AfterTheDotNet

How to comment on the pages on the Internet

Wibiki is a fun social community that lets you post links and comments on web pages everywhere!

The way wibiki works is that it lets you block advertisements and lets you replace ads with a mini link-sharing board that’s been created by you and your friends. There are two options for getting wibiki to block ads: change your DNS server settings manually, or install the auto-configuring software from wibiki’s site. I would recommend the second option for those those who are not initiated but if you are adventurous go for the first option.

From there, advertisements which the server is able to identify are blocked. The blank space that is generated because of the blocking of the advertisement can be used to place your notes and thoughts. The format of these boxes are very similar to a Google text ad, with a header link in large and bold font, and smaller text for a description, and the user that has submitted the link. Clicking on the link will take you to a wibiki page where the information is simply enlarged. Click on the header from this main page, and you’ll be directed to the original source page. Click on the username and you’ll see their profile, listing all of the links they’ve submitted.

The notes that you put in on the Wibiki’s can be made public or private, and other users can submit to a wibiki directly from the page you’ve placed it on. Private wibiki boards in this manner allow for the formation of groups, and are called buddy boards. There seem to be other things you can do with wibiki boards, and the company has even created a board that pulls the community public timeline from Twitter.

Wibiki should be ready to defend themselves as they will attract a lot of flak as popular pop-up blockers are having a hard time to defend themselves. The argument has been that advertisements are a prime source of income for web site owners and have been supporting the Internet indirectly. There are a lot of false positives as well where good content is blocked because it is recognized as advertisements an example of this are the forums which have popups with information of the posts.

According to the Wibiki "Wibiki is developed by the people who believe in web ubiquity and freedom. Wibiki is working to make connectivity between users fun,dynamic and resourceful. In fact, the Internet is underutilized and needs to grow at the "edge". Wibiki is researching new ways to make the Internet easy to use and develop community awareness. We believe "Users Rule" and are developing software to nurture your rights on the Internet!"

I would suggest trying the application and see if it works for you because in the end it can be very valuable if Wibiki fits in your work process.

Tags: comments, community, Google, IM, Internet, research, search, social, style, TWIT, Twitter, web, web 2.0

Only2Clicks - a start page service.

There are a lot of start pages services out  there. One of the service is at Only2Clicks.com which is like speed dial for your frequently-visited web sites - but with tabs. Only2Clicks scores because of its’ fast load time and simplistic interface still make it a useful landing page services but then it misses the advanced features of Netvibes and Igoogle.

Once you signup for Only2Clicks you can start book

marking your favorite pages into specific categories. When you sign up some of the favorite sites are there in you account based on their popularity. Only2clicks creates a snapshot of the web page and uploaded to the account of the user. You can manage your bookmarks in various tabs which will be the start page of Only2Clicks web site for you and you can go a step further where the browser’s home page is set as Only2Clciks.com. The other great feature is that you can arrange your bookmarks through a drag and drop interface.

The mantra for the developer is "One designer, one coder, 7500 miles apart, with one mission: just want to make things a little bit simpler". Only2Clicks is a great service for non tech users though the advanced users would not find it that interesting because of the lack of features. It is worth a shot.

Tags: bookmark, customize, Google, Igoogle, IM, manage, online, style, web, web 2.0

Cash Management online with CashView

CashView is a web solution to manage your everyday finances. CashView simplifies the process of payables and receivables by automating some the tasks. The company has also announced its second round of financing for $6.5 million, led by Emergence Capital.

CashView allows users to automate billing, tracking, messages, documents by allowing the users to manage that from one place. The inbuilt calendar allows the users to quickly vies their daily cash position, past, present an future cash flow positions. The users can also add alerts or reminders for certain tasks. You can also make electronic payments through CashView. Since it is a web based applications you can access your account from anywhere. Another great feature is that it integrates fully with quickbooks.

Some of the main features and benefits are

• Do your day to day financial work anywhere, anytime 24/7.
• Automate the bill approval process while giving you increased visibility into where things stand.
• Stay on top of due dates, to avoid late payments and take advantage of discounts.
• Retrieve and view any invoice, receipt, or document quickly and easily. CashView stores it all, electronically, integrating the transactions, processes, and documents in one place.
• Collect receipts more efficiently.
• Keep your staff focused on what they do best…running the business. There is no software to install or maintain.
• Easily view spending and cash flow at any moment in time.
• Better plan and time your payables and receivables so that you can more effectively manage your finances.

On demand hosted services is  space which has huge opportunity and it is unlikely that they would be hit in case there is crunch in the IT sector because such applications add real value for the customer. CashView is part of the demand hosted services vertical within web 2.0 and it is one of the fastest growing areas of web 2.0. Given CashView’s success I do not think the day is far when it is acquired soon.

Tags: future, IM, manage, marketing, message, online, reminder, style, web, web 2.0

Free online photo editor and framer - flauntR

flauntR, as the name suggests (the ‘e’ is missing) is a web 2.0 service which allows you to edit an add effects to your photos . The number of effects that one can implement are in thousands - talk of choice. Photos can be either got from Flickr or your PC. flauntr has a online photo album feature for photo storage and sharing. You also have the option to email you pictures or embed them in your personal web site. Adding of frames to existing pictures seems to be the favorite effect for users.

