The Observer is back with another great post, just for you! We at Review of Web are participating in Daniel Scocco’s Daily Blog Tips Group Writing Project: 2009 in Review, and we took our time to pick 20 of the best web applications available in 2009. Let’s get crackin’ shall we?
1. Adobe Photoshop Online | https://www.photoshop.com/
Photoshop has been the most intuitive photo editing software for years, and Adobe is now launching an online version of this amazing software to help you edit, manage, and share photos online. You can upload images to your account and edit them using web interface very similar to the offline version of the software, and then share them with friends and colleagues.
2. CurdBee | http://curdbee.com/
If you are looking for a solution to manage invoices without hassle, CurdBee is the place to go. You can create and send invoices to customers and input confirmed payments as you go. The site offers easy, fast and secure online billing experience.
3. MediaFire | http://www.mediafire.com/
Looking for a reliable place to host your files? MediaFire is definitely worth checking out. This web app is very simple for everyday use but offers a lot of features even advanced users would really love. Use it to host your files and share them with visitors or friends.
4. ReInvirogate | http://www.reinvigorate.net/
ReInvirogate is the new way of tracking your site’s performance. Forget about old-school tracking scripts; ReInvirogate will give you so much more than just the amount of visitors coming to your site.
5. HowCast | http://www.howcast.com/
Publishing you own how-to videos or looking for one about any particular topic? Visit this video streaming site specializing in how-to videos.
6. Moodstream | http://moodstream.gettyimages.com/
Moodstream by Getty Images is an online collaboration platform for designers and creative workers. You can brainstorm ideas and search for images, footages, and audios at the same time.
7. AWebber | http://www.aweber.com/
Email marketing is definitely one of the oldest tricks in the book, and what could be best than managing your entire email marketing campaign from a single intuitive and comprehensive web application, right?
8. Wufoo | http://wufoo.com/
Need web forms but don’t have HTML coding skills? Wufoo will build them for you in no time at all.
9. Carbonmade | http://www.carbonmade.com/
Carbonmade is basically an online portfolio platform that you can use to show off your work. It is probably the easiest way to display your portfolio online and attracts more clients.
10. Backpack | http://backpackit.com/
Share information with your team using Backpack’s online intranet platform allowing you to manage your documents, discussions, and schedules in one place all the time.
11. Google Wave | https://wave.google.com/wave
Although the app is still in preview, Google Wave is definitely one of the best future online collaboration platforms available.
12. Celoxis | http://www.celoxis.com/
Another online collaboration and project management platform designed to help you handle big projects with ease.
13. Evernote | https://www.evernote.com/
Need to carry your notes all the time? Visit Evernote and find your problem solved instantly; the iPhone and mobile interface of this web app will enable you to access your notes anytime, anywhere.
14. Meebo | http://www.meebo.com/
Multinetwork instant messaging platform is the new hype, and Meebo is definitely offering one of the best web-based IM available.
15. Emusic | http://www.emusic.com/
Care for some nice tunes? Visit Emusic and find virtually any song you are looking for.
16. Netflix | http://www.netflix.com/
If movies and TV series are what you love, let Netflix stream them to your computers instantly.
17. Ask.com | http://www.ask.com/
No more unanswered questions; you have Ask.com hosting answers to countless possible questions you may be asking.
18. Zoho | http://www.zoho.com/
Zoho has transformed from a simple collaboration platform into a full-featured web productivity suites; you can do virtually anything with Zoho’s line of web applications.
19. Backpack | http://basecamphq.com/
Project management, collaboration, and task software provided by Backpack are definitely one of the best available.
20. Google Docs | http://documents.google.com/
This web app may seem simple, but simplicity has always been Google’s strong suit. Edit documents and share them with colleagues swiftly.
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So you have accumulated hundreds (or even thousands?) of Google Toolbar bookmarks over the years and now want to delete the
m all. Well, Google provides a way but for some reason it is undocumented. A very intuitive option should be the Bookmarks menu option of the Google Toolbar but the delete all option is not available there.
