Tag: Internet

Categories
Analysis

5 Twitter(web 2.0) application websites Which You Should Try

Twitter is the best Social-Networking website. Its gaining the great prominence all-round the world. Its been the best platform that was designed ever for Business, Marketing, Sharing, etc.

With about more than 50 Million tweets daily and 600 tweets per every seconds Twitter is making its impact in the web. Bagging such a tremendous craze, few authorities were been concentrating on the Twitter applications. As a result, they have even created the dedicated websites for twitter that which are making the user’s work quiet easy. In that I have listed the top 5 web 2.0 twitter application service providing websites. Check them out

  1. TweetValue
  2. GroupTweet
  3. TweetTube
  4. Twtmaps
  5. Nearby Tweets

TweetValue : TweetValue is a recently launched Twitter application that tells the Twitter users, how much their profile is worth. Its pretty easy to use it. Just type your username of Twitter. Then it will display you profile worth.  You can also display the worth of your Twitter profile by using the nifty badges on your webpages.

GroupTweet : This applications helps you to send the private messages to specific group of your friends. You need to create a private group account within Twitter and register that group at GroupTweet, such that all the members of the group should follow it to receive the messages. And if you send the message to that group account, GroupTweet will convert that into the direct message and will forward it to the members of the group.

TweeTube : TweeTube is online as well as  iPhone application that lets you to share pictures, videos, bookmarks and other stuff on Twitter. At the site you can see easily share 25 sec Webcam video(this is only meant for Mac OS X). In order to share click on the service which you are going to use. enter the information, give your twitter name and password and then click on share.

Twtmaps : Twtmaps is a new application that allows you to enter your username that gives the map that shows all you friends locations as well as little information about your friends. You were also given provision for multiuser search also.

Nearby Tweets : This application is developed by Brian Cray.  Nearby-Tweets is a geo-centric Twitter tool that which locates your nearby tweeters by using the Google Maps. This is completely a flexible tool that helps you to not only view the tweeters who are tweeting nearby your location but also you are allowed to search for tweeters from other locations too.

Do share your Favorite Twitter web2.0 tool. Also check out

Categories
News

Is this the future of online advertising?

Google Adsense is the preferred way for most blogs to showcase ads and earn revenues. Google Adsense and Ad-words make a lot of sense considering most people do not mind text based links as ads. They are a lot less inconvenient than those pesky and irritating flash pop-ups ads.

Here is a new way of showing ads which Digg.com has come up with and it is apparently making a lot of revenues for Digg.

  • As you can see in the image above, when you visit Digg.com the third post from top is a advertisement.
  • You can actually have readers Share it or Bury it but as you can see in the image readers cannot comment on it.
  • The way the revenues work is the more often people share it or read the link the lesser the advertisers pay.

I don’t think this sort of advertising can really make a big difference to Google Adsense and it’s relevance but it might change the way paid reviews are being used in blogs. The concept is that let’s say a company pays a blog for writing a review. The blog displays it and has a way of it being rated in terms of page views or even being voted by readers. It could also be a rated in terms of getting traffic to the blog. The higher the traffic the post brings the lower the advertisers have to pay. 😉

I don’t think we will be seeing this system making its way to your favorite blogs in the immediate future but I think this could be the future of online advertising atleast when it comes to blogs.What do you think? Do drop in your comments.

Link: Digg Ads

Categories
Reviews

Opera 10.10: Combination of Opera Unite & Opera Turbo

Seems like the war between all the social networking sites is now spreading to the Web browsers! If you are one of those users who are tired of the monopoly shown by Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari etc , go ahead and try out Opera`s latest offering – Opera 10.10. We promise you, the other browsers will safely be resting in your computer while Opera is at work!

opera_logo

When we talk about browsers, a couple of things are of prime importance.

  1. Security.
  2. It must not consume too much RAM (h/w resources).
  3. It must be highly efficient and easy to use.

Opera will not disappoint you, instead it promises a fantastic browsing experience! Let us take you through why we think Opera has scored a homerun with this release. Google chrome indexes your recent website visits, and shows them as thumbnails when you open a new  tab. Now these sites may not be the ones you would want to visit regularly, and the bookmarks in chrome are arranged with a drop-down menu. What Opera has done is, they use what they call – Speed Dial! This feature saves a thumbnail of your recent websites, at the same time it also allows you to customize it to your convenience. Here`s a snapshot of the same :

Opera

Another feature we would like to highlight is the – Opera Widgets. You can download them by clicking on Widgets in the Menu bar or by clicking here. Among the widgets are cool apps and some super cool games! Do check this one out.

