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I have discussed before my feelings of information overload. I constantly feel there are so many social media tools available, it is difficult to keep track of them all. I find it even more difficult when trying to keep track of different blogs, Twitter feeds, websites, and the list goes on…. I think the reason people aggregate, is not necessarily because they want to, but because they have to. In order to escape this feeling of information exhaustion, or to save time by going to one web page to see other web page updates, rather than each page specifically, we need to aggregate information in order to save time, and keep track of everything we want to follow regularly. As people, we keep day books and agendas to keep everything we need to remember to do in a day or a month all in one place, we wouldn’t tack up post-it notes all over our kitchens or cars, or maybe we would, but it likely wouldn’t be very efficient. The same goes for aggregators. They make our lives, and our pursuit for information, efficient.
As I am an avid Google user, as well as all of the tools Google has created (Google Docs, Google Groups, etc.), I have created an iGoogle page that I use multiple times a day. I have to admit I love my iGoogle. It is all the best things gathered in one place, perfectly customized to my liking. It is a mashup of knowledge, both useless and useful, perfected. It is such a great utilization of all the Web 2.0 tools I use on a daily basis. Before I really started using these tools (RSS feeds, YouTube, wikis, etc.) I never had the need for something like iGoogle. But the more I use these tools, the more room I have to make on my page. It is just easier to have all the sites I visit, and all the tools I use, all in one convenient place. I was actually late jumping on the iGoogle bandwagon, I know I was for the Gmail one that went by (I used to be an avid Hotmail user, and would never go back). I found out about iGoogle when I got to SLAIS in January. I was shocked I hadn’t known about it sooner. I also found out about Google scholar and other tools Google has to offer. I guess I was hanging out somewhere under a rock during my Undergrad? Anyways, the more I used these tools the more I realized how useful it is having one ‘go-to’ place to find all my information needs and wants. I think it just may be the best thing since sliced bread… And now that I have actually learned about RSS feeds and how they work, my iGoogle page just isn’t big enough!
And iGoogle is not just for personal use. The library I work at uses iGoogle to organize its favourite links, most visited websites, and as a short-cut for Gmail. It’s a great tool when you need to do a quick search, or need to flip back and forth from the e-mail inbox and library catalogue while on the reference desk.
The more I learn about other tools available, the more curious I am. However, I can’t help but feel overwhelmed by the number of aggregators and RSS readers available today. I am usually all for change, and learning new things, but I can’t help but have a little resistance to switching to a new tool altogether. I do see the value in some of these other tools, but I just don’t feel I have the time… Maybe when my schedule as a student calms down a bit I can dive into the deep end and move out of my comfort zone.
2 Responses for "Do People Consolidate and Aggregate Because of the Value, or Because it’s Necessary?"
I love my iGoogle too. Although I do find it is a source of distraction sometimes – I have started minimizing some of my fun widgets so I don’t see them all the time and can concentrate on what needs to be done.
The number of aggregators is overwhelming, but some of them are so cool. It was neat to check out ning, and I wouldn’t use it as an aggregator myself (right now anyway), but I would use it to find out what others have aggregated – let someone else do the work.
(if your into graffiti knitting you can’t beat subversiveyarn.ning.com)
I just started using iGoogle a few days ago, and it’s already helping me keep track of everything – I wish that i had started using it at the beginning of the course, as it’s keeping tabs of everyone’s blog now and updating me when people post (I know that this is pretty basic for most, but it’s a new game to me). What I especially like about it is that it offers suggestions for newbies who don’t know about all the different services out there, walking us through the capabilities in an easy to understand manner.
I’m also overwhelmed by all of the new sites that I’ve encountered, and like you, I don’t see how it’s even possible to keep up without an aggregator of some kind. Deidre’s comment here was a little surprising though, in that it suggests that people use more than one aggregator to keep track of all of their different feeds… are there so many different things to keep track of that we’re eventually going to need an aggregator to aggregate our aggregators?
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