Archive for the ‘Web’ Category

« Older Entries

Ask.com Web Search Review

Thursday, August 19th, 2010
Posted in Web · Tags: ,

I’ve been using Ask.com’s web search for a week instead of Google.

Some things I dont like about Ask’s search are

  • The TITLE tag always says “Ask.com What’s Your Question?” rather than putting my search string, so if I have many tabs open I can’t see what is what.
  • Wikipedia links go through a Ask.com template. There is a link to go straight to Wikipedia’s version below the search engline listing and on the Ask.com templated entry.
  • The sidebar has Related Searches and Search History, but why not more a date range option like Google has? Sometimes I want a newer result for what I’m searching for and I’d rather not have to go into settings change it and then change it back later.
  • For some reason sometimes the calculator wouldn’t compute, but if I refreshed it would work.
  • Ask.com does offer search features such as a calculator, weather, conversions and more; However, I noticed the spelling check that it does automatically like Google does, is not as good.
  • Ask’s maps are powered by Bing and always default to New York, but then tries to figure out your location via JavaScript and is slow to update it.

Apparently they just redid their homepage a few weeks ago, but I’ve really never used the site before. I still use Google products (Maps, Reader, Docs), but I think I’ve moved from Google search for the most part.

Leave a Comment »

Alternatives to Google

Saturday, August 14th, 2010
Posted in Web · Tags: , , ,

Due to recent statements from Google on net neutrality, privacy and anonymity, I’m beginning to wonder if its a good idea to use one site for everything. After all organizations like WikiLeaks could not exist without anonymity, plus I believe net neutrality is important for information to remain available, the growth of new businesses, services and websites in general. I like many of Google’s products, but I believe it would be best to spread your “data” around. Plus it’s not that hard, many sites use OpenID or don’t require log ins. If you are looking for alternatives to Google, here are some websites to try.

Leave a Comment »

Top 5 Open Source PHP Content Management Systems

Friday, August 13th, 2010
Posted in Web Apps · Tags:

I wouldn’t consider this list to be the best, just the ones that have become the most popular. Some of these CMSes became popular because they were good, but many overtime have become pretty bloated. However, since people know them, they are highly customizable, and very powerful they have huge communities behind them. But as you know, what’s popular today on the internet will soon change. Afterall, back in the early 00’s PHP-Nuke was the most popular open source PHP CMS.

  1. Drupal – Even though it’s very popular, Drupal has a slightly steep learning curve and it’s usability isn’t what it could be. However, you don’t need to know how to code to get things done. There are a lot of plugins to do almost everything you want, however since they aren’t official plugins, you are at the mercy of the developer (if they break or if you need a feature added to them, unless you know how to modify the code). It’s possible to make your own plugins if you like as well.
  2. Joomla! – Like Drupal you won’t need to know how to code to use Joomla, but you can make your own plugins if you want to get in and code. There are a lot of plugins, however many of them cost money. The interface is a little more intuitive than Drupal, but not exactly elegant.
  3. WordPress – Although it’s primarily used as a blogging platform the custom fields, custom posts types and custom taxonomies features allow you to use it like a CMS. Plenty of great free plugins and themes exist out there. Plus if you want to get into the code you can build your own plugins as well or just modify your templates. WordPress is a personal favorite of mine. ;)
  4. XOOPS – Another popular CMS, however the themes aren’t as customizable as I would like. Still it’s got a lot of features and the admin is easy to use.
  5. MediaWiki – Even though it’s really a wiki, many sites have used it like a CMS. When Webmonkey relaunched their site, it was built in MediaWiki.

Most of these CMSes I believe are popular because they are very flexible. With a little training a non-technical user can create content like blogs, site news, an online book, FAQ, RSS feeds and more. Along with that some feature standard community based features such as forums and comments. With a little coding, the developers that set them up can extend the functionality beyond what they was intended. The ones on the list above have been the most popular since 2006 and have maintained their popularity since then. But I don’t believe all of them will remain in the top 5 in another 5 years.

Honorable Mentions

Leave a Comment »

Alternatives to Digg

Thursday, July 29th, 2010
Posted in Web · Tags:

Just incase you don’t like the Digg version 4, here are some alternatives to check out.

  • DZone – Great site for development news and blog stories, they have plenty of tags to let you filter out what you use. The site gets a lot of submissions but not enough votes on the submissions to figure out what is really good (the top stories for 24 hours may only have 15 or 8 votes). Also the AJAX scrollbar is irritating to me.
  • DesignFloat – Focuses on web design news and tips, but most of the submissions are nothing but lists.
  • DesignBump – Another site about web design news and lots of lists
  • Sphinn – Dedicated to internet marketing
  • reddit – Similar to Digg, but the design is too plain and submitting stories can be a pain as they make you wait a long time before submitting again. The submissions are pretty general so expect a lot of weird images, funny videos and bizarre news.
  • Slashdot – The classic technology news site is still around and has improved a bit, but it doesn’t have as that much information on web development and design.
  • Mixx (classic) – The submitted stories aren’t as good as they should be, but you’ll get the top news stories. The site has a general audience, so the technology news isn’t what it could be. I really dislike how they changed the homepage for mixx.com because they wanted to promote tweetmixx which doesn’t seem much more than something that could be a sidebar.
  • Propeller – Another general news site.
  • Yahoo! Buzz – Another site to find the top news stories online

Leave a Comment »

A Yahoo! Messenger Security Hole

Saturday, July 3rd, 2010
Posted in Software, Web

Why does Yahoo! Messenger allow people that are not on your buddy list to send you files? Seriously, there should be an option to disable anyone sending you a file that is not on your buddy list. If you want to trust anyone, you can disable that option, otherwise you should be able to turn it on and prevent anyone from giving you viruses. Not only that, but I’ve noticed that somehow people that send you files over and over can crash your Yahoo! Messenger or lock it up so you have to Control-Alt-Delete and kill the program.

Leave a Comment »

« Older Entries