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Confused by this mess? Common Craft is a great resource to explain Web 2.0 tech using video and paper to provide exploration.
Check out an example:
View more examples here covering topics like podcasting, Twitter, photo sharing, social bookmarking, blogs, and RSS like above.
Startpage Mash-up!
The most comprehensive startpage review available…
To continue the weekly series reviewing, exploring, and living Web 2.0… Last week we introduced startpages.
Quick Note for those who feel left out: Web-based startpages(aka AJAX/Flash homepages) are nifty sites aimed at making your web life easier by putting most-needed services on one page. Check out my entry last week describing them. There are lots of them and they’re all free.
Go to the winner list…
Go to the reviews of the top 3…
Go to the score chart…
There are so many different options for what you can use for a startpage. In fact as I explored the list I gathered together last week, I discovered a few more. Some have big names with them, but surprisingly (or not) it doesn’t seem to guarantee quality. The startpage market has come into its own as something distinguished. I looked through 20 different options, which exhausts the lists of other older comprehensive reviews I found. For the sake of information, feel free to check them out: 14 Personalized Homepages Compared, Feature by Feature (June 2007); Top 12 web-based Startpages Compared. The winner is… (February 2007); and Alpha Geek: Start-page showdown (March 2007). My research even dove me into the world of easy-to-make webpages (now finally taking advantage of AJAX) and so I decided to draw the line of this review at the specific mention of startpage or a clear adherence to the concept. You can catch links to these page builders at the end of this entry. They do though provide a highly customizable option to developing a startpage.
To come up with a fair way to judge I had to come up with categories and an appropriate scoring system. I tried to think of the things most important to a startpage user. The categories I decided on are: user friendly, basic functions, looks, site layout, RSS handling, tabs, widgets, speed, a useful community, and an extras category. The overall scores were determined via an averaging of scores in all categories, you can view these at the end of the entry. The category winners were determined by which had the highest score in the category. If there was a tie, it was broken by which had the highest overall score.
Each was scored on a scale from 0-5. Zero - zilch worthwhile in the category. Five - I couldn’t have asked for much more in fulfilling the category.
User Friendly - How initially intuitive the functioning of and interaction with the site is.
Basic Functions - Whether or not basic functions expected from startpages are included. I considered RSS, email, calendar, todo, notes, and a few other things that my mind more than likely took note of.
Looks - Did it catch my eye or cause an eye-sore? Mainly, would I want to see it opening up in my browser every day.
Site Layout - Taking a close look at if the structure of the site made sense, displayed well, and felt like an asset to the functions offered.
RSS Handling - First, is there something to manage RSS feeds. Second, how worthwhile is it?
Tabs - Are they there? Also, looking at the functionality of them; if they drag, are easily created, and etc. or not.
Widgets - Variety, quality, number, organization, and integration were key factors in evaluating widgets.
Speed - Simply how fast it seemed to load and how quickly the site responded to user interaction.
Useful Community - Looking specifically at if there is a built-in community and how useful it is. Also, I wanted to see if there was any effort for one community to share/interact with another. Finally, I took into account permanent or shareable links to created startpages and their tabs.
Extra - This was a section to give extra points for unique features, overall site impression, and anything else that was hard to account for in the other categories.
The Winners!
Overall: Netvibes
And by category…
User Friendly: yourminis
Basic Functions: Netvibes
Looks: yourminis
Site Layout: yourminis
RSS Handling: Netvibes
Tabs: Netvibes
Widgets: Netvibes
Speed: iGoogle
Useful Community: Pageflakes
Extra: Symbaloo
Continue reading »
Of course it is.
This weeks Web 2.0 word is widget. In its most basic form, it is a component of a graphical user interface with which a user interacts. Basically, a space that contains data you are able to interact with. For our Web 2.0 sake, it’s an applet that user generated/guided content can be entered. Other terms used to describe web widgets include: gadget, badge, module, capsule, snippet, mini and flake. The theory behind the widget is code re-use. A standardized chunk of code that can be “dropped-in” with out much configuration, often standardized by individual site environments. You will see their intense use on the startpage sites I am reviewing but you can also notice them elsewhere; Google advertisement, MySpace, Flickr, and YouTube content is also widget based.
