Thursday, April 1, 2010

MakeUseOf.com: “Cool Websites and Tools [March 31st]” plus 8 more

MakeUseOf.com: “Cool Websites and Tools [March 31st]” plus 8 more

Link to MakeUseOf.com

Cool Websites and Tools [March 31st]

Posted: 31 Mar 2010 08:31 PM PDT


Check out some of the latest MakeUseOf discoveries. All listed websites are FREE (or come with a decent free account option). No trials or buy-to-use craplets. For more cool websites and web app reviews subscribe to MakeUseOf Directory.

List Your Website Here!

 

CantYouSeeImBusy – Games can be good for productivity: but if your boss sees you playing a game instead of working however, all of the benefits are made irrelevant quite quickly. Enter CantYouSeeImBusy.com, a website which features three games that look like you're working. Read more: CantYouSeeImBusy: Games That Look Like You're Working.

 

TidyRead – Some websites especially main stream media ones take it too far by making their web pages very cluttered and not comfortable to read. This is where TidyRead can help, it is an online tool that can make reading web pages easy and comfortable bu removing all unnecessary clutter. It also provides fast, smooth, and minimalist experience when browsing sites on the iPhone, Android and other smartphones.Read more: TidyRead: Convert Webpages Into Readable Format For iPhone/Android .

 

 

Google Public Data Explorer – Numbers don't lie, but it can be very hard to figure out what they mean. Google Public Data Explorer seeks to clarify trends by letting you explore them in a variety of ways: graphs, maps and animations, to name a few. Read more: Google Public Data Explorer: Explore Interesting Data Statistics via Animated Charts.

 

 

WhySpamMe – If you like web surfing a lot, you will most likely encounter websites that will ask for your email. Most of these websites send useful emails, but there are others that end up spamming your inbox. WhySpamMe is a cool tool that protects you from websites that spam by giving you a disposable email address. Read more: WhySpamMe: Avoid Spam Emails with a Disposable Email Address.

 

 

WhenDidYouLast – Keeping up with recurring tasks requires you to be consistent in getting it done and actually remembering to do them. It is useful to keep a record of the last time you completed a recurring task. WhenDidYouLast is an online task manager that lets you keep track of these kind of tasks. Read more: WhenDidYouLast: Manage Recurring Tasks & Get Reminders.

 

 

Noterr – There are several applications to create sticky notes on your desktop but they lack the very basic feature of portability. Noterr is a sticky notes application that lets you create sticky notes online so you can access them from anywhere in the world. Read more: Noterr: Simple Sticky Notes Application Online.

 

List Your Website Here!

These are just half of the websites that we discovered in the last couple of days. If you want us to send you daily round-ups of all cool websites we come across, leave your email here. Or follow us via RSS feed.

Do you like MakeUseOf articles! Please do share our articles with others! It’s really important to us.

Similar MakeUseOf Articles

To Catch A Snoop: How To Tell If Someone Has Been On Your Computer [Windows]

Posted: 31 Mar 2010 06:31 PM PDT


It is a well known fact that a high percentage of identity thefts are done by family, friends (I use this word loosely) and acquaintances.  We’ve all heard the cases where someone who the victim knows gets a hold of their personal information somehow and wreaks havoc with their credit.  This can be done several ways including getting a hold of credit card offers (or other personal mail), snooping in purses or wallets, and even snooping on the victim’s computer.

A lot of those incidents can be avoided simply by taking care of your personal items.  Computers are no exception.


There are ways how to tell if someone has been on your computer and to keep prying eyes away from your computer in your home.  You can secure it with a USB drive, Windows logon password, or even a BIOS password.  You can also lock programs and even word documents.  However, as with most security attempts, there’s usually a way around them.  Security is basically a deterrent and the more work you make for a snoop, the less likely you are to become a victim.

OK, so you’ve taken precautions, to the best of your ability, to keep snooping people off your home computer but for some reason you believe someone’s been on there anyhow.  Did you know there are ways to tell if someone’s been on there and, to an extent, what they’ve been up to?  Your job of snooping on this snoop can be either difficult or easy, depending on how well they cover their tracks.  Let’s go through some methods of snooping on a snoop.

Check Recent Items Opened

how to tell if someone has been on your computer

Depending on your Windows version, you have a menu item named something similar to “Recent Items.”  This is a quick and easy way to tell what files have been opened recently.  Be aware that if the snoop has his head on straight, he could clear this.  However, if it’s cleared, you know someone has been on there, too.

