Skip to Content

Get the latest on Wrath of the Lich King on WoW Insider!
AOL Tech

Filed under: Web services

Filed under: Productivity, Web services

A few days later, a better notifier: Ding, It's Up


It seems like only yesterday that I was writing about Notify Me When It's Up, a site that lets you know by email when a website comes back online. Actually, it was a few days ago, but someone has already built a fancier version of Notify Me. It's called Ding, It's Up, and it adds SMS and Twitter notification options, and tells you when a site goes either up or down. Despite my praise of Notify Me's minimal approach, I am forced to concede that Ding outdoes it.

I previously commented that it was nice that Notify Me keeps things simple, even though it could have added more features, or incorporated the functionality of Down For Everyone Just Me. I guess the creators of Ding, It's Up are basically sticking their tongues out at me, because they've done just that, and it's actually pretty neat. Just don't use it to sign up to receive updates by Twitter about when Twitter is down. You might want to use Is Twitter Down? for that.

Filed under: Internet, Web services, Microsoft, Search, Web

Microsoft adds similar images feature to Live Search Images

Live Search Images
When you're using a search engine to find what you're looking for, you're probably used to typing a query, looking at the results, and refining your query. Every now and again you might even click a button that says it will show you similar results. Now Microsoft has added a button with exactly that feature to the company's image search engine.

When you conduct a search using Live Search Images, you can hover your mouse over any image and click the "show similar images" button. To be honest, it's a bit tricky to tell exactly what this does. Because if you've searched for something like "stick" you're probably already looking at a window filled with pictures of sticks. If you click the similar images button, you'll wind up on another page with images filled with sticks. That said, when I said I wanted to see similar images to a stick bug, I did get another picture of an insect - and several pictures of deodorant, glue sticks, and stick figures.

If you're looking for a more advanced image comparison service, check out TinEye, a beta site that allows you to upload a picture and find images on the internet that are compositionally similar.

[via Google Operating System]

Filed under: Audio, Windows, Web services, web 2.0

Find, play, and download web music with Songbeat

Songbeat
Songbeat is a desktop application for accessing web-based music search and discovery services including Seeqpod, Project Playlist, SpoolFM, and Last.fm without a web browser.

When you fire up the application you're greeted with a search box. Just type an artist or song title and Songbeat will attempt to find songs from the music search engines mentioned plus a few more. Or you can click on the Station tab and enter an artist or song title to launch a Last.fm audio stream.

Songbeat lets you listen to as many songs as you want for free. But you can also use the program to download music or record audio from Last.fm. Once you hit 25 downloads, you'll have to pony up some cash to keep downloading the free music. A full license costs 19,99 Euros or $29.99 US.

There are a few kinks to be worked out. While I found the search and playback features worked fairly well, once I tried recording an audio track Songbeat went hog wild and started downloading a bunch of songs I hadn't asked for. In a matter of minutes all of my 25 free downloads were used up.

[via TechCrunch]

Filed under: Web services, Open Source, Social Software, Browsers

MySpace, Flock and Vidoop release OpenID for Flock plugin

OpenID is a really great concept. The ability to use a single digital identity across the web and avoid having to sign up for yet another user account is a real productivity boon. More and more high profile sites and services are adopting OpenID, but the project still hasn't gained the traction that many of us think it deserves. This is partially because it still isn't easy to use OpenID -- or even find out if a site supports OpenID -- on all services. MySpace, Flock and Vidoop think they've come across a solution: let the browser handle it.

Back in June, MySpace announced support for OpenID and also became an OpenID provider. In order to help users more easily manage their online identity across other sites and services, MySpace teamed up with Flock and Vidoop to create OpenID for Flock, available today at https://extensions.flock.com. OpenID for Flock is an open source plugin, part of the larger Identity in the Browser (IDIB) project which is focused on having the browser, not the user handle, authenticate and mange multiple user identities.

I had the chance to demo the plugin yesterday and it is pretty cool. Essentially, once installed an OpenID icon appears on the right of Flock's chrome bar. The extension scans a page for OpenID compatibility, and if a site supports OpenID, the icon starts to glow. You can then automatically choose to populate the OpenID fields with your designated OpenID URL or associate that site with a specific OpenID account. You can manage all of your OpenIDs, choose what sites to associate certain profiles with and view the login history and OpenID-to-site-relationship with each site.


