Here's a question for all our elderly readers: Do any of you remember the primitive era affectionately called 1995, and hearing your college professors speak hopefully (or possibly lament) that soon all the information and media ever created would be up on this web thing and easily accessible and available free of charge? Do you remember how many people went out and bought those state of the art 486s and bleeding edge Pentium I computers, and signed on with AOL or Compuserve or Mindspring to fire up Netscape, stumble on to Yahoo! only to discover the truth.
Even back then, there was a lot of stuff online that was technically information or visual/audible media. It was free, much of it, anyway, as well. I spent way too many hours watching an oddity called a webcam update at shockingly fast one minute intervals, as it delivered grainy black and white stlll images of some forgotten webmaster's painted turtle in California to my desktop in Northern Virginia.
As far as exotic, fine art work or rare, priceless tomes of great knowledge went -- it wasn't all accessible online, or necessarly free if it happened to be available. But for a good portion of the '90s, people who hadn't been online much, or were in denial, insisted it was out there.
There dawns the new century, and the myth of "it's all there, free" started to fade away with the old beige Pentium I and II computers. Things went the other way, though. Every day there was more information on the internet from all sorts of sources, and some of it (shock, awe) was free, or at least accessible to some degree. Is it irony or karma? Who knows? Many people are floored, now, to discover how much useful, cool, credible information is available online free of charge.
So just in time to go back to school (or to impress your friends with your innate intelligence), I've found a few sites and tricks for getting really great information online without additional tuition fees.
Photobucket, a popular image-hosting site, will get basic image-editing features (resizing, cropping, coloring, rotating, etc.) thanks to FotoFlexer, an in-browser, web-based picture editor.
For those who use both services, this is probably unsurprising as FotoFlexer already lets users save their edited pictures to their Photobucket accounts -- as well as any Facebook, Myspace, Yahoo Flickr, and Google Picasa accounts that they know the usernames and passwords to.
Well, at least this saves Photobucket users the hassle of logging into a separate site to do a little basic editing, which comes to a total of 48 seconds saved per photo edited according to our highly (un)scientific calculations.
There's a new feature in town for Gmail Chat, but it's actually not all that new. It's been possible for some time now to go into "invisible" mode via AIM and other chat protocols, but Gmail Chat is finally joining the invisible party.
Going invisible through chat software enables IMers to log into their IM accounts without showing that they've logged on. It's still possible for others to IM you, though it's unlikely since you wouldn't be listed as "online", and you can also IM others.
Invisible mode in Gmail Chat doesn't yet work with Google Talk, the gadget and desktop app. Currently, it's only supported via the online Gmail interface, but we're sure that'll change soon.
According to a new report from the Newspaper Association of America, online readership for newspaper web sites grew by more than 3.6 million in 2007, up 6 percent from 2006. So, in spite of traditional newspaper sales drying up, the newspaper companies are finding ways to grow their readership.
At this point, you might be asking, "what's a newspaper?" It's that simple collection of ink on thin paper that sometimes waits for you on your stoop and is often found in spring-loaded machines that will either take your quarter, or, if you're not fast enough, your hand.
Okay, so maybe we haven't completely forgotten what a newspaper is, but we do know that hardly any of us read them anymore. Why read something that's a whole day old when you can get minute-to-minute news from the web?
Thankfully, newspaper companies have gotten wind of the shift from traditional print media to online media. Many large newspapers have made most if not all of their content available online; and, as the study shows, the move has paid off. People still trust the traditional news media, the traditional news names; they just wanted the news delivered through a different, more expedient medium.
In the last quarter of 2007, 39% of web viewers visited newspaper Web sites. How about you?
TheSixtyOne is a music service for both artists and music lovers to share and discover new music. Incorporating elements of a digg-like voting system, custom playlists, and an internal point system for rewards - TheSixtyOne is some of the most fun we've had with music in awhile.
It works like this: you make yourself an account on TheSixtyOne, as either a listener or an artist. As a listener, you are given a number of points which you can use to "bump" songs you like. If you happen to discover a song that other people vote for after you do, you are awarded with additional points. You can't really do anything with these points other than vote for more songs, but other users will see you as a high-profile listener and as such have more "influence."
