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August 17 Web Picks

I haven’t really run across any high quality ‘functional’ sites in the past weeks (most likely due to the fact that most of my past two weeks has been inside a car!), but I’ve hit a couple excellent ‘content’ sites!

I am delineating a ‘functional’ site from a ‘content’ site, because most people use them for drastically different purposes. A functional site is one that provides services to you by either filling a need that you have had, or creating a need that you did not even know you had, whereas a content site is one you use to educate yourself in some manner. For example, most people now get directions for car trips from sites like Google Maps or Mapquest, but to learn about cartography, you might go to a resource from EarthSensing that explores all aspects of the science.

This sometimes gets blurred in the world of social networking sites with groups springing up that are essentially information hubs that just happen to be housed on a networking site. For example, Facebook would be considered a functional site, but users can create user-driven content sites within Facebook by launching groups that foster discussion and provide information to promulgate to others who might be interested in the same topic. The difference between these two kinds of sites is very important because they fill two different parts of the internet and people interact with the two of them in vastly different ways, as well.

That was simply my clarification of the different types of sites I keep track of as I delve into the annals of knowledge housed on the interwebs! Anyhow, I recently discovered two very excellent content sites that are worth mentioning:

• Web Strategy by Jeremiah: This is a blog hosted by Jeremiah Owyang, a web strategist in San Fransisco. He provides an excellent look into the world of web-based marketing, but not just from a standard ‘make-a-flashy-ad-and-hope-for-good-click-rates’ angle; he analyzes the best way to create, present, and distribute content. The key word there is ‘content’, rather than ‘product’ because everything revolves around how you come in contact with the market and its members. This blog really is awesome for examining how online strategies are changing the way people interact with others and with the market, so I highly recommend adding the RSS feed to your reader!
• TED: TED is the website for the annual Technology, Entertainment, Design conference in Monterey and its very-appropriate tagline is ‘Ideas Worth Spreading’. This is a really unique conference that has spawned some off-shoots, but the original remains exceptional. Each speaker at this conference only speaks for 18 minutes, but the content is incredible and ranges from art to politics to research methods to music. This site houses an archive of over 100 talks that have been given at the event over the years, and more is being added all the time. Much of it is very though-provoking, and I highly encourage everyone to check out a least a couple videos on any subject. My favorite video at this point is this lecture given by Hans Rosling about the shifting dynamics of the world’s economies, populations, and other vital statistics…but he does it in a very engaging way that keeps a visual appeal with incredible virtual models.

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