Top Web Sites

Top 5 sites you can't live without

2009-02-24T08:28:00.001-06:00

Like my The Complete list of 100 useful applications, What are 5 sites you couldn't live with out?

See what top 5 websites/applications people use. from #Hashtags

rammesses: google, wikipedia, msdn, news.bbc.co.uk, dilbert.com #fivesites
javadog: #fivesites Google, gmail, Amazon, twitter, maps.google.com
thoemmi: #fivesites I couldn't live without: Google Apps for
stevehammer: #fivesites gmail, drudge, egotastic, bbc, youtube
robboek: The #fivesites I couldn't live without are: Google (search), Google Apps (email, calendar), Google Reader, Facebook, and Craigslist.
mkayuri: #fivesites google, msdn, everything else is in google reader. about 9 hours ago

Hashtags are a community-driven convention for adding additional context and metadata to your tweets. They're like tags on Flickr, only added inline to your post. You create a hashtag simply by prefixing a word with a hash symbol: #hashtag.

Lots of people seem to be searching and consuming lots of info

from tag webapps

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The Complete list of 100 useful applications

2009-01-28T16:53:00.001-06:00

Below is a list of the most useful applications (web,mobile,desktop) that people have talked about online. What applications do you use often? post your answer in the comments section at the end of this article.

The Complete list of 100 useful applications

Backpack: projects management on steroids
Central Desktop: Collaborate, communicate and share files
iOrganize: notes, ideas and bookmarks
Viapoint: store emails and files by client or project.
Stikkit: online smart yellow postit notes
Webnote: web browser based note-taking
Netvibes: web portal.
Remember The Milk: smart todo list
CalendarHub: web-based calendar
Google Calendar: web-based calendar .
Planzo: web-based calendar
Spongecell: web-based calendar
Neptune: web-based calendar with a to do list tool
Ta-da List: ta-da lists with project management.
Wesabe: keep tabs on your money
InstaCalc: web based calculator
XE: I currency converter
Dimewise: manage your business transactions
FreshBooks: “painless billing”
openonmy: offers storage for files up to 1GB.
Xdrive: Xdrive offers 5GB of online storage.
YouSendIt: use for sending files up to 2GB
Flickr: upload your photos to Flickr.
Box: online file-sharing location
MediaTemple: stores files safely
DivShare: email files or store them in a folder
Harvest: web-based time tracking software
Side Job Track: track and manage project information.
Basecamp: project communication.
ConceptShare: online design collaboration
ProjectStat.us: Track status of a project.
Writeboard: share and collaborate work spaces
Lulu: self publishinh
MailBuild: templates for email campaigns.
MyFonts: for fonts.
IconBuffet: trade stock icons for your web designs
stock.xchng: more photos many of them royalty-free.
Google Docs & Spreadsheets: MS Office alternative.
MorgueFile: high resolution photos
SpamSieve: Fighting spam.
Escrow: manage payment fraud.
Cloudmark Desktop: anti-spam, anti-phishing , anti-viruses,
PayPal: pavements.
Moneybookers: secure worldwide payment and acceptance.
Spamato: secure your email.
Spybot Search & Destroy: scanning for spyware
AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition: Anti-Virus
Campfire: web-based online meetings
Meebo: instant messaging tool.
FaxZERO: send a fax anywhere in the US or Canada for free.
eBuddy: online messengers for your mobile device.
K7: receive fax and voicemail messages.
GoToMeeting: online meetings.
LogMeIn: access to your computer’s desktop anywhere.
LinkedIn: online networking
askCHARITY: database of key media contacts
Craigslist: free and instant classifieds
Coroflot: create and online portfolio and find design jobs.
ProfessionalOnTheWeb: directory of portfolios.
Elance: freelance projects.
37signals Gig Board: freelance jobs
WebProJobs: freelance jobs .
Job Pile: freelance jobs
YouTube: for viral video
CafePress: on-demand printing
Spot Runner: TV advertising campaigns.
MyNewCompany: Get legal and tax protection.
Help Me Work: taxes, client billing, paychecks, benefits
Designers Toolbox: legal forms your design business
Creative Commons:protecting your work
AIGA: standard business forms
Nolo: legal advice for contractors and consultants.
Creative Public: forms, contracts, pricing guides
Breeze: Send out email campaigns
Wufoo: make forms, surveys and invitations
Relenta CRM: Keep track of customer relationships
Highrise:online contact management system.
ScratchnScribble:handwritten or printed greeting cards
Big Cartel: Set up an online store to sell your products using
WordPress: Blog about your business or work.
Inblogit: Blog about your business or work.
Icebrrg: Create web forms.
XHTMLized: build a web page
XHTMLiT: converting design into HTML.
Userplane: interactive website
Ning: create your own Ning social network.
ExpressionEngine: build website with lots of features.
FlashDen: Build great-looking websites
Google AdWords: advertise your business
Prosper: people-to-people lending website
Text Link Ads:Text Link Ads
PayPerPost: have a blogger write about your product
Guruza: Find answers to your business questions
Pandora: fully customizable internet radio.
Jewelboxing: customized, professional-grade DVD and CD
Qoop: Qoop prints everything
Moo: prints note cards and mini cards from your photos
Zoho : A complete office business suite
FriendFeed - for real-time communications and feedback
Twitter – for real-time communications and feedback

Most Popular web apps:Google Apps

2009-01-28T13:19:00.001-06:00

Because you are already using Google to search and do mail, you must look at Google Apps. In addition cogniview has the most comprehensive list of popular applications in an article titled The Freelancer’s Toolset: 100 Web Apps for Everything You Will Possibly Need, its a must read for lists of useful apps.

Software-as-a-service for business email, information sharing and security

Whether your business is moving everything to the cloud, just wants an affordable email solution or struggles to give employees access to critical information, Google Apps will help you stretch resources and work smarter.

Messaging
Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Talk are powerful tools that can save your company money and time.
New! Voice and video chat now available in Gmail. See a demo.

Collaboration
Google Docs, Google Video and Google Sites complement traditional office software to make teamwork easier. Companies or departments can use these apps on their own to be more productive.

Security for on-premise email
Email security, archiving and encryption, powered by Postini, complement Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Notes and other solutions. Web security is also available.

See details and sign up , See Google Apps videos

A shared public list of Popular web apps. Please add your most Popular web apps to this list. the link to the list: http://app.blist.com/shared_bl... , If you do not yet have an account with blist, Get a free account in minutes at http://app.blist.com/signup?in...

What web apps do you use? Barack Obama uses blist

Top Web Sites: Most Popular web apps

from tag webapps

100 Most Useful applications

2009-01-28T11:03:00.001-06:00

Planning and Organization

For managing your projects:

Backpack: projects management on steroids
Central Desktop: Collaborate, communicate and share files
iOrganize: notes, ideas and bookmarks
Viapoint: store emails and files by client or project.
Stikkit: online smart yellow postit notes
Webnote: web browser based note-taking
Netvibes: web portal.

Calendars & To-Do Lists

For calendars and to-do lists:

Remember The Milk: smart todo list
CalendarHub: web-based calendar
Google Calendar: web-based calendar .
Planzo: web-based calendar
Spongecell: web-based calendar
Neptune: web-based calendar with a to do list tool
Ta-da List: ta-da lists with project management.

