I used to browse the internet when I get home from work. After I relaxed for an hour after facing the monitor for about eight hours a day, I browsed the internet visiting my social network sites, read some news or surfing what’s new in the world of the internet.

I have more than 27 social network sites, though some of them I never had the time to update still I look for more social network sites that give the best features and services. Until I met this great social network site, the Virb.

The best about Virb since you can import your other activities from your other websites. If you have a blog from another website you can import it here, you can import as well your activities on twitter or your pictures from your flickr.

If you want to find new things in Virb you should have to go in the Activity. Here you can discover updated contents right exactly from the profile you follow. You can also find here what your friends up to, or what they like. And if you also like something adventurous clicking the Explore is ideal for you. There are many features that Virb are featuring. And for sure you will love it all!

Writing an article for your blog or for social media purposes is not that easy. You have to know what you are talking about to convey to the readers your point. It should be an interesting article for the readers not to get bored by reading it all the way through the last sentence. Aside from the interesting content, there should be a visual aid for them to have a glimpse. That’s where writers have trouble looking for the right images to fit in their content. A writer could search through google image search but has no way of knowing if the image copyrights are reserved or not. Here are three ways to find free images through Flickr:

1. Comfight is a third party search engine with a simple yet advanced interface. By clicking a button next to the search box, you can choose to search just the photo tags (for more precise results) or all text associated with a photo (if searching just the tags didn’t provide enough results).

Below the search box, you can choose to search all Creative Commons licensed photos or only those with a license that allows commercial use of the images.

A very convenient feature is “Seek Original”. When you use this option, blue bars on the photos indicate that Flickr is holding an original. Linger your cursor over the image to display dimensions. There is also a safe search option.

2. FlickrStorm works by looking for more than what you enter to find related and more relevant images. In spite of the very simple start page, there are several useful options.

Clicking the link named “advanced” below the search box, you may search for images labeled with all kinds of Creative Commons licenses.

When you do a search the search results are presented as thumbnails. Scrolling to the bottom of the list, you get access to links that help you to refine your search.

When you see a thumbnail of an image you like, click on it! The image is then displayed in a larger size on the right hand side of the screen along with information about what kind of license it is labeled with and links for downloading it, see it on Flickr, and add it to tray.

The tray is a place to stack images you like and then download them all in one batch.

Along with each photo, you also get information about the username of the photographer, a link to his or her photostream on Flickr and a link to a contact form.

FlickrStorm also stores your history, so you can browse the photos you have clicked on during a session. Once you navigate away from FlickrStorm, this information is forgotten.

One disadvantage is that not all the hits for a search phrase are shown.

3. Flickr Search If you are already on Flickr, browsing the categories of Creative Commons photos is an option, but given the enormous amount of photos available, this quickly becomes confusing.

In stead, try the Advanced Search option, which is by far the most advanced way to search Flickr. This page gives you a lot of different search criteria and at the bottom of the page, you can choose to search only photos with Creative Commons licenses.

You can also choose to search within those photos for images that may be used commercially or that may be modified, adapted or built upon.

On the search results page you can choose to view the most relevant shots, the most recently uploaded or the most interesting (”interesting” here is a composite of popularity criteria applied by Flickr).

You can display the photos with detailed descriptions (default), as a list of thumbnails (for browsing through large amounts of photos) or as a slide show.

Recently, a 3D browsing option is also available through a collaborative effort with CoolIris. Point your mouse to any photo on Flickr and click on the little arrow icon that appears. You can now scroll through the photos in a three dimensional interface using the arrow keys on your keyboard which requires of a higher internet connection.

You could always try browsing all the options above for your reference when you are in need of an image to attach to your article for convenience.

As again terrorists carved another dates to remember in history, the bloggers of India also carved history on the online social networks like Twitter, Flicker, You tube and google particularly google map.

Right after the terrorist sage, pictures of Mumbai were uploaded by bloggers into the Flicker and Twitter websites- they became an information center for inquiring relatives and friends outside the city; information is exchange by thousands of bloggers worldwide before even the International Press knew about the attack.