Read more →

Filed under: News, Blogging, Web services, web 2.0

Pownce gets pwned: Six Apart acquires and plans to shutter service



Do you still use your Pownce account? I stopped using mine months ago. I don't even know if I remember the password. If you do still use Pownce, the Twitter-like microblogging service that just never seemed to capitalize on its early hype, start preparing to migrate to something new. Today, Six Apart, the company behind Movable Type, TypePad and Vox, announced that it has acquired Pownce and will be shuttering the service in two weeks. Lead Pownce developers Leah Culver and Mike Malone will continue on at Six Apart, where presumably some of Pownce's features will be rolled into Vox.

Hey, at least there is Twitter! Seriously though, Pownce's failure is proof that hype alone will not make a product or company a success. As our own Nik Fletcher pointed out, Pownce is the perfect example of how NOT having a useful API at launch or soon thereafter is a huge mistake. Especially if you are trying to do the whole microblogging thing.

Not to get all Valleywag, but didn't Six Apart just lay off 8% of its staff, like three weeks ago? I don't know the particulars of either situation -- but simply on the surface, that's cold. Did something miraculously change or was this part of the plan the whole time?

If you are worried about losing your messages once Pownce powers down its service, the Pownce team has created an export tool which will generate a file (I'm guess its XML. I haven't had a chance to look at it) that can then be imported into Vox, WordPress or TypePad.

Fittingly, the discussion of Pownce's demise is much more active on Twitter and Friendfeed than on Pownce itself.

Filed under: Windows, Web services, Beta, web 2.0

Mount remote storage, use web apps as local apps with Gladinet

Gladinet
Gladinet is a new Windows utility that aims to help bridge the divide between desktop and web-based applications and storage. Here's how it works. You install the free (at least while in Beta) Gladinet utility and select the web based services and applications that you want to access locally. For example, you can mount your Windows Live SkyDrive or Amazon S3 Storage as a local drive that you can access using Windows Explorer.

You can also mount your Google Picasa Web Albums and Google Docs folders as if they were local folders, allowing you to upload, download, and access documents and images stored on Google's servers as if they were on your desktop.

But the ability to mount remote storage as a local folder is just the tip of the iceberg. You can also use Gladinet to launch web based applications like Google Docs, Google Calendar, or ThinkFree Doc, XLS, or PPT viewers in a standalone window as if they were desktop apps.

Last, but certainly not least, you can use Gladinet to mount folders on remote computers as local folders.

[via ReadWriteWeb]

Filed under: OS Updates, Linux, Web services, web 2.0

gOS Cloud - From zero to web browser in just a few seconds

gOS
gOS is a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu that's designed to make it easy to interface with web-based applications like Gmail, YouTube, and Meebo. It uses the slightly OS X-like Enlightenment desktop environment, and the developers have been pushing it as a good operating system for low powered netbooks, thanks to its integration with web applications.

The latest version of gOS goes a few steps further, by emphasizing the web browser above all else. gOS Cloud is a stripped down Linux distro that can load in just a few seconds. And instead of loading a typical desktop, the first window it opens is a web browser (which looks suspiciously like Google Chrome in the press shots).

You also get a dock-style program launcher for starting desktop applications. And the operating system is designed for dual boot systems that also run Windows XP. Good OS, the company behind the Linux distro are working with netbook makers Gigabyte to build an ultraportable laptop that will come preloaded with gOS Cloud and Windows XP in early 2009.

Filed under: Internet, Web services, Search, Web

Soovle offers search suggestions for 7 search engines

Soovle
Soovle is a search engine for people who might not know exactly what they're looking for. As soon as you start typing a search term, Soovle will begin to offer suggestions for related terms that may help you refine your search. And it doesn't just offer suggestions for one service, but for 7: Google, Yahoo!, Wikipedia, Answers.com, Ask.com, YouTube, and Amazon.

If you want to take Soovle up on one of its suggestions, just click on the text and Soovle will change the contents of the search box. If you want to change the default search engine, just click the icon below the search bar and when you click Soovle, you'll get your search results from Google, Yahoo!, Wikipedia, or whichever service you selected.

You can also save Soovle suggestions in a browser cookie or as a text file.

