Cutting through the twitter thicket

This may be old news to those of you who know everything, but it's new to me and pretty nifty:
http://tweetscan.com/

Another way to find relevant content in a huge haystack is this Flickr search tool; particularly useful when you're looking for images with certain kinds of commercial CC licences.

http://www.compfight.com/

You don't have to know everything, you just have to know how to ask.
(I figure between Brian and Nat, I'll never need to actually learn anything ever again)

Perhaps the best thing ever written about writing.

The full version:

http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit


The 6 main points (for those who think they don't have time to read):

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
   
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

Web 0.000000001, yet supremely useful. (for a bicyclist)

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/

Sheldon Brown doesn't know much about making a pretty website, yet he built one of the most respected and frequently referenced bicycling sites on the net. I (and many others) have learned more about bicycling from Sheldon than from any of the many other much slicker bicycling sites around.

Is web 2.0 better than 1.0 better than no web at all?

Yes. No. It doesn't matter.
There are some great examples of wonderful content, delivered in the most awkward way imaginable, then there are others of great techniques conveying absolutely nothing. It's a medium; used properly, it can be a great medium. Used as a gimmick, it is often a meaningless waste of time.

Very often, style is the enemy of content. How often have you sen a beautiful looking site, banner, poster, or TV spot that says nothing? more over, how often have you heard people say "yea, there's nothing special there, but it sure looks good"

What matters most - in web 2.0, mobile, gaming, or ancient papyrus scrolls, is still the content. What are you saying? Id it interesting? What are you letting others say and do? Are you building a community? Are you building a hollow monument to your own ego? You talking to me?

So what I'll try to do here is show some examples of the best and worst uses and abuses I can find. Hopefully we'll learn something from that.