holiday season. I’ve purchased about half of the presents I’m giving online, up from a total of 2 presents purchased online last year.

But how (and why) do you buy presents online? According to a post yesterday over at Fast Company detailing a recent Shopzilla study online shopping might be to blame for all those cruddy gifts you get. The Shopzilla study states that “those who either “lack the talent or the patience” are being drawn to the Internet.”

I have to admit, I don’t think this applies to me - when I shop online for presents, I’m generally directed to the site by the person I’m purchasing the present for or because I have no other outlet to purchase the present at. Case in point: My father is fond of those “Beer of the Month” clubs, which I typically purchase online, because it’s easier to find his favorite club with Google than it is with the phone book. This also applies to hard-to-find tech toys, software, and camera equipment that I have no idea how to find offline.

Does the “impluse buy” or “ease of use” of online shopping apply to you when purchasing gifts for friends and family? Do they have any say? Or are you more likely to purchase something online because someone has sent you the link and you know they want the item? In addition, do you feel that you’re just as likely to get a crummy gift from an Internet savvy person or one who just can’t be bothered to go online to shop?

Just a few good reads (or programs) that came across my desk today:

Clive Thompson talks about what its like in Asheron’s Call 2, a game slated to go offline on December 30th (Wired).

Intel is hosting a Spanish Videoblogging contest. (Rocketboom)

Eric Picard makes some predictions for Advertising and Technology in 2010, and also checks in on his predictions from 2000 to see how they stood up. (Clickz)

I totally missed the Yahoo!/Del.icio.us. buy. Where was I? More on this later. (Yahoo Search Blog)

A colleague of mine sent a link to Squidoo, a website that she called “a website that combines wiki and friendster.” She wasn’t far off. I’ve read about Squidoo on and off for a few weeks now, but hadn’t yet taken the jump over to the site to check it out, which I did today.

Squidoo is a website that allows users to create “lenses” - pages that encapsulate subjects they are both interested in, and want to share their knowledge with others. At first glance, the interface is a little overwhelming, but a quick click on the “Top 100” lenses shows subjects that are delightedly varied. Some of the Top 100 lenses include topics such as Moleskine Resources, Creating a Custom MySpace Overlay and Martha’s Cookies 101 in addition to more standard techie topics such as RSS feeds, Torrent sites and Blogging 101.

The one element that Squidoo has that may provide it a leg up on Wikipedia is that you can learn a little about who is providing you the information - and most individual lens creators I’ve looked at today are very open about who they are and where they come across their information. This may provide users with the ability to cite information - without coming back a week later and learning that it has been changed. At the same time, I’ve already come across two competing lenses on Moleskins (and if someone can tell me when these got popular, I’d be a happy camper), which might lead to a “dueling banjo” situation as users present information to the public.

Quick work warning to the wise: If you don’t have time during this busy week before the holiday to spend a few hours jumping from lens to lens looking at stuff - wait until the holidays.

The New Oxford American Dictionary of English has declared podcast the word of the year. Its funny that a tech application that a year ago so few people were listenign to and participating in is now not only prevelant enough that its in the dictionary, but also widespread enough that my mother knows what it is.

Something that struck me as I was reading the podcasting story is how far we’ve come in terms of media content in the online space. When I started working in online marketing in 1999, it was not unusual that we recieved “seconds,” repurposed content - and in some cases no content at all - when starting a campaign. We typically got the EPK, and that was about it. That’s changed in the past 6 years - and tools like podcasting and videoblogging has helped push the need for net-specific created content. Companies are seeing the need for original, well put-together online media even for campaigns that aren’t necessarily focused in the online space.

There’s an amazing series of posts/discussion on RSS Readers and how effective they are over at Corante. The original post, written by Stowe Boyd, discussess why RSS Readers just don’t do it for him.

While I’ve already expounded on how much I love FireAnt and use it daily as my RSS Reader, I have to agree with Boyd on multiple points he made about RSS readers, and why I usually end up taking my RSS Feed reading back to the web. In his post, Boyd describes a series of actions which he calls “readering” which he sums up in this most lovely of quotes, “I am on a hunt, skipping from place to place, and these tools constrain me more than they free me.”

Robert Scoble responded to Boyd’s post a few days ago, stating that “RSS frees me from that system and makes it a lot easier to read a large amount of information very quickly.” Boyd responded today, and countered several of Scobles points.

They both have valid points. If you’ve used an RSS Reader and you are someone (like me) to whom the wide world of the web offers untold hours of fun uncovering different links and sides to each story, you’ll see what Boyd is getting frustrated about. RSS Readers (even FireAnt) end up taking you out of their application and onto the web if click on link external to the feed - which is why approximately half of my RSS Reader time ends up as “RSS Reader and Web Surfing time.” However, if you’re also someone who has to scan, read and synthesize large amounts of news and information each day (like me) RSS Readers allow you to “check the boxes” and make sure that you’ve hit everywhere you want to hit.

Boyd has some excellent suggestions for making RSS Readers and the web more easily interchangable, and I highly recommend that any of you developer types out there go take a look and see what he has to say. As for the rest of you, just give me a shout if any of them actually get developed.

Gawker Media recently launched a new blog called the Consumerist dedicated to highlighting “the persistent, shameless boners of modern consumerism — and the latest hot deals, discounts, and freebies around.” I took a few moments (hours) to check it out today after an email annoucing it fell in my inbox.

So far, I like the Afternoon Freebies and the Morning Deal Roundup - very similiar to what you see on Budget Shopping sites such as Fat Wallet and Slick Deals - but it gives you them with a snarky attitude that makes Consumerist much more fun to browse through and look at. Coupled with deals and freebies talk is more of the same type of commentary you’d expect from a Gawker Media syndicate - a sarcastic review of the Anthropologie Solstice 2005 (according to Consumerist, “Solstice’ is Catalog for ‘fancy.’“), highlights of a few choice Xbox 360 scams and a Today in Media section.

Consumerist looks like it will also be a site that retail companies will have to keep an eye on closely, though. Their M.O. states that “You’ll tell us when you’ve been royally screwed by yet another company, and we’ll channel your rage. Together we will storm the revolving doors of faceless corporations…and they will begin to fear us.“