Monday, December 15, 2008

Finding Conversations on the Web

I've become intrigued by the notion that the Web has become an incredible set of "conversations" by virtue of its highly participative nature now with Web 2.0.  

Allison Weiss last week in a phone call said that she wished there was somewhere to go to find out, at any given time, where the conversations that she cares about were taking place on the Web.  This echoed my own wish for a way to search all of the great Ning networks that have been created (see, for example, the list at Social Networks in Education) to find ones that I might be interested in.  Well, once the wheels start spinning in my mind, it's a scary thing!

Below is the widget for searching all Ning networks through Google.  To use others for Blogger, Twitter, Plurk, Jaiku, and more (and one that searches all of them), please jump over to Conversations.net and then give me some feedback.


8 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:40 PM

    FABULOUS!!!!!

    So very needed, so very useful. I ran several tests on it, and it's amazing how well it works. WOW!
    Thanks, Steve.

    ReplyDelete
  2. @Connie: Wow, I rated a "fabulous." That makes my day! :) Glad you like it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous5:18 PM

    Very cool, Steve. The execution of the ideal is simple enough that I think a lot of us could have done it (with the personalized Google search engines), but you actually did do it. It's a great idea.

    ReplyDelete
  4. @James: Honestly, I was somewhat stunned when I had the idea. To think that something I had lamented for so long (being able to search out Ning networks based on interests) was so immediately in my grasp with existing tools.

    Then came the real fun of combining it with the domain name that I've wondered what to do with for so long now!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Steve

    Just a note to offer a HUGE thanks for the Conversations.net resource. As you know I have been looking for language resources for the health-care related curriculum I'm developing and found some very useful stuff.
    Bravo!

    William

    ReplyDelete
  6. Nicely done! Really, really nice!. Great resource tool Steve. Wiki searches in particular will be very handy, and I can't wait to see what you do with the Education section.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi, Adina! I got a start on the education page. Let me know what you think and what other ideas you might have. :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. The new portal is great, Steve. What a time saver in getting connected with the right people for specific needs in education.

    ReplyDelete

I hate having to moderate comments, but have to do so because of spam... :(