Web Authoring

TinyURL is the grandaddy of URL shortening services. Want to take a long URL and squeeze it into an easy to email, tweet, or otherwise share package? Just plop it into TinyURL and the service will spit out a short string of characters you can share with others. But historically those characters have been pretty much meaningless, making TinyURL addresses difficult to remember.

TinyURL recently rolled out the ability to create custom domains. Just type in a word or phrase that you want to associate with the longer URL, and you could get a domain like http://tinyurl.com/downloadsquad. There’s just one catch: If someone’s already used the URL, you can’t use it. So you might want to use the name of your web site, spouse, or dog sparingly. Otherwise you’ll wind up with someting like http://tinyurl.com/downloadsquad4h85sy.

[via WebWare]

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 thumbnails on or off, filter your results by region, language, file type and license type (though it doesn’t work that well on some searches yet), and of course you can search within your results.

The thumbnails can be incredibly useful; they’re a good way to spot scam sites before you get suckered in to visiting or give you a visual reminder of sites you’re visited before.

It’s built on Google code, so you’ll get the same web, image, blog, news, and other results either way. Yoozila’s done an excellent job updating the old, saggy Google interface.

Tiltviewer is a very slick way to present your photos online. Generally photos are presented in a slide show presentation where photos are displayed one after the other. But unlike a typical slide show Tiltviewer presents your photos in an almost 3D like grid allowing people the freedom to glide around your photos.

In order to use Tiltviewer you will have to download the code and place it on your website. But once properly configured it gives your photos a very modern interface and backdrop. You can zoom into each photo, move around a 3D like space and even click on each photo for more information about it.

We wouldn’t recommend Tiltviewer to everyone because of the installation process. But if you are pretty good a following directions and know your way around a few lines of code then you should definitely give Titlviewer a try.

Ever have the urge to change a headline or rewrite the text of a web site? Edit this page is a browser bookmarklet that makes any web page instantly editable. Well, kind of. Here’s how it works. Drag this bookmarklet to your bookmark toolbar. When you’re on a page you’d like to rearrange, just hit the bookmarklet and you can edit any text area.

Of course, nobody else will see the edits you’ve made unless you take a screenshot and share it with the world. But in completely unrelated news we are particularly proud of the distinction Time Magazine gave us earlier this year, so we thought we’d share that with you.

[via Digital Inspiration and Techzilo]

Unlike most online photo editing sites, Graphita doesn’t give you ways to adjust the levels, white and black balance or saturation. Instead Graphita gives you stamps to “fun up” your photos. We were scratching our head at first as well. Why on earth would you not include the most basic tools for editing a photo? But the answer became apparent as we delved deeper into the site.

On most online photo sites your project ends pretty much the same way with you either downloading the photo or sharing it online. But Graphita did something different, by also letting you put your photos on mugs, mouse pads, shirts and a whole lot of other things that will either clutter up your home or your friends.

By teaming up with QOOP, the transition from one service to the next is fairly transparent. Once you’re done placing witty captions or “slippery when wet” signs on your picture, simply select the Order Prints button and your image will be taken to the QOOP site where you can paste it on basically anything they carry.

So instead of trying to be a serious tool for photo editing, Graphita takes a more lighthearted approach. Upload a photo, add a caption or two and send it off to be printed… as a luggage tag.

Welcome to Googleholic, your bi-weekly fix for everything Google!

In this edition:

• Gmail fights PayPal and eBay phishers
• Protocol Buffers go open source
• Walking directions for Google Maps
• YouTube Screening Room, round two
• Viacom v. YouTube and what it means for your privacy

Gmail fights PayPal and eBay phishers

Gmail is all about privacy this week — first with the introduction of remote log-in controls and monitoring and now by incorporating a new feature that automatically rejects a message from would-be phishers attempting to get information about your eBay or PayPal account.

Although Gmail has had a pretty good track-record at identifying phishing messages, even labeling them with a red-warning label as such, by its own admission, the system isn’t perfect. This is no longer true, however, for phishing messages that appear to come from “paypal.com” or “ebay.com.” PayPal and eBay are now using DomainKeys and DomainKeys Identified Mail to sign all of their mail. What this means is that if a message purporting to be from paypal.com or ebay.com doesn’t pass the DomainKeys or DKIM authentication process, Google won’t even accept the message at all — it is automatically rejected. So phishing messages attempting to gleam information for your PayPal or eBay account won’t even show up in your spam folder.

[via Official Gmail Blog]

Protocol Buffers go open source

Google uses thousands of different data formats day in and day out, but encoding the information from those formats (most of which is structured, not flat) required a customized solution. That solution, Protocol Buffers, is now being made available to the community.

Protocol Buffers is essentially an IDL, sans much of the complication. Google designed Protocol Buffers to be sleek, simple and fast. If you need to parse lots of different file formats and are looking at a good way of encoding that information, read the Protocol Buffers documentation, it might be a good solution.

