WebBand Blog

Our last entry in the Web 2.0 series is on hobbies. Not all Web 2.0 technologies have a business purpose. There are tons out there that are fun or will help you grow a hobby. The Internet has become a playground for many people; these sites are part of the equipment.

www.golfscoretracker.co.uk
This site aims to provide a comprehensive online golf score tracking and analysis system that includes an online golf handicap. You become part of a growing golf community with access to events and societies, golf forums and even your own golf blog.

www.gusto.com
We Love Travel! So do you. And so do your friends. Gusto provides destination information, travel planning and a travel community you can rely on for travel reviews, hotel reviews, blogs and photos. Travel with Gusto!

www.daytipper.com
Every one of us is an expert on something. Chances are, through trial and error, hard work, or blind luck, you have learned something practical. Something that has helped make your life a little easier. It saved you time. It saved you money. Maybe it saved your marriage; maybe your life.

What you discovered is too helpful to keep to yourself. You want to share it. You think, “Others should benefit from this.” Maybe you can even profit from it. Now you can.

Welcome to Daytipper. Every day, content is added to this site that has helped someone before. The content here can help you. The editorial staff at Daytipper does not create the content found on this site. People like you do.

www.cafemom.com
CafeMom is a safe place for moms to share and connect with each other. A place where they can stay in touch with friends and reconnect with old friends. A site dedicated to making new friends – you may want to connect with moms who share your interests, age of kids, or live nearby. You create your own personalize homepage – express yourself! Upload photos. Post journal entries. Have a good time. Then browse around and see what other moms are doing and saying.

www.ebible.com
Do you read the Bible? eBible.com provides tools that might make it more effective and fun. Customize your reading, share feedback with others, find hints from other resources and add friends while gaining knowledge.

www.cingo.com
We believe that consumers and particularly families are really struggling with the trash, clutter, adware and spyware they must sift through to get the information they want on the Internet. With Cingo, it doesn’t have to be that way. We built Cingo to help families make the Internet work for them, not against them.

Still interested in what the Internet and specifically Web 2.0 has to offer? Check out this site:
http://www.go2web20.net/

Next week: Tax Tips

One of the most visible uses for Web 2.0 technology is music and video. The Internet has become a great tool for sharing and music and video have captured a lot of news. It began several years ago with Napster and has since expanded greatly. In fact I was watching the news last week and even the police departments are using online tools that promote video to catch criminals. What a powerful tool.

www.podango.com
Podango was started in early 2006 and is a Web 2.0 company that enables rich community conversations by integrating the “live conversations” of blogging and community forums with the rich communication value of audio and video podcasts to create a complete online and offline experience.

www.radioblogclub.com
Search for your favorite songs, play them online and then blog about them. Pretty simple to use and fun to play with.

www.clickcaster.com
ClickCaster is the simplest way to publish and share your audio and videos all over the web.

www.youtube.com
Everyone can watch videos on YouTube. People can see first-hand accounts of current events, find videos about their hobbies and interests, and discover the quirky and unusual. As more people capture special moments on video, YouTube is empowering them to become the broadcasters of tomorrow.

Next week: Hobbies

What is it?
Free software that helps you and your kids explore the Internet more safely. Family Safety helps you filter information based on each child’s age to help protect them from stuff you don’t want them to see. You can also limit searches, block or allow certain Web sites, and monitor what they’re doing online.

https://fss.live.com

This is something I found this past weekend. It seems to work pretty well, but can slow down your connection (especially on sites where the program will have to review content – www.si.com and www.abcnews.com seem much slower). But it does a good job of blocking unwanted content with tools to customize so that you can make site available that might be catagorized wrong. Let us know what you think if you try it out!

Microsoft Office has been the standard for productivity suites for many years. There are other packages (Word Perfect, Open Office, Lotus Notes, etc.), but none have the users like Office. But as the age of Web 2.0 continues to grow, what we’ll see is that our “office suites” won’t be tied to a program on our computers, but an application on the web. The first round of these are appearing in a browser near you. Here’s a sample:

docs.google.com
Google is at the cutting edge of online productivity suites. They have launched a full featured word processor and spreadsheet program called Google Docs and Spreadsheets. They are quite powerful and offer many of the same features as Microsoft Word and Excel.

www.zoho.com
Zoho has taken it one step farther. Not only do they have a word processor (Zoho Writer) and spreadsheet (Zoho Sheets), but add to that a presentation program like Microsoft PowerPoint (Zoho Presentation) and a program that puts them all together (Zoho Virtual Office). They have several other applications that are designed to make your online efforts more productive.

www.thinkfree.com
Think Free offers an online office suite that is compatible with Microsoft Office. Programs include Write (word processor), Calc (spreadsheet) and Show (presentation).

The main advantage that these types of applications have is that you can easily share documents among all types of users without using e-mail or disks. Imagine writing a newsletter for your family with their input even through your brother lives in Minneapolis, your sister in Texas and your parents in Arizona, all without sending the document individually. It can happen with these applications.

Other Applications
There are other types of productivity applications available as well. They have more specific purposes and usually are more “family friendly.” Here are just a few:

www.birthdaytime.com: Make a list of your contact’s birthdays and never forget to send them a card or present again!
www.writetomyblog.com: Do you have a blog? Use this tool to write your posts and have them published without going to the blog software.
www.dropboks.com: Online storage that is easy to upload files to and retrieve from. Get your 1GB free account today.

Next week: Music & Video

At WebBand, we offer free e-mail with our service. Most ISPs do. But there are a lot of free e-mail services available online. The most common are Yahoo Mail, Microsoft Mail (formerly known as Hotmail) and G-Mail. All three of these use Web 2.0 technologies. Both Yahoo and Microsoft have created mail clients that look and feel a lot like Microsoft Outlook Express (a very common software e-mail client). G-Mail, a service of Google, as created a new conversation style that is becoming very popular. For a review of these three, check out C|Net. Here are some other options:
DropSend
Use this service to send or store large files online (up to 1GB).

Goowy
Goowy is a service that offers you simple, intuitive tools for communicating and sharing on the web.

Inbox.com
I think the name says it all!

My E-Mail
MyEmail allows you to manage your already existing POP3/IMAP email accounts from any computer, anywhere in the world.

Free e-mail accounts are good to have. We recommend that you setup an account for yourself with one of the services above. Why? Here are just a few reasons why it’s good to have a free e-mail account:

1. Since they are free, you can create as many as you need (even for a short time – i.e. familyreunion@gmail.com).
2. You can create an account for your online purchases, newsletter subscriptions, contest entries, etc. They will attract the spam and keep your personal account clean (i.e. mypurchases@gmail.com for purchases, personal@gmail.com for personal communications).
3. When you change ISPs (we know you’ll never leave WebBand, but …), you can take your e-mail with you (since it’s not tied to your connection). I’ve had an account with Yahoo for over 10 years and during that time have had many different ISPs. I never had to tell my friends and family that I had a new address, it always stays the same.
4. You may find that one program handles e-mail better for you than others. For instance, G-Mail lists messages as a conversation. You see your original message, but also the responses (including your own). You don’t have to dig through your inbox to see who responded, its all bundled together.

E-Mail is a big part of your online experience. Finding the client that works best for you is just a matter of trying them out. Enjoy!

Next week: Web 2.0: Productivity Suites