Here is a step-by-step procedure of how you can delete all bookmarks from Google at a click of a button:
- Go to Google Bookmarks
- Scroll down. On the left hand side you will see Delete all link.
- Now you know what to do. Enjoy.
It is ever so common for users to forget their password of any of their important accounts and thereby suffer the tedious process of having to recover them. Roboform, small yet powerful software, aims to make such woes a thing of the past.
As evident, RoboForm is a password management system which allows you to sign in to your online bank account or email or any other password protected services with ease.
Roboform is available in two flavors: the free basic version and the paid Pro version. Both these versions allow you to log in to any of your accounts automatically by remembering your password for that particular website. Also, with a single click, you can fill forms such as registration forms on web forums etc. All the passwords recorded in the software are stored in an encrypted form and therefore the users do not need to be concerned about the security and integrity of passwords.
Roboform saves the password information related to a particular site in a passcard. Whenever a user clicks on the link to that site, he can get logged in automatically. Users can also categorize the created passwords into specific categories and place them into their separate folders.
The free version of Roboform allows users to create only 10 such passcards and are thereby encouraged to upgrade to Pro version by paying $29.99 which allows users to create unlimited passcards and thereby allowing users to manage passwords more effectively.
Premium (Pro) users can also create multiple user profiles which can be very useful if a particular computer is used by more than one individual and with multiple profiles, password information of one user can be protected from being shared with the other.
My Experience:
I have been using Roboform Pro for more than a year now and can’t tell you how many hours I have gained by using this cool product. If you are a blogger who has to manage lots of advertising networks or an affiliate who has to manage affiliate networks, this is an ideal tool for you and for $29.99 it’s a bargain. You can now do away with the need for remembering passwords or putting them in some chit under your desk or opening a file every time you need a password. Do this investment, I am sure you won’t regret.
Some sites like Gmail have problems with the cache of browser. If you are a regular user of Gmail, you may encountered this issue where it just doesn’t load and you
have to manually clear the cache to make it working.
Here are some keyboard shortcuts to load a web page bypassing cache: that can help you a bit
- For Internet Explorer: Hold the Control key and click the Refresh button on the toolbar.
- For Firefox: Hold down the Shift key and click the Reload button on the navigation toolbar.
- For Safari: Hold down the Shift key and click the Reload toolbar button.
Simple yet effective tip.
Last week we discussed and reviewed Learning Management Systems. Today we will review some of the best eLearning softwares present in the market.
The first question that comes to mind is – what is the difference between an LMS and an eLearning software? Well, an LMS is used to host training content and track results while an eLearning software is used to create the training content, such as presentations, quizzes, which can then be hosted in an LMS.
For our review we have picked three most popular eLearning softwares. Articulate Rapid ELearning solution, Adobe Captivate and Lectora.
Articulate Rapid ELearning Solution:
Articulate is one of the favorite tools for providing e-learning solutions. It enables you to create high quality e-learning products quickly and easily. The Articulate Rapid e-learning 
solution makes use of Microsoft Power point for all of its functions. Once installed successfully, it adds an extra option labeled ‘Articulate’ on the same. What sets the e-learning solution apart from many other of its competition is the ease of use. Once you are done with creating a presentation, you can use the ‘Articulate’ option on your power point software and add animations that you want and make a Flash file.
Any learning software also needs the ability to handle questions. ‘Articulate’ does just that. It has a range of built in question handling options with various question types. If these aren’t enough, you could always use the ‘Quizmaker‘ software which is a separate software and develop your questionnaires in a better way. It has the ability to publish SCORM and AICC compliant courses and the ability to incorporate graphics and media.
Articulate Studio Standard edition is priced at $999 while Professional edition ‘09 is priced at $1,398.
Adobe Captivate:
Adobe Captivate is part of the Adobe e-learning suite and it allows users to create elearning courses without any programming or multimedia knowledge. Adobe captivate has a wide 
range of features such as Text-to-speech functionality, ability to produce the output files in a wide range of file formats that includes AVI, which can be used for web streaming and publishing on youtube.