While terrorist were hurling bullets and bombs all over the city. Bloggers from Mumbai were also busy exchanging witness accounts and information in the Social Network Sites in real-time frame.

Let us take a blow to blow account of the significant roles of these social media sites of the historical Mumbai attack.

Twitter really stood up to its reputation to be able to tweet messages. As the attack was still going on around the city; bloggers in India exchange real-time information in this website at a very fast paced. Thousands of messages from over six million twitters per second (Twitter user) were exchanged during that moment. Twitter became a witness of the unfolding of history… history of mankind and history of the Web 2.0.

An hour after the attack, never before seen pictures were posted in Flickr and was viewed 110, 000 as of Sunday.

Twitter and Flickr became the significant medium of the Mumbai’s attack. Yet, other social media networks also were witnesses of the transcending action of human kind all around the world.

Several videos in Youtube are made available for users to see; though most are news coverage of the Mumbai attack.

A google Map made by a user indicating the locations of the attack was viewed for 40,000 in just a short period of time.

Two days after the first shots were heard, Wikipedia already had created pages about the Mumbai attack. From list of victims to worldwide reactions and more.

Facebook and other social media site even made groups to pay respect to the victims just days after the event.

Web 2.0 changes the way news were delivered. People turn to these websites for information instead of turning on the television.

Indeed, Social Media and Web. 2.0 is not a waste of time. It changes lives. It radically changes the way news were delivered and acquired.

Facebook is a social networking website introduced last February 4, 2004. A Free access website is privately possessed and operated by Facebook, Incorporated. Clients or users can unite networks prepared by city, office, school, and area to hook up and act together with other community. Citizens or people can also append associates and send them messages, and update their personal profile to notify friends about themselves.

Advantages of Facebook

1. Facebook is social software. Which is the reason why Facebook and Myspace are appealing to adolescence and university students. These students all the time correspond or communicate explicitly concerning their lives, estimation or opinion, interests, and academics. Though the majority of us working with adults are awkward sharing ideas or information in open surroundings, the social feature of Facebook creates fun and its rapidity of learning knowledge.

2. Facebook provides us the chance to choose what you desire to share, and what you don’t need to  impart, and what you desire to impart with chosen associates.

My best friend daughter “friended” me in Facebook. She permitted me to catch a glimpse or see her status and pictures, except she does not allow me to watch what her associates or friends have to say, “Hmmm that makes me speculate”. However, the purpose here is with the aim that she has power over what I observe or see on her profile or space. Similarly, I can manage or control how much ideas or information I share about on my profile and I can restrict assured portions of information to particular associates or friends.

3. The building of Facebook appears over time. Clients or users can make groups and conversation or discussion topics. This assemblage or group can cultivate, or be gone alone to pass away, depending on the clients or users and their involvement.

4. From the young people and university students’ perspectives not utilizing Facebook are “social responsibility or liability”. A few professionals not possess an online presence or attendance can be career liability.

5. Facebook a one-stop shop or supermarket for imparting blogging, media, calendaring, communicating, sharing ideas or information and others. Facebook can provide “Cooperative Extension” abilities or capabilities to work together and construct our networks in a single place by giving one place without difficulty, imparting ideas or information and discuss subject or topics of interest.

6. Facebook brings jointly more than a few online apparatus. Furthermore to being capable to impart ideas or information and pictures, you can append applications few examples are: Flickr ,  del.icio.us, Twitter, your blog, news feeds to your Facebook home.

7. Facebook is mobile phone. Containing Facebook on your mobile maintains you up to date with posts, statuses, and deliberations. These aspects, similar to others are optional.

Consequently the downside of social apparatus or tools, like Facebook and MySpace are imparting too many ideas or information could turn into trouble or problem so impart only what are at ease with sharing. Keep in mind that you can manage what you impart.

A few pronounce that social networking squander or wastes time. “It can be, but it does not have to be”. Furthermore, it does not contain to be seeing as a time waster. Facebook permit us to study from each and every one and construct relationships with each and every one which takes point in time. If everyone running on building relationships, continue or maintains those relationships by ongoing to talk with them, trap or catch up on reports or news about them.

