February 5th, 2010
The exciting thing about Trivlike is that it quizzes you with a tight time limit on each question and you have to make your choice of answer rapidly. There’s just about time to read the question and the multiple choices before you have to click, and the time slider is going down quickly. To start you need to sign up with your Facebook account and then it asks a few more questions – for example you can choose a different screen name – and then you can try your first set of 20 daily questions.
The questions are tricky, especially as there’s an American focus to them. Once you start taking the quizzes you can move on to a second feature of the site, and this is where I would have liked it to be slightly different. Before logging on I hadn’t realised the quizzes would also be used to help find good matches with like-minded people for dating and friendship. This is a fairly standard option on other social networks, if you want to use it, but I would have preferred a more clear option for those of us who would only want the site for the trivia quizzes and perhaps to chat to others who enjoy them.
This could be achieved by tweaks to the design, which at the moment seems to hint more towards it being a dating site. It could be both, and a quiz and friendship site with a dating option might be the better way round to go – I wouldn’t have logged in if I had thought it was a site with questions to help find a partner. Some people would like it as a dating site so it all needs to be made more clear and easy for people to opt for dating or just quizzes with or without chat.
Tags: dating, friendship, general knowledge, matchmaking, Quiz, trivia
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February 3rd, 2010
It doesn’t take much imagination to see how much fun and how revealing this site could be. GoaQoo lets you ask questions secretly so long as you know the email address of the person who you want an answer from. They won’t be passed your identity or your email address, and if they answer GoaQoo will send their reply back to you.
It may not be a serious business idea but it’s such an intriguing site that it’s sure to be used. No doubt teenagers will love it for asking those embarrassing questions they really need to know the answers to. Relationship questions are sure to be high on the list, and perhaps some people who never grow beyond teenage will also be using it! It’s hard to know if more mature people would trust this system, especially the ones asked to answer an anonymous question. It’s bound to be a hit with secondary school kids, though, and I must admit I’m going to give it a test run.
Tags: email
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January 19th, 2010
If you’re looking for a free website there are many choices, so FreeWeb.Me has plenty of competition and needs something to attract attention. It’s easy to create a website with FreeWeb.Me and also the templates provided are attractive. I tried setting up a website, it was done in a few simple steps and it did look impressive with good graphics. You choose your domain name and it will have this format www.yourname.freeweb.me
With more than 300 designs to choose from you should be able to find one you like, and the code is written to be optimized for search engines. There’s also a link to help you submit your site to Google. The pages have been designed to be compatible with all the major browsers. As well as the free service there’s a reasonably priced premium service with more templates and facilities.
Tags: free websites, Search Engine Optimized, SEO, website creation, website templates
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January 18th, 2010
This is a straightforward site that looks very simple but performs an incredibly useful task. It does exactly what it says in the title – you can use it to make a PDF file of any webpage. To do this you go to PDFmyURL.com and type in the URL of the page you want converted to PDF. Within seconds you have a PDF. There are many reasons you might want to do this, and particularly because it’s easy to share PDFs with others. Anybody can open and look at a PDF, and this type of file doesn’t change format when passed to somebody else and opened using their software.
PDFs of webpages can also be useful in reports, as well as for book illustrations and for many other purposes, so I’ll definitely be using this site again. I do have the ability to convert to PDF with other software I have, but this type of online tool is so much quicker and simpler to use when I’m in a hurry. One of the main reasons I’ve needed to convert to PDF recently was in order to have a document printed out that changed format at the printers, and PDFs are great for retaining their layout. There are extra options available, such as changing from portrait to landscape and adding headers, and as a quick way of storing webpages as PDFs it’s a very handy online tool.
Tags: convert PDF, pdf, PDF conversion, PDF from HTML, PDF from URL
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January 16th, 2010
This is an online tool I’ll be returning to many times. It lets you easily upload various versions of a document to compare and then work on them. I tried it out with a few versions of an article I had written, and it showed me one version in main text with any differences from two other articles clearly displayed in a wide right margin. This is essential for anybody working on an edited document, especially if they have received comments and editing back from other team-mates.
