Yoono

reviewed by Dr. Eric Flescher

Browsing utilities for the internet are all the rage. Today there a many small increasingly sophisticated utilities that are being integrated with browsers to help find and display all sorts of information. With blogs, websites and all types of information to search, either you try manually or try assorted search engines that can assist you and make your life easier. Google and now others use search engine type utilities that can find more types of information even without manual inputting the information. Lately there are a new set of small utilities that work with the internet so you can find that you want. One I found – Yoono - is a free application. On the surface, one sees the nice toolbar but Yoono does more.

Yoono is an multifaceted little free extension that can be added to Firefox or Internet Explorer browsers. The toolbar is versatile and is very customizable. Move it almost wherever you like (I placed it on the top like many possible do so it won’t mess dock toolbar. A second sidebar can also be used. How it looks is one things but it is interesting to see what it could do.

Yoono acts as a social networking and search tool, which connects websites and other sources you may want to find or know about. It is like Del.icio.us, which I really first learned about in July 2006. Like Del.icio.u, it has bookmarked links that can be seen by other and shared on the internet. But Yoono can also display blog posts and articles related to the page; and who the site's main users (called 'Yoosers') are."

Yoono instantly suggests sites of a similar nature as well as people sharing the same interest. It even finds more information while surfing blog notes and more for each page you open. This comes on the go. Like magic it does this without typing in keywords or additional information as it uses information already on your computer.

Clicking on “surprise me” part of the toolbar, a website about something I I am interested in “stormchasing” pops up in a window (below the Yoono toolbar) a stormchasing website. Cool! Another one popped up a Google Map of the Moon. Neat! I am beginning to like it already. However I have to find out more information about this product.

I was curious about how personal Yoono gets. I found out that Yoono does not store any personal user data except the favorites which have not been declared "secret "and the data freely and optionally given to Yoono by the user himself. In no case Yoono markets or communicates to a third party any personal data collected. The data that is stored is necessary for the service to function or as the sole object of improving the quality of the service provided to users. Yoono does not record the browsing of its users but uses the URL of the page viewed by a user to send back suggestions to his browser. The data filled-out in the User Profile tab, can be edited any the user at anytime so that makes the extension even more versatile. If you want to know more the privacy policy page is on the internet at http://www.yoono.com/privacy.html.

I also found that Yoono synchronizes your favorites bookmarks automatically between computers and provides favorites export features in XBEL and OPML formats (although I am not sure why this is good or not.) Use Bookmarks Synchronizer to generate an XBEL file from your Firefox bookmarks, upload it, and your bookmarks will be returned in OPML format.

There's is even a forum for bug reports and enhancements at

<> http://forum.yoono.com/forum. Erase your Yoono account can be completed by uninstalling it.

I found that last month they were serving up over six million suggestions per day. Suggestions are generated based on an analysis of the bookmarks and live bookmarks (RSS feeds) shared by their over 140,000 users. I like the ticker tape feed section that scrolls from right to left. I have played with it and like it. I certainly think it is a mini-tool that can help people. I have only “grazed the surface “ of its capabilities, but like what I have discovered. You will have to see it for your self and try it to see what you think.

dreric1kansas@aol.com