You’ve been taking it slow, but now’s the time

September 9, 2008 By Leave a Comment
One of my favorite agendas in these pages is to encourage you to start using web services rather than desktop applications to take care of day-to-day chores like word processing, and working with digital pictures and videos.  I often cheerlead the virtues of Google Docs and Zoho as free and pervasive substitutes for large and expensive applications like Microsoft Office. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="240" caption="Image by: Yodel Anecdotal"][/caption] Well it seems, ReadWriteWeb last week conducted a survey of their readers to find out what they use as a word processor and found that 48% still use Microsoft Office and the largest group that used an online word processor was 17% using Google Docs. Also unsettling in the RWW survey was that compared to the same survey last year, Google Docs gained ground not against Microsoft Office but instead from other online services like Zoho.  Microsoft Office actually increased in usage from 46% last year to 48% this year. Admittedly online surveys are unscientific and not especially accurate, but RWW’s readers tend to be tech savvy and early adopters so it would seem that use of online services to replace desktop services for applications like word processors and spreadsheets still has a long way to go. This next year will be interesting to watch as Google Docs and the Zoho suite mature and Adobe has entered the online word processor space with Buzzword and browsers like the recently introduced Chrome aim specifically at facilitating the use of web services by making the experience as positive as possible. Here at EnquiringMimes we won’t be backpedaling on our belief that using web services is the best and most productive way to work. To remind you of compelling reasons for using web applications, here are a few:
  • No application need to be installed on your computer
  • You always have the latest version, someone else maintains your applications for you.
  • When you save a document at work, it’s accessible when you get home without having to copy to a thumb drive.
  • You don’t have to worry about disk crashes, your documents are automatically backed up for you -- you don't have to be your own IT department.
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Filed Under: Technology, Web 2.0 Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Update: New Picasa 3 with lots to love

September 4, 2008 By 1 Comment
picassa-logo.jpg It looks like Google is the big news this week. Yesterday we reviewed Google Chrome, the new Windows browser. Also Google has announced a YouTube-like video service called Google Video for Business and a major new release of Picasa, their free photo-editor and organizer. Picasa's new version adds many useful new features -- ones that you might typically pay "real money" to buy. Picasa has become more integrated with Picasa Web Albums, Google's free website version of Yahoo's Flickr. It has become much easier to move your pictures from your PC to your Web Albums and you can now keep your PC-based album in-sync with your web album. When you edit a picture on your PC, it is automatically copied to the web. Here's a few favorites from the Picasa new features:
  • Make Movies - edit short videos or make movies from your photos
  • Preview Images with Picasa Photo Viewer - Preview Images in Internet Explorer (why IE?) or folders and then edit in Picasa
  • Retouch your pictures for blemishes
  • Add text or watermarking to your pictures
  • Manage folders on your computer - Actually move folders around on your disk
  • Get more information about your pictures - Get access to all that geeky info your digital pictures contain like f-stop and shutter speed.
The usual warning applies, this is beta software but it seems very clean and since most Google web services have "beta" tacked to them, I no longer get very concerned. I've been using Gmail exclusively for four years and it still is tagged as beta. Also, to Mac users-regret Picasa is Windows-only. Give it a try, download Picasa 3 beta. picasa-screen.jpg Our previous Picasa story.
Filed Under: Digital Pictures, Photo Sharing, Web 2.0, Windows Tagged With: , , ,

Search Google and Yahoo at the Same Time

September 3, 2008 By Leave a Comment
searchboth_logo.jpgSearchBoth.com is a handy website that let's you search two search sites at the same time and compare their results. This can be handy for many reasons including just speeding up your search chores, but also seeing how, say Google and Yahoo, rate the same sites -- higher up in the list being more relevant. SearchBoth allows you specify what to search including web, images, videos, news, or blogs. The site also allows you to compare other site combinations including Travel Sites, YellowPage sites or Job sites. searchboth_screen.jpg SearchBoth.com [Via WebWorkerDaily]
Filed Under: Search, Web 2.0 Tagged With: , , ,

Chrome: The brand shiny new Browser from Google

September 3, 2008 By 2 Comments
Do you think you need a new browser?  If you use Microsoft Internet Explorer you may think you do or if you use Firefox 3 maybe you think you don't.  No matter, giant Google thinks you do and has released a beta version of their new Google Chrome browser.

Why Google thinks we need a new browser

The Chrome developers say that all of the current browsers were invented before web services and with the new way people use the web it's time for a modern browser for today's web they said they emphasized speed, stability and security.  Their intention was to design Chrome using a minimalist approach wherein you don't have to think about the browser or even see it that much, the emphasis is on the web page.   There is truth in this, today's AJAX and Web 2.0 applications use plenty of a technology called javascript, here the developers say they tore apart the javascript engine and rebuilt it for speed.

What Chrome does

We've taken a look at Google Chrome and found some interesting features:
  • One box for everything -- there is no separate search, bookmarks or history box.  Just type in the one entry box and Chrome will search for you or offer alternatives from you bookmarks or sites you've already visited.
  • When you install Chrome it will import your bookmarks and passwords from Firefox or Internet Explorer so you're good to go when you start using Chrome.
  • Instead of the usual download manager window, Chrome shows downloads at the bottom of the screen while they are downloading.
  • Google Chrome includes an interesting feature that we've been seeing lately in utilities and next generation browsers -- the ability to create mini-applicatiions out of web sites for the kinds of sites you might keep open all day -- for me, Gmail.  The mini-app gets it's own desktop shortcut and looks more like a regular application than a browser.
  • When you open a new tab, the first page you see is a favorites page that has been built by Chrome of the pages you most often visit.
  • The tabs are dynamic and their position can be moved around.  You can also move tabs between windows and pull a tab off of one window and make it a new window of its own.
  • From an internal perspective, each tab runs independently of other tabs so that it something bad happens(like the website causes the browser to crash) to one tab it won't effect other tabs or cause Chrome to crash.
  • Since each tab is separate, Chrome gives you a nice feature called the Task manager that lets you see the status of each tab and optionally shut one down if it's using too much of your computer's resources.
  • A browser window can be opened "Incognito" which means no records are kept of where you search in that window -- let's face it, that kind of behavior is called Porn-mode in other browsers  -- it "protects your privacy".
  • Google Chrome starts up quickly and is fairly fast at displaying web pages.  When it reopens, it remembers your tabs from your last session.
  • Chrome makes use of Google Gears which allows many web sites to be used when you're offline.
Google Chrome is fully open source so you won't be tied to any operating system or, eventually, platform.
Currently Google Chrome is in beta and there are no versions for the Mac or Linux -- remember, if you're using beta software it can break (not to say "production" software never breaks).
 

Our Verdict?

We like it.  Here in the Enquiring Mimes labs we're long-time fans of Firefox and use mostly Macs but when the Mac version is ready. I'm sure we will consider using Google Chrome as our primary browser.  If you use many other Google apps like Google Docs or Gmail, Chrome is going to be a good choice for an integrated web experience.
 
Download the beta of Google Chrome.
 
Chrome, the minimalist browser.
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Filed Under: Technology, Windows Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

7 Free Services that you’d still use even if you had to pay

July 24, 2008 By Leave a Comment
In the last month we've reviewed 7 free services that are so good, you'd still use them even if you had to pay for them.  We thought we better recap the list to give you another chance, with links to our original review.
Filed Under: Technology, Web 2.0, Windows Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
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