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Jan 29

Netvibes Startpages Get Google Search

This article was written on June 30, 2008 by CyberNet.

Netvibes has just added a Google Search box to the top of all Netvibes pages. Before you dismiss it because you already have a Google Search box (or any other search box) at the top of your browser, take a look at what it’s all about because they did a great job implementing it.

Now when you go to your Netvibes page, the Google Search box stands prominently up at the top. When you perform a search, the Google search results page automatically opens up in a new Netvibes tab with the results. What’s nice is that within the results is an additional Google Search box, so if you wanted to perform another search without opening a new tab, you’d enter your search term there. Checkout the screenshot below to see what we are talking about.

Some of you may not like the idea of the results showing up in a new tab every time, so for you, you’ll want to go into the options to make a few changes. Just click on the Settings, and then look for the “Search” section on the General settings page. By default your results show in a new tab but you can change it to include them in the same tab. While you’re in the settings, you can also decide if you want the search box below the title (default) or above the title. If you simply don’t want the search box, this is where you can decide to have it hidden.

Netvibes really did a nice job integrating search. They even included the various Google result categories that you can switch between like Video, Blog, News, Images, Books, and more. We like that it works how you’d expect it to work, so it’s intuitive which makes it easy to use.

Source

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Jan 27

Google Maps Adds Geo-Tagged Photos/Wikipedia Entries

Posted in: Google, Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on May 14, 2008 by CyberNet.

Yesterday as Ryan was pulling up a map of how to get to O’Hare Airport in Chicago for our upcoming trip, he happened to notice a “more” button up at the top of the page. He clicked on it and a menu appeared with the option to enable photos and/or Wikipedia. He turned to me surprised, and asked if that had always been there and he just hadn’t noticed or if it was new. As it turns out, it is in fact new and Google had just launched these features.

There’s no end in site to the features that Google can add to Google Maps. If you choose to enable photos, you’ll see various geo-tagged photos appear on the map, thanks to Panoramio, a service Google acquired last year. If there’s a Wikipedia article about a place on the map (a city, landmark, etc.), a “W” will appear. Clicking on it will pull up a snippet of the article right on the map, but you can also click “view full article” and then you’ll be taken to Wikipedia.

wikipedia - photos on google maps.png

Another feature that Google has made easier to access is real estate listings. Previously you could view these listings by clicking on “My Maps” and selecting to view the Real Estate Content, but now you just click “show search options” which is next to the search field at the top of the page. A drop-down menu appears and then you’ll be able to click on Real Estate. Other options you’ll find in the drop-down menu for searching include businesses, locations, user-created content, and mapped web pages.

When Google Maps first launched, I don’t think anyone ever imagined that so much information would be able to be accessed by one site. It’s now jam-packed with tons of features, and you know Google will only continue to add more.

Source: Google Operating System

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Jan 26

Youlicit Helps You Find Sites You Like!

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on January 08, 2008 by CyberNet.

The word solicit is defined as a verb to seek something, like “He solicited aid from the minister.” Now you’re probably wondering what that has to do with anything, so let me explain. The first time I came across the website Youlicit, I automatically thought of the word solicit because they’re so close in sound. As it turns out, they’re also close in meaning. Youlicit is a fairly new search engine/ social network whose purpose is to connect you with the information that you’re looking for. Essentially they’re soliciting sites that will likely interest you. .

Given that the goal of Youlicit is to connect people with the information that they are looking for by providing them with the links to useful sites, they try to make it as easy as possible to use. If you want to try the service, they offer a few different options. One is to simply go to www.youlicit.com and enter in a URL or tag. Another is to get the Firefox Extension, Bookmarklet, or the Google Toolbar that they offer. The Google Toolbar with the Youlicit button is helpful because if you do a Google search for something, you’ll get Youlicit results for it as well.

youlicit

When I went to their site to give it a try, I was pleasantly surprised. After entering in the URL http://tech.cybernetnews.com, I received recommendations that included Lifehacker, Engadget, and Google Operating System blog. It chose our related key words as “news, technology, blog, tech, tips, daily, Firefox, Internet, and software,” all words which associate perfectly with CyberNet. Remember, you can enter in a URL or tags like software or music. They determine how popular a site is before they send it to you as a recommended site, so the results are usually pretty relevant.