An exciting feature of Adobe Captivate is the ability to let users customize the widgets. Widgets can be created using software such as Adobe Flash and then customized to meet the requirements of the particular course. Existing Power Point slides can also be involved in the projects you create using Adobe Captivate. Presentations can be imported and synced with the captivate files by using the options provided.
The software also has built in templates to make it easy to provide good instructional material without having to incorporate a lot of changes. Adobe Captivate is priced at $249 and does not include other Adobe software such as Flash, which need to be bought separately.
Lectora:
Lectora is again one of the most popular eLearning tools which is developed by the Trivantis Corporation. It can be used to create elearning courses and presentations. Lectora also has the ability to 
import files from the Microsoft Powerpoint format and incorporate the content to produce elearning content in various output formats raning from a HTML web page, video files and even an executable file.
Lectora supports industry standards such as SCORM, AICC etc which allow for the development of open architecture guidelines for interoperable learning content.
Among the various features of Lectora include the ability to import questions, use multimedia content to produce stand out elearning courses. Lectora supports a large number of automated tools such as title wizards, table of contents, media library, resource manager etc. These tools can be used out of the box and thus provide a great value for money. The basic version of the software is priced at $495 . Add on features can be obtained for a nominal price.
Check out Articulate Rapid eLearning suite, Adobe Captivate and Lectora.
Check these videos, produced by the very creative team of CommonCraft. The way they explain complex things is really commendable. Other than being simple, their USP is that the videos size of all videos created by them is nearly 3 minutes in length.
Even if you are a internet veteran, see these videos. I’m sure you will love them.
What is World Wide Web (WWW)?
How to use Google effectively?
What is a blog?
What is RSS?
What is Twitter?
What is a wiki?
What is social bookmarking?
What is social networking?
What is phishing?
What is a LMS?
A Learning Management System (LMS) is a software to help deliver, track and manage training and/or education. The LMSs are typically web based and offer a wide range to services that can be used to administering content and learning.
LMSs are the preferred choice of many corporate training departments that provide classroom training to their employees/students. The LMSs can be used to automate records and maintain detailed databases of employee/students registration, learning content and also allows sharing content and other resources. Some LMSs also provide a type of ‘performance management systems’ whereby employees/students can be appraised for their skills on various measures.
The LMS software are generally developed on various platforms like Java, .Net, PHP etc for the front end with a suitable database for the backend.
eLeap vs Moodle:
eLeaP LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM is one such learning software which provides features such as web-based training and e-learning solutions with a simple and in
tuitive user interface that caters to the needs of technical and non-technical training managers alike. eLeap can be used to provide on demand content which can be delivered online without the need for investing in expensive hardware.
eLeap LMS provides a rich multimedia environment by making use of feature rich technologies like AJAX and RTA [Rich Text Applications]. These features used on the eLeap LMS allows administrators and instructors to easily insert existing content or create new content by a few clicks using the WYSIWYG environment.
Instructors can use the LMS to upload video, audio files, presentations and even set up time sensitive assignments so that the students can be monitored for their efficiency and learning. The process of inviting the student to the assigned task is automated and thus there is no room for any kind of human error. All these features are provided by eLeap at a cost of $125 per month and can change significantly for greater number of users.
Moodle.org is a free, open source Learning Management System which has emerged as an efficient alternative to the other LMS software. It has an open source license th
at makes it completely legal to even modify Moodle to suit your needs. The development of Moodle is modular and therefore you can always add new features, remove features based on your needs. The open source aspect of Moodle helps in the fact that a large number of programming enthusiasts contribute towards the development of moodle and as result, you are not limited to a particular fixed kind of software evolution.
Plugins for various needs of providing content for learning in an organization are widely available on the moodle website. Third part plugins can also be installed which epitomizes the benefits of using Moodle for the LMS tasks.
Moodle has emerged as a very viable alternative to the paid software and thus is best suited for small businesses.
Check out eLeap LMS and Moodle LMS