[via TechnoSpot]

Filed under: Internet, Web services, Web

Great Summary provides halfway decent summaries of long articles

Great Summary
Sure, you always mean to keep up on the news by reading dozens of interesting articles every day about politics, the economy, and you know, tech news. But who has the time? Great Summary is here to help. Just copy the URL of an article that's so long you get exhausted by looking at it, decide how many lines of text you're actually willing to put up with (from 1 to 100), and push the summarize button. Great Summary will find the most important points of the article, saving you valuable minutes, or even seconds of time.

At least that's the idea. In practice, the web service could use some more work. I tried it on several news articles from a number of different web sites, and more often than not, Great Summary decided that the tags or site navigation menus were worth dedicating a line to.

That said, the service did usually pick out some of the most fact-filled lines in an article, so it looks like the developers are onto something. If you don't care about story structure or narrative flow, Great Summary might be worth checking out. But I wouldn't exactly rely on it as a primary means of skimming the daily news just yet.

You can also use the service to summarize chunks of text that you copy and paste. Want to know how it handles this article? Read the summary after the break.

[via Lifehacker]

Read more →

Filed under: Utilities, Productivity, Web services, Education

Frengly does translation, but does it beat Babelfish?


The biggest players in the online translation game are Yahoo! Babelfish and Google Translate. They both have their unique charms, but a site called Frengly might offer a little competition. Its selection of languages isn't quite as extensive as Google's -- you won't find Hindi, Latvian or Catalan, for example -- but it does offer more languages and more combinations than Babelfish. Frengly's killer feature is auto-detection, though.

Frengly's language detection is even cooler than Google's, for a couple of reasons. First, you don't have to select auto-detection from a language list, like you do in Google Translate. If it's automatic, why should it take an extra step?
Second, you don't have to select a target language from a menu. You can just click it, and the original text remains on screen. If you want another language, just click again.

Frengly doesn't do webpages, and doesn't have a bookmarklet. If that's the bulk of what you want to do, stick with Google for now. On the other hand, it does save a list of your translations. If you're looking for a translator to help you do homework or understand a few words in a book you're reading, look no further.

Filed under: Fun, Internet, Text, Web services

Give the gift of music, e-books and more


Wondering what to get your less-than-tech-savvy friends? On a tight budget and can't buy them a PS3 or even a single Blu-ray title? Worry slightly less courtesy this cheapskates' guide to gifting content from the internet. Not everything is budget-friendly, but almost everything on the list is a terrific value.

MUSIC

Lee wrote up a lovely list of 35 places to download free, legal MP3's back in August. If you're still intent on forking over cash for tunes (and I don't blame you), here are a few other ideas:

Rhapsody
Possibly one of the best music-subscription services on the planet. Featuring a gigantic catalog (over 4 million tracks) and awesome search, Rhapsody is a full-featured subscription service. You can also shop for MP3's. There is a free trial account which limits you to 25 tracks per month, but you'll probably want to gift Unlimited (all music, browser-based playback only, $12.99/mo.) or To Go (all music, including portable music players, $14.99/mo.).

Other subscription contenders: eMusic and Lala
Streaming awesomeness: AOL Radio and Pandora
Downloadable win: Amazon music, offering songs and albums cheaper than iTunes and higher-quality tracks free of DRM restrictions.

Read more →

Filed under: Web services, Search, Web

Keyboardr: no need for a mouse on this launcher-style homepage


Some people just don't want to use a mouse. Sometimes site designers take this demographic into account, sometimes they don't. But if you're a keyboard-only person: Julius Eckert has built a homepage just for you. Keyboardr returns search results from Google, Wikipedia, Youtube, Google Blog Search and others, and gives you a cursor to navigate the results entirely via arrow keys.

The experience of using Keyboardr is slick, but it could be better with one tricky little improvement. The list of results from each search engine seems to function as a separate element on the page, so hitting a right or left arrow takes you to the top of the adjacent list, not to the result that's directly across, as you would expect. This isn't a big deal, but it would make Keyboardr even faster if Julius could get around it. As more features are added (customization would be amazing), I'll give serious consideration to Keyboardr as my primary homepage.

Filed under: Internet, Security, E-mail, Web services

Melt Mail provides free, disposable email forwarding


We've looked at other disposable email services (like my list of 5 with RSS support) before. Melt Mail is a nice alternative to other disposable account services.

Many require you return to their site to check for messages, but Melt Mail lets you work with any real email address.