Money and Finances

Some applications for managing money and finances:

Wesabe: keep tabs on your money
InstaCalc: web based calculator
XE: I currency converter
Dimewise: manage your business transactions
FreshBooks: “painless billing”

Storage

For data storage :

openonmy: offers storage for files up to 1GB.
Xdrive: Xdrive offers 5GB of online storage.
YouSendIt: use for sending files up to 2GB
Flickr: upload your photos to Flickr.
Box: online file-sharing location
MediaTemple: stores files safely
DivShare: email files or store them in a folder

Project Management & Productivity

Keep track of projects and tasks:

Harvest: web-based time tracking software
Side Job Track: track and manage project information.
Basecamp: project communication.
ConceptShare: online design collaboration
ProjectStat.us: Track status of a project.

Documents,Editing & Design Tools

Some free and inexpensive editing and design tools :

Writeboard: share and collaborate work spaces
Lulu: self publishinh
MailBuild: templates for email campaigns.
MyFonts: for fonts.
IconBuffet: trade stock icons for your web designs
stock.xchng: more photos many of them royalty-free.
Google Docs & Spreadsheets: MS Office alternative.
MorgueFile: high resolution photos

Security & Privacy

This applications help you stay safe and secure.

SpamSieve: Fighting spam.
Escrow: manage payment fraud.
Cloudmark Desktop: anti-spam, anti-phishing , anti-viruses,
PayPal: pavements.
Moneybookers: secure worldwide payment and acceptance.
Spamato: secure your email.
Spybot Search & Destroy: scanning for spyware
AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition: Anti-Virus

Mobility & Contact

Use these tools for your mobile working.

Campfire: web-based online meetings
Meebo: instant messaging tool.
FaxZERO: send a fax anywhere in the US or Canada for free.
eBuddy: online messengers for your mobile device.
K7: receive fax and voicemail messages.
GoToMeeting: online meetings.
LogMeIn: access to your computer’s desktop anywhere.

Marketing & Networking

For marketing and promoting yourself:

LinkedIn: online networking
askCHARITY: database of key media contacts
Craigslist: free and instant classifieds
Coroflot: create and online portfolio and find design jobs.
ProfessionalOnTheWeb: directory of portfolios.
Elance: freelance projects.
37signals Gig Board: freelance jobs
WebProJobs: freelance jobs .
Job Pile: freelance jobs
YouTube: for viral video
CafePress: on-demand printing
Spot Runner: TV advertising campaigns.

Business & Legal

For Templates, Forms and agreements.

MyNewCompany: Get legal and tax protection.
Help Me Work: taxes, client billing, paychecks, benefits
Designers Toolbox: legal forms your design business
Creative Commons:protecting your work
AIGA: standard business forms
Nolo: legal advice for contractors and consultants.
Creative Public: forms, contracts, pricing guides

Managing your Contacts & Feedback

Use these tools to keep in touch with your contacts

Breeze: Send out email campaigns
Wufoo: make forms, surveys and invitations
Relenta CRM: Keep track of customer relationships
Highrise:online contact management system.
ScratchnScribble:handwritten or printed greeting cards

Some Website and Blogging Tools

Build a great online presence.

Big Cartel: Set up an online store to sell your products using
WordPress: Blog about your business or work.
Inblogit: Blog about your business or work.
Icebrrg: Create web forms.
XHTMLized: build a web page
XHTMLiT: converting design into HTML.
Userplane: interactive website
Ning: create your own Ning social network.
ExpressionEngine: build website with lots of features.
FlashDen: Build great-looking websites
Google AdWords: advertise your business
Prosper: people-to-people lending website
Text Link Ads:Text Link Ads
PayPerPost: have a blogger write about your product
Guruza: Find answers to your business questions
Pandora: fully customizable internet radio.
Jewelboxing: customized, professional-grade DVD and CD
Qoop: Qoop prints everything
Moo: prints note cards and mini cards from your photos
Zoho : A complete office business suite
FriendFeed - for real-time communications and feedback
Twitter – for real-time communications and feedback

What web apps do you use? Barack Obama uses blist

2009-01-28T10:01:00.001-06:00

Image via CrunchBase

Actually the question that was asked is What cloud computing and web2.0 apps/software for business do you use? It seems as businesses shrink and most unnecessary tasks are outsourced to software and services, Consumer targeted web apps will get more popular in the workplace.

Folks are already using im, skype,facebook and twitter at work. Everybody i know uses gmail and yahoo mail daily. For smaller businesses its also really exciting to imagine a world without IT staff…

Below is a list of commonly talked about webs apps that folks are using. What web apps do you use at home and at work? Barack Obama uses blist…. Leave your comments below

Popular Web apps for Business

Basecamp (project management)
Gmail (email)
Remember The Milk (to-do lists)
Crazy Egg (web site statistics)
Fresh Books (invoicing and time tracking)
Wrike
Skype
Flickr
Freshbooks
Twitter
FriendFeed
Linkedin
Gmail – Email
Blinksale - Invoicing (http://www.blinksale.com )
1time - Time Tracking (http://1timetracking.com )
Highrise – CRM
Delicious – Bookmarking
PassPack - Password managment (http://www.passpack.com )
Beanstalk - Version Control (http://beanstalkapp.com/)
Google Analytics - Website statistics
Vello,
Nuconomy
Blist
SlideRocket,
Google Browser Sync – Bookmarking
Last.fm - Music Stumbler
Collabox.com - Invoicing, time tracking, todo lists

On January 5th I quickly wrote a short post about how then President-Elect Barack Obama uses blist. That post was published just a few minutes after the CHANGE.GOV site first went live with a blist widget. In that post I described why publishing data in a blist widget greatly improves upon a basic HTML table. A few days ago I wrote a post, first published on TechCrunch then later on The Washington Post, about how the Obama Administration uses “web 2.0″ software from innovative companies including Google, Facebook, Salesforce.com, twitter and blist to promote The White House’s top three priorities - communication, transparency and participation. The politically astute team at ReadWriteWeb has also been a leader in reporting this transformation taking place in politics, fueled by the Obama team’s adoption of web technology - read: President Elect Obama’s FireWire Chats: Transparency Redefined? and Obama’s Social Media Advantage.

While the previous post was meant to provide a quick sketch of the creative ways that President Obama’s team is using technology to meet all three priorities, I want to go back and dive more deeply into the topic of transparency, an area where blist can continue to add more value to government and the Obama administration.

from blist blog

The tweet that inspired this post.

Brewton @dexin @iggykin @klakhani @amcafee @scobleizer advice on cloud computing and web2.0 apps/software for business use? 29 minutes ago

Send tasks to people and follow up

2009-01-27T14:25:00.001-06:00

pleasenotify.me is a simple, free service to let you send tasks to people, and be notified when they're done.

It works like this: You can use a form to email someone a task. If they don't mark it complete by the time you specify, both of you will be notified. You'll both be reminded daily until it's finally completed.

The only fields required to send a task are :

Assignee's email
Description of task
Your email

from Paste Interactive.

It's the simplest project management imaginable.

Pleasenotify.me is a service that allows people to swap tasks easily via email. Your email address is never used for anything other than the delivery of this task as requested by email address.

To create your own tasks, or learn more about the service, please visit http://pleasenotify.me

It’s an application from Paste Interactive.

