Features
Top 30 online tools
20070713 [Computer Shopper]
Top 30 online tools 11 -15
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1 YouTube Details: www.youtube.com Type: Online video It has many rivals, but YouTube remains the best video-sharing website. To upload a video, registered users enter basic details, including tags to help viewers find it and privacy settings to restrict who sees it. You then select the video file on your PC. It must be shorter than 10 minutes and no bigger than 100MB. It is also worth making sure the video matches, or doesn't exceed, the resolution of 320x240 used by YouTube. YouTube converts and hosts the file. The website also allows you to record and upload live video straight from your webcam. YouTube viewers can watch any video made public, using the tags assigned by the creator to find one they might be interested in. |
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2 Virb Details: http://virb.com Type: Social networking The world is hardly short of social networking sites. There's the well-known MySpace (www.myspace.com) and Facebook (www.facebook.com) for a start. However, if you're looking for something a little more grown up, Virb is the website for you. Virb isn't hampered by adverts. Your topics of interest, such as music, photos, blogging and so on, are easy to access from a simple toolbar. Virb also makes it easy to include data from other websites. If you have a blog elsewhere, for example, you can bring its content into Virb. You can also view Flickr photos. You can tailor your pages extensively in one of two ways. There's the familiar drag-and-drop style of editing for making pages quickly and easily, but you also get full access to the underlying styles, which is something MySpace doesn't offer. |
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3 Last.fm Details: www.lastfm.com Type: Online music Last.fm is a social music website that streams music - without adverts - based on the artists you like. Simply type in the name of your favourite artists and Last.fm will generate a station of similar music. It isn't the only streaming music site, but we've found that Last.fm matches musical preferences better than rivals such as Pandora (www.pandora.com). You don't need to register, but logging in lets the service build a profile of your listening habits - a feature it calls 'scrobbling'. With this feature, Last.fm notes every track you play on the site or through services such as iTunes, and this affects the songs it plays. You can also help it adjust to your taste as you use it by clicking on the Heart icon if you love a track, or the Ban icon if you never want to hear it again. There is a social networking element to Last.fm. Once you have listened to enough songs to build up a database, it starts populating your neighbourhood with people who have similar listening tastes, while an Events feature recommends concerts in your area. |
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4 Blogger.com Details: www.blogger.com Details: Blogging When starting your own blog, you have two choices. You can wrestle with installing blogging software on your own site. Or you can take the sensible option and use a web-based blogging tool such as Blogger or WordPress (www.wordpress.com). Blogger, owned by Google, has revolutionised blogging. You can host your blog on Blogger's servers for free. Customising it is easy, and you can embed extras such as advertising or site-tracking software such as Google Analytics (www.google.com/analytics). Blogger isn't perfect - it doesn't make it easy to generate trackbacks to see who is talking about your blog - but if you want to make your voice heard, there is no simpler medium. |
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5 Google Maps Details: http://maps.google.co.uk Type: Maps Google Maps was hugely popular when it launched in 2005, and it has emerged as one of the best examples of an interactive web application. Its speedy mapping engine provides multiple ways of viewing map detail. As well as a traditional street map view, Google Maps provides a top-down satellite view and a hybrid mixture of both displays. But the real reason behind Google's success lies in its navigation. Rather than clicking small buttons to move a map display, Google has adopted the intuitive approach of clicking and dragging the map itself, with the map redrawing as you move it. Google hasn't stopped developing, either. Its most recent addition is the MyMaps feature, which lets you draw lines and polygons on a map, complete with editable tags that can contain text, HTML, video or picture content. Once saved, you can share the URL of these maps with others. It's great for customising directions. Some users find Google's navigational controls disconcerting, but if you get lost you can return to your last view by clicking on the small icon in the middle of the arrows at the top-left of the map. When you're on a high zoom level, you'll find it easier to navigate using the arrow keys on your keyboard. Another feature that many users overlook is Google Maps' memory. If you log into Google - you can use the same account you use with Google Mail - Maps remembers all your recent searches. Just click on the Saved Locations link at the top of the page to view them. Google Maps also provides travel directions. While we prefer the AA's website (www.theaa.com) for accurate itineraries, Google Maps has some nice touches. For instance, when you click on one of the steps of an itinerary, a floating bubble appears showing a close-up view of the relevant area. |
