World of Google!

I have to say, I use Google everyday.  Weather its for school research or any just about any question I have.  I used to use only yahoo until I realized Google was much better.  Google would give me better results than yahoo or any other search engine. 

Among the ever expanding Google applications, I use Gmail, its map feature, and Google Checkout.  I like Gmail because of it interface.  It is very easy to work with and the emails are easy to read, specially when there are several people replying to one email.  I am also very familiar with Google Checkout.  I have implemented Google Checkout to a web site and have managed it.  So far, I have not had any problems with it.  It works great and it’s very easy to set up and manage.  With features like buy now buttons, carts, and email invoice gives a business or organization flexibility when it comes to payment options.  I would recommend Google Checkout over pay pal.

Yelp

For the first time today I used Yelp.  I have never heard of this site before until today.  I founded very helpful and informative.  After browsing through the site for a few minutes I decided to review my local gym; Fitness Connection.  There was a review already posted but I think having two different reviews will help the readers more.  I think it would be helpful for the readers if they got both an opinion from a male and a female.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/fitness-connection-athletic-club-pasadena

Bauer Blogs

This morning I received an email from Bauer promoting MyBauerBlogs.  It caught my eye because two good friends that I’ve known for a long time, Victoria and Brian, where two of the four Bauer students writing blogs.  I think this is a great way to reach out to Bauer students, having peers writing about real world business problems.  I’m impressed and glad Bauer is using Web 2.0 tools to reach out to its students in order have more active students  at Bauer.

About Me

My name is Misael, I grew up in Houston (Pasadena), Texas.  I will be graduating in May with a bachelors degree in both MIS and Finance.  I’m very involved at the University of Houston and at the C.T. Bauer College of Business through the Hispanic Business Student Association (HBSA), a student organization at Bauer.  I currently serve on the executive board of HBSA as its Chief Financial Officer.  Through HBSA, I am involved in several Bauer events as well as community service.

I am not a very tech savvy person but I enjoy learning about new technology.  I am new to blogs, Twitter, Google Docs, and Diggs.  This is my first time writing blogs or subscribing to Twiter and Digg.  I am slowly getting the hang of it and enjoying every new thing I learn.

When I have free time I enjoy watching or playing sports.  I like to run, work out, and spending time with friends.  I love soccer, basketball, and Baseball.  I am a fan of the Rockets, Astros, Red Sox, and about 5 soccer teams.  I also enjoy playing sport video games, lately I have been hooked on Fifa 09!

My love for soccer made me capture the image I have pasted on my blog.  For those of you that don’t recognize the long socks in the image, they’re of my favorite club team FC Barcelona.

Digg Labs

I really enjoyed the digg labs/pics.  It has a really cool feature when you can see the pictures that have been “dugg” the most.  As a business you can track what the digg users are into and what they wish to see or learn about.

Enterprise 2.0

I am taking Enterprise 2.0 to have a better understating of Web 2.0 tools.  I am not familiar with tools such as twitter, wordpress, or any kind of blogging.  Taking this course will expand my knowledge of such tools.  With this knowledge I will have a better understanding of social networks and business’ use of technology.

My use of Web 2.0 tools is limited.  I do have a myspace page that has not been updated in months and I only check weekly.  I also have a facebook page, I use my facebook about three to four times a week.  These social networks allow me to keep in touch with high school friends (myspace) and college friends (facebook).  I love the events feature facebook has,  it works similar to an evite.  Youtube is one of my favorite Web 2.0 tools, I usually use it just to watch videos.  Rarely do I upload or comment on videos.

Two entries that I recommend for your iGoogle page are:

Discovery News: Technology

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/news.html

BBC News| Technology | UK edition

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/default.stm

A nice article I found on Digg:  Diggin the dirt on Myspace. by Butcher

Julia Angwin is coming out with a book that tell “all” about myspace.  According to Angwin, myspace had a change to buy Facebook for $75 million.  The deal fell through becasue myspace thought the deal was too expensive.

Once has to wonder how both myspace and facebook will be today had myspace purchased facebook.

Speaking of facebook, there where 1.5 million Obama-related status updates via CNN.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/20/AR2009012004599.html

Upon registering with Twitter I decided to follow three people that I believe will help me better master my Enterprise 2.0 course.  One of them is Evan Williams, CEO of Twitter, who better to learn from then the CEO itself? Williams has almost 47,000 followers.  I also decided to follow TechCrunch in order to keep me updated with the latest news in technology.  TechCrunch was 47,000 followers.  Last but not least I decided to follow the nytimes.  An MIS student should not only be concern about technology but also news in general i.e. the economy.