Google Books

Today we explored Google Books. Google books allows you to search the internet for just books.  On google books, you can preview books and read excerpts or you can read entire books online!  In addition, there are direct links to websites where you can buy the books you search, like barnesandnoble.com or amazon.com.  Right now in English Comp we are reading The Canterbury Tales, so that is what I searched for in my screenshot.

iGoogle

Today we explored iGoogle.  iGoogle is a personalized Google homepage.  Right now, my iGoogle theme is Finding Nemo!  They have tons and tons of different themes to choose from, ranging from nature to travel, anime to trendy, and they even have a theme of the day that selects a random theme everyday.  Apart from customizing your homepage with themes, you can also add different gadgets, which are similar to the gadgets on blogger.  On my iGoogle, I have gadgets like Spanish Word of the Day, Garfield comics, Penguins, Bejeweled, Weather, Recipes (that include some pretty exotic dishes), and a shortcut to my gmail account.  I tried to add a countdown to graduation, but it wouldn't load the data. iGoogle still has has a google search bar, but it just makes google better looking and allows you to check multiple things at a time!  *to get your own iGoogle page, just type in google.com and in the upper right corner there is a link that says "iGoogle" ---may need to have a gmail account to get one---*

Gadgets

Today we explored the gadgets on Blogger.  Gadgets are "extras" that you can add to your blog that make it more exciting and more enjoyable to visit.  In example, I have a pet hampster named Harry, and a random Harry Potter fact.  In addition to virtual pets and quotes, there are also games.  I have a helicopter game on my blog.  There are thousands of possibilities for gadgets, like music, inspirational quotes of the day, the stock market prices, fashion tips, and many other different things.  The possibilities are endless!

HiStats.Com

Today we explored histats.com.  Histats.com, a website that allows you to post a counter to your blog, has the potential to be very helpful.  A counter is a device that counts every time someone visits your blog or website.  We posted these counters on the bottom of our blog on the 4th of October.  A counter can keep track of anything you want: page visits in general, page visits today, people that have looked at the sight, and people that are online at that moment.  This tool could be very useful if you were running a website for a business, because you could see how many people were interested in that business.  Here are some examples of counters:

Word Clouds: Tagxedo

This is a word cloud I made on Tagxedo.  It is in the shape of a treble clef and filled with musical terms!