iPad App - Pearltrees

Pearls don't grow on trees. We grow them in oysters in the seas. Pearls are beautiful and they're a sight to behold. And so, enter Pearltrees, the app. Pearls and trees... the worth associated to pearls and the growing and branching out; getting more knowledge. When I first discovered this app a couple of weeks back, the immediate attraction was it would enable me to organize the many websites that I want to keep for reference. I bookmark and create folders in my computers for the sites I want to use but whenever I am at another computer, I would always have difficulty recalling a particular site that I want to refer or use.

You grow your own pearls of information, knowledge, wisdom.... call it any name you want. But the bottom line is your pearls keep growing...... and growing. One pearl can grow into more pearls and so on. The pic above is a close-up of how your pearls may look like.

This is the screenshot of the whole page. Within each pearl you can grow more pearls, which are actually links to the sites you want. You can create your own downline... sort of like a direct marketing model. If that's not enough and you want to know what other similar pearltrees you might find out there, you can do so.... one arrow leads to more gems of knowledge and the trail keeps going on and  on. The arrows are like your path to like-minded people.... for 'birds of the same feather to flock together.'

Clicking on the arrows on the pic before this one brings you to neighbouring like-minded pearltrees. And there you have it, a sharing community. It's very much like a social networking but of a different kind; though not as people-oriented as FaceBook, still one that appeals a lot because one reference leads to another, info to another. It makes it a great informal library of sorts for one.

There is also the ease of which you can pearl a website by bookmarking it, once you install it into your browser. Installation is a breeze. Just follow the set of instructions that pop up during the installation and it's ready for use.

Once you bookmark the site, this page appears and all you need to do is just to 'Pearl the page' and you will find the new pearl among your pearls, to keep until you choose to delete it. You also have the option of organizing it or leaving it at the bottom bar till you figure out what you want to do with it.

I could think of plenty of uses for this app. For people like me with varied interests and also write,  it's great for storing sites with which provides information and data for future reference. And for, teachers like me who get bored using the same materials, this can be a possible site resource centre. I could create pearls for different components of the language and pearl (a new verb... LOL!) the sites. LOL! I could even use Peartrees as a lesson... teaching students the ropes and how to use it to organize ideas and thoughts; the future. Students would probably have more fun learning how to do mind mapping in a different way. This would go very well with IThought HD. And it would be a practical skill.... Alas, the MOE were not far sighted enough to give iPads instead of Netbooks.... the 1Malaysia Netbook. The missed opportunity was the Government gave the Netbooks without any solid plans or programs to maximize its benefits for the students.

The Pearltrees app will  probably help students a lot too, especially if they are doing research. Everything that is related can be pearled for later use. 

In short, this is our very own personal aggregator, made by us, tailored to our own needs and with the flexibility of the octopus tentacles reaching out to other pearls made by other people along the same line of interests. And more and more too, I think laptops are heading towards being obsolete too... cos apps are easier to learn.