Now, I’m just delaying the reviews of the startpages until later this weekend. Turns out there were a lot of them to look through. Until then, I still need to post some sort of 2.0 nonsense.
I realized I haven’t spoken much about the functionality of my site. It is quite 2.0.
Register. Your profile is user generated content that allows for you to participate and create the user generated content on this site. Finally, the widgets on the right sidebar are yours to move. You can “grab” them by the title bar, click and hold, and move them to the position you want. The great thing is that if you have cookies on, your browser will remember where you placed them last and keep it that way. So if you’ve grown tired of my cute cartoon face, don’t hesitate to move it down.
To continue the weekly series reviewing, exploring, and living Web 2.0…
So slow I am to get you content! Well at least this weekly gig has me getting to the keyboard.
This weeks word is startpage. I most often see it written as one word, despite the battle my spell check (one word too?) is giving me. This is a more specific subcategory to homepage (which I guess is recognized as one word). A homepage is the page that first loads when you access a website. On the personal level, it’s the website you direct your “home” button to in your web browser. Nowadays, there are actually websites designed for the sole purpose of being your customized homepage. These startpages are available to be personalized, integrated, and be a true home on the web. Web 2.0 technologies used to its fullest, thanks to ajax technology. Some are dirty, some are clean, and some are both. I’ll explore what is best for you.
Why do you need a startpage? The web is overwhelming. This of course is after information had already became overwhelming. So take a bit of internet-prozac and simplify. Too basic? The great thing about a startpage is, when your ready, most can become as big as you’d like.
What is out there (that matters):
Netvibes, iGoogle, Webwag, Pageflakes, MyYahoo!, Protopage, yourminis, Schmedley, Eskobo, Windows Live, Favoor, Gritwire, Inbox, It’sAStart, MyHQ, Symbaloo, Only2Clicks, YSP, Linkedfeed, Flock’s My World…
Definitely NOT worth your time: YSP
First off, don’t invest to quickly. The best strategy is to look around, test ‘em out, and then decide. Customizing the perfect startpage can take many hours (worth it), but you don’t want to do it multiple times over.
Most are customizable. Color, movement, tabs, and content, it’s all up to you.
So lets take a look…
The link goes to a slideshow with screenshots of each of the startpage services (in the same order as above).
Next week I’ll switch into review mode and hopefully nab you a favorite. Take a look, read a book, and add me to your newest startpage. They range from simple to snazzy. Some will put all of Web 2.0 in one place before you are ready and others will share resources. Either way, you’ll have a new homepage soon.
To continue the weekly series reviewing, exploring, and living Web 2.0…
Okay, okay, so I’ve not really given you any juicy stuff on this Web 2.0. You are probably wondering where the content is, the applications, the useful stuff, and what will make your life easier (or harder).
Lets first consider Web 2.0 through the two things that make it possible.
1. Client-side software - The software and know-how of your computer that allows the most difficult processing to be done locally andrelieve the complicated back-end from the servers you are accessing. In other words, it is still an internet connection and not the speed of the insides of your computer. Much like the old terminal to server networks, but reversed. You have the power they have the fancy views and clever workings.
What you need:
The must haves…
-Java
-Flash
-Silverlight
Often times if you have the most updated version of your browser, your in. So find that ‘check for update’ option now.
Even so, there are some browsers known for being more Web 2.0 friendly and I suggest you try them out.
Firefox vs. Internet Explorer - Mozilla’s Firefox wins. IE is known for being finicky with Web 2.0 apps and just clunky in general. Also certain Web 2.0 content can cause memory leaks (which means a eventual need to restart as your computer slows to a halt).