Online Notebooks and Alternatives To Google Notebook

2009-01-26T10:48:00.001-06:00

Nice article by Sean P. Aune about the available Alternatives To Google Notebook
17 Noteworthy Alternatives To Google Notebook

January 25, 2009 - 5:23 pm PDT - by Sean P. Aune 19 Comments

Google’s decision to discontinue development of Google Notebook had some users petitioning to save it, while rival service Evernote is already offering Google Notebook imports. So for those left in the cold, and those not yet sold on Evernote, what are your options for alternatives?

Whether it be notes for business meetings, in a classroom or trying to remember that last minute item before you go out for the evening, there are all sorts of note taking solutions out there to help you get things done. Here’s our roundup of 20 of the best.

Where will you be taking your notes now? Let us know in the comments.

Notetaking for Business

Jjot - An easy interface for taking notes during a meeting with a “post-it note”-inspired interface. Choose to share your notes with a group so you can work together on a project.

Microsoft OneNote - While OneNote is a paid service, there is something comforting about staying in the Microsoft Office family of tools if that’s what you know best. This solution allows you to work online or offline.

Springnote - Springnote allows you to set up personal notebooks for those items only you need to see, or group notebooks for anytime you want to work on a project with others. Also offers an iPhone application for easy interaction with your account while on the go.

Classroom Notetaking

Grade Genie - Share your class notes and easily edit them so that everyone has the same study guide. Includes contests to win prizes for using the service.

NoteCentric - Keep all of your class notes in one centralized location, and then share them with classmates by inviting them to view the notes. You can even distribute them via an RSS feed if you so choose.

Notely - Notely focuses on students and provides a very similar interface to Microsoft Word. It allows for formatting, highlighting passages, adding images and more. You can also keep track of your schedule to make sure you are never late again.

NoteMesh - A Wiki-based collaborative note system for people in the same class. Anyone from the class may delete, add or edit the notes for everyone to share. If you don’t agree with a deletion that was made, no problem: it’s all stored in the page’s history.

General Purpose Notetaking

Helipad - Helipad focuses on making sure you can write and organize your notes anytime you want with access from your mobile phone, Nintendo Wii, Playstation 3 and even PSP. Features include tags, search on every page and PDF export.

iKnolio.com - Sort your notes by using tags, create private and public entries, collaborate with others, set up an RSS feed and more.

Luminotes.com - A Wiki-based note system that allows you to create notes about any subject you want, interlink them to similar concepts and even download your notes as a web page or spreadsheet.

Mojonote - This solution allows you to store a wide variety of notes from tasks to recipes. You also have the ability to collaborate with others, set email or SMS reminders of pending tasks, import lists you already have on your computer and more.

Notebook G - Straight-forward, no nonsense note taking is the name of the game at Notebook G. A notable feature: you can jump through your notes using the handy tag cloud on the main page of your account.

Posti.ca - Posti.ca allows you to create notes to attach to emails, save files with your notes, send notes using Twitter and place notes on your iGoogle page.

SnapBits - Allows you to store all sorts of “bits” of information from notes to code snippets. You can also add new items via email.

Stixy - An easy way for friends, family and coworkers to share notes, share files such as PDFs and Word documents, embed photos and more in a wholly collaborative environment.

UberNote - UberNote allows you to take notes from just about anywhere with access from their web interface, iPhones, AIM and email. You can also choose to share your notes, and permit others to edit them.

Zoho Notebook - Are you already using the Zoho Office suite? If so, Zoho Notebook is a good choice. The service allows you to add HTML tags, URLs, images, audio and a whole slew of other goodies.

from tag google

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Most used web apps

2009-01-15T09:33:00.001-06:00

Image via CrunchBase

Most used apps

1. Facebook-
2. Gmail-
3. YouTube-
4. Google Search+1
5. Google Reader-1
6. Twitter-
7. Wikipedia-
8. FriendFeed-
9. Flickr-
10. Wakoopa-
11. MySpace-
12. Microsoft Live Search-
13. LiveJournal+1
14. Yahoo! Mail+1
15. VKontakte-2
16. Last.fm-
17. WordPress-
18. Google Image Search-
19. Plurk-
20. iGoogle-
21. Google Docs+1
22. Digg+1
23. deviantART-2
24. Tumblr+1
25. Blogger-1

from tag web2.0

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from tag cool

(more..)

Online Office Suites

2009-01-15T02:30:00.001-06:00

Image via CrunchBase

Since Google Notebooks is about to disappear, i will probably switch to Zoho.

Developed by
AdventNet Inc.

Website
http://www.zoho.com

The Zoho Office Suite is an online office suite produced by a division of AdventNet Inc. It includes tools for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, databases, note-taking, wikis, CRM, project management, invoicing and other applications. Like the better-known Google Docs, Zoho applications are web-based and therefore operating system independent. ^[1] ^[2] ^[3] The Zoho Office Suite was first created in September 2005 with a just a word processor, with a number of additional products subsequently added to the suite.^[4]

The applications can be used either to create content or to manipulate files created with other suites, including Microsoft Office, OpenOffice.org, and other systems. The programs in the suite can be used individually but offer integration benefits when used together. The data (document) files can be saved on the company's servers as well as those of several integration partners like box.net or Omnidrive, which allows synchronization back to the local PC.

Although some applications, e.g. Zoho CRM and Zoho Projects, have additional features available for a fee, the company has stated a commitment to maintaining a free tier of entry-level applications. A single registration grants access to all the products.

There is an open Application Programming Interface (API) for six of its products: Zoho Writer, Zoho Sheet, Zoho Show, Zoho Creator, Zoho Meeting and Zoho Planner, and third parties have created programs using these services. The company itself has a plugin to integrate the product into Microsoft Word and Excel, as well as a browser plugin that can open text documents or spreadsheets without the applications installed. It has also created a desktop widget that allows users to run these products on their desktops in a similar way to traditional office programs. It has an OpenOffice plugin for access to documents stored at Zoho Writer, Zoho Sheet, and Zoho Show services, and a mobile version of Zoho Writer, Sheet, and Show for the iPhone. ^[5] The applications were made available on Facebook after that social networking website opened its API.^[6]

