Now there are more theme choices for us iGoogle start page users, with the introduction of a new “artist” section.

The definition of artist here is broad and includes designers like Dolce & Gabbana and Diane von Furstenberg, as well as album art from Cold Play.  My absolute favorite is glass artist Dale Chihuly, and I wasted no time in selecting that theme for my iGoogle page.   If you have an iGoogle page, you will find the “get artist themes” link right next to the “select theme” link of old.

I welcome all the new theme possibilites that have arisen lately after a few years of having a limited selection to choose from.  I was happy to learn about the inThemes unofficial iGoogle themes directory recently and have been enjoying the National Parks themes which change often during the day, bringing many beautiful photos of parks around the U.S. into view.  inThemes also has a nice theme manager that resides on your iGoogle page.  [via Google Blogoscoped]

If you are traveling or planning to travel to one of the locations where Google Maps provides Street View, you’ll benefit from its integration into the driving directions feature of Google Maps.  Now you’ll be able to preview the sights along the route.  For those of us who are cued as much by visual images as we are by street names, this feature is especially useful.

Google Lat Long blog has the information about watching for the camera icons next to the directions you request in one of the Street View ciites.  In addition to getting the usual turn-by-turn directions, you now can click on the camera icon and see what the area actually looks like.  A giant arrow on the street shows you what to do.  Of course, you can also manipulate the view to take in the surroundings.

The video has good instructions which also serve to remind you of how best to take advantage of Street View in general.

I’m anxious to see Google expand the locations available in Street View.  Think Seattle.

TechCrunch advises on a way to filter Google searches by time period by adding a brief code to the end of the URL.   Add &as_qdr=d, or a slight variation, to bring up a drop-down menu that lets you select the period.  Once you’ve searched by date, it stays as an option next to the search bar for that session, so you don’t have to keep adding it, they point out.

This can be especially useful if you are trying to keep up with just the latest information, instead of the highest-ranked searches that Google usually brings up.  It’s easy:

• run your search on Google
• add &as_qdr=d to the resulting URL;
• then search again.  A drop-down box will appear so you can select the time period you are interested in;
• variations include changing the =d to d5, w3, y6, and so forth to search on day, week, or year in a designated period of time.

 Of course you could also go into Google’s advanced search feature, find the date filter, and check the time period you want, but if you want to do a quickie right from the URL, here’s a way to do it.

An Associated Press article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer sounds a warning about applications downloaded in social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. 

When the account holder decides to add an application from a third-party developer to their home page, they have to agree to let the developer “know who I am and access my information” which means everything on a profile, except contact information.   Agreeing to those terms has become a matter of routine for the nearly 70 million Facebook users worldwide who use applications to enhance sharing and communication with friends online.

Even if you always choose to keep your social pages private — only accessible to selected friends — you may have opened the door to privacy and security abuses when you add one of the growing number of applications.

The third-parties developers say they use the information to connect users with similar interests, or to target ads, based on demographics such as gender and age (something Facebook and MySpace also do).  Facebook and MySpace say they hold application developers to strict standards and note that e-mail addresses and phone numbers aren’t made available.

Experts in online security issues, on the other hand, think there’s too much personal information accessible online with few guarantees that it’s safe.  Social networkers may have little understanding where their information goes and have a false sense of security.  After awhile, it is too easy to check those boxes allowing access to your information, especially if you want to enjoy the fun that the apps can provide.

“I suspect that there’s a whole lot of clicking without a lot of thinking,” says Mary Madden, a senior research specialist at the Pew Internet & American Life Project who studies privacy issues. “So much of this sharing happens in a way that users don’t see the consequences. It’s kind of a big, black hole.”

The article offers these privacy tips:

• Provide enough information for your friends to be able to identify you — but not so much that someone could use information to steal your identity. There’s no reason to include your entire resume, from education to work history.
• Consider making your profile private so people you don’t know can’t “scrape” information and images from it.
• Even if your profile is private, remember that your information and photos can be accessed by third parties through your friends — and through application developers on such sites as Facebook and MySpace.
• Remove social networking applications you’re not using and check out the creators of those you do install. If something seems suspicious, report it.

If you are a member of a social network, be sure to examine the privacy options, understand what might happen to your information, and ensure that the settings coincide with your wishes.

CommonCraft  just keeps pumping them out — great videos in plain English to explain and educate. 

Below you will find one on “Podcasting in Plain English,” and “Twitter in Plain English” is in another post.  Enjoy and learn.

For those of us who have never quite been sure what Twitter was or why we might want to use it, the folks at CommonCraft give us the gen through another neat video about keeing connected to friends and family in small ways.

A Keyhole Markup Language file has been created to view National Wetlands Data with the free application, Google Earth.  You will need Google Earth version 4.2, or higher, to run this file. 