If you’ve ever wanted to find sites that are similar to a particular site that you already know you like, Youlicit might be the perfect tool! In some ways it reminds me of StubmleUpon because you can come across some great sites, but it’s more specific to your wants and needs. Give it a try and let us know what you think!

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Jan 25

Russian Court Ruling Resuscitates AllofMP3.com

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on July 18, 2007 by CyberNet.

Just when we thought AllofMP3.com had its last breath, they were resuscitated. A Russian Court has told VISA that they must process payments for AllofMP3.com because the site is legal according to Russian law. This now gives life back to the popular download site that was nearly gone.

According to ZeroPaid, “Visa’s decision to terminate its contract with Alltunes, MP3sparks, and AllofMP3 was illegal under Russian Law because they operate legally according to ROM, the Russian equivalent of the RIAA.”

So while AllofMP3 will presumably once again be able to accept payments, their site is still down. The RIAA has done a fine job up until now of cutting off every income source that they had, so this is big news. At least for them, they know that they have the Russian Government on their side.

Even more promising for AllofMP3 is that Visa has said that they won’t be appealing the decision that the government has made. After years of problems and court battles that slowly crippled AllofMP3, they may be back afterall.

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Jan 25

Yahoo Mail Opens up API to Users!

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites, Yahoo

This article was written on March 29, 2007 by CyberNet.

This is definitely Yahoo Mail’s week to shine. First they decided to offer their customers “unlimited” mail storage earlier this week, and now they’ve announced that they’re opening up their API for users to tinker around with.

Depending on the type of account that you have with Yahoo Mail, you’ll be offered different access. If you’re an ordinary Yahoo Mail user, the API will include methods for listings folders, moving messages, listing messages etc. If you’re a Premium Account Holder (you have to pay), you’ll have access to message text, attachments, the message search feature, etc.

Premium account holders who use the API to create cool apps which then draw in new premium users will be offered monetary compensation – $10.00 per app according to CNet. Now web developers will have the chance to get creative and design new applications to make the experience even better.

Yahooapi1

One of the first mashups that used the Yahoo Mail API came out of Yahoo’s Hack day last year. The mashup allows users to send postcards via Flickr. Using a Greasemonkey script and the Yahoo Mail API, they were able to create a “send postcard” feature in Flickr. The image above shows what the “send postcard” feature looks like in Flickr, and the image below shows what the postcard looks like when the recipient receives it.

Yahooapi2

If you’d like to see how it was created, Leah Culver explains in this video:

This opens up a lot of doors with a lot of potential. Yahoo is hoping this will draw attention, and a wide variety of third-party add-ons will be available from it to entice more people to come over to Yahoo mail.

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Jan 24

Apple’s App Store Rumored to Launch on Monday

Posted in: Apple, gps, iPhone, Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on June 04, 2008 by CyberNet.

iphone app store.png With the WWDC conference quickly approaching, rumors are running rampant about not only the next iPhone, but also when the App Store will launch. News.com is reporting that Apple is ready to launch the first app on Monday and so people are drawing the conclusion that the App Store will launch on Monday as well. Originally it was said that the App Store would launch by the end of June, so is Apple just ahead of the game or will it only be announced on Monday and released later?

There’s so much hype surrounding the App Store because this is the way that people will be able to get their hands on all of the third-party applications that have been developed. Ever since the SDK was made available, developers have been hard at work trying to come up with applications that both iPhone and iPod Touch (assuming they pay the fee to get the update) users will want to use. We already know that an AIM client is in the works, as is a mobile version of Spore, along with hundreds of other applications.

As some of you have probably heard rumored before, the new iPhone is expected to have support for GPS technology. News.com makes a good point and says, “the combination of GPS and faster networking speeds should allow for a whole range of location-aware applications to proliferate on the iPhone, as they have on other competing phones.” Oh the possibilities this brings to the table now!

We’ll be following the WWDC keynote scheduled to start at 10:00 A.M. (Pacific) on Monday, June 9th. It should be an interesting day…

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Jan 22

Netvibes Gets A Few New Features

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on October 01, 2006 by CyberNet.