Apple’s Safari is now out on both operating systems and so recently is Flock (based on a . Both are worth a try. Safari has a great reputation as being stable and not released if otherwise. It also, until recently, shakily handled Web 2.0 content. Simplicity guaranteed as always. For a loaded baked potato of Web 2.0 browsers, try Flock. It’s what I use and it’s built to use the web browser as your Web 2.0 hub. Recently released as 1.0 (out of development), it’s much more usable, but still crashes (albeit a basic amount now) and mysteriously leaks memory (but instead of quickly like before you have to leave the browser running for days and days on end to notice the drag).
The browsers…
-Flock
-Mozilla Firefox
-Safari
2. Server-side software - The server, accessed usually through an internet connection, tells your computer what to do and how to make it pretty. Running heavily off of advanced databases and other structured data formats, the structure allows for organized access. You can now take advantage of this by knowing the internet’s limitations and only updating tiny portions of content at a time, often resulting in very frequent but small data requests.
What they generally use, lay men’s terms, if you want to get all tech-y about it…
-AJAX is used to created interactive web applications that is responsive and interactive by exchanging those small bits of data constantly.
-HTML, DHTML, XHTML, and XML is used to code the pages that support the Web 2.0 content building on stricter rules to create interpretable standards.
-Special HTML (or microformats) are additions to the above code formats that allow for simplifications in Web 2.0 content and processes for specific web software.
-Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) creates standard layouts for a set of pages/site that can rely on color scheme or more specifically defined traits allowing them to be stored in one place and not separately on each page.
-Web APIs (application programming interface) are a machine (client) based interaction that moves away from read-only web sites.
-mashups are something you will see more and more and is the precursor to Web 3.0 as it takes unique information and attaches it to another pocket of unique information in way that connects data where the other’s ends.
-wiki or forum software is the growing user driven and edited content online.
-Atom or RSS are simple, standardized, and low memory ways to present constantly updated information in a readable format.
-Flash is interactive content gone graphically pleasing web application.
-Java and JavaScript are versatile and semi-related programing languages that have added complexity to web content when embedded.
Many of these are used together and you often don’t have to worry about what is being used as long as it work. I do hope that the simple vocabulary lesson will be useful in the future.
Next week and in the weeks to come, we will begin to talk about access to this content and the things that can help manage it. I hope from here on out the lessons will be shorter and the solutions will be longer. We have a foundation, now it is time to build on it.
To continue the weekly series reviewing, exploring, and living Web 2.0, I am going to talk about the very thing needed for it. The web, internet, or whatever you call it; you need a connection to the very network that makes it up.
We all know that a call to the local cable or phone company can set up access
that will plug you in. You are probably viewing this blog via such connection. Usually you are limited to locations that provide a connection. First, it was the hardwiring into hotels, campuses, and friendly shops. Now, added mobility has come with the advent of Wi-Fi, or Wireless Fidelity, but is still limited to the areas in which they are provided. A cellular phone can be used to connect but often at a price and with browsing limitations. Even smartphones (including the iPhone) dumb down varying levels of web content.
A new online existence increasingly depends on this access. As programmers rethink the content we view and use online, their world is a connected one. With frequencies, that allow the quick high bandwidth (amount of data at one time) transmission, still unavailable in most of the United States, this is a challenge for both sides. Municipal Wi-Fi networks are still in their infancy, just failing, or only working on a small scale. So what is an emerging Web 2.0 junkie to do? A slightly dated article on how to steal Wi-Fi shares some great, still valid, tips.
The best method to find some free wireless is to treat your laptop like a cell phone. Since Wi-Fi and cell phone signals travel on a similar radio frequency, the same tricks you use for getting a better phone connection might work on your computer.
We know everyone that is anyone has Wi-Fi, but often when you walk into those noted locations you aren’t just a click away. A ominous password, log-in page, or subscription request builds a wall that often seems too tall to climb.
