contributed by Susan Nellson Baird
A couple of weeks ago, I was doing some research for my social media resource library, and I was checking out the comments following a blog post I was reading.
Here’s a tip: if you want to know about cool tools and/or big ideas before they reach critical mass, read blog comments, because those trying to promote the tools are often trying to get the attention of bloggers whose following includes their target market.
It was while reading the comments that I discovered Wajam.
Wajam, a Canadian start-up, has developed a tool that you can add on to any of the popular browsers that enriches the results you get when you search for information by letting you see what those in your network are posting relative to that topic. Their tagline is Great Minds Search Alike.
For example, I tried a Google search for Big Omaha, the entrepreneur / technology / new media conference hosted by Silicon Prairie News happening May 11-13 at The Keneko.
[Sidenote: Tickets go fast, and they don't advertise, so go to the website, sign up for updates, and take action fast when tickets go on sale. This is one event you do not want to miss!! Don't believe me? Watch this! ]
Not only did I get the typical results I expected from Google, I also got a window of results at the top of the page showing me what people in my network had posted, tweeted, or posted links to related to Big Omaha. Here’s a screenshot:
Remember, these weren’t Google’s results, they were Wajam showing me what my network was talking about related to Big Omaha.
The advantage of using Wajam is that results have even more credibility based what the people in my network are saying, and I can now find even more information that has already been vetted (or dismissed) by people I trust. Talk about a time saver!
Wajam is free, but it’s in beta, which means you need an invite. You can get an invite the old-fashioned way by following @Wajam on Twitter and asking for one. Or, you can click on this Daily Cowbell invite link, and if 25 of you do that, I get a t-shirt.
Either way, once you register, you’ll have the opportunity to give Wajam access to your Facebook contacts, your Twitter contacts and your Delicious network. It may take a few hours for Wajam to import all of the information and configure your browser, but once everything is ready, you’ll be able to see a whole new layer of search results from your friends and those you follow.
Wajam takes the concept of sharing and social bookmarking to a whole new level by bringing content recommendations directly into your search stream. I appreciate that Wajam shows only a few results from my network, with an opportunity to expand the view to see more if I want. Otherwise, I can go straight to the Google results.
So check it out and let me know what you think! And if 25 of you try it, maybe I’ll raffle the t-shirt off, or give it to a guest blogger — hint, hint!!