This is the beta version and it worked perfectly on my documents, but it does warn that it’s best for text only and not documents with tables or images. To use it you go to the CompareMyDocs site where you will be prompted to click on the Choose File button for up to 7 files. Once the files are uploaded they will appear on screen automatically and you can scroll through to see any differences.
CompareMyDocs offers suggestions for editing which you can accept or scrap and you can also type your own additions and combine document versions. The Help page is particularly well laid out to take you through each process step-by-step. There are various document comparison and merging packages available, but this online tool is so easy to use it should appeal.
Tags: document comparison, document management, document merging, editing
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January 14th, 2010
This online service lets you sign up for free and track your emails to see if they arrive, when they get opened, if they get deleted without being opened, if somebody else opens the email rather than the recipient, and if any attachments were opened. One of the most frustrating things about email is not knowing whether or not they arrive and if the person is deliberately not responding or if they never received your communication.
WhoReadMe can go beyond tracking what happens to your emails. It can also tell you the recipient’s IP Number, their browser and also their location on the map. This will all be invisible to the recipient. To use WhoReadMe you sign up on the website, click on an activation email and then you can send any emails you want tracked via the website, but your usual email address will be given to the recipient. There is a limit on the number of emails you can track per day, but they can have a number of CCs on them.
Tags: email, email tracking, geolocation, location tracking
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December 30th, 2009
Many of us need to share large files and they can’t be sent easily by email so it’s necessary to use special services. One of the latest is Gygan, a site that lets you download free software to let you share large files in a way they claim is easy and fast. There’s no cost for uploading and downloading files and they state there is no limit on transfer speeds.
This is the Beta version of Gygan, and along with the downloadable software there’s a website with forums for discussion. I’ve tried the software and it’s easy to use and to organise files for upload and download. Free downloads up to 2GB are available, and this system is ideal for large files such as videos, high res photos, and audio. It could also be used for distributing software to clients. Files can be kept private for security reasons, and there’s no limit to the number of files you can store on the system. Although it’s still at Beta testing stage it’s worth a try if you need to work with large files or share video, audio and photos with family and friends.
Tags: audio, broadcasting, file storage, filesharing, Gygan, high res photos, large files, podcasting, Video
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November 29th, 2009
I’m reviewing few websites that help you run your own business these days, and that’s because I know how useful it is to have a website that will take care of mundane but essential tasks like invoicing. InvoiceDude jumped out at me as soon as I saw it because it can be particularly tricky for newcomers to business trying to sort out how to manage this task. The designers created this website because they needed an easy and effective invoicing system and realised how hard it is to find one.
With InvoiceDude you fill in the details as simply as filling in a form and you can invoice your customers and clients wherever you are in the world so long as you have internet access. The data is also backed up by InvoiceDude so, whatever happens, you should have the information you need for your accounting. I would also always keep my own data backup and printed out copies of invoices. Clients can also have their own panel where they can check to see their invoices, and InvoiceDude lets you ask for payment to your PayPal account. All of this makes credit control much easier.
Recurring invoices can be set up for regular invoices for the same amount of money, multiple currencies are supported, and there are ways of importing and exporting data. Customised emails to send your clients notification and the ability to add your business logo are two other features. There are other business management websites, but this one is particularly good for invoicing and is completely free.
Tags: accounting, bookkeeping, credit control, InvoiceDude, invoices, invoicing, self-employed, small business, SOHO
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November 24th, 2009
Social networks are all very well but some of us want to be building a virtual community network with people we could actually meet locally. This is particularly important if people are using a social network to build up contacts for a shared interest or activity, or if they want to use it for business or educational reasons. For those using social networks in order to find friendships and personal relationships it would also be of benefit to have their virtual contacts living within travelling distance. For these reasons SocialStreets will appeal to many who can’t find what they want on the usual social networks.
If you take a look at SocialStreets check on the first page to see if your country is available. The US, UK and many other countries are already there. After that you can narrow down to your local region and type in a key word to become more specific. This will let you connect with people and activities in your actual area. At a glance SocialStreets seems particularly useful for listing your work or business activity and also for finding businesses and services in your local community.
Tags: business directory, local business, Social Networks
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