Web Authoring

Some of us aren’t good with numbers. The whole addition, subtraction, division, it’s just not our forte.

Sure Windows and Macs have built in calculators but we’re web people so we need something on the web to make us not feel like we’re totally mathstupid.

Ecalc to the rescue. It’s not just any calculator though.

It’s pretty and webified.

They also have a scientific calculator for those who are past just trying to add up this months shopping list with the rent, which is as far as some of us go.

All kidding aside, scientific calculators are expensive…so it’s pretty cool to have this tool available online.

They also have a rundown of all types of calculators if you’re really into that.

So go be a mathematical genius…we’re counting on you.

Get it? Oy.

Live video streaming from your mobile phone is probably a mobile carrier worst nightmare simply because the amount of bandwidth video consumes. And leading that nightmare is Qik.

Simply put, Qik takes your mobile phone’s built in video camera and transforms it into a webcam that connects to the Qik site where it will host live feeds of your video, as it happens. That’s right, people can now watch you make a fool of yourself anywhere you go.

We were able to test the Qik service on our 3G connected Windows Mobile phone. The installation was quick and only required a few SMS messages be sent back and forth to authorize our account. Once configured just launch the application and your video will automatically appear on the Qik website. Video quality is acceptable and we only experienced slight delays due in part to our mobile connection and location.

Once you end your transmission the live video is then archived to the site for later viewing. Of course like any good site, they offer 2 different privacy settings for your feeds, public and private. At least this way not everyone in the world can see that you haven’t cleaned up your room.

Currently in alpha, Qik supports a handful of Windows Mobile and Symbian phones with iPhone testing starting soon. We hope that future updates to the service will also include the ability to adjust video size and image quality. They do recommend an unlimited data plan and in the few days that we used the service we would also recommend it as well.

Have you ever asked yourself, “Is someone else using my email account?” Well, if you’re the cautious type, Google just added a few log-in monitoring features to its email service, so such paranoid questions won’t feel so pressing anymore.

Wondering if you’re Gmail account is open in multiple locations? Just look at the very, very bottom of the main Gmail page. It’ll say something to the sound of: “This account is open in one other location.” Click on the “details” link next to it to get taken to, well, a details page.

It’ll give you the deets on the most recent sessions including the access type and IP address. It’s not the end-all for email hijacking, but at the very least it’ll help you point-out intruders. And if you don’t see the feature yet, sit tight, Google is slowly rolling out the feature to all accounts.

Everybody that has a web-enabled phone and a thing for online interaction in lieu of actually having in addition to a social life knows that the biggest social networking sites are but a few keystrokes away at all times via mobile websites. Of course, even mobile-optimized web applications can be sluggish or glitchy sometimes, since they could potentially be affected by dozens of things like browser incompatibilities or updates. Luckily, smartphone users have an alternative: native application for their phones that talk directly with the service without a web browser getting in the way.

Facebook seems to be one of the more popular mobile websites, which makes it a relatively good candidate for a smartphone application written. Palm seems to agree with this, since the company released Facebook for Palm for their smartphones last month.

Facebook for Palm sports a relatively intuitive user interface, with its five-tabbed home screen; it seems matches the new phone interface included with the Treo 680 phones. The five tabs let you navigate to the Photos, Status Updates, Contacts/Friends, and Mail pages along with your Home page news feed quickly. Of course, the feature that sets Facebook for Palm apart from the regular mobile version of Facebook is the ability to quickly and easily upload pictures and videos to your Facebook profile. You can also easily search through your Facebook contacts and dial or text message someone who might not be in your phone’s contact list already.

Facebook for Palm is supported on the Centro, Treo 755p, and Treo 680. However, rumor has it it’ll work on your 700p as well, if you select the 755p version for download.

Survey Builder for X-Cart is an essential element of your e-store feedback system - a perfect marketing tool to make sure your business is moving in the right direction. Wondering why one product is a best-seller while its substitute doesn’t sell at all? Then ask the ones, who make that choice - your customers and prospects!

Survey Builder for X-Cart is an essential element of your e-store feedback system - a perfect marketing tool to make sure your business is moving in the right direction. Wondering why one product is a best-seller while its substitute doesn’t sell at all? Then ask the ones, who make that choice - your customers and prospects!

[Read the rest of this entry...]

“Linking The Web” is a free utility that regularly monitors all backlinks to your sites. If some of the links don’t exist, contain wrong anchor, are covered by a “nofollow” flag or hidden by robots.txt then you will be immediately notified by email. Also the program can keep track of your purchased links and notify you about their expiration dates. The software is free of charge and works under all versions of Microsoft Windows.

“Linking The Web” is a free utility that regularly monitors all backlinks to your sites. If some of the links don’t exist, contain wrong anchor, are covered by a “nofollow” flag or hidden by robots.txt then you will be immediately notified by email. Also the program can keep track of your purchased links and notify you about their expiration dates. The software is free of charge and works under all versions of Microsoft Windows.

[Read the rest of this entry...]

Welcome to Googleholic, your bi-weekly fix for everything Google, the July 4th column! Happy 4th everyone!

In this edition:

• Google C testing framework
• Google Talk for iPhone
• Google Maps voice search for BlackBerry Pearl
• Use Spotlight to find online Google Docs
• More ways to earn revenue from YouTube

Google C testing framework

Google has just open-sourced its Google C Testing Framework, which is a library of great automated tests for optimizing C code. The framework is portable, cross platform and it can be used in embedded systems (like Windows CE and Symbian).