Artists that sign up have an opportunity to give their work some exposure, network with fans and other artists, and get their music "bumped" to the top. Artists can also opt to release their music as free MP3 downloads or sell them as DRM-free Amazon MP3s.
Naturally, you can design your own playlists, link them, subscribe to other artists and listeners, and just about anything else you would want to do. If you're into finding new music, TheSixtyOne is definitely worth a look.
As Facebook and Google join DataPortability.org for streamlining the technologies and standards used with social applications, online real estate listings are quick not to be left behind.
In an open letter to Yahoo, Google, Trulia and Zillow, the RETS community (Real Estate Transaction Standard) encouraged a data standard for real estate listings so that home sellers and others who list real estate online can easily take one listing and make it work for all the participating websites. So instead of having to rewrite the listings for each site's particular style of listings, it only has to be written once. How very, oh, web 2.0.
With the speed that data standards are sprinting along, it's only going to be a matter of time until everything (that is useful anyway) has been reduced to standards that allow for maximum compatibility across services. Data standards for other areas such as classifieds, documents, and online personals may be closer than we think. Or maybe that's just a usability lover's pipe dream.
Springnote is a powerful browser based note taking system. You can forget about the standard text only inputs that many online note tools offer, this application has the ability to drop in images, attach files and organize layout at will. Its wiki style note taking system allows pages of content like todo's, monthly calendars and plans to be created with Word like functionality and tools with tags, change history, folder hierarchy and page bookmarks for more important content. Springnote's can also be shared between friends for reading or collaboration.
Perhaps the most important feature of Springnote is the ability to import and export notes. Downloading options include HTML, XHTML and Send to a Blog or use anywhere else. Importing can be done using MS-word docs, .txt, HTML or OpenDocument .odt formats. Springnote has an open API and unlimited storage of text files with 2GB file storage available. There are tons of Springnote mashups that you can utilize to expand the functionality of your account, including IM, Flickr, and Firefox toolbar integration.
Sharing your portfolio or a gallery can be done a number of ways, from building an HTML or Flash version to hosting a presentation gallery online at Google Docs. ViewBook makes it easy to create professional looking web presentations.
ViewBook's presentation toolprovides a photo album and slideshow at a custom domain. Users can create galleries and portfolios with images, titles, descriptions and custom background colors. Works can be then embedded on a website and viewed at full screen. ViewBook offers a public page with a listing of the presentations you have available, with a bio or profile. As for uploading imagery to use, there are a few different options, from a batch upload tool to a drag and drop feature with a minimal toolset for editing.
If you have a portfolio or presentation that is constantly changing, or want an easy way to make and share one and you aren't too comfortable fiddling with HTML or Flash files, this could be the tool to check out. The embedding feature makes it easy to embed display your works on the comfort of your personal website in a clean and professional manner. The free beta account does have some limitations: 250 images and five portfolios. Check out a sample of what you can do.
The wait is over, DocSyncer is out of beta and open for all to use. This downloadable application allows PC based users of Microsoft Office and Google Docs to seamlessly sync documents.
DocSyncer is a downloadable application that sits on your computer and automatically finds and syncs all of your document files to your Google Docs account. When it's running, it checks all of your documents and syncs them as they are updated to create a solid backup and work anywhere system. Word and Excel based files can be opened directly from the web interface, and there is support for TXT, CSV and RTF formats.
Perhaps one of the coolest features is the 'disconnected' mode. If you are disconnected from the internet, DocSyncer will auto recognize it and load the document locally in the default application without trying to connect to the internet.
With more and more users building documents in web based applications, we were starting to think the market belonged to a handful of new companies like Zoho, ThinkFree, and a little upstart called Google. But it looks like there's another serious contender in the online Office space.
Live Documents has a strong pedigree. The service comes from the guy who created Hotmail before Microsoft purchased the webmail service. Live Documents are flash based office applications that have the ability for collaboration and online and offline syncing in a MS Office based environment. Applications are similar to Microsoft's traditional Word, Excel and Powerpoint, but are built using Flash and Flex so that any user on any system can view and edit at will in a richer multimedia environment. If the web portion doesn't do anything for you, the desktop client might with its offline abilities. It wraps up MS Office through a plug-in and embeds collaboration options into them as well, making it possible for multiple people to edit documents at the same time keeping them secure and allowing for revision controls.