If this was not enough, Opera has a built-in server side optimizer – Opera Turbo. It reduces the amount of data that is transferred between your computer and the web server by up to 80%, although Opera warns that this compression might lead to poor image quality in cases, our tests have yielded fantastic results! You can find the Opera turbo button on the bottom of your browser and tweak it to your convenience.

image

The most eye catchy feature of Opera 10.10 is the – Opera unite! Opera unite is a platform that allows you to stream content, whether that be music, documents,videos etc without uploading it to a website. To break this into easier words, Opera unite creates a end to end connection between you and the people you wish to transfer files. The Opera unite suite contains a assortment of apps like :

  • Opera Unite Home: An overview that lists all the applications you are running, activity information, and also shows the applications others are running.
  • File Sharing: Share files directly from your computer easily and safely.
  • Fridge: Enjoy fun notes left on your computer by friends.
  • Photo Sharing: Share your personal photos with friends around the world without the need to upload them.
  • Media Player: Access your complete home music library from wherever you are.
  • Web Server: Host your Web sites directly from your own computer.
  • Messenger: Communicate with your friends in My Opera in a one-to-one, live session.

Besides the above listed apps, you can integrate more apps with Opera unite by clicking on the unite button , next click on the Add button, and then choose your app to synchronize it with Opera unite.

image

So guys, our verdict is Opera has unleashed a monster! Go ahead and try taming this one! You can download Opera 10.10 by clicking here. With Opera 10.50 still in the Beta release, this is most definitely one of the best browsers out there! Do let us know what you think of it!

Categories
Analysis

How websites can track and identify your browser as unique?

When you clear browsing history, delete the cookies and clear the cache you expect your browser to be not trackable. If you think about individuals certain singular information is not all that important but a combination of them can allow you to differentiate if not identify the individuals.

If you know the Zipcode of ten people there is no way to distinguish one from the other if two or more have the same zip code. But if you know a combination of zipcode, gender and date of birth then the person would be very uniquely identifiable and hence trackable.

In terms of browsers this information is often stored by servers when you visit a website for tracking statistics. Most analytical services track individual visits, unique visitors on websites with a combination of some information which makes the individual visitor unique and hence trackable.

About Panopticlick

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  • Ideally we think if we clear browsing data and use incognito mode for making use our stats are not tracked by a tracking service.
  • That is not true. Despite all this your browser and its visits can be recognised as unique and tracked by a service.
  • Visit Panopticlick after you have cleared all browsing data. Let it look up the uniqueness of your browser.

For instance I used my Chrome browser with all details removed and logged into Panopticlick with in incognito mode. Here it identified browser characteristics as User Agent, Browser plugin details, Time Zone, Size color and details. As I mentioned before none of these characteristics can give a unique identity about the browser. But a combination of all these create a unique identity for a website to track individual browser. 😉

Link: Panopticlick

Categories
Reviews

Put YouTube videos in a loop

You Tube is a great way to look up videos especially if you have a decently fast internet connection. I often watch video from tech reviews, to documentaries and sometimes I love catching a song. You Tube is a great repository of music just as it is of videos. So playing a great song on You Tube is something many of us do a lot. The problem with You Tube is that unlike a media player on the computer we cannot get the song to play repeatedly. Well that problem is solved now.

youtube_loop

YouTube Repeater is a website which puts the video you are playing on You Tube in a continuous loop. You can search for videos in You Tube with the website itself.

These is another method which is when you are watching a Video on Youtube then you just need to change “youtube.com” to “youtuberepeater.com”. Changing the name of the domain puts the video in a loop. 😉

youtuberepeater

I still prefer using Chrome extension CoolIris for viewing and browsing for Videos online in You Tube but a continous loop is not present in that extension. I must say I like this idea of putting a video in a loop.

Do check out Youtube Repeater to try out this feature and let me know what you think of it through your comments.

Categories
Tips

Find local info on Twitter without using trending topics

I came across this very interesting website which allows you to search for information from a particular location about a particular word. It is a lot different because it does not rely on trending topics. It is created by Brian Cray and has a great interface and uses Google Maps to show location based contextual tweets from around the world.

nearby_tweets

  • Considering the number of Tweets that get published on Twitter’s public time-line there is hardly a way to keep track. Following people is fine but in most cases when it comes to searching for something you need to look up trending topics.
  • But a lot of people do not trend a topic and many who do are actually more interested in branding their tweet rather than giving out something important. NearbyTweets looks up and searches for words included in a tweet sent from a particular location which you can put in.
  • Below is a screen shot of the Tweets I could gather with NearbyTweets by searching inthe location “Pune” for tweets on “Web 2.0“. I searched within Pune as this is the city where our office is located.

nearby_tweets2

In India we are not very proficient tweeting about local issues but I think it will soon catch on. This would be a great way to search for recommended movies to watch playing in a particular town or city. It also can be a great way to search for Twitter users with similar interests in the same city you are living in.

Go ahead and try out NearbyTweets and let me know what you think about it through your comments.