Melt Mail works with your existing email, setting up a temporary forward @meltmail.com. You've got four time periods to choose from - three, six, 12, or 24 hours. After that, your address expires and forwards from it to your real account cease.

Once your address has been created, you can choose to pop up a small reminder window that displays your address and an expiration countdown.

One source of concern I have with the service is the lack of a privacy statement. If you're going to use Melt Mail (or a service like this), check for one before signing up. Who's to say your real address won't end up on someone's mailing list.

Melt Mail is a slick service, I'll just stick to using it with my "registration" gMail account.

Filed under: Internet, Security, Web services, Lists

5 disposable email services with RSS support

If you're looking for a little anonymity and security when signing up for download links or invite codes, a disposable email service is a good option. Instead of providing one of your working email addresses, just grab a meaningless temporary one from any of these sites and keep your identity hidden.

These five sites all provide RSS feeds for your address, which is handy. No need to return to the site after registration, just subcribe with your favorite newsreader.

MailCatch - Choose your own address or roll the dice. MailCatch also provides an iGoogle gadget and creates a subdomain (using your address) for quick access to your web inbox. MailCatch also provides temporary forwards, and they've got an FAQ and forums.

MyTrashMail - Offers password protected temporary accounts in addition to the traditional public variety. Note that the Firefox "toolbar" they offer requires you have the Google toolbar installed first. FAQ and about links are prominently displayed.

Read more →

Filed under: Web services, Social Software, web 2.0

Brightkite's new killer feature is ... a wall?

If you've been to a tech event since SXSW in 2006, you've probably seen some kind of large monitor displaying info from the conference-goers. Often, this means Twitter tweets by attendees. Brightkite has just taken this a step further, with their own "Wall" feature. Because Brightkite is a location-based service to begin with, the wall has a built-in way to gather data. This means the usefulness of the wall isn't limited to events: you can just display it in any place (like a coffee shop, for example) and show all the people who are posting messages nearby.

I love the Brightkite Wall. It could turn out to be a brilliant way to show new users what the service is all about, as well as making an interesting public installation. It also opens up Brightkite to people who don't even have Brightkite accounts: you can put the appropriate location at the top of the wall, next to the Brightkite shortcode, and anyone can text a message onto the wall via SMS.

Featured Time Waster

Forumwarz - a potentially offensive time waster

I pwn UAfter spending the better part of an hour on Forumwarz I still can't decide if it's just sick or if it's kind of fun. It's a bit like a car wreck on the highway. I know I shouldn't be looking but I can't quite turn away.

It's sick, it's twisted, it's the internet on it's worst level and darn it, it's kind of fun. At least for a little while.

Forumwarz is a parody role-playing game that takes place on the internet - or at least the Forumwarz version of it. Your goal is to complete missions that are given to you through a mock up of GoogleTalk called Sentrillion.

Your first "friend" is ShallowEsophagus who begins giving you missions to pwn various forums by being a troll. Depending on the character type you are assigned at start up, you have tools like drooling on the keyboard or bashing your head on the keyboard that you can use to destroy forum threads and eventually, pwn a forum.

Future missions involve buying illegal software from the Russians, pwning more difficult forums and other internet oddness.

Completing missions gives you cash, called Flezz in game, and items that you can pawn or use in other missions. The game is NOT for those easily offended. It's crass, coarse and there are frequent f-bombs in the fake chat sessions.

This is also a game for a more mature audience as it requires you to shop at the Drugs R Fun store to get various concoctions to improve your playing, engage in certain cyber activities to get more Flezz and just generally use a more adult perspective.

If you can get past that, here are the more enjoyable and time-wasting aspects.

View more Time Wasters

Featured Galleries

Defective by Design, London: Protest Pictures
Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals
Android First-look: Amazon.com MP3 Store
Android First-look: Twitroid
Google Reader Android
Android Hands-On
Twine 1.0
Photoshop Express Beta
SXSWi 2008 Schwag Unboxing
SXSWi 2008 Day 1
Mozilla Birthday Cake
Palm stuff
Adobe Lightroom 1.1

 


Follow us on Twitter!

Flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

BloggingStocks Tech Coverage

More Tech Coverage

Joystiq

TUAW

BloggingStocks

Autoblog

Xbox 360 Fanboy

Engadget

WOW Insider

Switched.com

FanHouse