Check Recently Modified Files

You can search for recently modified files in the advanced search window.  Just set the location to search (all hard drives might be a good start) and the date you want to search back to.

how to tell if someone has been on your computer

Make sure you set it to search for “Date modified.”

Check Which Programs Have Been Opened Recently

Some Windows versions give you a list of recently used programs as soon as you click on the Start button (meant to make them more accessible).

how to tell if someone has been on your computer

You can also use the Event Viewer for some recent activity, including programs opened and the last time the computer was booted up.  Go to the start menu and click “Run” and type “eventvwr.msc” and click “OK.”

For more help figuring out how to use the Event Viewer, check out this article by Saikat which explains how to use it to solve Windows problems.  It’ll help you get a handle on the viewer which will help you in finding out what a snoop could have been up to.

Check Internet Browsing Histories

What browsers do you have on your computer?  Check them all for Internet activity to see if someone’s been going online with it.  In Firefox, there is a History menu item.

In Google Chrome you click on the picture of the wrench at the top-right corner of the screen and click History in the dropdown menu.

In Internet Explorer, click the yellow star and choose the History tab.

Many snoops are smart enough to clear the browsing history.  Nowadays on some browsers they can choose which history to delete or go completely incognito and browse privately altogether.  It is for these reasons that this method will work only for the careless snoop.

Install Tracking Software

If you are wondering if there is an ongoing problem, install tracking software.  Varun mentions visikid in an article about parental control software.  You can also use other software such as K9 Web Protection to see a log of internet activity and even turn off the internet during specified times.  Then there is the infamous keylogger (which often gets a bad rap because hackers often use them for gathering information) for keeping up with snoops on your personal computer.

So if you are suspecting that a visitor (or even a current resident) of your home is snooping and you are fearing something bad (like your ID being stolen) is going to happen, now you have 5 routes to take to make sure nothing wrong is going on.  This way you can curtail it before the bad stuff happens.

Do you have any more tips to help sniff out a snoop?  Share in the comments.

Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too. Includes cool extras.

Similar MakeUseOf Articles

Zoho CRM: Manage Your Business Information Online for Free

Posted: 31 Mar 2010 04:31 PM PDT


While most online CRM software providers offer very limited or no free versions, Zoho continues to offer a full-featured Customer Relationship Management software that is free for up to 3 users.

Arguably one of the most valuable of Zoho’s online productivity applications, Zoho CRM allows you to organize and manage all of your sales, marketing, and customer service activities for your business.  Their free edition has an abundance of functionality that is more than sufficient for many entrepreneurs, start-ups, and small businesses.


The beauty of Zoho CRM, as with all Customer Relationship Management software, is that it is built on a relational database that lets you connect all of your different types of information.  Contacts are associated to the accounts to which they belong, tasks are assigned to specific contacts, sales opportunities to accounts, etc.  Each record type or “module” has its own tab where you can view records individually or in a list format.

You can create customized list views that are sorted and filtered for specific purposes.  By filtering on the “Account Type” field for instance, you might create a list that shows all of your restaurant accounts (I was hungry at the time of writing this article).

One of my favorite features is the “Zoho Sheet View” which will let you edit your list in a spreadsheet format using Zoho Sheet.  It makes for easy editing of multiple records at once.

The software is very flexible and configurable, allowing you to modify fields or add new ones that are relevant to your business.  For example, if you sell services like landscaping or IT support, you might want to add a date field to your accounts called “renewal date“.  You can add many types of fields including text, email, phone, pick list, website, and more.

The activities module lets you create tasks to remind you of next steps for contacts, accounts, or opportunities.  This helps you stay on top of your important to-do items and allows you to maintain an organized, detailed log of interactions with your customers and prospects.  No more fumbling through handwritten notes or cramming important details into the “comments” boxes in your email address book. You can also upload and attach files to any record.  The paid versions have the added perk of integration with Zoho Docs or Google Docs.

Another useful feature is their customizable “web-to-lead” form which can collect information on a webpage and automatically create new contact records (one form included with the free edition).

In addition to the standard record types for contact management, the free edition includes modules for opportunities (with details and activities related to each potential sale), cases (for managing customer service issues), and campaigns (to track and measure your marketing efforts).