The framework is even t learn, even if you are new to testing code and Google has a ton of documentation to get you started. This is the same library that Google has been using internally for some time, and is a great resource for C coders.

[via Google Testing Blog]

Google Talk for iPhone

Google has just released a new version of Google Talk for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Now iPhone and iPod Touch users can talk to friends within the mobile Safari browser. Because the program is browser based, there is nothing to download (though this may change next week when the 2.0 software and App Store launch).

To receive instant messages, the application needs to be open in Safari — if you navigate to another page or application, your status changes to “unavailable” and you will need to restart your Google Talk session later.

The program adheres to both Google and Apple UI guidelines, so if you are a fan of Google Talk and have an iPhone or iPod Touch, be sure to check it out!

[via Google Mobile Blog]

Google Maps voice search for BlackBerry Pearl

Owners of the BlackBerry Pearl 8110, 8120 and 8130 US are now able to perform voice searches for business queries for Google Maps. The new feature, which uses the same technology as GOOG-411, Google’s free directory assistance service, can help users find businesses in their local areas. Simply press “0″ on the map, hold the left-side key and say the name of the business or type of business you are seeking, release the button and voila — your search results will appear in Google Maps.

The feature is new and experimental — so it will get better over time and Google wants users feedback. BlackBerry Pearl 8110, 8120 and 8130 users can access the feature by going to http://m.google.com/maps in their BlackBerry browser.

[via Google Mobile Blog]

Use Spotlight to find online Google Docs

One of Mac OS X’s most dynamite features is Spotlight — the system wide indexing search engine that allows you to find any document or file on your computer in seconds.

The Google Mac team has just released a VERY cool preference pane for OS X that extends Spotlight’s search capabilities to the web, including Google Docs and Google Bookmarks in the indexed search results.

Precipitate works with both regular Google and Google Apps accounts and integrates Google Docs results perfectly with regular Spotlight searches. A Google Docs icon for the corresponding document shows up in the list and clicking on the file loads the document in a new browser window or tab. Only bookmarks and documents are supported right now, but Google promises more features in future versions.

[via Google Mac Blog]

More ways to earn revenue from YouTube

AdSense has just launched a number of new improvements and features that allow users to monetize YouTube content. YouTube and AdSense have signed deals with three new partners that are allowing users to embed their videos into their sites and share advertising revenue. Broadbandtv, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and The Orchard all have content available to publishers to put on their blogs to earn revenue from.

Additionally, Google has introduced new video unit sizes, in 728×90 and 160×600 to more easily fit in with existing advertising or monetation sections on your website.

[via Inside AdSense]

We’ve covered several apps that integrate with the social music platform Last.FM, and we’ve expressed our worries about what might happen to the site when it was bought by CBS. As it happens, though, Last.FM has only gotten better lately. And now that they’ve released a shiny new version of their public API, we’re hoping for more development on the downloadable app front.

Here’s the skinny on the new API features: there’s now read/write authentication for desktop, web and mobile apps, which, besides being essential for any service that logs your music listening, sets the stage for — dare we hope? — a killer Last.fm app for iPhone. The API will also allow apps to access search functions and make playlists, which means easier access to Last.FM’s growing library of free streaming tracks. Scrobble on, amigos.

[via ReadWriteWeb]

A Great Marketing Tool. Visitors can send a quick note to their friend with your message and your link back to the exact page the visitor was at when they submitted the form. (You can direct the friend to any page). An easily customizable e-mail subject line and message area helps promote your products and services. The WYSIWYG (What You See is What You Get) interface allows for many elements to be customized easily including the subject line, message area, error text color, background, border, captions, and button to fit your Website theme and layout. Use an image for the background instead of color. Change the button cursor from the default pointer to a hand. Preview your design while you work. Redirect visitors upon submission to the default thank you page or to any other web page. And customizing the thank you page (thankyou.html) with HTML and CSS is a snap. No CGI Bin. No MySQL. No additional fees or costs.

A Great Marketing Tool. Visitors can send a quick note to their friend with your message and your link back to the exact page the visitor was at when they submitted the form. (You can direct the friend to any page). An easily customizable e-mail subject line and message area helps promote your products and services. The WYSIWYG (What You See is What You Get) interface allows for many elements to be customized easily including the subject line, message area, error text color, background, border, captions, and button to fit your Website theme and layout. Use an image for the background instead of color. Change the button cursor from the default pointer to a hand. Preview your design while you work. Redirect visitors upon submission to the default thank you page or to any other web page. And customizing the thank you page (thankyou.html) with HTML and CSS is a snap. No CGI Bin. No MySQL. No additional fees or costs.

[Read the rest of this entry...]

Planning a vacation always starts with one thing… where to go. You could always ask a friend or a family member for their suggestions but then you would be only limited to where they’ve been. Tripwolf hopes to change that with there social travel website.

There are different ways you can use the site, if you already have an idea of where you would like to go enter it in the search box and Tripwolf will display the location along with places of interest, photos, videos and reviews by members of the site.

But the strongest feature of the site are the Trip Gurus. The trip gurus are self-proclaimed experts in their chosen areas of travel. Simply ask them a question and most will respond back with helpful suggestions.

So if you’re thinking of planing a trip you might want to see what Tripwolf has to offer.