Tag: WEB 2.0

In recent years, there has been a massive surge in popularity for audio-visual communication. Driven by an ever-increasing flow of data, the audio and visual channels are really our only recourse; reading text simply isn't fast enough. YouTube videos, Flash games and sites, infographics -- all of these, and more, are popular because of our limited bandwidth for the written word. It's almost like ...

In most cases, by the time you hear about a cool beta test that you'd like to be a part of, it's too late. When sites like TechCrunch or Mashable break the news of a startup with an exclusive, the sign-up queues are inevitably flooded with wannabe testers, leaving you with a very big chance that you'll be left out in the cold. What you really need is an insider site, something that might warn you ...

Fortunately enough for our sensitivities the ooooh-it's-so-pretty-especially-the-reflections-but-what-does-it-do??? Web 2.0 craze has petered out. Only a couple of years ago you could hardly move for rounded corners and the godforsaken 'pop up dialog boxes'. Today, probably thanks to Google, sweet and simple websites are making a resurgence. But not over at Picmeleo, I'm afraid -- they're still ...

Is just me, or is "real-time" the replacement term for "Web 2.0": you know, hideously over-used, over-hyped and prime for a square on the Internet Bullsh*t Bingo card? I mean, word has it that every man, dog and Venture Capitalist is on the real-time train now that mere mortals like parents are embracing Twitter. Continuing the real-time push is Pubsubhubbub - the real-time blog notification ...

Web 2.0 style is its own special brand of Fugly. Hundreds of sites capitalize on the volcanically-hot design trends that signal a Web 2.0 property, but botch the job and end up looking like they were made with cookie cutters in 2007. But now, botching the job can be even easier, with Tiny Designer! You can create your own hideous Web 2.0 elements in seconds, including plenty of gradients, that ...

Don't worry, we're not going all Valleywag on our loyal readers, but with a bucket-load of photos from the Crunchies (and ensuing party) we thought it wise to separate the sober from the (Myspace-sponsored) party photos from San Francisco's City Hall. Thanks to all at TechCrunch for welcoming us Download Squad-ers to the event! ...

There are a lot of advantages to using the same username for all your online services. It's easier to remember, and friends can find you more easily. If you're someone who's in this habit, you might want to take a look at Usernamecheck, a site that tells you which sites your favorite username is registered at. Usernamecheck scans 60+ different networks, from 12seconds to Zooomr, and tells you if ...

No, I didn't edit that image, that's actually the first question that pops up on MyMiaMia's flash intro banner. While I'm not certain it's a reference I would make when trying to flog my awesome new web app, it did make me stick around and try it out. It's a slick concept. Visit the website and type in your query, get an answer sent to your email or cell phone via SMS. Your answers will probably ...

Flexigrid is a jQuery based way of making flexible data grids, either by inputting fresh data or grabbing it from an existing table, XML, or JSON source. The "flexi-" in Flexigrid refers to its resizable height, width and columns. Flexigrid also now has a toolbar, a search function, and its own API. Although the API isn't documented yet, there's enough there to figure out how to do the most ...

Ok, ok, we know that when something is as powerful and useful as Google that looks shouldn't matter, but come on. Would it really be too much to ask for her to doll herself up a little? Just a little. Throw us a bone! Fortunately, Yoozila has arrived on the scene, all AJAXed up, and shiny web 2.0 graphics to top it all off. The results page can be quickly - and usefully - customized. Turn ...

Instructional videos or online reviews can sometimes be difficult to follow. Depending on watch you're watching it might be nice to have a second video displaying additional information that would aid in the presentation. Viddix may have found the answer to this in the form of their iPanel. Once you've uploaded your video to the website, you'll need to add cuepoints. These cuepoints allow you to ...

The first thing you'll probably notice about the new web-based presentation creator, 280Slides, is that it looks an awful lot like Apple's Keynote. As great as Keynote is, 280Slides has a few advantages: it's free and it's web-based. It's got all the features you would expect from good presentation software: you can present in full-screen mode straight from the web, download your slides, or ...

The Facebook mini-feed continued its expansion on Friday, adding YouTube, StumbleUpon, Hulu, Pandora, Last.fm, Google Reader, and your personal blog to the list of sites that can share data to Facebook. The import feature already included Flickr, Picasa, Digg, Yelp and del.icio.us. What's Facebook's goal with all of this? Over at ReadWriteWeb, Josh Catone speculates that Facebook is going to ...

BlogAmp is a service that generates embeddable podcasts for your blog. BlogAmp calls them audiocasts, to include both streaming and downloadable 'casts, but we'll stick with "podcasts." Those were streaming too, last we heard. BlogAmp basically handles the generation of your podcast from start to finish: uploading, creating an embedded player, and creating an RSS feed. BlogAmp's business model ...

Besides having a funny name, MyGads allows you to remember things that you might not always have the answer to. This web 2.0 service allows you to input information that you want to remember later, then when you need the information, you can either send the service an instant message or text message from your phone with a keyword to retrieve the information. For instance, if you want to ...