Zoho CRM has a reporting feature that allows you to list and summarize data based on any criteria you choose.  There are many built-in reports such as “Accounts by industry” and “Opportunities closing this month“, but you can also custom design your own.  And if that isn’t enough, you can also use the reports to create “dashboards” that give you visual representations of information that is important to you.  You might want to see a graph that illustrates your current sales pipeline or a chart that shows the quantity of leads generated by each marketing campaign.

As an online hosted service, an additional benefit is that multiple users can access and share their information from any computer.  It’s easy to manage responsibilities because your data, such as accounts and tasks, can be assigned to specific users.  If you’re nervous about storing your important data in the cloud, you can review Zoho’s data security processes.  Their redundant, high security data centers probably protect your data better than the USB drive you carry in your briefcase, but you be the judge.  You can export your data anytime if you feel more comfortable having a local copy.

While the Zoho CRM free edition does have its limitations (more sophisticated features like inventory management and sales forecasting are reserved for paid versions), it is a remarkably robust and sophisticated application for zero cost.

To learn more about ZohoCRM, visit ZohoCRM, and you may also want to compare it with similar tools such as HighriseHQ and Timetonote.

If you are a Zoho CRM user, please share your experiences.  If not, what software do you use to manage your business information?

Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out MakeUseOf fan page on Facebook. Over 15,000 fans already!

Similar MakeUseOf Articles

Monitor Several Google Analytics Accounts In One Place With TrakkBoard

Posted: 31 Mar 2010 02:31 PM PDT


As part of the online career that I’ve built over the past half decade, I am now responsible for tracking and analyzing Google Analytics data for multiple clients as well as for my own blogs and websites. Once you have four or five Google Analytics accounts that you want to keep an eye on and monitor every day, things can get a little bit difficult to manage. Multiple passwords aside, it can be a real hassle to log into each account and dig through the Google Analytics navigation menus to view one statistical graph at a time.

When you want to do some analytical research that’s a bit more complicated, like comparing keyword trends to daily traffic, or top landing pages to popular keywords, things aren’t intuitive. You need to view a single graph and then switch over to the next graph, and if you’re trying to compare multiple blogs that you own all at once, you can forget about it.


This is why I was overwhelmingly pleased to discover Trakkboard, an amazing new application that plugs into and helps you with tracking Google Analytics accounts at once and provides you with a powerful dashboard where you can view as many statistics as you want all in one place.

Trakkboard – A High Level Overview Of Important Analytics Data

Trakkboard is a desktop AIR Google Analytics tracking application that runs in Windows, Mac or Linux. The owner of Trakkboard is Trakken Web Services GmbH of Germany, a company founded by two former Google employees, Timo Aden and Lennart Paulsen, in 2008. The company’s mission is to help businesses improve site optimization (whether that’s web traffic, conversions or both). Trakkboard is provided by a consultancy focusing on web analysis and conversion optimization.

Before getting into the Trakkboard Google Analytics tracking application, I’d like to quickly take a look at the standard Google Analytics display and point out what areas are lacking. Then, we’ll dig into Trakkboard and I’ll show you why simply using a more effective tool can significantly improve your optimization efforts.

In Google Analytics, you use the dropdown and select the account that you want to review. Given, the analytics screen provides an amazing collection of possible data…but as you can see that data is available for display one website and one account at a time.

With all of this extremely useful data available in Google Analytics, it’s difficult to imagine any other tool that could give you as much insight about your optimization efforts. However, Trakken taps into your Analytics data using the Google Analytics API. Additionally, Trakken can simultaneously log into your multiple Google Accounts and display all of them to you (as well as all of the data available via the API) in one central place – the ideal tool for Google Analytics data tracking.

As you can see, I’ve laid out a dashboard of the traffic for my websites. I have a row along the top with the hard traffic numbers, and then a row along the bottom that provides a realtime feed from Twitter with keyword usage. I do this so that when I see major spikes on Twitter, I have an indicator that a major event related to my blog content may be taking place. This is only one of the many ways that you can use this powerful Analytics Dashboard software to analyze your data in whatever manner you see fit.

When you add a new account, which could include one or more websites, the account name gets added as a new tab at the top of the dashbaord. You can quickly flip through all of your accounts with the click of the mouse (no need to log in and out of Google Analytics).

At the upper left corner of the window, you have the area where you can add new widgets to your dashboard. Right now, the widgets are focused on Google Analytics and all of the data you can pull out of it. However, as you can see the creators of this software have already integrated Twitter feed data into the analytics tools. Currently “More” only has a “Notes” widget that you can use to keep notes in your dashboard, but you can be sure that the developers are very likely working on some cool new widgets that you can incorporate into your optimization analysis and planning.