[via Google Open Source Blog]

Walking directions for Google Maps

With gas prices rising, walking from place to place has suddenly become a more viable alternative for many of us. Google Maps is testing out a new feature, walking directions, perfectly suited for those of us who prefer to stay away from the car when possible.

The feature, which is still in beta (so be careful when walking in unfamiliar areas) has been spotted in New York, though we’re sure other cities will roll out soon. Much like driving directions and transit directions, walking directions is aimed at making it easier to get from place to place.

[via Google Operating System]

YouTube Screening Room, round two

Two weeks after first launching Screening Room, YouTube’s destination for quality short films, a new playlist is now available for your next computerized short film festival.

This second round features films from the UK, the US and Canada. The third round of shorts will be available on July 18.

[via YouTube Blog]

Viacom v. YouTube and what it means for your privacy

In the still-continuing Viacom v. YouTube legal battle, Viacom scored a victory recently when the court ordered YouTube to turn over viewing logs, including usernames and IP addresses. Google had appealed the request before, but the court ruled that the logs SHOULD be turned over. Google is now asking the court and Viacom’s attorneys to allow them to redact IP addresses and usernames from the viewing logs, as they are not necessary to determine “general viewing practices” and Google promises to continue to fight the good fight.

Frankly, we don’t really care if Viacom finds out we watched that clip from Punk’d where Zach Braff goes insane and almost kills the child actor 200 times — but we are happy YouTube (and Google) are fighting to protect our privacy.

[via YouTube Blog]

Passpack is an online password manager application that lets you store all of your passwords for web sites, bank accounts, or pretty much anything else in one place. The advantage of storing this info on a web site is that you can access it from any computer. So if you’re used to relying on your web browser’s password manager to login to your Yahoo!, Google, eBay, and other accounts, you might run into some trouble when using a friend’s computer.

But if you’re a bit paranoid about storing all of your most important passwords online, we don’t blame you. Fortunately, Passpack has recently released a desktop application built on Adobe AIR that lets you manage your passwords without opening a web browser. You can choose to synchronize Passpack Desktop with the web version of Passpack. But you don’t have to. In fact, you don’t even need to sign up for an account to use Passpack Desktop. All you have to do is install the application, choose a username and a security phrase and start entering data which will be stored on your computer.

The password manager is easy to use. Just enter a title, user ID, email address, and password for each site or service. You can add links, tags, or notes. When you need to find the correct password, you can just search for the site name or a keyword and you should be able to find the correct password. It’s not quite as convenient as browser-based password manager that automatically fills in forms for you. But the optional synchronization feature almost makes up for the lack of the browser integration.

Yahoo has officially rolled out its updated personal start page to all My Yahoo! users. My Yahoo! 2.0 has been in beta for the last year or so. But now there’s no more annoying little beta label, and users can’t switch back to the classic page anymore. If you don’t see the new page when you login, just wait a few days. According to PC Magazine Yahoo! plans to migrate all users by July 14th.

So what’s new in My Yahoo! 2.0?

• Modules are easier to reorganize and modify thanks to a drag and drop interface
• There are new custom-designed modules with content from partners like the New York Times and Wall Street Journal
• New modules add support for third party services like Netflix, Gmail, Facebook and POP mail
• New page layout options

The new page is also available now for users in additional countries including Asustralia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the UK.

Whether you want to design a dream home or figure out how to cram a new couch into your living room, Floorplanner can help. The site, which we first covered last year, lets you design, share, and export floorplans. The site recently launched a new beta version with a bunch of updates, including support for 3D objects. In other words, your couch, bed, table, or dresser might show up in 3D. Not every item in the library is available in 3D yet, but the company is working on adding more objects.

Here are a few of the other changes you’ll find in the new beta:

• Improved drawing of surfaces
• Faster loading speeds
• Option to hide the sidebar and maximize your work area

Floorplanner is free to use, and you can try it out without registering for an account. Eventually Floorplanner will offer free personal accounts plus paid professional and enterprise accounts.

PCIncubator aims to help you find the right parts at the right prices to build your dream PC.

We’ve all built a PC at some point. It’s fun, isn’t it? Pick our your case, the mother board, memory, GI Joe Stickers.

What?

The pain in the neck part of the process is finding the right parts that you need and not paying too much for them…or buying really crappy parts as a default because you don’t want to break the bank.

The parts are all out there, the internet is vast, but PCIncubator keeps tabs on the stuff that you need, the prices that are right, and does so very nicely if we may say.

They use NewEgg which is the geek chic place to shop for parts. They also keep a price history of all items so you can wait for prices to go back down if they go up. It’s kind of like shopping for airline tickets. It also gives you that Dell and Apple builder feel

Once you’ve picked your perfect PC parts, you can toss them all into a NewEgg cart and away you go!

Too bad that you can’t get Windows XP anymore

Please let us know in the comments if you have found this site helpful.