Book Worms Unite with BookSprouts

Luis Sandoval — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:17:21 +0000

Never before have we as a global community ever felt so connected as we have in the past ten years. We have grown from gatherings, town hall meetings, forums and message boards, internet chat rooms, to social networks. I host a podcast over at Tech in Twenty, and we’ve discussed the growth in popularity for social networks and how niche interests have played a huge part of that growth.

We have all heard of the popular social networks like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Ning, etc. But there are a lot of networks out there that cater to a more specific market, no matter if you’re into music, television, knitting, dating, marbles, or candles, there is a group for you. BookSprouts is the newly developed social site for book clubs. The site is a amongst a few competitors that claim to be a space for readers, but BookSprout is different in that the actual design is easy to navigate at the layout is welcoming to new users with little confusion. Every step for you is laid out so that users can get started immediately without getting lost in the site.

I had time to explore the site and came across the same problem the write of the TechCrunch article did. Only two of the books I listed had actual groups connected to them. This was rather limiting since those books were not considered favorites of mine, so it left me little desire to join that discussion. While I won’t blame this entirely on BookSprout, this is a user generated community, unless someone starts a group for the book, I have little time to manage one on my own.

I like how the site is free of ads. Though one might question the ability of the site to sustain itself, other social sites like Ning are free of advertisements and function perfectly well without all the advertising. The ability to purchase what other users are reading straight from the site is nice with an easily accessible Amazon link, but might be too limiting considering that there might be other places offering the book cheaper. For that you might want to check out my post on Booksprice.

Here is a video that details what Booksprice offers and what they’ve done for their users. Pick a couple of books, sign-up, and enjoy!

Social Networking Site for Collectors – June 29, 2009
Social Media Demographics – July 9, 2010
Online Tribes Can Avoid GigaTribe – November 10, 2009
Web App Buffers Timely Online Communication – November 6, 2009
TinyChat Upgrades Amazing Video Chat Application – June 1, 2009

Book Worms Unite with BookSprouts originally appeared on: Crenk
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Review: Feedheads thru Facebook

Luis Sandoval — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 17:52:54 +0000

Just two days ago, www.feedheads.org was brought to my attention. There are plenty of RSS Reader sites out there, but Feedheads offers a different experience by not reinventing the wheel, but rather attaching itself to an already popular social site, Facebook.

At first glance Feedheads is nothing fancy. It almost reminded me of a Craigslist-like site which little to know aesthetics and a focus on information. Personally I don’t care what a site looks like as long as it’s informative and easy to find what I need, the bells and whistles are just icing. So don’t turn away from Feedheads until you’ve given it a try.

To log into the service you need a Facebook account, and you must allow Facebook to provide access to the site, but once you’ve gotten through the set-up you’re logged right into full access for Feedheads.

I admit at first glance I saw no need to really delve into it since there was no social aspect, but attaching to Facebook makes it very different from other RSS sites. From within the site you can introduce your contacts to stories, have them vote on their favorites and even have them join your networks. You’re given the opportunity to view the stories by three categories, “New”, “Top in 24 Hrs.”, and “7 Days”. A separate link will provide you with the days most popular tags, which is useful for a quick at-a-glance of the days topics.

If you’re a heavy Facebook user and you’re looking for new ways to make that your one stop shop for friends, news, and other information, give Feedheads a try. If you’re stuck on looks then perhaps looking elsewhere would be prudent, Feedheads is definitely for the purist.

Tiny Tiny RSS: Open Source Google Reader Alternative – July 12, 2011
FLUD Makes RSS Feeds Sexy – August 30, 2010
Facebook 3.0 – New App Here…Finally – August 28, 2009
Facebook’s New Twitter App! – August 22, 2009
FaceBook’s New Killer App – August 21, 2009

Review: Feedheads thru Facebook originally appeared on: Crenk
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Book Worms Unite with BookSprouts

Review: Feedheads thru Facebook