All of the data that you can retrieve from your Google Analytics account is available in the form of a dashboard widget. This includes pages/visits, top keywords and even any goals that you’ve created from within your Analytics account. For example, one of my favorite widgets is the one below that lets you break down your traffic sources in a line diagram that lets you see where your most significant incoming traffic is coming from in a graphical way. This is useful when there are major changes, because it’s much easier to notice a graphical change than it is to catch a numerical anomaly.

The power and usefulness of this tool is limited only by your own imagination and whether you can find a way to make good use of the data comparisons that are available there.

I love the Twitter widget. The ability to keep an eye on Twitter keywords in direct comparison to your site traffic and other stats provides you with some insight as to how well you’re catching traffic from social network buzz. It also gives you an alert mechanism when a major Internet meme flashes across the web.

If you’re interested in giving Trakkboard a try, go to the start page and submit your email address. Within a short time, you’ll receive a “Key” and a weblink you can use to download the application. So, why not give TrakkenBoard a try and start monitoring all of your Analytics data in real-time from one convenient desktop application? Once you do, come back and share your own feedback about the software in the comments section below.

We NEED Your Comments! Please do share your thoughts in article comments!

Similar MakeUseOf Articles

Building Web Pages From Scratch Easily Using Stiqr (Part 2)

Posted: 31 Mar 2010 12:31 PM PDT


00_Stiqr_logo from zero.jpgIn the previous article, we discussed how to set up your own self-hosted Wordpress so the look can be edited live directly in the browser using a web service called Stiqr. And as promised, we’ll now look deeper at building web pages for free with the web editing tools from Stiqr in this article.

I think there is no better way to do that than trying to build a webpage starting from scratch – the blank page. And because we have a long road to travel, let’s get the ball rolling, shall we?

Preparing The Blank Canvas

Before we can start “painting” our webpage, we need to prepare the canvas first (if you are continuing from our previous discussion about modifying the look of your Wordpress using Stiqr, you may want to jump to the next step).

Creating a blank webpage is not as simple as creating a blank text document – even though the process is not that different. There’s should be some kind of validation code within the blank page to tell the browsers that the file they are viewing is indeed a webpage.

First, create an empty text document and insert the validation code. You don’t have to write the code yourself because you can simply copy and paste ready-made HTML code from many sources available on the net, like this one.

building web pages for free

Then insert the code from Stiqr between the opening and closing “body” tags. You would also want to change the title of the page to your liking. The title is the text between the “title” tag.

building web pages for free

Save the file as “index.html“.

building web pages for free

The application that you use to create the document will ask whether you want to save the file using “html” extension or stay with “txt“. Click the “use .HTML” confirmation button.

01d Choose extension.jpg

Next, upload the “index.html” file to your website using a FTP application. Unless you are starting your site from zero, don’t upload the file to the root folder. Create a new folder instead and upload the file there.

02 Uploaded Index.jpg

Then point your browser to the folder where you uploaded the file. The URL would look something like this: “http://your_site_address/the_folder_name/“. Your browser will open the blank page even if you don’t write down “/index.html” at the end of the URL.

Press “Shift + F2” and register for a Stiqr account. Even if you’ve already have an account for another website, you still have to register for every page that you want to edit. The registration process has been discussed in the previous part.

When the page has refreshed, press “Shift + F2” one more time, and log in. Make sure you have the web design idea in your head and all the needed images and texts on your hard drive. With every necessary item checked, you are ready to paint your webpage.

The Picture Paints A Thousand Words

As I’m not the kind of person who feels comfortable doing totally-free drawing, the first step I took was checking the snap grid box and choosing the size of the grids from the toolbar below.

03 Snap On.jpg

A confirmation will appear at the top right of the browser every time you change the grid set.

03b Snap On Confirmation.jpg

The next step would be setting the background of your page. Click the circular “background” icon, and the background option will open.

04 Background.jpg

You can use web images, images from your hard drive or just plain color as the background. If you use an image, you can choose to repeat the image, make it fixed, and decide on the exact position.

If you choose a color, find the color that you want, find out the six digit color code from the “#” box below, and copy and paste the number into the “Color:” box.

04b Pick Color.jpg

Click the “Stick it” button on the right to apply the background picture/color. Use this button after every change to any element of your page.