NetVibes

Just last night Netvibes got a pretty nice makeover that allows people to choose from various themes. The selection that they have available is pretty limited at this point but they are all very nice which is great: quality over quantity. You can access the new themes by going to the Settings located in the upper-right corner of the screen. I think my favorite theme is the Silver one which I have pictured above.

NetVibes Video Search There are also three modules that I don’t remember seeing before. The first one is a MySpace module which is something that I won’t really use since I don’t have a MySpace account. The second one is a Writely module which will retrieve your documents so that you have easy access to them.

The third one that is new, and is probably the best, is the Video Search module. It allows you to search Google, YouTube, and DailyMotion for videos and it will show you the search results right there. You can then choose which video you want to watch and start playing it! This is definitely a clever concept and it almost makes me want to switch to Netvibes from my Google Personalized Homepage.

So who out there uses Netvibes and who uses Google Personalized Homepage? If you use one or the other what is preventing you from switching?

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Jan 18

Yahoo and eBay Team Up to Stop Phishing Scams

Posted in: Today's Chili, Web Sites, Yahoo

This article was written on October 04, 2007 by CyberNet.

eBay and PayPal are two of the most popular targets of phishing scams on the Internet. There’s no doubt that most of you have received a fraudulent email regarding a PayPal or eBay account that you may or may not even have, asking for you to verify your information. These emails look like they’re legit, but they’re really not. Many people stay away from using eBay simply for security reasons which is why officials over at the auction site have to be as proactive as possible about keeping their users safe. With the help of Yahoo, eBay is hoping to stop the fraudsters in their tracks and keep the phishing emails that they send out of the inboxes of Yahoo Mail users.

The technology that stops the fraudsters is called DomainKeys and it was developed by Yahoo and implemented today. DomainKeys checks to see that the person sending the mail is really who they say they are. According to the Yahoo blog, DomainKeys uses cryptography to verify the domain of the sender. “In overly simplified terms, if the email’s originating domain ain’t really eBay.com or PayPal.com, it ain’t going through” says Nicki Dugan, Yahoo’s Blog Editor. Yahoo’s system won’t even deliver a message to the inbox which means the consumer doesn’t even have the chance of being victimized. Yahoo says that the technology will be “rolled out globally over the next several weeks to all Yahoo! Mail users.”

While DomainKeys sounds great, there is one potential problem, and that is if the software isn’t 100% fool-proof. Should someone be trying to send a legitimate email and DomainKeys picks it up as a scam, it won’t even get delivered. It’s completely blocked and the user will never receive it, not even in their spam folder. While this could certainly cause a problem, the benefits of DomainKeys far out-weight any of the downsides. Phishing is a real problem that needs to be dealt with and according to Reuters, “Despite the industry disagreements, an underlying consensus is emerging among software vendors, Internet service providers and corporate Web sites that digital email signing in one form or another is the best shot to combat phishing.”

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Jan 17

Gallery 2.2 Released – Host your own Image Gallery

Posted in: Freeware, Software, Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on March 17, 2007 by CyberNet.

Gallery2Ajaxian

Gallery 2.2 is now available to the public and it offers some new features that are sure to be a crowd pleaser. The software is used to host your own photo galleries on your own site instead of using a service like Flickr. To setup Gallery you will need to have PHP installed on your server, which is almost standard for all hosting packages these days. If you don’t already have a hosting package you can checkout the page that Gallery has setup for recommended hosts.

Here’s what Gallery 2.2 has to offer you:

Downloadable Plugins – It is all done straight from the administration interface now. Before you had to upload any themes and plugins to the server before you can enable them.
Added support for themes to display dynamic albums
Watermarking changes
New themes: Carbon and Ajaxian
New WebDAV module to mount Gallery as network device on your computer. This allows you to easily manage your Gallery with any WebDAV client like Windows Explorer.
New module to send Ecards
New Digibug module for prints from digibug.com
Added support for Flash Video and Windows ASF video
Photo auto-rotation based on camera sensors or on settings from other applications

Gallery 2 is a great way to share your photos with the world, and it serves a large variety of purposes. You could create a site where people can upload their own photos to share with you, or you can just use it for personal reasons.

