I caught part of today’s Diane Rehm show on the car radio while driving to the post office (surprisingly, not too many people there in line to buy one-cent stamps). The topic was social networking, which made me wish I’d heard the entire show. But, of course, I can listen to it at the website. Here’s the official description:

Social Networking — Facebook and Linked-in are two of the most popular on-line social networks, but there are now millions of others catering to all ages and a myriad of interests. A look at the growing appeal of on-line social networks and their value to members in the profit and not-for-profit worlds.

The guests were: Gina Bianchini, co-founder, Ning; Andy Carvin, senior product manager, NPR Community, NPR Digital Media; Josh Bernoff, vp, principal analyst, Forrester Research; Manuel Hernandez, president,Diabetes Hand Foundation www.tudiabetes.com, and Amy Worley, Director of Digital Marketing, H&R Block, Digital Tax Solutions.

I did chuckle when Andy Carvin talked about using Twitter to announce that a guest for an NPR program had cancelled and ask for suggestions for a replacement. During CIL 2007, it was the obverse. The Tuesday morning keynote speaker couldn’t make it, so Andy filled in — and Twittered the experience. On  today’s radio show, he also talked about how NPR is using Twitter to broadcast news. Very creative, NPR!

I’ve been thinking about the wierd things that happen in theoretically stable online environments. Karen Blakeman mentioned recently that, in a hotel in England, her Google connection was suddenly German. Turned out the telephone provider to the hotel was German. I had the same experience in Prague once, only my Google there was French. Same reason, though, the telephone provider to the hotel was French. In trying to circumvent seeing web pages in languages other than English, I’ve long tried entering www.google.co.uk in these situations, trying to invoke the UK version of Google. Last year I experimented with www.google.us, which almost always works. I don’t know if the .us version actually replicates the .com version I get on my home machine, but it’s close enough for horseshoes (as my Dad used to say).

Over the weekend, a frequent author for ONLINE and a talented book author, Michael Banks, asked me if I could see the Search Within the Book feature on Amazon. I could on my laptop, but when I checked it on my office desktop, the feature had disappeared. It seems that Amazon is experimenting with the feature. Mike’s workaround is brilliant. He goes to www.amazon.ca (the Canadian version of Amazon) or www.amazon.de (the German version). I checked the UK version, www.amazon.co.uk, and Search Within the Book was there.

I’ve been annoyed for the past few days with Twitter search not finding people I know are signed up with Twitter. Today it worked perfectly. Everything I couldn’t find last week I found today.

Lessons learned: Nothing is always as it seems. Patience is a virtue. Look for the workarounds.

I set up a Twitter account for Internet Librarian International. It’s here, but as far as I can tell, is invisible to Twitter’s search feature. When I couldn’t find it,  I started searching for people I know have a Twitter account, including me. Most of the searches came back to me with no results. Including the search on my own name. How distressing.

I was going to blog NFAIS this year, but instead decided to continue the twittering experiment that Karen and I began at INSOURCE in Prague. So you’ll find conference coverage here. Cindy Hill is also twittering the conference. The internet connection is pretty awful, it comes from the hotel’s food court. Both Cindy and I have had our connection fade in and out. I may blog some of the key points of the conference in retrospect.