Components

Zoho Writer is a full-featured word processor which supports real-time collaboration between multiple users. It can import documents originated in a multitude of formats, like Microsoft Word (DOC), Office Open XML (DOCX), OpenDocument text (ODT), OpenOffice text (SXW), HTML, RTF, JPG, GIF & PNG files, embed photos from sites like Flickr or Zooomr, videos from Youtube, Vimeo..etc, and publish directly to major blogging platforms. Writer is also the editing engine used in several other components. Zoho Writer was one of the earliest online word processors to support both online and offline editing, using the browser plugin Google Gears.^[7]. The program originally relied on polling every 8 seconds, but the latest version uses real time notification from Zoho Chat.
Zoho Sheet is the spreadsheet application in the suite. With the exception of running macros (a task no online spreadsheets handle) it supports most standard spreadsheet functions, and adds a few innovative twists, including auto-processing external data feeds (RSS/ATOM), and the ability to publish charts into blogs or other websites. Like Writer, it facilitates real-time collaboration, and it integrates well with other app's like Notebook or Creator. It has a plugin to integrate with Microsoft Excel and is available both as a desktop widget and as part of online services such as box.net and Facebook.
Zoho DB and Reports [1] is the online database and reporting application in the suite. It can also "create charts, pivots, summary and other wide-range of reports through [a] powerful drag & drop interface".^[8]
Zoho Show is an online presentation program allows users to create presentations from scratch or (as is often the case) import from their library of Microsoft PowerPoint (.ppt, .pps) or OpenOffice (.odp, .sxi) presentations. The resulting online presentation can be shared, played as slideshow, collaborated upon, and be embedded in blogs or websites. The availability of this component sets this suite apart from those of its competitors without a similar slideshow function.
Zoho Projects supports creating tasks, assigning ownership setting deadlines and tracking milestones; working with calendars, Gantt charts, reports, share supporting files—standard features in a project management package. Regardless of the merits of online/offline for individual office applications, project management by definition is team-work and as such a natural fit for the Web. The free version of the software accommodates only a single project; the paid versions have greater capacities.
Zoho CRM offers customer relationship management functionality,and procurement, inventory, and some accounting functions from the realm of ERP. The free version is limited to 3 users.
Zoho Creator is an online database / custom application development tool which allows users to create fairly sophisticated process logic by dragging & dropping script elements on screen, without knowing code. Data can be imported from .xls, .csv, and .tsv files and create a variety of forms either from scratch or by using one of several common templates.
Zoho Wiki is a basic WYSIWYG wiki that allows users to create their own website. It supports group pages as well as sub-pages, with features like tags, tables of contents, and custom themes, custom CSS and appearance. The program can link to and work with documents the user has created with other components, such as slideshows from Show.
Zoho Planner is an online planner with a calendar, to-do lists, pages, and e-mail reminders. Like the other products, these features may be shared with different collaborators or groups. This component competes with Microsoft Outlook, and more directly, Google Calendar.
Zoho Notebook is an application that enables the creation of content from many different types of media. It is somewhat similar to Microsoft OneNote or Google Notebook, but includes greater support for multimedia content. Users may include text, images, video, and audio in a "notebook," and then share the notebook or individual pages. The component allows integration of documents, full-fledged applications, and content via RSS.^[9] The content from the notebook may be uploaded or gathered from the web by using the a plugin for Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer.
Zoho Chat is a chat application that can be embedded into pages or blogs. It also supports traditional private instant messaging.
Zoho Mail, formerly called Zoho Office Suite, is web-based collaboration groupware. The service was renamed Zoho Mail because of the misperception that it was an integration of the other Zoho services.^[10] Still in public beta, it provides services such as email, calendar, document management, task management, and contact management. Zoho Mail also integrates the Writer, Sheet, and Show components.
Zoho Meeting is a web conference application that allows participants to see the web conference. The current version requires the creator of the conference to be using Microsoft Windows, but participants can use any operating system. Zoho Meeting allows participants to see the screen of the presenter by using either ActiveX, Flash, or Java. The Show and Chat components are integrated into the meeting, and participants can choose to control the desktop of the presenter. The Meeting Viewer can be embedded in a separate webpage or a slide from Show. Zoho Meeting is currently free in public beta and offers live support.

Utilities

Zoho also offers some services that are not part of the Office Suite. Zoho Challenge is an online test and evaluation application for employers and potential employees, It is free for up to 25 candidates. Zoho Polls is a free surveying or rating tool that can be embedded in any page or blog. "Site24x7" is a website monitoring service that is free on a limited basis.^{[citation needed]}

Footnotes

^ "In sync with Zoho", The Globe and Mail (December 4, 2006). Retrieved on 23 November 2008.
^ Hoover, J. Nicholas (July 3, 2007). "Zoho's Facebook Integration Brings Office Apps To Social Networking ... Sort Of", InfomationWeek. Retrieved on 23 November 2008.
^ Krasnoff, Barbara (February 5, 2007 i). "Zoho Notebook Takes Aim At Microsoft OneNote", InformationWeek. Retrieved on 23 November 2008.
^ CrunchBase. "Zoho Company Profile". Retrieved on 2008-12-05.
^ "Zoho Blog" (2007). Retrieved on 2007-06-29.
^ "Zoho joins Facebook, Between the Lines, ZDet Blog" (2007). Retrieved on 2007-07-02.
^ Lifehacker (2007). "Zoho Writer Adds Full Offline Access with Gears". Retrieved on 2007-11-26.
^ "Zoho DB and Reports (home page)". Retrieved on 2008-05-28.
^ "Zoho Announces Notebook, Read/Write Web, Richard MacManus" (2007). Retrieved on 2007-07-02.
^ "Zoho Mail, Zoho Blogs" (2007). Retrieved on 2007-07-02.

Music Services

2009-01-14T10:26:00.001-06:00

Image via CrunchBase

I wonder what music services are popular. I recently read about Spotify and have been meaning to use the service. Anyone know anything about it?

How To Try Spotify Immediately, No Matter Where You Live

by Michael Arrington on January 3, 2009

New European streaming music service Spotify, which TechCrunch UK has been tracking since October, is getting increasingly good reviews. Spotify is a downloadable client for Windows and Mac users that lets you search, browse and stream a deep collection of music. Sadly, it is only available in the UK, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Spain and France and you need an invitation to join (InviteShare is actively trading them).

The user experience is beyond even the best web based streaming services like LaLa, MySpace Music and Imeem. It acts like a fully stocked iTunes, with everything hyperlinked to easily find related music. Creating playlists is a snap. There is no way to move music outside of the application, or onto music devices. But it is the best way to legally find and stream music for free that I’ve seen

I have no invitation and I live in the U.S., but I’ve been using Spotify all afternoon. There have previously been posts on getting into the service from a banned location once you have an invitation using a proxy server. Today on Digg, though, a commenter left instructions on how to use Spotify without an invitation. I tried it, and it works (for now).

Invite yourself from anywhere:
1) go to http://www.daveproxy.co.uk/
2) enter the following URL: https://www.spotify.com/en/get-started/
3) Create your account, for UK postcode - check http://www.postcodesearch.org.uk/

It’s likely that the proxy server will be banned shortly, but there are countless others in the non-banned countries. The important thing is to visit this URL from that proxy server. And I recommend you do it now, before the hole is plugged.

get widget minimize

CrunchBase Information

Spotify

Website:
spotify.com

Location:
Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Founded:
April, 2006

Spotify have created a lightweight software application that users will simply download and then log onto their service enabling on demand streaming of music.

Spotify have put together a large collection of music, carefully ordered and tagged with… Learn More

Information provided by CrunchBase

from tag music

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My Top Web application

2009-01-13T19:34:00.001-06:00

Image via CrunchBase

Without a doubt my most often used web application is Google’s gmail.

Gmail is a free POP3 and IMAP webmail service provided by Google.^[1]^[2] In the United Kingdom and Germany it is officially called Google Mail.

Gmail launched on 1 April 2004 as an invitation-only beta release and became available to the general public on 7 February 2007. Although tens of millions of users ^[3]^[4]^[5] have taken advantage of stable releases for many months, to this day^[update] the service remains in beta status.