The purpose of the service is to allow non technical people to edit pictures without acquiring expertise in any photo editing software. In the long run flauntr would provide three services - photoeditR, photostylR.and photoprintR. While photoeditR and photostylR are available photoprintR would be launched this year later. With photoeditR and photostylR you can resize, rotate, colorize, remove red-eye and spruce up your photos. For more advanced  you’ll have to use the photostylR service which provides much more to spice up your pictures. Effects include digital scrapbooking style ‘compositions’, textures, light effects, overlays and colorations.

flauntR is headquartered in Switzerland and has been developed in Trivandrum, a beautiful coastal city in South India. There are a lot of applications that allow you to edit images online mostly by using the GD library feature of PHP but some of the effects and the interface of the service is much better than the other online photo editing services on the Internet. Therefore flauntR is worth a try.

Tags: edit, email, IM, image, Internet, online, style, web, web 2.0

Hello Again

I do not know if anyone noticed, however to satisfy myself, I would like to apologize for not posting regularly and disappointing myself and hopefully some others as well.

With renewed vigor I have decided that first I would try and post a post a day to this blog and not 5 posts a day that was my goal when I started. It is easy to copy content and write but when you try and write posts yourself it does take time. Though I do pick up subjects from my favorite blogs like Lifehacker, Lifehacks, TWIT.tv, Neobinaries, amongst others, the reviews are done after great deal of research and hopefully that adds value. For the time being I’m also discontinuing sharing my delicious links as you might see that there are a lot of posts on links only for the last 3-4 months.

Let us see how my second stint goes. The idea is to have as many readers as possible and a target of 1000 readers is what I have in mind in the next six months.

Best of luck Pali!

Tags: blog, blogs, delicious, IM, research, search, TWIT, web, web 2.0

links for 2007-08-20

• Newgrounds.com — Primer

  very day, approximately 500,000 unique visitors come through Newgrounds. Many of them are regulars, while others were simply passed a link from a friend. For those people who are here and have no clue what the story is behind the site, I’ve assembled this

  (tags: flash image wallpaper preloder download free)

• List anonymous wikipedia edits from interesting organizations

  (tags: wikipedia wiki search privacy security tools politics editors list)

• Top 15 Great Science Fiction Books - The List Universe

  (tags: books scifi list toread science lists reading education entertainment novels read bestOf)

• Your Virtual Ph.D.

  (tags: education learning online courses science tutorial podcast)

• Weird Sex Laws

  (tags: sex funny humor law culture news government,law)

• 113 Must Read Blogging Tips

  When I started this months 31 Days to Building a Better Blog and decided to invite readers to submit their own blog tips I’m not sure what I was really expecting - but the results have been fantastic.I’ve just spent the last two hours surfing thro

  (tags: Blogging tips HOWTO blog toread wordpress lists bloggers)

• MyProgress.comâ„¢

  (tags: productivity tool tools toread time tips)

• In the News: Webchutney

  (tags: india news web2.0 startups)

• 22 Code Snippets for Creating Decent Charts

  A new day a new list. Today we would focus on using CSS and Javascript techniques to create awesome and useful charts, graphs, bar charts, pie charts or diagrams. Almost all of the snippets are made freely available and only need simple CSS and Javascript

  (tags: css charts javascript chart design AJAX webdesign)

• Business English Exercises and Quizzes

  (tags: english grammar business language learning tutorials education)

• CSS Juice » 13 Online Generators for Web 2.0 Design

  (tags: web2.0 webDesign css generator design tools ajax)

• How to Use Chopsticks in Seven Easy Steps

  (tags: howto chopsticks food tips reference chinese cooking)

• Getting Real

  Here are the 16 chapters and 91 essays that make up the book.

  (tags: book programming books 37signals web software development)

• WebAppers - Only the Best and Free Resources for Web Application Developers

  (tags: webdesign resources tools javascript design ajax free)

Tags: blog, blogging, delicious, edit, generator, IM, image, online, search, web, web 2.0, webdesign

links for 2007-08-18

• Blogging Services (106 sites) : Web 2.0 Directory : eConsultant

  Sites that allow users to blog, add functionality to blogs etc

  (tags: web2.0 blog blogging services)

• Readers: Avoid Airport Delays With Free Online Tools - Consumerist

  (tags: Travel tips airport flights airlines airline airports)

Tags: blog, blogging, blogs, delicious, IM, online, web, web 2.0

Crusher - Send invites on the Internet for you events.

A new invitation service has been developed by an ultra-small independent group of designer/developers in the Bay area has been introduced. It is called Crusher. The developers are trying to do a simple application which would be easy to use for people.

Some of the features of crusher are

• • Request RSVP’s or simply invite people to your page. Your guests aren’t required to sign up (such a relief!).
  • You can personalize the look of your invites. You can clone it for future events and reuse it for recurring events.
  • Crusher also allows photo sharing and commenting. Guests can upload photos and any one can comment.
  • Since the calendars are shared if you can fix a time based on the availability of the attendees if most of the attendees are crusher users.
  • Free. No membership required for you or your guests.

As mentioned before crusher’s design is super-clean and simple but the site does the things you would expect from an invitation service: You can invite friends and track responses. It’s clean and light and very Web 2.0.

It’s also being built to give the music community the most flexibility. If a band creates an event in Crusher, a fan can “crush” (really, clone) the invitation and create a private version of it to wrangle his or her friends to go to the show. That’s a neat feature.

Tags: commenting, community, events, future, IM, Internet, web, web 2.0