Categories
Reviews

Web tool to get rid of addiction to certain websites

Many of us who work in the business of internet we often have to work had at ignoring Facebook, Twitter and so many other distractions which sometimes are necessary to network but can also be a huge sap on the time you actually should be spending working.
Some companies block certain websites while some allow a more open environment and expect their employees to practice self control on not wasting too much time on social networks or on unproductive internet surfing. As far as self regulation is concerned here is a novel website which can allow you to regulate the amount of time you spend on a particular website.

visit_or_not

  • Enter the URL of the  website you want to restrict your visit. Do not use ‘http://’ with the URL.
  • Check the time you want as minimum between new visits to the website. It is 90 minutes by default.
  • When you click on “Create URL” you get a new url which is created by the website. Replace that url with your Bookmark to your favorite page.
  • Once you visit the page and close the Tab you cannot visit the page for the minimum time you have set.
  • The one draw back is this work only if you use it through Bookmarks on the browser. Same URl can easily be opened if you enter it in the address bar.

I liked this website as it also has a timer which can actually display a time you are spending on a particular website. I think more than controlling the time between visits a display of the actual time in minutes and seconds spent on a website can be a big wake up call. Do try out To visit or Not and drop in your comments.

Categories
News

Youtube Introduced Safety mode

Youtube has one of the largest video collection and many of the videos have graphic violence, war footage or footage which you don’t wany your family or kids to see.  To ensure your family safety, Youtube introduced a new feature call safety mode.

This new safety mode from youtube will make sure that videos which contains any such graphics which you don’t want your kids and family to see, will not be shown.

YouTube

While announcing this new feature youtube also mentioned that

“While no filter is 100% perfect, Safety Mode is another step in our ongoing desire to give you greater control over the content you see on the site.”

You can watch this video to understand how you can enable or disable  Safety mode in Youtube :

What do you feel about this new feature? Is it useful or it will come out to be just another feature from youtube?

Categories
Reviews

Convert any URL to PDF

Sometimes you just like a pdf file of something you read on the internet. This is really needed when you read a tutorial or a online manual. One thing you want, would be a PDF document to read or even store. I reviewed Flexamail recently which allows you to from your email create a pdf document of a web page and fetch it as a PDF document. That service can only be used for a PDF document of 15MB as it has to be email friendly.

pdfmyurl

One of the main features of this is it allows any page to be converted into PDF. I checked with creating PDF of large size and it does work quite well so I guess size of the PDF to be generated will not be a issue.

I think the most exciting part of this service is that you can add this into your website or blog with a simple code being inserted in the web-page. I tried to see if there is a widget which can put up this code to create the PDF of the page automatically; but I did not come across any. I guess at the moment if you want visitors to download your webpage you have to manually enter this HTML code.

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<a href="http://pdfmyurl.com?url=www.opentracker.net">downlaod this page as pdf</a>

You can even directly link an customized image to

http://pdfmyurl.com?url=www.opentracker.net

This will allow a visitor to click on the image or link on your page and the page is converted to PDF. 😉

For people addicted to PDF there is also a bookmarket which is offered by the website and all you need to do is drag the bookmarklet to your bookmarks in the browser and when you are at a page you want to convert to PDF just click on the bookmarklet.

Do check out PDF my URL and try it out. Do drop in your comments on what you think about this service.

Categories
Reviews

Flexamail: Take a snapshot of a website without visiting it

In the past I wrote about using Flexamail a service which could be used for using Facebook and Twitter through Email without even the need to visit Twitter or Facebook. Now thanks to a tip by Michael Fleischauer I can share with you new features with Flexamail which allow you to get a pdf file of a webpage by using email client.

Flexamail_pdf

Website in PDF

  • First I needed to register with Flexamail with my Email Id.
  • Once you are done with that just log into the Email Id which you have used for registering with Flexamail.
  • Now I sent an email to the address pdfwww@flexamail.com and with the subject line :www.devilsworkshop.rsites.dev6.rt.gw
  • Once the email was sent Felxamail takes the webpage indicated in the subject line and converts it into a pdf file and sends it back to your email id as an attachment.
  • So basically now if your browser is not working or if you cannot access a particular website you can simply use your email to fetch it.
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Another handy new feature with Flexamail is that I can send an email to savewww@flexamail.com and with subject line of any website I want to covert to pdf. Once done, Felxamail saves the pdf file on its servers and you can fetch the file by sending an email to getfile@flexamail.com I get a return mail with all the files stored by me on Flexamail. I can also log into Flexamail website and download the saved pdf files. This is ideal for taking snapshots of a website and keep it for later reading. Basically a great way to archive a particular webpage into pdf format.

Here is a video which explains in detail how you can use the new features.

Let me know if you like the new features of Flexamail which in way allows you to browse the internet through your email client and without the need of a browser. Do drop in your comments.

Link: Flexamail