Certain names are a giveaway that a network probably won’t be password-protected. Look for “linksys,” “default,” “Wireless,” “NETGEAR,” “belkin54g,” and “Apple Network 0273df.” These are the default network names for the most popular wireless routers. If a network owner hasn’t taken the time to change the default name, that’s a good clue that they probably won’t have a password either. You should also look for signs of hacker culture. Since hackers love giving away Net access, an all-lowercase name like “hackdojo” is most likely an invitation to log on. On the other hand, a name in all caps is typically a network under corporate lockdown.
If you do get prompted for a password, try “public”—that’s the default on many of Apple’s AirPort units. You can also try common passwords like “admin,” “password,” and “1234″—or just check out this exhaustive list of default passwords.
We can’t be the Mongols forever, and invade walls all day, if we really want the true access to Wi-Fi that we feel we deserve. An article by Bruce Schneier sheds some beams onto a new type of politeness and discusses the argument behind opening up your wireless network.
To me, it’s basic politeness. Providing internet access to guests is kind of like providing heat and electricity, or a hot cup of tea.
I’m told that uninvited strangers may sit in their cars in front of my house, and use my network to send spam, eavesdrop on my passwords, and upload and download everything from pirated movies to child pornography. As a result, I risk all sorts of bad things happening to me, from seeing my IP address blacklisted to having the police crash through my door.
This in detail may be true, but within a block of my apartment I know of at least four places with open networks. The risk can’t be very high, especially since I think a would be abuser prefers coffee or beer instead of the hallways of my building to accompany their surfing.
Mark Mulligan of Jupiter Research said it best: “If you’re a file sharer, you know that the likelihood of you being caught is very similar to that of being hit by an asteroid.”
Just as long as you keep your computer secure, you are fine. Those who mean to damage or steal your information could hack into your wireless network anyways. Your best line of defense is to install software locally to protect your computer no matter what network it is on. Newer versions of operating systems have firewall settings available, plus there is a good amount of free software available to download.
Security is always a trade-off. I know people who rarely lock their front door, who drive in the rain (and, while using a cellphone) and who talk to strangers. In my opinion, securing my wireless network isn’t worth it. And I appreciate everyone else who keeps an open wireless network, including all the coffee shops, bars and libraries I have visited in the past, the Dayton International Airport where I started writing this and the Four Points Sheraton where I finished. You all make the world a better place.
I’m not holding out for Ypsilanti’s city Wi-Fi to start working in more places than the center of the parking lot behind my apartment. In the mean time, eat, drink, sleep, and Wi-Fi without hassle at my place anytime. I encourage you to do the same.
I’m beginning a weekly series reviewing, exploring, and living Web 2.0. Every Friday, I will take a look at this emerging approach to the internet and how it relates to our lives. Web 1.0, if I can call it that, lasted probably beyond the confines of a decade. Being in an age of exponential growth, only a few years after coining the term, Web 2.0, the proverbial ‘they’ are already talking about Web 3.0. Those actively pursuing careers and developing lives today will soon be inundated with this technology. It will be imperative to maintain knowledge as much as understanding Web 2.0 will surely enhance your life. Ready? It’s easy or supposed to be easy. I will bring facts so you understand what everything means and share with you what is out there to use.
Since the introduction was long, I’ll keep this part short. Web 2.0…
can refer to a trend in web design and development — a perceived second generation of web-based communities and hosted services (such as social-networking sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies) which aim to facilitate creativity, collaboration, and sharing between users…
…it does not refer to an update to any technical specifications, but to changes in the ways software developers and end-users use webs. -Wikipedia
Are you on board? Share in what ways you are Web 2.0ed already. Any favorites? or are you just confused about it all?
Any solutions you are waiting to see?
…help me help you.
Note: Most of the links in this post lead to Wikipedia, a prime Web 2.0 example.
Edit: Found this great introductory slide-show
A young man finding his voice.
Web 2.0 mind map