Stuff You Might Like ! » Web

Google Squared – is this the future of web search?

wilsojer — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 09:16:16 +0000

Google have released something today that I’ve really been looking forward to – Google Squared. This is Google’s vision for the future of searching on the web. Bear in mind this is a very early Beta, so don’t expect things to work perfectly – they don’t ! But it does give you and idea of the potential of this.

Basically, what they are doing is providing search results in a spreadsheet-style format which allows you to compare relevant criteria all within the same column. You can add criteria that wasn’t part of the default layout and it will add it in for all results. It is essentially providing a structure around unstructured data – something of a Nirvana for web searching.

This is very early days for Google Squared, the possibilities are very exciting. Try it and see yourself. Try some of the example searches on their homepage.

Print web pages exactly as you intended

wilsojer — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 19:25:44 +0000

How many times have you printed a web page or an article on the web, only to have it come out completely different to what you intended ?!? If you’re anything like me, probably a ton of times !

Enter PrintFriendly – add this button to your browser and this will be a thing of the past. You can remove things that you don’t want to print so that you only print out exactly what you need. Difficult to describe – try it – it’s very cool !

No time to read that great website you were looking at………….?

wilsojer — Wed, 20 May 2009 07:53:26 +0000

If time is running short and you don’t have time to read that great website that you were just loking at, you need ReadItLater. This will allow you to save the page for reading later (odd, that, isn’t it bearing in mind what it’s called !). It will work on any browser and can be synched between browsers. If you are a Firefox user, there is an extension, which allows for one click saving (using a tick symbol in the URL bar), offline reading (so you can catch up on the train journey home), syncing, Google Reader integration and much more.

This is a really useful little utility – very recommended !

p.s. If you use FeedDemon as your NewsReader (which I heavily recommend), you can set up ReadItLater for that. Simply create a blank file through Notepad, add in the following text:

and save the file as readitlater.xml

Once the file is saved, move it to C:\Program Files\FeedDemon\Application\Data\SendTo (obviously changing the C:\Program Files to wherever you installed FeedDemon to. The all you need to do when looking at a post that you would like to read later is to click the SendTo icon (the little right arrow) and choose ReadItLater. Magic !

Log into free websites without registering

wilsojer — Wed, 20 May 2009 07:34:42 +0000

Many websites offer free content, the only problem is that they want you to register with them first. Your email address starts to get pretty clogged up with all their ‘helpful’ emails.

Enter BugMeNot – this is a free site that hundreds of user-generated logins and passwords that you can use to gain access to the site without having to register. Just go to the BugMeNot website, type in the URL of the site that you want to access and you will get a list of logins and passwords for you to use. If one doesn’t work, just try another one.

For those Firefox users out there (and who isn’t these days ?!?) there is a BugMeNot Firefox Extension. Simply right click in the username or email box in the site that you want to access and choose ‘Login with BugMeNot’ and you should be good to go.

Search Google and Twitter at the same time

wilsojer — Wed, 20 May 2009 07:22:41 +0000

For some things, Google reigns supreme – the number one search engine is just the best at finding what it is you are looking for. The only problem is that you do not get the most up to date information, as it’s spiders are constantly crawling the web and they can only do that so often.

Here is where Twitter comes in. People all over the world (about 7 million of them !) are inputting their 140 character messages on events that are happening here and now. Searching through Twitter, then, is likely to give you the absolut up to date news that is available.

Enter Twoogle – this site lets you search both Google and Twitter at the same time, allowing you to have the best of both worlds. Simple, yet brilliant !

Download web pages as PDF

wilsojer — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 09:19:12 +0000

This is not something that you will use every day, but for those times when you need it, it is so easy to use that you will wonder why it wasn’t created before.

If you have a web page that you would like to save as a PDF, simply drag this bookmarklet Download PDF to your Bookmarks and click on it. It will download a PDF, which you can save locally.

Simple, effective – does exactly what it says on the tin……………

Log into free websites without having to register

wilsojer — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 09:06:32 +0000

There are lots of websites that you visit that offer content for free but ask you to register with them before you can access it. This, of course, means that you have to divulge your email address and hence opens you up to the possibility of, at best, lots of marketing emails from the company and, at worst, lots of spam.

There is a way around this, though. Go to BugMeNot and enter the website that you would like to access. It will provide you with a set of logins and passwords that you can use, thus keeping your email address squeeky clean (or as clean as it was before, at any rate !).

For Firefox users (and I hope that no-one is still using IE !), things are made even easier. There is an add-on that automates the whole process. When you come across a site wanting registration details, right click the user name or email address box and select ‘Login with BugMeNot’. It may not always work first time, but repeat the process if it doesn’t and you should be able to get in.

Very handy indeed !

Send websites to your Inbox

wilsojer — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:34:58 +0000

If you find a great website that you want to remind yourself to read, what do you do ? Most people will bookmark it, but then it tends to get lost in amongst the thousands of other bookmarks.

There is a handy website called Toread.cc – all you have to do once you’ve registered (for free, obviously !) is to set a link as a bookmarklet and then when you come across a page that you want to read later, you click on the bookmarklet and it emails the link and a copy of the full page to your Inbox.

I think this is a great way to keep on top of all these websites you absolutely MUST look at !

Tiny chat – disposable chat rooms

Jeremy — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:19:16 +0000

As we seem to spend most of our time at work and corporate IT departments insist on locking everything down very tightly so that you can’t do anything fun, it is my constant quest to find ways around their restrictions.

My latest victory is in the world of chat. There is no way that they will allow you to access any of the typical instant messaging sites, but they don’t seem to have come across tiny chat yet. When you access this site, all you have to do is give yourself a nickname and you’re done. After that just email or text the URL to a mate and you are good to go. I have tested this out with one or two of the more stringent banks around and it works there, so fingers crossed………..

Latest TV shows online

Jeremy — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 09:10:00 +0000

Bleenks is a website that has loads of TV shows that you can watch online. We’re not talking about 1981 episodes of Dallas – these are all the latest shows – 24, Desperate Housewives, Lost, etc.

Well worth checking out.