Tag Archives: web2.0

Organize your life with Google

Google Calendar, launched just a few days ago, is a service I see myself using extensively. The first thing that grabbed my attention is the typical (for Google) uncluttered and simplified interface. Google Calendar is powered by Ajax, a web technology that allows the updating chunks of information in a web page without having to reload the entire page itself. This makes adding and editing calendar entries easy and unobtrusive.

The interface is intuitive and adding an appointment is easier than writing an email, which should be the case. To add an entry, you simply click on the box beside the time in the day column and type the details. You are not forced to configure the event like set up reminders or enter such details as venue or attendees. You can configure these things only if you choose to do so.

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Starting the year with a massive traffic spike

The start of the year saw a massive (for me) traffic spike for this blog. My previous post on using the Xinha Here plugin to color code Backpackit.com tasks using The Printable CEO as guide was featured in life hacks portal Lifehacker.com. For a while, it was even on the popular page of del.icio.us. The post was also linked to by the Backpack blog.
Before I found a way to use color coding in my Backpackit.com tasks, I relied solely on Rememberthemilk.com to keep track of things I should be doing. But after more than a week of using the Backpackit plus The Printable CEO system, I find that I am able to prioritize my tasks better.

The install link of version 0.5 of Xinha Here, however, is broken (as of this writing) . The Mozilla addons page for the extension is still at version 0.3. Version 0.5 offers options on themes and plugins for the what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG) editor.

Wikipedia comes close to Britannica in accuracy on science entries: Nature

Wikipedia, recently hit by a controversy over a bogus entry on a journalist, comes close in accuracy–in science entries at least–to Britannica, according to a review by Nature magazine.

The review “revealed numerous errors in both encyclopedias, but among 42 entries tested, the difference in accuracy was not particularly great: the average science entry in Wikipedia contained around four inaccuracies; Britannica, about three.” Here’s a table listing the number of inaccurate entries.

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Best Web 2.0 applications

Dion Hinchcliffe lists in his blog what he considers as the top Web 2.0 software of the year. And as with any blog post, check out the comments for links to more services. Here are some of Hinchcliffe’s picks according to categories:

Del.icio.us for social bookmarking. Blinklist, Shadows and Clipmarks are runners up.

Netvibes for start pages. Protopage and Start and runners-up. Isn’t Start now Live.com? I’m no fan of online start pages. I use a combination of online RSS reader (Google Reader) and ZiddlyWiki to manage my online information.

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Forget Windows Live, get a Goowy account

While looking at various other online services to update my “The network is my computer” post, I found a link to Goowy, a word play on GUI or graphical user interface. The free service is simply astounding and it makes Live.com look like the work of amateurs.

Goowy is a free online portal that simulates a desktop with a two-gigabyte @goowy.com email account, calendar, contacts database, an RSS reader and even games. The service, however, is still slow compared to Netvibes and Protopage but its interface is the most desktop-like among the services I have tried so far. (Screenshots after the link)

And when Goowy starts offering its planned virtual file storage and instant messaging, it will become the Google of online personal portals (unless Google buys it first.)

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SuprGlu your online accounts or start a feed aggregator in minutes

Do you use Flickr? Do you tag sites with Del.icio.us? Do you have a blog? You can gather all your data in these services into one SuprGlu account.

SuprGlu “gathers your content from popular webservices and publishes them in one convenient place and presents your content with simple, great looking templates which you can customize.”

I agree with the “great looking templates” part. Although it offers only three choices, all the templates are really good, especially “Scotch Tape.” Check my SuprGlu site by clicking here.

SuprGlu pulls publicly available data on several web services through feeds like RSS and Atom. With this, you can start your own feed aggregator in minutes by adding the RSS and Atom feeds of sites you want to include. I might start one for Bisaya Bloggers.

Netvibes still better than Live.com ‘by a long shot’

How could I have forgotter Netvibes? No wonder Live.com looked familiar, I’ve already signed up with a similar but far better service with Netvibes and completely forgot about it. When I logged in a few minutes ago, the page served my GMail messages, the RSS feeds I configured when I signed up and the sole webnote I entered “check out netvibes feature.” I only remembered I had a Netvibes account after reading this blog post at ZDNet (via this link). Richard MacManus said in his post: “Netvibes looks and feels slick and professional. The only problem is, I don’t know how they’re going to fare once Microsoft and Google get their personalized homepages up to scratch!“

Windows Live takes on RSS readers, social bookmarks, to-do lists

Microsoft’s online personal portal Windows Live offers users a centralized webspace to monitor RSS feeds from news websites and blogs, e-mail messages from Hotmail and Live.com, an online to-do list and various other information like weather updates, stock prices and horoscopes.

Windows Live also offers online bookmarking capabilities similar to that of del.icio.us and Yahoo! My Web 2.0. The site allows for additional functionalities through what it calls as gadgets, which function like online and desktop widgets.

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Get a personal online portal with Microsoft’s Windows Live

I have just started playing with Microsoft’s Windows Live, which appears to be a personal online portal. It’s similar to Protopage only it has fewer design options and since it’s from Microsoft, authentication is via Microsoft Passport. This also allows your Hotmail e-mail messages to be viewed in the page.

There’s also an instant messenger component to the service and according to the Messenger team blog: “MSN Messenger 7.5 is the last version of the IM client that will wear the MSN brand. The next one will wear Windows Live.”

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Another to-do list

I’ve been trying out RememberTheMilk.com‘s services since Thursday. At first use, I had difficulty entering tasks in my list (this is because I have been used to the interface at www.backpackit.com and I always proceed to using a new service I spot before reading its help pages or FAQ).

But after a day of using RememberTheMilk.com and a cursory reading of its help pages, I was able to quickly transfer my tasks lists to its services. The site’s interface is simple and clean. Unlike in BackPackIt where you can organize different tasks groups as pages that are then listed in the sidebar, RememberTheMilk.com organizes tasks groups into tabs. This, for me, is better.

Remember the milk
RememberTheMilk’s simple and clean interface

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