With an initial storage capacity offer of 1 GB per user, Gmail increased the webmail standard for free storage from the 2 to 4MB its competitors offered at that time. The service currently offers over 7250 MB of free storage with additional storage ranging from 10 GB to 400 GB available for $20 to $500 (US) per year.^[6]^[7]^[8]

Gmail has a search-oriented interface and a "conversation view" similar to an Internet forum. Software developers know Gmail for its use of the Ajax programming technique.^[9]

Gmail runs on the Google GFE/1.3 server which runs on Linux

Features

Storage

Gmail login page

The Gmail service currently provides more than 7200 MB of free storage^[6]. Additional storage is available from 10 GB (US$20/year) to 400 GB (US$500/year), shared between Picasa Web Albums and Gmail.^[12] The increase from 1 GB was announced on 1 April 2005, the first anniversary of Gmail. The announcement was accompanied by a statement that Google would "keep giving people more space forever."^[13]

Google presently^[when?] says it will keep increasing storage by the second as long as it has enough space on its servers. On 12 October 2007, Google ramped up the storage counter to 5.37 MB per hour.^[14]

Approximately a week later, the counter went back down to 1.12 MB per hour. On 4 January 2008, the counter went down to about 3.35 MB per day, or 0.14 MB per hour. From October 2008, the counter went down to about 353.9 KB per day.

Gmail Labs

The Gmail Labs feature, introduced on 5 June 2008, allows users to test new or experimental features of Gmail, such as bookmarking of important e-mail messages, custom keyboard-shortcuts and games.

Users can enable or disable Labs features selectively and provide feedback about each of them. This allows Gmail engineers to obtain user input about new features to improve them and also to decide which ones are popular and worth developing into regular Gmail features. All Labs features are experimental and are subject to termination at any time. Labs features can only be used in the English language interface of Gmail.

On 10 December 2008, Gmail added support for SMS Messaging through its integrated Chat.^[15]^[16]^[17]

Spam filter

Gmail's spam filters include a community-driven system, where emails marked as spam by one user provide information to help the system block similar future messages for all Gmail users. ^[18]

Interface

Main article: Gmail interface

The Gmail interface is unique amongst webmail systems for several reasons. Most evident to users are its search-oriented features and means of managing e-mail in a "conversation view" that is similar to an Internet forum.

History

Main article: History of Gmail

Gmail was a project started by Google developer Paul Buchheit several years before it was announced to the public. Initially the software was available only internally as an e-mail client for Google employees. Google finally announced Gmail to the public on 1 April 2004.^[19]

Domain name

Before its acquisition by Google, the gmail.com domain name was used by a free e-mail service offered by Garfield.com, online home of the comic strip Garfield. After moving to a different domain, that service has since been discontinued.^[20]

As of 22 June 2005, Gmail's canonical URI changed from http://gmail.google.com/gmail/ to http://mail.google.com/mail/.^[21]

The domain gmail.com is unavailable in certain countries, in which cases users are able to use the domain googlemail.com. The Gmail service does not discriminate between these two domains for incoming e-mails, therefore a user with the address "john.doe@googlemail.com" will receive mail sent to "john.doe@gmail.com", and vice-versa. Accordingly, users obliged to use the googlemail.com domain are unable to select addresses already chosen by gmail.com users.

Gmail hoaxes

Gmail Paper hoax

On April Fools' Day 2007, Google made fun of Gmail by introducing "Gmail Paper", where a user could click a button and Gmail would purportedly mail an ad-supported hard copy for free.^[22]

[edit] Gmail Custom Time hoax

On April Fools' Day 2008, Google introduced a fake service named Gmail Custom Time, which would allow a user to send up to ten e-mails per year with forged timestamps. The hoax stated that by bending spacetime on the Google servers, the e-mails are actually routed through the 4th dimension of time itself prior to reaching their intended recipient.^[23]^[24]^[25]

Code changes

Gmail's JavaScript front-end was rewritten in late summer and early fall of 2007 and was released to users starting on 29 October 2007. The new version had a redesigned contacts section, quick contacts box and chat popups, which were added to names in the message list as well as the contact list. The contacts application is integrated into other Google services, such as Google Docs. Users granted access to the new version were given a link at the top-right corner which read "Newer Version". As of December 2007, most new registrations in English (US) along with most pre-existing accounts are given the new interface by default when supported. There remains the option to downgrade via a link labelled "Older Version".^[26]^[27]^[28]^[29]

These coding changes mean that only users of Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 2, Google Chrome and Safari 3.0 (or more recent versions) can fully use the new code. Internet Explorer 5.5+, Netscape 7.1+, Mozilla 1.4+, Firefox 0.8, Safari 1.3 and some other browsers will give limited functionality. Other browsers may be redirected to the basic-HTML-only version of Gmail.^[28]^[30]^[31]^[32]^[33]

In the week of 18 January 2008, Google released an update that changed the way Gmail loads JavaScript. This caused the failure of some third-party extensions.^[34]

On December 12, 2008, Gmail added support for faster PDF viewing within the browser.^[35]

Criticisms

Privacy

Google automatically scans e-mails to add context-sensitive advertisements to them. Privacy advocates raised concerns that the plan involved scanning their personal, assumed private, e-mails, and that this was a security problem. Allowing e-mail content to be read, even by a computer, raises the risk that the expectation of privacy in e-mail will be reduced. Furthermore, e-mail that non-subscribers choose to send to Gmail accounts is scanned by Gmail as well and these senders did not agree to Gmail's terms of service or privacy policy. Google can change its privacy policy unilaterally and Google is technically able to cross-reference cookies across its information-rich product line to make dossiers on individuals. However, most e-mail systems make use of server-side content scanning in order to check for spam.^[36]^[37]

Privacy advocates also regard the lack of disclosed data retention and correlation policies as problematic. It is possible for Google to combine information contained in a person's e-mails with information about their Internet searches. It is not known how long such information would be kept and how it could be used. One of the concerns is that it could be of interest to law enforcement agencies. More than 30 privacy and civil liberties organizations have urged Google to suspend Gmail service until these issues are resolved.^[38]

Some commentators^[39] have criticised Gmail's privacy policy, which contains the clause: "Residual copies of deleted messages and accounts may take up to 60 days to be deleted from our active servers and may remain in our offline backup systems." Google continues to reply to this criticism by pointing out that Gmail is using mostly industry-wide practices. Google later stated that they will "make reasonable efforts to remove deleted information from our systems as quickly as is practical."^[40]^[41]

As part of Gmail's privacy policies, Google states that Gmail will refrain from displaying ads next to potentially sensitive messages. ^[42] Content that suppresses ads includes news about a tragedy, an e-mail about catastrophic events and death announcements.^{[citation needed]} Critics^[who?] argue that the fact remains that these e-mails are being scanned in order for Gmail's systems to identify the fact that the e-mail is of this type.

Technical issues

Gmail does not allow users to send or receive executable files or archives containing executable files if it recognises the file extension as one used for executable files or archives.

