E L S U A ~ A KM Blog Thinking Outside The Inbox by Luis Suarez

Opinmind – Discovering Bloggers

Some time ago you would remember how I created a weblog post that mentioned how Google was finally entering the weblogging search world with Google Blog Search and how it apparently seemed to be just another search engine for weblogs, like many others.

Well, here we go with something completely new and refreshing. Given the fact that everything that takes place in the Blogosphere has got to do with conversations, you may be interested in, yet again, another Beta offering called Opinmind. Here is a short description of what it does, taken from its homepage:

“Find people that are interested in the things that interest you. Opinmind collects the opinions of bloggers all over the world on every subject imaginable. [...] Currently tracking 14,000,000+ opinions of 1,700,000+ bloggers”

Despite the powerful features displayed it looks like this new offering has not been picked just yet by the larger Blogosphere, since only a few folks have been talking about it so far, as can be seen in Technorati, but this new web site seems to provide some unique features that would help people find further information details about conversations and opinions that may be taking place out there, whether they are positive or negative. Another great feature from Opinmind is that it has got a sentimeter that measures the positive against the negative opinions in a graphical way so you can get instant feedback about the types of conversations returned back to you.

Finally, one of the other key features from Opinmind is the fact that it allows you to put together two different terms and compare one against the other, as you are able to see over at the Opinmind weblog. So as you can see lots of interesting options and features to play around with in order to get involved in the conversations and much more interestingly you are also able to add your own weblog address if you do not find any results from your own resources, like your own weblogs, as part of the search results.

Yes, I know, it is another search engine, like many of the others, but, at least, this time around it is going to be much easier to make a connection with multiple conversations and only a single click away from you. And that is a powerful feature, specially for those folks who want to engage themselves with other webloggers and wouldn’t know necessarily where to start. What a great way of encouraging collaboration and sharing of knowledge amongst other folks who share a common interest, rather positive or negative, by just using a simple search user interface ! A must-have bookmark, for sure !

Technorati Tags : Metablogging, Opinmind

Upgrade Your Widgets Today !

Just as Yahoo! seems to get hungrier making a number of different acquisitions while entering the Web 2.0 collaborative world in full force (See recent acquisitions of Flickr and del.icio.us; and watch out because I doubt that would be the last major acquisition from Yahoo! for other social networking offerings (If not check the recent announcement on how Yahoo Builds Blogging into Small Business to get an idea of how things may eventually turn out to be)), I have been playing myself around with upgrading to the latest version of Yahoo! Konfabulator and some of the latest widgets available over at the Widget Gallery.

Yes, for those folks interested, Yahoo! has just released the latest version of Yahoo! Konfabulator and it surely looks much much better than the previous version. I must say that at the beginning I was not sure 100% if I would go ahead and do the upgrade but after checking out the new widgets I just couldn’t resist the temptation and it surely makes sense to go for it, if you are a regular user from previous versions. And if you haven’t used it yet, I strongly advise you give it a try as I am sure it will change your opinion about how your traditional desktop should look like and how some sources of information may be delivered out to you.

Thus if you haven’t upgraded yet, I would recommend you take a look because you are bound to find some really cool widgets out there that would help you become much more productive in getting access to the right information that you can then share it with others in whatever the collaborative environment you may be working in, at the same time that you are getting so much more from your desktop. And since I guess you will probably be wondering what Widgets I am using in my computers here you have got a screen shot of my current list:

I know it is not a complete list but those are, so far, my favourite widgets. I am sure you have got your own, which may not necessarily be the same and that is why I would love to hear from you folks which ones are your favourites. Which ones do you think I should try out to continue enjoying further the Konfabulator experience ? Any suggestions ?

Technorati Tags : Konfabulator, Yahoo! Widget Engine, Widgets

So Far Away Yet So Close

Last week I shared a number of different pictures regarding the stunning views from San Bartolome de Tirajana seen from the highest mountain of the island, Pozo de la Nieves and I though that this week I would share a few more so that you folks could get to check out how impressive the landscape looks like, specially when the weather conditions are right, like you are about to see in the three different pictures I am about to share.

It is amazing to think how rocky the scenes are just when you are about one hour away from the coast and the beautiful beaches. When people called Gran Canaria a mini-continent I don’t think they were that off, because in under 90 minute drive you can go from the coast to higher up in the mountains, enjoy lots of fresh air and come back down again, on the same day. Pretty incredible. And here is a small proof of that:

Pozo de las Nieves

San Bartolomé de Tirajana

Pozo de las Nieves

As usual, I have been sharing some more pictures which you will be able to watch over at my Flickr account, or by clicking on the Flickr badge embedded into my weblog template.

Enjoy them !

Technorati Tags : Pozo de las Nieves, San Bartolome de Tirajana