Robots.txt files, according to Google
The Official Google Blog has a useful post about how to control search engine access to your website. If you ever wanted to know about robots.txt files, and how to make the most of them, this is a good read.
QuestionPoint Blog now open
The QuestionPoint Blog, the place all participating librarians are supposed to look for information, but didn't because the darn thing was password-protected and couldn't be fed into an RSS reader, is now finally open for all to read and password-free. Here's the blog and here's the feed. If your library uses QuestionPoint, especially if you're monitoring the service, it's a good idea to subscribe.
found via Stephen Francoeur at Digital Reference
Where do people spend their online time?
The Complete Blog posted a graph recently, showing where internet users spent their time in December of 2006. 11.9% of users' time was spent on MySpace, in the top slot. Next comes Yahoo! at 8.5%. MSN and eBay next, then comes Google, proving once and for all that while Google may be used as a tool--it's not where people stay and actually spend time. 39% of users' time is spent at the top 20 sites.
What do I take away from this? That the library should indeed have a presence where these users are spending time--on sites like MySpace and Craigslist and Wikipedia. Be where we can in a positive way.
P.S. I wonder how much the slow load times and poor navigation contributes to MySpace's percentages ;)
found via The Centered Librarian
Amapedia: Amazon's Wikipedia
When I first read in the news media that Amazon had released a Wikipedia-esque site called Amapedia, I laughed and didn't think it was real. I mean--Googlezon, Amazoogle, Wikizon--we've heard them all, and they're not real--not yet anyway. Anyway, it's real. Amapedia is self-described as "a community for sharing information about the products you like the most." In other words, it's a wiki about all the junk we buy. A monument to consumerism. A totem of capitalism. Hmm...I thought that's what the Amazon reviews were for. No need for a separate wiki. Oh well. Enjoy. *snarky smile inserted here*
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