Tech-savvy users who are not prone to casual errors report loss of random messages in random amounts.^[43]^[44]

By design, Gmail does not deliver all of a user's e-mails. When downloading mail through POP or IMAP access, Gmail fails to deliver messages that users have sent to themselves.^[45] It also does not deliver to a user's inbox (via any access interface) those messages that users have sent to mailing lists and which they might expect to receive back via the mailing list.^[46]

Gmail filters cannot use custom header names. This limitation was significant before Gmail added support for identifying incoming messages sent to a mailing list: some mailing list manager programs, such as the Mailman used by SourceForge, add a custom header to the messages they distribute, but do not change the "Subject". Gmail filters can check for a string in the "Subject", but not in a custom header.^{[citation needed]}

"On behalf of"

With the current Gmail implementation, any email sent from the Gmail interface will include the Gmail.com address as the "sender", even if the sending account is a custom email account. For example, an email sent from an external account via the Gmail interface will display to the user as From user@gmail.com on behalf of user@OtherDomainEmailAddress.com. By exposing the gmail account name, Google claims that this will "help prevent mail from being marked as spam".^[47] A number of Gmail users have complained that this implementation is both a privacy concern and a professionalism problem.^[48]^[49]^[50]

Awards

Gmail was ranked second in PC World's "100 Best Products of 2005," behind Mozilla Firefox. Gmail also won 'Honorable Mention' in the Bottom Line Design Awards 2005.^[51]^[52]

Gmail has drawn many favorable reviews from users for generous space quotas and unique organization.^[53]

fascinating quote

2009-01-13T19:19:00.001-06:00

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

I found this fascinating quote today:

Site info for yahoo.com2. GoogleEnables users to search the Web, Usenet, and images. Features include PageRank, caching and translation of results, and an option to find similar pages. The company's focus is developing search technology. www.google.comIggy, Top Web Sites, Jan 2009

from tag news

(more..)

Most useful site

2009-01-13T19:03:00.001-06:00

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Without a doubt the most useful site that i use is YouTube.

YouTube is a video sharing website where users can upload, view and share video clips. YouTube was created in February 2005 by three former PayPal employees.^[1] In November 2006, YouTube, LLC was bought by Google Inc. for US$1.65 billion, and is now operated as a subsidiary of Google. The company is based in San Bruno, California, and uses Adobe Flash Video technology to display a wide variety of user-generated video content, including movie clips, TV clips, and music videos, as well as amateur content such as video blogging and short original videos. Most of the content on YouTube has been uploaded by members of the public, although media organizations including CBS and the BBC offer some of their material via the site.

Unregistered users can watch the videos, while registered users are permitted to upload an unlimited number of videos. Videos that are considered to contain potentially offensive content are available only to registered users over the age of 18. The uploading of videos containing defamation, commercial advertisements, copyright violations, and material encouraging criminal conduct is prohibited by YouTube's terms of service.^[2]

Company history

Main article: History of YouTube

YouTube company headquarters in San Bruno, California

YouTube was founded by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim, who were all early employees of PayPal.^[3] Hurley studied design at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, while Chen and Karim studied computer science together at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.^[4]

According to a story that has often been repeated in the media, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen developed the idea for YouTube during the early months of 2005, after they had experienced difficulty sharing videos that had been shot at a dinner party at Chen's apartment in San Francisco. Jawed Karim did not attend the party and denied that it had occurred, and Chad Hurley commented that the idea that YouTube was founded after a dinner party "was probably very strengthened by marketing ideas around creating a story that was very digestible."^[5]

YouTube began as an angel funded technology startup, with help including a US$11.5 million investment by Sequoia Capital between November 2005 and April 2006.^[6] YouTube's early headquarters were situated above a pizzeria and Japanese restaurant in San Mateo, California.^[7] The domain name www.youtube.com was activated on February 15, 2005, and the website was developed over the subsequent months.^[8] The choice of the domain name www.youtube.com led to problems for a similarly named website, www.utube.com. The owner of the site, Universal Tube & Rollform Equipment, filed a lawsuit against YouTube in November 2006 after being overloaded on a regular basis by people looking for YouTube. Universal Tube has since changed the name of its website to www.utubeonline.com.^[9]^[10]

YouTube offered the public a beta test of the site in May 2005, six months before the official launch in November 2005. The site grew rapidly, and in July 2006 the company announced that more than 65,000 new videos were being uploaded every day, and that the site was receiving 100 million video views per day.^[11] According to data published by market research company comScore, YouTube is the dominant provider of online video in the United States, with a market share of around 44 percent and more than five billion videos viewed in July 2008.^[12] It is estimated that 13 hours of new videos are uploaded to the site every minute, and that in 2007 YouTube consumed as much bandwidth as the entire Internet in 2000.^[13]^[14] In March 2008, YouTube's bandwidth costs were estimated at approximately US$1 million a day.^[15] Alexa ranks YouTube as the third most visited website on the Internet, behind Yahoo! and Google.^[16]

In October 2006, Google Inc. announced that it had acquired YouTube for US$1.65 billion in Google stock, and the deal was finalized on November 13, 2006.^[17] Google does not provide detailed figures for YouTube's running costs, and YouTube's revenues in 2007 were noted as "not material" in a regulatory filing.^[15] In June 2008 a Forbes magazine article projected the 2008 revenue at US$200 million, noting progress in advertising sales.^[18]

In November 2008, YouTube reached an agreement with MGM, Lions Gate Entertainment and CBS which will allow the companies to post full-length films and television shows on the site, accompanied by advertisements. The move is intended to create competition with websites such as Hulu, which features material from both NBC and Fox.^[19]

Social impact

Main article: Social impact of YouTube

Jeong-Hyun Lim performs Pachelbel's Canon in one of YouTube's most viewed videos

Before the launch of YouTube in 2005, there were few simple methods available for ordinary computer users who wanted to post videos online. With its easy to use interface, YouTube made it possible for anyone who could use a computer to post a video that millions of people could watch within a few minutes. The wide range of topics covered by YouTube has turned video sharing into one of the most important parts of Internet culture.

An early example of the social impact of YouTube was the success of the Bus Uncle video in 2006. It shows an animated conversation between a youth and an older man on a bus in Hong Kong, and was discussed widely in the mainstream media.^[20] Another YouTube video to receive extensive coverage is guitar,^[21] which features a performance of Pachelbel's Canon on an electric guitar. The name of the performer is not given in the video, and after it received millions of views The New York Times revealed the identity of the guitarist as Jeong-Hyun Lim, a 23-year-old from South Korea who had recorded the track in his bedroom.^[22]

Criticism

Main article: Criticism of YouTube

Copyrighted Material

Example of a copyrighted YouTube video claimed by Red De Televisión, Chilevision SA.

YouTube has been criticized frequently for failing to ensure that its online content adheres to the law of copyright. At the time of uploading a video, YouTube users are shown a screen with the following message:

Do not upload any TV shows, music videos, music concerts or commercials without permission unless they consist entirely of content you created yourself. The Copyright Tips page and the Community Guidelines can help you determine whether your video infringes someone else's copyright.

Despite this advice, there are still many unauthorized clips from television shows, films and music videos on YouTube. YouTube does not view videos before they are posted online, and it is left to copyright holders to issue a takedown notice under the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Organizations including Viacom and the English Premier League have issued lawsuits against YouTube, claiming that it has done too little to prevent the uploading of copyrighted material.^[23]^[24] Viacom, demanding US$1 billion in damages, said that it had found more than 150,000 unauthorized clips of its material on YouTube that had been viewed "an astounding 1.5 billion times". YouTube responded by stating that it "goes far beyond its legal obligations in assisting content owners to protect their works". Since Viacom issued its lawsuit, YouTube has introduced a system called Video ID, which checks uploaded videos against a database of copyrighted content with the aim of reducing violations.^[25]^[26]

In August 2008, a U.S. court ruled that copyright holders cannot order the removal of an online file without first determining whether the posting reflected fair use of the material. The case involved Stephanie Lenz from Gallitzin, Pennsylvania, who had made a home video of her 13-month-old son dancing to Prince's song "Let's Go Crazy" and posted the 29-second video on YouTube.^[27]

