Sunday, March 2, 2008

Do You FURL?

Wikipedia describes FURL (File Uniform Resource Locators) as a “free, social book marking website that allows members to store workable copies of web pages and share them with others.”
This website was a dream child of Mike Giles who founded it in 2003.

When a user signs up for membership, they are given a 5 gigabyte storage area in which to store favorite web pages; these can be easily and efficiently accessed in several ways: by date, tagging (book-marking), rating, and/or through keywords. Since the web pages are privately archived (but can also be shared), the user can attach comments, opinions, or annotate the way he or she prefers. Information or web pages can also be imported or exported from the furl site.

Users can archive web pages, article clippings, images, notes and comments, and popular URL’s which are pertinent to the user’s groups. Other users may view and share these lists unless a specific item is copyrighted, which, in that case, only the user of the FURL will be allowed to view and comment on that particular item. Other users may view an individual’s furl account and may, if the user allows it, post comments, edit, or add other information to the account. In cases such as these, a user will be notified that information has been added to his/her furl.

A feature of this type of archiving web site is the ease with which a user can find and access his/her web pages of choice/interest. These pages can be found by day, week, month or topic, thus making it a versatile and efficient tool in a business environment as well as for personal use.

One other feature is particularly beneficial to users is that FURL automatically generate a list, based on the accumulated web pages, of websites which are associated with, or have a similar interest as the archived material. This is useful and significant as it may save “searching time.”


A problem with the archiving feature is that images embedded in an article will not be stored with the html in which it was written; also, the images (not the text) may disappear from the site after a period of time. Other problems persist with the site.

When displaying the furl archive, listed items won’t appear in any specific order; nor can any type of order (be requested). During high-request periods, performance problems also exist. They have intermittently occurred during 2006 and into 2007. (Wikipedia, 2008).

A user which subscribes to both FURL and another book marking service, del.icio.us, states that he prefers FURL because his web pages are saved and when the information disappears, he can retrieve the original information; del.icio.us doe not have this feature. (Social Bookmarking Tools, 2008)

I feel that book-marking services such as FURL will continue to increase and improve as the global internet community expands; since it increases speed, efficiency and ease-of-use to people through categorizing, archiving, organizing and enabling others to view, share, and add to subscriber accounts, there is no limitation to the need for such sites in both the professional and personal lives of current and future internet users.
To view my FURL account, please feel free to look and comment (since this is my first experience with a book-marking service, I haven’t had time to add to my list yet). Anyway, here it is:

http://furl.net/my/archive


References
Top 100 tools: Furl. (2008). http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/Top100Tools/furl.html
Wikipedia. (30 January 2008). Furl.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furl
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Addendum to Blog (Sorry, this is my first blog)

Nettiquette is an essential element of conversing with others on the Net. It should be taken seriously and very specific rules should be followed--Period.
In an article online, I read that it is not appropriate to use all upper case letters; it is the same as screaming and yelling. The website:http://mmlweb.rutgers.edu/music127/basic/email.html also states that chain letters should not be forwarded to others; that they should be deleted. They also write that it is important to be short and concise, paying particular attention to the validity of the given information. If using acronyms, use sparingly as many people, such as myself, are not fully aware of their meanings.

Articles such as this one and the required class reading should be read by everyone who is learning about the internet and intends to use it- regardless of the extent of use.

References
E mail nettiquette., 2008, from http://mmlweb.rutgers.edu/music127/basic/email.html