There are several different themes available, and each of them has an online demo. You can even play with the two newest themes, Carbon and Ajaxian, and between the two, Ajaxian definitely takes the gold. Just like the name says, it uses Ajax to retrieve photos among other things so that the user receives nothing short of a great experience. Most of the themes do have color packs available as well, so when you’re looking for a theme, choose it because of the layout and not the color choices.

I used it for quite awhile to share photos with my family, and I just created a generic account and provided the username/password to them. Then they could view whatever galleries I chose to give them permission to.

It is really easy to setup the software, and uploading images can be done several different ways. You can browse for a single image to upload, select a directory on your server that already contains all of the images and Gallery will import them, or you can upload a ZIP file that has all of the images in it and Gallery will automatically extract the contents of that file to get the photos.

I don’t use the software anymore because I just bought a Flickr Pro account since they added the collections feature. The reason I wanted to use Flickr instead was because of all the external tools that it has available to make uploading images and even synchronizing my account extremely easy. Even with Flickr I can control who can and can’t see my images all while taking advantage of the hundred or so online and offline tools available.

If you’re looking for your own image gallery solution then Gallery 2 is by far the best one that I have found.

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Jan 14

CyberNotes: Money Saving Shopping Tips, No Coupons Needed

Posted in: CyberNotes, Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on January 12, 2007 by CyberNet.

Free for all Friday

Lots of people shop online nowadays, or use the Internet to scope out the product that they’d like, and then buy at the local store; whether it be for the convenience, the prices, or a variety of different reasons. Now more than ever, there are multiple ways that you can save money shopping on the Internet, or using the Internet as a tool with no coupons needed. Here are three different ways that you can save money:

–Price Protectr 2.0–

This is a fairly new service that will check stores’ website’s for price reductions for 30 days after you’ve purchased the product if they offer a 30 day price guarantee. They offer the service for purchases made from Amazon, Backbountry.com, Best Buy, Circuit City, Costco, Future Shop, Jensen USA, Office Max, Sears, or Target. After you’ve purchased the item whether it be online, or at the store, find the product online from the merchant and enter the product link at http://priceprotectr.com. They’ll look up the item, and show the price. If everything checks out, then you enter in your email address, and they’ll watch for the price to drop. If the prices drops during the 30 days, they’ll send you an email to let you know, and from there you can get your money back! The graph to the right shows the average price drop. While it appears that more items don’t drop than do, you can still save!

–PriceGrabber.com–

Okay, you’ve probably heard of PriceGrabber, but you may not know of EVERYTHING that it can do. First of all, it’s an awesome comparison shopping tool, not to mention they have merchant reviews, rebates, coupons, etc. One of their best features is one that I don’t think many people make use of, and that’s their ’set price alert’ feature. For this feature, you have to sign up for an account. It’s simple, and easy, and literally took under a minute. After getting an account, you’re able to set a price alert. The picture below shows what this price alert feature looks like.

All you have to do is enter your target price. From there, PriceGrabber will alert you by email when the retail price for the product that you’re interested in falls below the target price. You can set filters like including only your selected merchants, or to exclude selected merchants. Merchants can change their price to compete within the blink of an eye, which makes this a really useful tool if you’re not looking to buy in an instant.

–NexTag–

Yet another comparison shopping tool is called NexTag, and what I like about their service is the Price History feature. Similar to PriceGrabber, NexTag will pull up a list of sellers, along with their ratings, and the price to give you an idea of where your best bargain would be. The Price History is what sets them apart. I searched for Microsoft Windows XP Professional Edition with Service Pack 2. They found that the lowest price is $128.00, and then they provide a graph of the Price History which shows me the high and low prices, and when they were relative to the time of the year.

Armed with PriceProtectr and their 30 day money back guarantee helper, PriceGrabber with their price alert feature, and NexTag with their price history graphs, you should be able to find a great price on the web for whatever it is you’re looking to buy!

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Hasta La Gadget!

Netvibes Startpages Get Google Search

Google Maps Adds Geo-Tagged Photos/Wikipedia Entries

Youlicit Helps You Find Sites You Like!

Russian Court Ruling Resuscitates AllofMP3.com

Yahoo Mail Opens up API to Users!

Apple’s App Store Rumored to Launch on Monday

Netvibes Gets A Few New Features

Yahoo and eBay Team Up to Stop Phishing Scams

Gallery 2.2 Released – Host your own Image Gallery