Privacy

In July 2008, Viacom won a court ruling requiring YouTube to hand over data detailing the viewing habits of every user who has watched videos on the site. The move led to concerns that the viewing habits of individual users could be identified through a combination of their IP addresses and login names. The decision was criticized by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which called the court ruling "a set-back to privacy rights".^[28] U.S. District Court Judge Louis Stanton dismissed the privacy concerns as "speculative", and ordered YouTube to hand over documents totalling around 12 terabytes of data. Judge Stanton rejected Viacom's request for YouTube to hand over the source code of its search engine system, saying that there was no evidence that YouTube treated videos infringing copyright differently.^[29]^[30]

Inappropriate Material

YouTube has also faced criticism over the offensive content in some of its videos. Although YouTube's terms of service forbid the uploading of material likely to be considered inappropriate, the inability to check all videos before they go online means that occasional lapses are inevitable. Controversial areas for videos have included Holocaust denial and the Hillsborough Disaster, in which 96 football fans from Liverpool were crushed to death in 1989.^[31]^[32]

YouTube relies on its users to flag the content of videos as inappropriate, and a member of staff will view a flagged video to determine whether it violates the site's terms of service.^[2] In July 2008 the Culture and Media Committee of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom stated that it was "unimpressed" with YouTube's system for policing its videos, and argued that "Proactive review of content should be standard practice for sites hosting user generated content." YouTube responded by stating: "We have strict rules on what's allowed, and a system that enables anyone who sees inappropriate content to report it to our 24/7 review team and have it dealt with promptly. We educate our community on the rules and include a direct link from every YouTube page to make this process as easy as possible for our users. Given the volume of content uploaded on our site, we think this is by far the most effective way to make sure that the tiny minority of videos that break the rules come down quickly."^[33]

Blocking

Main article: Blocking of YouTube

Several countries have blocked access to YouTube since its inception, including China,^[34] Iran,^[35] Morocco,^[36] and Thailand.^[37] YouTube is currently blocked in Turkey after controversy over videos deemed insulting to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.^[38] Despite the block, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan admitted to journalists that he could access YouTube, since the site is still available in Turkey by using an open proxy.^[39]

On February 23, 2008, Pakistan blocked YouTube due to "offensive material" towards the Islamic faith, including display of the Danish cartoons of the prophet Muhammad.^[40] This led to a near global blackout of the YouTube site for around two hours. The block was lifted on February 26, 2008.^[41] Many Pakistanis circumvented the three day block by using Virtual Private Network software.^[42]

Schools in some countries have blocked access to YouTube due to students uploading videos of bullying behavior, school fights, racist behavior, and other inappropriate content.^[43]

Technical notes

Video format

YouTube's video playback technology for web users is based on the Adobe Flash Player. This allows the site to display videos with quality comparable to more established video playback technologies (such as Windows Media Player, QuickTime, and RealPlayer) that generally require the user to download and install a web browser plug-in in order to view video.^[44] Viewing Flash video also requires a plug-in, but market research from Adobe Systems has found that its Flash plug-in is installed on over 95% of personal computers.^[45]

Videos uploaded to YouTube are limited to ten minutes in length and a file size of 1 GB. When YouTube was launched in 2005, it was possible for any user to upload videos longer than ten minutes, but YouTube's help section now states: "You can no longer upload videos longer than ten minutes regardless of what type of account you have. Users who had previously been allowed to upload longer content still retain this ability, so you may occasionally see videos that are longer than ten minutes." The ten minute limit was introduced in March 2006, after YouTube found that the majority of videos exceeding this length were unauthorized uploads of television shows and films.^[46]^[47]

YouTube accepts videos uploaded in most formats, including .WMV, .AVI, .MOV, MPEG, .MP4, DivX, .FLV, and .OGG. It also supports 3GP, allowing videos to be uploaded directly from a mobile phone.^[48]

Video quality

Comparison of high and normal quality YouTube videos (480x360 and 320x240 pixels) played in their native size.

YouTube's videos are distributed through streaming media technology in a range of formats, with the video and audio quality dependent on the platform. YouTube's website interface offers users the choice of two quality levels, normal and high, both of which are based on the Flash Video container format. These videos are Sorenson Spark H.263 encoded, with the audio in mono MP3 format.^[49] The normal quality videos have a resolution of 320x240 pixels and have been in use since the launch of the site in 2005, while the high quality videos launched in March 2008 have a resolution of 480x360 pixels.^[50] YouTube chooses which videos are made available in the high quality format by analyzing the quality of the uploaded videos.^[51] YouTube's high quality videos are also available in H.264/MPEG-4 AVC format with stereo AAC audio. The MPEG-4 videos can be played by adding "&fmt=18" to the web address of a video.^[52]

Widescreen and HD videos

In late November 2008, YouTube changed the aspect ratio of its web video player from the traditional 4:3 to the widescreen 16:9. This is applied to all videos, so the 4:3 videos are screened in a pillarbox format.^[53]

It was also announced in November 2008 that YouTube now offers some of its videos in true HD format, with a resolution of 1280x720 pixels. Videos uploaded with 720 pixel resolution can be viewed in this format by selecting the "watch in HD" option, or by adding "&fmt=22" to the web address.^[54]^[55]

Format and quality comparison table

Comparison of YouTube media types

Standard
High (default)
High (non-default)
HD
Mobile

Container
FLV
FLV
MP4
MP4
3GP

fmt value
6
18
22

Video encoding
H.263
H.263
H.264/MPEG-4 AVC
H.264/MPEG-4 AVC
H.263/AMR

Video resolution
320x240
480x360
480x360
1280x720

Video bitrate (kbit/s)
200
900
512
2000

Audio encoding
MP3
MP3
AAC
AAC

Audio max bitrate (kbit/s)
64
96
128
232

Audio channels
1
1
2
2

Audio sampling rate (Hz)
22050
44100
44100
44100

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Content accessibility

On YouTube

YouTube accepts common video file formats and converts them to Flash Video in order to make them available for online viewing. Since June 2007, newly uploaded videos have also been encoded using the H.264 video standard to enable streaming of YouTube videos on devices that support H.264 streaming.

Outside YouTube

Each YouTube video is accompanied by a piece of HTML markup which can be used to link to the video or embed it on a page outside the YouTube website, unless the submitter of a video chooses to disable the feature. A small addition to the markup allows the video to play automatically when the webpage loads. These options are especially popular with users of social networking sites. YouTube videos can also be accessed via a gadget which is available for the iGoogle homepage.^[56]

YouTube videos are designed to be viewed while connected to the Internet, and no official feature allows for them to be downloaded and viewed offline.^[57] However, a number of third-party web sites^[58], applications, including Free Download Manager and browser extensions, such as Firefox extensions, exist for this purpose.^[59] Alternatively, when using Internet Explorer, .flv files can be copied from the 'Temporary Internet Files' folder in Windows, or the /tmp directory in GNU systems, to a permanent folder. The .flv files can then be viewed and edited directly or converted to other formats using various applications.

On mobile

YouTube launched its mobile site, YouTube Mobile on June 15, 2007. It is based on xHTML and uses 3GP videos with H.263/AMR codec and RTSP streaming. It is available via a web interface at m.youtube.com or via YouTube's Mobile Java Application.

On TV

The YouTube TV Channel is on Information TV 2, and it started January 7, 2008. The channel is airing video sharing content from the YouTube website.