04c Stick it.jpg

Next you can continue with the “shapes” tool, even though there’s only one shape available – for now: rectangular with the option to give it a round corner.

05 Insert Box.jpg

Pick the box color, stick it, and drag and drop it to the position that you want and resize it to the size that you prefer.

You can also apply images to the page. Use your own images or choose as many as you want from Stiqr’s image collection.

06 Inserting Images.jpg

And what about text? Write down the words that you want to show on the page, choose the font type-size-color, and stick it on the page.

07 Enter Text.jpg

Right clicking on the element will give you more options, including the ability to edit, duplicate and delete.

08 Right click menu.jpg

Stiqr also provides its advanced users the ability to add HTML/CSS code. And there’s the “apps” icon that ask users to “stay tuned“.

11 Stay tuned.jpg

To do a quick edit/delete on multiple elements, use the “manage my stickers” button. Next to it is the “Save Changes” button to make sure that all of your hard work doesn’t go to the sewer.

09 Manage Stickers and Save.jpg

How Far Can You Go?

I don’t have enough time to thoroughly play with Stiqr, so the result of my doodle is not worth displaying – yet. But to give you a picture of how far you can go with Stiqr, visit their showcase page. You can also test drive the service by clicking the corresponding button.

10 Test Drive.jpg

Stiqr’s main page was built using their own engine. And I think it would be perfect to close this article by showing you the video of how they did it.

And as always, share your thoughts and opinions using the comments below.

Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out MakeUseOf fan page on Facebook. Over 15,000 fans already!

Similar MakeUseOf Articles

Manage & Share All Your Firefox Add-Ons With The Add-On Collector

Posted: 31 Mar 2010 11:31 AM PDT


When was the last time you dived into your Firefox menu to check the number of add-ons you have installed? I bet we don't do that often unless we need to tick off an option or get one uninstalled. The convenience of Firefox add-ons makes installing and forgetting about them equally easy. Especially if we have lots of them.

But for the serious Firefox guy, managing add-ons is as serious an activity as say, tweaking the browser under the hood or choosing just the right theme to go with the day's mood.

The latest management tool for handling all those add-ons goes by the name of the Firefox Add-on Collector.


When I last checked, Firefox had 11,875 add-ons on offer. Then there are the add-on collections which are basically groups of related add-ons assembled for single click download.

With the mindboggling variety on offer, the Firefox power user would want a tool to manage Firefox addons. One way of course, is to make a daily visit to the Mozilla Add-ons gallery and check up on the latest. The more convenient way is to use a meta-extension that does it for you.

The Firefox Add-on Collector is about four things –

  • Managing your collections and creating your own from within Firefox.
  • Staying updated of any changes in the collections.
  • Sharing your collections with friends.
  • Synchronizing collections across your computers.

Let's see how these four attributes come together in this master add-on.

The Firefox Add-on Collector installs just like a usual add-on and can be accessed from Tools – Add-ons. You will need your Mozilla account or get yourself registered with a new one.

manage Firefox addons

As you step into the gallery with a log-in, you can browse and choose collections to add. Adding collections is simple with a click on the Favorites button.

manage Firefox addons

The Add-on Collector captures all your collections and lists them as subscriptions. With subscriptions, it's a cinch to stay updated with any change in the collections. For instance, any addition to the collection is notified via an alert.

manage Firefox addons

The Add-on Collector Settings lets you customize a few of the features like update intervals and the option of receiving notifications.

addons for firefox

Nothing remarkable so far. But the Add-on Collector also allows you to manage and share your Firefox add-ons with your friends with an email. You can share any add-on with a click on Publish to – Email Address.

addons for firefox

The same menu also lets you build your own collections by publishing add-ons to a new collection.

The Add-on Collector comes into real use if you have multiple computers setup with Firefox and a gallery of add-ons to keep track of. Using the Auto-Publisher feature, you can keep your add-ons synchronized across all your computers.

addons for firefox

Create an auto-publisher entry with one computer, and it will appear at the top of your subscriptions list on all of the computers that have the Add-on Collector installed. You’ll then be able to see add-ons installed on each computer that has an auto-publisher set up.

Install or uninstall add-ons and its gets auto-updated across computers. Auto-Publisher also works similarly between user profiles on the same computer.

Add-ons help to stretch Firefox to its full potential as a browser. But the large number of add-ons can also easily entangle you if you are not careful about your add-on picks. The Add-on collector makes it slightly easier to manage them and adds a lot more to the job of keeping them updated and synchronized.

