I've been mildly interested in the idea of online applications for some time so I was glad to have a focused reason to explore it. While Google Online Applications seemed like easy tools to use (especially the text application), I really liked Zoho best because of its multiple functions and greater amount of programs. They have a great interface and I like how you can change the skins. Both Google and Zoho make it easy to publish material online and easy for users to collaborate. To me, these kinds of free apps will only improve and perhaps begin to infiltrate more of the mainstream computer users out there. Will they be competition for the software we install? Are they already? I suppose this idea remains to be seen. For libraries, such programs could be encouraged for book clubs, ESL groups, homework help...all because of their easy collaborative nature.
As far as the Google Lab stuff goes, I found Google Mars incredibly cool. How awesome would it be to use something like that for a science presentation if you were in school? I did a search through Google Trends and found that "library" was most searched for in New Zealand worldwide and within the US, Columbus, OH was the big winner for that search.
I checked out the Web 2.0 Winners from a few categories. In the "books," I took a romp with Zack Bookmaps to help me locate a book somewhere in the nation. I like how it pools information together from so many different sources and I think it does it better than WorldCat. This is a nice place for the patron who is trying to find a hard to locate book. As my husband and I are thinking of moving, I couldn't resist checking out a winner from "real estate." Lo and behold I found PropSmart. This application uses GoogleMaps to show you where a property is and gives you the low down on the property. It hasn't covered the whole of the nation but it has hit upon major US cities, including Seattle. Unlike other programs I've used, this one has few ads and a much better interface. Quite nice. For the many library users who are new to the area and trying to find a place, this is a cool reference. Lastly, I decided to play with some music and look at LastFm. I like how it uses the tagging concept to help you link up to new music you might enjoy. Great site for the music fiend. This would be fun for library users to get involved in to learn more about music they could check out at the library. I wonder if we could connect it with our catalog...? Hrm...probably not.
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