On Apple TV, iPhone, and iPod Touch

Apple Inc. announced on June 20, 2007 that YouTube is accessible on the Apple TV after installation of a free software update. Functionality includes browsing by category, searching videos, and the ability for members to log onto their YouTube accounts directly on Apple TV. Access to thousands of the most current and popular YouTube videos are available, and there were plans to add thousands more videos each week. The entire catalog was targeted to be available in fall 2007. According to Apple VP David Moody, the reason for the delay was the need for all current YouTube content to be transcoded to Apple's preferred video standard, H.264.

Apple announced Wednesday, June 20, 2007 that YouTube would be available on the iPhone OS at launch. Streaming is over Wi-Fi or EDGE.

Videos on YouTube for the iPhone are encoded in Apple's preferred H.264 format. All videos are viewed in the horizontal orientation of the phone. As YouTube videos have 4:3 aspect ratio and the iPhone is 3:2, videos must be viewed with black bars on the side (Pillar Boxed) or may be zoomed to trim some of the top and bottom to fill the screen.

Not all videos were available on iPhone initially because not every video was reencoded to H.264. There are two versions of each video on YouTube, one is higher bandwidth for Wi-Fi use, and one is lower resolution for EDGE or 3G use.

Unlike the Apple TV version, users cannot log in to their own YouTube accounts, but can create a separate favorites list just for the iPhone.

Annotations

In June 2008, YouTube launched a beta test of Annotations, which can display notes or links within a video. Annotations allow for information to be added, for example stories with multiple possibilities (viewers click to choose the next scene), and links to other YouTube videos. Initially, annotations would not appear on videos embedded outside the YouTube website,^[60]^[61] but as of August 2008^[update], it is now available on embedded movies.^[62]

Type
Subsidiary, Limited liability company

Founded
February 2005

Headquarters
San Bruno, California, United States

Key people
Steve Chen, Founder and CTO
Chad Hurley, Founder and CEO
Jawed Karim, Founder and Advisor

Owner
Google Inc.

Slogan
Broadcast Yourself

Website
YouTube.com
list of localized domain names

Type of site
Video hosting service

Advertising
Google AdSense

Registration
Optional
(required to upload, rate, and comment on videos)

Available in
14 languages (22 if different language variations are taken into account)

Launched
February 15, 2005 (2005-02-15)

Current status
Active

Screenshot[show]

Screenshot of YouTube's homepage

The Fourth YouTuber

Products I Can’t Live Without

2009-01-13T18:50:00.001-06:00

Image via CrunchBase

There are some web products that i can’t live without. I use gmail and google notebooks daily.

Below are Michael Arrington’s Products he Can’t Live Without

2009: Products I Can’t Live Without by Michael Arrington on January 4, 2009

At the beginning of each year I traditionally publish a list of my favorite startups and products. This is the fourth year I’ve done this - previous lists: 2006, 2007, 2008. You guys get to pick the winners of the Crunchies - this list is all mine.

This is a list of the products I tend to use daily. Some are for work (Wordpress, Delicious, Zoho, etc.), some are for fun (MySpace Music, Hulu, etc), and some are useful for both (Digg, Skype, YouTube, etc.). But I use most of them every day, or nearly every day, and I would not be as productive or happy without all of them.

The list changes a bit from year to year, and is also getting longer (see chart). Just three products have been favorites all four years: TechMeme, Skype, Wordpress. TechMeme continues to be the news aggregator I check multiple times per day to keep up on tech news. Skype is the instant messaging and VoIP platform that I use most often, and Wordpress software powers all of our blogs.

I’ve added nine new products, including one gadget (which I’ve left off in the past): Animoto, Friendfeed, Hulu, iPhone 3G, MySpace Music, Pandora (which was on in previous years) Docstoc/Scribd and Yammer.

I’ve removed six products from last year’s list: Amazon Music, Amie Street, Firefox, Flickr, Netvibes, Technorati.

I still use the products I’ve removed, just not as much as in previous years. I find I’m just using Netvibes and Technorati less this year (Netvibes because Google Reader is so excellent, Technorati has fallen in favor of Google Blog Search mostly because it’s too slow and has too many internal links). I tend to upload photos to Facebook now because of the people tagging feature and since it flows well with the rest of my news feed (I use Posterous for mobile uploads); Flickr is becoming less important for me. I have moved most of my music consumption to MySpace Music, and download DRM-free MP3s from iTunes when I want to buy. Amie Street is still a great place to discover new music though, and I think their business model, which is variable pricing for music based on its popularity, is sound. Firefox is off the list as I experiment with Chrome, but I haven’t made a decision one way or the other. When Chrome launches for the Mac, I’m likely to switch.

As in past years, there are a gaggle of other great products that I use regularly but didn’t add to the list in order to keep it manageable. I also haven’t added individual iPhone apps that I use daily, even though they are nearly as important to productivity and fun as the products that did make the list. Next year I expect more than a few will be added.

Here’s the current list, in alphabetical order, of products I use every day and couldn’t live without:

800-Free-411

800-Free-411 first made the list in 2007 and it isn’t leaving any time soon. Use it to make free directory assistance calls and avoid per call charges of up to $3.50 that cell phone carriers charge. The company has taken more than 6% of the market for directory service calls in the U.S. Google, Microsoft, AT&T and others have entered the market, but Jingle Networks, the company offering the product, has a patent on the idea of pairing advertising with free directory service. Here’s a tip: add “FREE411USA” as a Skype contact and do lookups that way, too.

on blogging

2009-01-12T10:01:00.001-06:00

Image by Denis Collette...!!! via Flickr

How To Make 2009 Your Best Blogging Year

About this blog

2009-01-12T09:25:00.000-06:00

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

This blog is about web sites that I use often. I use 9/10 of the Top Sites list from Alexa. This blog is about my experiences using these “top” web sites

the Top Sites list , (According to Alexa)

Top Sites in English

The top 100 sites in the English language.

Top Web Sites

Top 5 sites you can't live without

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The Complete list of 100 useful applications

The Complete list of 100 useful applications

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Most Popular web apps:Google Apps

Software-as-a-service for business email, information sharing and security

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100 Most Useful applications

Planning and Organization

Calendars & To-Do Lists

Money and Finances

Storage

Project Management & Productivity

Documents,Editing & Design Tools

Security & Privacy

Mobility & Contact

Marketing & Networking

Business & Legal

Managing your Contacts & Feedback

Some Website and Blogging Tools

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What web apps do you use? Barack Obama uses blist

Send tasks to people and follow up

Online Notebooks and Alternatives To Google Notebook

Notetaking for Business

Classroom Notetaking

General Purpose Notetaking

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Most used web apps

Most used apps

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Online Office Suites

Components

Utilities

See also

Footnotes

Music Services

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My Top Web application

Features

Storage

Gmail Labs

Spam filter

Interface

History

Domain name

Gmail hoaxes

Gmail Paper hoax

[edit] Gmail Custom Time hoax

Code changes

Criticisms

Privacy

Technical issues

"On behalf of"

Awards

fascinating quote

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Most useful site

Company history

Social impact

Criticism

Copyrighted Material

Privacy

Inappropriate Material

Blocking

Technical notes

Video format

Video quality

Widescreen and HD videos

Format and quality comparison table

Content accessibility

On YouTube

Outside YouTube

On mobile

On TV

On Apple TV, iPhone, and iPod Touch