Live Documents is not currently live, but you can request to try out their office solution on their website. We are awaiting an invite, and will report back if it's a worthwhile contender when we actually see it in action.
OutTwit OutTwit makes it possible to read Twitters through Outlook. Your Twitter status can be updated straight from Outlook and you can set certain intervals at which your Twitter account is checked for new messages.
Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen says within 10 years, the company will be offering all of its applications online. His remarks come at a time when we see more and more companies offering online applications as an alternative to desktop products.
Google Docs, Zoho, Picnik, SnapLayout, Zude, just a few of the many successful online applications that can be accessed anywhere without the large cost of boxed versions. There might be some features missing, but this new breed of application has much to offer the user with free, portable, cross platform, accessible with no upgrades needed as a few of the benefits.
Major software development companies like Adobe are starting to take note and recognize their shrinking market share. The likes of Picnik and PikiFX are emerging and growing the free online image editing space and have forced Adobe to quickly rethink their software strategy pushing them to develop a version of their popular Photoshop for online usage. Adobe still has no release date for Photoshop Express but realizes that the future of software lies with online versions and is working to deliver all of their applications via the web. Chizen says he believes that these new online applications will only appeal to a younger generation of users that would never think of paying $400 for a packaged software product. Dear Adobe, we think this will appeal to all users, young or old, just as long as they, along with the rest of the world will have access to broadband in 10 years. After all, what good is an online application if it can't be accessed properly?
Whether you are a homeowner trying to best squeeze all of your new furniture into your new space, a student experimenting with different furniture placements, or just thinking about knocking out a few walls and creating a new space, FloorPlanner could be your space-planning answer.
This free application takes the pencil, drafting table, and the $150/hr architect out of the equation and lets everyday people create and play around with floor plans online. Floor plans are simple to create with a feature rich toolset of drawing tools and household items to place on plans. Users start off by creating living space walls, choosing flooring material, adding doors and windows, and dropping in furniture and electrical outlets. Walls can be moved, colors changed and furniture moved all with a simple click until the perfect plan is set. Floor Plans can then be saved, printed, shared with friends and eventually turned into a 3d space. (In testing mode and only available in Plus and Pro accounts.)
This free online floor plan creation tool is a joy to use. Its simple controls and clean layout make it easy to create rough layouts for all kinds of living spaces quickly. Users can get as creative as they wish, and quite possibly use this as a base design for architects, interior designers and construction trades.
Back in the day (meaning, only about five years ago), when you needed the customer service department of a company to solve a problem, you simply picked up the phone and talked to a real, live person. That soon gave way to working your way through phone trees more complicated than the schematics of the International Space Station. Gradually, we found ourselves shouting, ""Return a package....reeeee-turn a paaaaack-age!" to disembodied robotic voices that ask why we're calling.
Sick of the process? We are too, so the idea that Wal-Mart would do away with all that filled us with child-like glee. Until we realized what they had in mind.
Stocks.us This site filters, aggregates and sorts financial news to get a quick look at the US stock market. 20 stocks are shown from the Dow Jones, Nasdaq 100, and S&P 500 on the front page as deemed important by Stocks.us. The best part of the service is that information refreshes every 15 minutes for fresh news and quotes. One wish, let users pick their own stocks, make it a custom financial start page of sorts.
Here's a question for all our elderly readers: Do any of you remember the primitive era affectionately called 1995, and hearing your college professors speak hopefully (or possibly lament) that soon all the information and media ever created would be up on this web thing and easily accessible and available free of charge? Do you remember how many people went out and bought those state of the art 486s and bleeding edge Pentium I computers, and signed on with AOL or Compuserve or Mindspring to fire up Netscape, stumble on to Yahoo! only to discover the truth.
There's a new feature in town for Gmail Chat, but it's actually not all that new. It's been possible for some time now to go into "invisible" mode via AIM and other chat protocols, but Gmail Chat is finally joining the invisible party.