If you are a regular at Firefox's add-on gallery, you wouldn't mind having the Add-on Collector in your list of add-ons.  Do you use it?

Similar MakeUseOf Articles

Three Free Yahoo Search Apps For The iPhone/iPod Touch

Posted: 31 Mar 2010 10:31 AM PDT


There are plenty of Internet search apps for iPhone and iPod touch users (if you’re looking for an interesting search app, check out my previous article Dragon: Two Free Voice Recognition Software For The iPhone), but if Yahoo happens to be one of your favorite search engines, the company offers three Yahoo iphone apps that have some useful and not-so-useful features.

Let’s see what they are.

Yahoo! Search

The Yahoo! Search app is the best of the three under review. It's similar to the Google voice recognition search app, but its design may be a little more appealing than Google's.

Yahoo! Search is simple to use. Simply click the microphone and speak your search topic. In the searches I conducted, I found its search speed fast and for the most part accurate. If you search for restaurants and other businesses, query results include local listings (address and phone number) and an embedded Google map for nearby locations.

Links to additional information downloads inside the Yahoo iphone app, but you also get options for emailing a link to page results or opening them in the Safari web browser.

The app also contains a list of recent queries, but it only appears when the search field is empty.

Yahoo! Shopping

There are several shopping apps for iPhone and iPod touch users, and unfortunately this Yahoo version doesn’t stand out as that unique. You can filter your searches according to one of 24 categories, including appliances, books, cameras, electronics, music, toys, and video games.

The app includes settings for local searches, but in my test of camera searches, camera shops in my city were not among the list of search results.

Search results include comparative prices, ratings, and tax and shipping calculations for selected products. You can save searches, but unfortunately the app is not set up to sync with your personal Yahoo account.

yahooshopping_9.jpg

Sadly also, the homepage of the app can't be customized. The front page opens with photos of random products that may or may not be of interest to app users.

yahooshopping_2.jpg

Yahoo! Shopping has potential but it needs a lot more features for such a large search engine like Yahoo.

Yahoo! Sketch-a-Search

Yahoo! Sketch-a-Search is a slightly different type of search app. Its search focus is for local restaurants. It doesn't require keywords or typing. You simply click on the middle green button and then draw a circle around the area where you want to search. The results you get are Google map listings and a list of restaurants in the selected area.

yahoosketchsearch_3.jpg

Results include logistical information and Google map directions. The Yahoo iphone app includes an additional feature for filtering restaurants according to cuisine, ratings, and ambiance. My test of this feature got mixed results, with many areas not yet supported.

yahoosketchsearch_7.jpg

The Google map results include the familiar pin drops for restaurants locations. You'll need to zoom in/enlarge the map in order to click on individual locations. Information on restaurants include phone numbers, ratings, directions, photos, menu pricing, but the results of this information is very mixed. Some results reveal little or no information, and many of the photos don't depict well selected locations. The basic draw back to this app is that it's limited to restaurants, excluding other types of business and locations.

yahoosketchsearch_13.jpg

These apps are not very polished, so let us know about your favorite related mobile apps for local searches.

Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too. Includes cool extras.

Similar MakeUseOf Articles

How To Use Google As A Calculator

Posted: 31 Mar 2010 09:31 AM PDT


google-calc-iconIf you're like me, the one program that never closes on your computer is your web browser. And why not? I use my web browser to access my email, my calendar, my work here at MakeUseOf and even a good chunk of my entertainment.

But why stop there? Your web browser can function perfectly well for making basic calculations, and you don't even need to install any plugins. There are a variety of online calculators out there, but I prefer to just use Google as a calculator.

Why? Because for what I need to calculate day-to-day it works. That and, since Google is my homepage and almost every browser builds in easy access to Google's search functions, it's almost always on hand.

Basic calculations

Getting started with Google as a calculator is easy: just type in what you want to calculate. If you're stupid, for example, and don't know what one plus one is, a quick search for 1 + 1 will give you the result.

google-calc-basic

This is a really simple example, of course: the calculator can do more than addition. Subtraction (1-1), Multiplication (1*1), and division (1/1) are all simple, as are exponents (5^6). A complete list of the functions Google's calculator can use can be found here, and includes advanced functions including square root (sqrt(110)) and percentage (5% of 300).