Facebook is an online doings or pastime that will obtain a few times. Through Facebook and other social media sites, we will study or learn about each one of us, discuss or talk about concern or issues and methodologies, and defy each other.

The service from Yahoo censors all of the photo archive from a professional photographer because it showed pictures of nudity.

Fabio Bórquez discovered Flickr (the service to share pictures from Yahoo) in 2005 by chance and got hooked. “When I came to Europe I started from scratch and I saw it as another way to move my work”. Three years later, this professional Argentinean photographer was met with a big problem: to defend himself in a symposium organised by the German association of photographers (DGPh) and Flickr, where he has been banned showing images of naked women.

The battle of Bórquez against Flickr started in 2006. After a year as an active member in the community (more than 5000 contacts, thousands of daily visits, lots of comments about his photos) the access to his profile was restricted completely without communication from the staff of the service. His crime? Publishing inappropiate photos (artistic nudity). The threat? To delete his archive or disappear.

“It is madness”, assures Bórquez in a telephone conversation from Germany, “they can put up violent images and it doesn’t matter but if you see a breast or a nipple it is restricted. It is the limit when a photograph shows hair because it is inappropriate but if the model is shaved then its not”!

A restricted image implies that only those with marked access inside have the possibility of seeing these types of images. “Despite this, I still have 2500 daily visits” says Bórquez.

So he decided to initiate a “war of warfare” and send post to all of his contacts. A little later there was a bombardment of mail from the followers of this photographer and they tried to free his account. When it seemed that the problem had been solved, a new unilateral movement to place the account of Fabio Bórquez as moderate and marked the photograph as newborn restricted. According to his own page on Flickr, the restricted content are those that “you probably would not show to your mum and definitely not to children”.

Fabio Bórquez wrote in the forum and it was closed and deleted instantly. Finally it was vetoed in the forums and action was initiated in a collective protest under the title of Being Bórquez that consisted of 200 images in his parallel account for each user that should be created following the model: to insert his nickname between his name and surname( for example Fabio Aitor Bórquez). In one day 1200 users registered following this man.

Months later after the archive of Fabio Bórquez was deleted from Flickr, there are still various users that support the Argentinean.

Being blocked was the worse thing but now it has passed. Bórquez published his own blog with lots of pages and photos that have stayed on Flickr. Now instead of the photos is a revealing message: This photograph is not available. “I have paid for a service and they have messed up my work”.

Fabio Bórquez will talk at 2 .15pm in front of 600 people about the use of Flickr for professional photographers.

And what is he going to say?

“I will say that Flickr is excellent but it’s managed by idiots”

Despite Elpais.com insisting, Yahoo has not offered its version of the facts.

Source: http://www.elpais.com/articulo/internet/Flickr/le/gusta/cuerpo/humano/elpeputec/20081017elpepunet_1/Tes

Content Communities – A community were you can share a particular type of content.
1) Register 2) Get your home page 3) Connect with friends.

Examples:

• Flickr – very popular with photo sharing among its users and members. You can choose your profile to be private (family and friends) or public (whole world can see). And if you want to join groups, you are free to do so. Groups talk about interests related to sports, travel, animals, artists and just about any stuff.

• Youtube – the world’s largest video sharing service. You can create channels of your favorite videos or upload your amazing video stuff. Most of us use camera phones, webcams and video cameras to record video blogs.

• Digg – a popular content community where you can submit news, stories, images or videos, which the community itself deem interesting. Afterwards it is voted by other members. In such case, you can tell how indeed interesting such content is.

• Travbuddy – One of my favorite community sites. This was created so travel lovers and enthusiasts can share among each other travel reports and plans such as perfect holiday hotels, vacation getaways, relaxation retreats, etc. Members share through the channels of travel blogs, travel forums and travel reviews in addition to uploading some fascinating photos like restaurants, bars, sites or even cheap hotels.

The biggest photo sharing community Flickr has released a useful new functionality: a fullscreen slideshow.

You can view not only pictures but also videos in the slideshow, and share it or insert it in your own site.

This is the official “demo” posted in Flickr announcement:

Are you a Flickr user? If so, have already use this new functionality? What do you think about it?