Week 4 : Tastespotting - a community driven visual potluck

I love food, so have enjoyed looking at the photos and the odd recipe on this site. This is definitely something I could spend (or waste :p ) loads of time on.... Although Tastespotting count as play, I would recommend it to patrons who have a bit of a foodie in them.

I would prefer that not all web 2.0 activities relate directly to libraries and our customers, as that would gives us a bit of a break and make the whole experience less intimidating.

The recipe I picked is: chocolate avocado pistachio cake. (To view the recipe, please click on the title.)
I chose it because I though it sounded unusual - yet when you think about it, the creamy consistency of avocados and its fat content would be useful in baking. (Hmm, maybe NZ Healthy Food Guide should look into this?)

This site is easy to use, and I would use it again even if just to browse and drool over the images.... I think a function whereby you enter in a couple of ingredients that you might want to use in a recipe would be helpful too.

Week 3 : FeedMyInbox - RSS made simple

And it really does... Much better than Bloglines - easier and more simple to use and more convenient because everything goes to your email account. I think I might use this if there is a blog or site that I'm really keen on following.

It was fine on the staff PCs and I'm assuming it would work fine on Lear.net too. I guess I would tell patrons about this if we happen to be on a related topic, or if I was asked about RSS feeds.

Week 2 : PicApp

Have not finished Week 1 yet...will go back to it.

An image from PicApp

PicApp is pretty easy to use, but I do find that you kinda have to be a bit more specific about the type of image you are looking for.

Curious as to where the images come from, I had a quick look at the FAQ, and found that Gettyimages and ZUMA Press are two of the source of the images - no wonder then that when I type in "puppies" I get images of celebs at pet/dog-related events...

PicApp could be somewhat useful for libraries to get free and legal images without worrying about photo consents. I guess I could also suggest PicApp for kids doing homework and wanted to find news-related images. Not so sure I would use this again, as I think Google Images is pretty good, and I do like Flicker for interesting-looking pictures...