As with any good calculator, parenthesis can be used if you want a certain part of a calculation to be completed first. This allows you to construct complex equations if you like, but you might find that really complex stuff is best left to actual calculators. Still, if you want to dive into the Google Calculator as deep as you can, I highly recommend GoogleGuide's calculator page for more information.

Conversion

But Google calculator isn't just useful in the ways a traditional calculator is; it goes beyond that, allowing you to convert between any two units just by typing a simple sentence. For example, I live in Boulder, Colorado now but used to live in Peace River, Alberta. Driving to Peace River from here is almost 1,600 miles. I could inform a Canadian friend of mine of this number, but seeing as everyone uses kilometers in Canada it probably wouldn't mean much to them. No problem, I can do a quick conversion with Google.

google-conversion

Conversion isn't limited to units of distance: you can convert Fahrenheit to Celsius (80 degrees Fahrenheit to Celsius), find out how many tablespoons are in half a cup (tablespoons in half cup) or silly things like how many bakers dozens there are in a score.

You can even convert units that change over time, like currency. If I were planning a trip to Peace River, I could use the conversion tool to figure out how many Canadian dollars I could buy with 500 American.

google-currency

(Looks like the American dollar is a lot weaker than it was during my move. I should have held on to my Canadian currency…)

Other Nifty Features

If this is the first you've heard about using Google's search function for anything besides…well…search, you'll be interested to know that using Google as a calculator is just the tip of the iceberg. Google can quickly find local weather reports, information on packages and even the scores to live sporting events—all by typing a single search. Read all about it in Charnita's article about 9 cool Google search shortcuts.

Conclusion

Google's mostly known for its search engine, and rightly so: its widely thought to be the best on the planet. But building a calculator into the search bar means I can crunch basic numbers and conversions right from my search bar or home page. I use this on a daily basis.

What do you guys think? Is this a useful feature for Google to have, or would you never use a search engine to crunch numbers? Do you prefer another search engine to Google, and want to discuss its merits over Google (whilst possibly insulting me for not mentioning them?) Well, we have comments, so you're free to say what you like!

Got Questions? Ask Them Now FREE on MakeUseOf Answers!

Similar MakeUseOf Articles

3 Ways You Can Learn To Speed Read Online

Posted: 31 Mar 2010 08:31 AM PDT


srHeadThere are many schools of thought online and off on how to learn to “speed read” and even if speed reading is a real thing. Can I learn to speed read? This is not only a question but also an argument – Is speed reading real?

I can safely say that it is! Speed reading is not only real, it can be achieved in many different manners and can be fueled by training and dedication. You can train yourself to be a faster and better reader a few steps at a time. Let's take a look at what resources are available for you online.


For our first tool, check out Spreeder for some great speed reading exercises. Spreeder was covered in the MakeUseOf directory a while back. When we arrive at the site we will see this:

learn to speed read

You can either paste in your own text or use theirs. It will flash each word in front of the screen quickly at a pace of 300 words per minute. Practice with different texts and at different speeds. You can change the speed and font, background colors, sizes and more by clicking on the settings:

learn to speed read

Our next tool will help you with studying or reading material where you will need to digest everything. It assists with what they call line reading. That is also the name of the tool. You can check it out here.

learn to speed read

Once you open up the web application you will see it is very similar to Spreeder with the exception that it displays a full line at a time instead of single words. But the trick is that they highlight the words as you should be taking them in. This will help set your pace and also shows you the words that will be coming up.

how to increase reading speed

Copy and paste the text you want to read into the box you see on your screen and when you are ready, hit the accept button. The text will then be displayed like you see below.

how to increase reading speed

You can increase or decrease the speed to help train your eyes to act so that you can optimally take in as much information in chunks as possible. They also offer a similar flash reading tool to Spreeder without all the options.

Finally we will be looking at a method to test your reading speed. You can use this before and after your studying sessions with the first two tools to chart your progress. The site is called Reading Soft.

When you arrive you will see some text and a start button. Click the start button and start speed reading.

how to increase reading speed

When you are complete you will see the stop button. Go ahead and click it.

speed reading online

Then click the done button to move on to your score and a reading comprehension quiz. After all what good is speed reading if you do not understand what you have read?

speed reading online

Do you have tools or other resources to help us learn to speed read? Have you used any of these three tools to help improve your word per minute reading? If so please share them with us in the comments!

Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out MakeUseOf fan page on Facebook. Over 15,000 fans already!

Similar MakeUseOf Articles

No comments:

Post a Comment