Today I discovered a website called Pageflakes, and very interestingly it functions much like how it sounds. An user was give a space where he/she could add “flakes” of web-pages that is continuously updated. It’s like checking many of your favorite websites at once. Such an brilliant idea.

The navigation is simple and straight forward. It reminds me much of the Widget on Mac OS X. this new tool has already proven valuable in helping me to write this very post. I organized my pages in sections as follows.

My RSS Feeds

Link-1: http://www.pageflakes.com/qubo/21785431
Link-2: http://www.pageflakes.com/qubo/21094396 

Pageflakes allows the user to link live RSS feed onto her/her page. This saves me the time to check all my websites one by one, because it is becoming a tedious process doing the same procedures everyday. On my page I have delicious.com, Digg, the Huffington post, as well as major news papers such as LA times and NY times. Perhaps it is just my opinion but it is getting harder and harder to find real news in this day and age. The usual bunch is mostly celebrity gossip or politician scandals.

Daily Film Dose, an page I found through using the delicious search, is a favorite of mine. It offers a daily movie review as well as the latest information on what is current in the film industry and Hollywood. This is exactly the kind of information I need for my blog.

By watching closing to many different sources at the same time, it is much more efficient to hunt down what is really going on in the world. And I think this is exactly what makes it a wonderful application, because it helps me to organize and sort through what internet could offers. Instead of going through the same URL bookmark entries 5 times a day, I could just glance at the “flakes” and quickly find what is important.

My Active Searches

Link: http://www.pageflakes.com/qubo/21798050 

For my active searches section, I have Universal Blog search, Universal News search, and Wikipedia.

The first two make it very easy to look up additional information when what I already have on my page is not sufficient. And it is also convenient when I just want to look something up. Search right from the flakes is great because I don’t have to bother with opening more windows on my already crowed web browser. Wikipedia is there for such purpose as well. It is accurate for the most part.

My Zotero Bibliography

Zotero is yet another amazing tool that was introduced to by the Coach. It is simply an revolution in online research. It is simply a cataloging system that saves everything you will need about an book, DVD, article, even blog post. In the age of internet, researches are moving to the web and Zotero is just the first step in compliment such change. No more stress with figuring out how to do a proper bibliography of a particular article, all you need is Zotero. Of course, it goes beyond a bibliography generator, but an organizer that would fuel your research.

Scorsese, Martin. A Personal Journey With Martin Scorsese Through American Movies. DVD. Miramax, 2000.

Lewis, Jon. American Film: A History. 1. W. W. Norton, 2007.

My Diigo bookmarks

Link: http://www.pageflakes.com/qubo/21785431 

The Pageflake, connected to Diigo, is even more helpful. It contains a range of things but mainly movie blogs, video sites as well as design/photography websites that provides me with the latest information. They are usually a great place for inspiration.

One thing that I learned from my encounter with Pageflakes, perhaps more important than the application itself is that the information is out there and it is just the matter of finding the right tool to dig them out of the crowed space of internet.