To ensure that you use the latest version, says U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Wetlands Inventory,  it is recommended that you always load the file and open Google Earth by selecting this link:  WetlandsData.KMZ.  When prompted, save the link.

If Google Earth doesn’t launch automatically, you can first launch Google Earth and then select the menu option File, Open, locate the previously downloaded file (WetlandsData.KMZ), then click the Open button.

Here are some ways to use the wetlands information:

• Double click any layer title to zoom into its area
• Click on any layer checkbox to view or hide the image layer
• Click on any legend checkbox to view or hide it
• The Lower 48 States Wetland Scans layer is hidden by default. To view the image layer, first zoom into an area that has Wetland Scans information, then turn on the layer.
• If two versions of Google Earth are currently installed on your computer, it is recommended that the oldest version (and its associated desktop icon) is removed  from your computer.
• To remove the Wetlands Data file from Google Earth, right-click on the FWS Wetlands Data folder located under Places (Google Earth left panel), then select Delete.

You might want to take a look at the Google Earth Fact Sheet (PDF)  [via Resource Shelf] 

Downloadable digital resources at your library
The New York Times recently featured information about how public libraries are offering downloadable e-books, audiobooks, and video to patrons in its article, What’s New at the E-Library.

If you haven’t explored the resources available at your library, look for digital services provided by Overdrive, Netlibrary, Recorded Books, and TumbleBooks.  Some libraries also subscribe to a service called Next Reads which sends personalized book recommendations to patrons’ email inboxes.

Audio books, especially those that can be downloaded and listened to on an MP3 player, are convenient for people who have trouble getting to the library (they “check” themselves back in when they are due) and for those with difficulties reading print resources.  They are also great for those of us who enjoy having a good story told to us and/or like to carry on reading while doing errands and shopping.

Libraries are adopting downloadable resources to better serve their patrons.  “Technology is not something we’re afraid of, it’s something we’ve embraced and our patrons have embraced,” said Diane Lapsley, assistant director of the Sparta (New Jersey) Public Library.  “Technology is a steppingstone — we don’t know what else is coming down the pike, but we do know that everything we use will allow us to build on that technology and have our patrons build on that knowledge.”  [via iLibrarian]  Photo by Karsh.  Creative Commons license.

Free icons
The icons on this site are either licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License, or they are entirely free for personal or public non-commercial use.

 You can modify the design, but in some cases you must include the provided link back to the author’s site or notify the author.  Some free icons do not require a link.  

Contact the author if you want to use the icons for a commercial purpose.  See the FAQ for more information [via What I Learned Today] 

Shelfari’s new and upgraded features
Shelfari has a new home page and features that allow for easy exploration of what other Shelfari members are doing.  You can see which books, members and groups are active, find a new book or a friend.  Add to your friends’ network, or seach for books by category or tags.

If you are not familiar with it, Shelfari was the “first social media site focused on books, and continues to innovate as it brings together the world’s readers.”

Authors Unbound is a new Shelfari community page where you can add to and edit author information. Click on any author’s name on Shelfari to view their Unbound page and write about them. 

Search up a Storm on Flickr
I just read about Flickr Storm search engine that has some lovely features.  The “advanced” search function that allows you to choose the type of license you want your photo results to have is particularly useful.  In the example below you can see that I searched for “library” with “photos for non-commercial use” as the license. 

Notice that the large photo, which is one I clicked on from the results set, has the copyright license symbol at the bottom right.  When you mouse over the symbol, the type of license appears.

To the left of the photo results set is a “history” tray which will show you pictures you have recently clicked on, and below that is a “your photos” tray that you can add to, link to, or download from. 

And, as if that weren’t enough, scroll to the bottom of the set to find suggestions for related search terms and photos.  [via Librarian in Black] 

Pew surveys teens - what constitutes “writing?”
Teens write for school, and 93% of teens say they write for their own pleasure, reports Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Most notably, the vast majority of teens have eagerly embraced written communication with their peers as they share messages on their social network pages, in emails and instant messages online, and through fast-paced thumb choreography on their cell phones.  Parents believe that their children write more as teens than they did at that age.

So how do teens feel about the formal writing they do and the informal e-communication they exchange on digital screens?  Although nearly two-thirds of teens (64%) say they incorporate some informal styles from their text-based communications into their writing at school, they generally do not believe that technology negatively influences the quality of their writing.  They view one as “communication” and the more formal as “writing.”

Top 100 web apps for 2008
View the 100 best Web 2.0 applications chosen by more than 1.9 million Webware readers and Internet users across the globe.

At the site, mouse over the icons in the left-hand column to identify the categories.  [via iLibrarian]