5 ways to view Flickr photos on the Web
One of the things I like to do when I'm actually supposed to be doing something else (like chores, or paying bills, or...you get the picture) is check out the fantastic photos at Flickr, the most popular digital photo community on the Web today. There are quite a few ways you can look at Flickr images, but here are my five favorites:
- Seven Day Slideshow: This shows you the most interesting photos for the last seven days in a nice slide show; you don't have to do any clicking, just watch.
- Browse the Tags page: This page has all the most popular tags that Flickr photographers are tagging their photos with. It's an easy way to see what's bubbling up to the top of Flickr.
- Galleries: Galleries are a group of photos (usually around 15-18) focused on a specific theme.
- Flickr Clock: Videos taken at specific times, so, if you want to see a video of the sunrise, click around 5:30 AM or so.
- Flickr Map: Pinpoints images submitted by Flickr users from all over the world on an interactive map.
There are even more ways to explore Flickr, for instance, the Last 7 Days Interesting photos, Most Recent Uploads, or the Explore Page. What's your favorite?
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Use ISBN numbers to find books on the Web
What is an ISBN? Basically, an ISBN (International Standard Book Number) is a unique number assigned to each published book, usually found right on top of the bar code. If you want to see different prices or information for a particular book, you can use the ISBN number to do that. Here are a couple of ways you can do an easy ISBN search:
- Google: Simply type the ISBN number into Google, and you'll see search results from a variety of different booksellers. For example, my search for a Michael Crichton book: Disclosure.
- Amazon Advanced Search: Amazon is the largest bookseller on the Web, and they make it very easy to search by ISBN. Just type the number into the ISBN field (don't use any dashes), and leave all the other fields blank.
- ISNDB.com: The ISNDB.com site is a database of ISBN information. Type in your number, and you'll get publishing details, similar books, the subject(s) covered in that book, where you can buy it, and libraries the book has an entry in.
- ISBN.nu: Type your ISBN number in here, and you'll get literally dozens of sites where you can buy your book, some as low as .01.
More book resources on the Web
Who is Tim Berners-Lee?
You are able to be on the Web today searching for multimedia, books, and music because one savvy scientist saw a problem and decided to fix it. Read about Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web.
More about the beginnings of the Web
Image: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images
Learn something new with a free class at About Web Search
Newly updated and totally free, here are a few free online classes you can take here at About Web Search:
- Web Search 101: Web Search 101 is a free class made up of thirteen weekly lessons that will come to you in your email inbox; every week, I'll show you how to do something different on the Web.It's a great introduction, and will get you well on your way to becoming a more experienced (and less frustrated!) Web surfer.
- Advanced Google Search Techniques: Sign up for the free Google Crash Course, and you'll be using more of Google's services, secret search tricks, and convenient shortcuts than you ever thought you would in just seven short days.
- How to Find Any Kind of Multimedia: The Web is a great place to find free multimedia of all kinds on the Web: free movie downloads, free videos, free music: you name the multimedia, you can probably find it (for free!) online.
- How to Find People on the Web: Need to find people, and don't want to shell out ridiculous fees? Nowadays, it's easier than ever before in history to find people for free using the wide variety of sites, services, and tools on the Web.
More free stuff on the Web
Find lectures on nearly any subject with TalkMiner
There are a lot of video search engines on the Web, and plenty of free movies. Trying to find lectures given by actual instructors on classroom subjects is a bit tricky, even with all the video search resources available to us. That's where TalkMiner, a search engine focused on finding video lectures, webinars, and talks, becomes very useful.
Search for a subject, perhaps global warming, and TalkMiner will bring results that you can sort by relevance, title, publication date, addition date, number of slides, and duration. You can also search within "channels"; these are video channels curated by specific universities or think tanks. TalkMiner could be very useful for any student looking for specific lecture videos on specific subjects; or, if you're just looking for a bit of information, TalkMiner really makes it as easy as possible to filter through the chaff.
More ways to find high-quality content on the Web
Save money on your next flight with Trabber, a comparison air travel engine
If you've done any kind of searching for flights lately, you'll know that inexpensive, quality flights are getting harder and harder to find.....even if you use the Web. We've looked a few great flight search engines here at About Web Search that make this process as painless as possible: Hipmunk, Bing Travel, TravelMuse. Today, we're going to check out Trabber.
Trabber is basically a meta search engine that searches more than 40 different travel sites for the cheapest flight possible. Type in your flight times, destinations, and number of people (you can also specify if you'd like a direct flight), and Trabber retrieves a list of flights for you. You can filter these results by time, origin, stopovers, departure and return time, airlines, prices, duration, etc. I found quite a few flights direct from LAX to La Guardia in NYC for less than $300, not bad!
Best of all, Trabber operates in multiple countries, including Spain, France, and the United Kingdom. Give it a try and see if you can find a flight that fits into your budget.
More travel resources on the Web
What are the top social networking websites?
More people than ever before are using the Web to connect with other people via social networking sites. But did you know that while these sites are incredibly useful for connecting with other people, they are also one of the best sources on the Web for finding content on virtually any topic you can think of? Read more in The Top Social Networking Sites on the Web.
More about social networking
Take a look at DuckDuckGo
I love discovering useful new tools on the Web. This week, I'd like to share with you DuckDuckGo, a really great search engine with a sort of silly name. Read more about DuckDuckGo in my quick profile.
More useful search engines
Stats and the Mobile Web
I don't know about you, but I really like looking at Web statistics. This week, I've been researching the Mobile Web, and I've put together a few sites you can use to see who is using the Mobile Web, what they are using it for, and where growth might be headed. Here are five sites you can use to find all sorts of information about the Mobile Web.
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- How to Find Google Search Statistics: Google's search statistics are, for the most part, public knowledge. Obviously, some proprietary information is going to be kept from the public, but most Web searchers will find what they need to know with these resources.
What is a hacker?
The word "hacker" usually brings up a similar reaction in many people - and it's not generally flattering. We hear about hackers in the news all the time, usually for some kind of destructive, chaotic action that messes up a lot of people's systems. However, are there different kinds of hackers? Are all hackers the same? What should we know about hackers in order to react appropriately? Read more in this article titled Bad Hackers, Good Hackers: What's the Difference??
More about online safety