The Internet is fast developing and the way we use applications may completely change. The main focus is on running programmes online, without having to download or install anything at all. This review highlights some of those programmes/services which can be run online. There are some websites which allow you to run sample operating systems online (while it takes a bit of time on dialup, you don’t have to do anything except double click here and there), but these sites focus more on the productivity side.
Starting off, www.writely.com is the website where I wrote this review. It’s a word processor, and it takes only a little while (even on dial up) to load. It’s surprisingly fast and extensive. You can undo/redo, cut, paste and copy, perform a spell check, change font, use colours, to name a few. Registration is required, but is free.
Once you’re logged in, you can create a new file or upload one to start editing on. You can upload word documents (maximum file size limit is 500KB) with images and other pictures, as it supports images as well (maximum file size per image should be 2MB). The support for viewing text files is added as well, but PDF and rich text files aren’t supported. Another feature which is useful is the ability to email your documents to a specific address — eliminating the steps of logging in and uploading.
The “tab” key was not functional — as it would highlight another part of the page. Apart from this, all is fine. The site is in it’s beta stages, so things might go wrong from time to time.
Another website which would be a treat for those who don’t have Microsoft Excel is www.numsum.com. It’s a basic spreadsheet programme which allows you to do the basic editing and creation of cells. Not being an Excel fan, I found it a bit tough to edit documents. Registration is not required, but if you wish to store your document for longer than seven days, you must register (free).
The website was a bit slow in terms of navigation. But the features it included were formulas (which weren’t working at the time I checked it), change the text colour, select multiple cells and perform basic summation calculations. In conclusion, the site offered the basics of spreadsheet functions but not for the advanced users.
For an online calendar, www.kiko.com would be a good place to start. The website is still in it’s beta (not final) stages and consequently, it doesn’t run on the popular Firefox browser (they claim they support Firefox). It’s one of the few portals on the internet providing a comprehensive calendar service.
Loading is a bit slow as it preloads several items. You can create labels, share your calendar with others in addition to the basic features of a desktop calendar. It’s completely online based and is quick in operation. Dialup users will, however, face some initial loading problems though. But for an online calendar, it’s very extensive. Again, it’s in the beta stages, so we should expect some ups and downs.
For another online calendar, you could visit www.calendarhub.com. Registration is free, and they recently came out of the beta stage. Again, the site takes some time to load up due to the preloading involved. I found no problems with the loading in Firefox or Internet Explorer.
You can share (or even publish) your calendar — allowing other users to alter information in your calendar, if and when required (e.g. if you’re planning to make a holiday with other families). Clicking on a date will open a pop up allowing you to create an event/reminder on that date. If you want, you can make a completely new calendar in addition to your existing one. If you want, you can get their desktop application, which will reduce the burden of opening the web page. All is synchronized automatically, and kept in a remote location.
While online calendars might be slower on dialup pages, it’s a new innovation in technology. It eliminates the need to have a scheduler on your computer.
For keeping personal notes (as well as non-personal notes), www.aypwip.org/webnote is a site which will be pretty useful for many. It’s got an extremely simple interface, and it doesn’t take long to load. You don’t have to sign up at all — all they require you to do is enter a name, which will be your personal notepad. You can change the colour of your notes, resize them, see the changes you’ve made to your personal note board, allowing you to retrieve an older version. And if you want to share it, you simply have to provide them with the address. However, they will be able to make changes to your notepad too. Your personal notepad is usually the website address followed by “/(the name of the notepad)”.
Another website in this category is www.protopage.com. It’s a bit slower as it is image intensive. You can do more-or-less the same functions. However, if you want to keep your notepad private from the outside world, you can, and changes aren’t performed unless you’re logged in. Another version of the notepad is being released soon, which will host a vast variety of features such as bookmarks, RSS and others.
Those who have instant messaging playing a vital role in their lives, they can check out www.meebo.com. There’s no software required, as said before. The login screen may take some time to load up, but once you’re in, it gives you the provision to enter either or all of your MSN, Yahoo, AOL/ICQ and Jabber/Google Talk login IDs and passwords, allowing you to sign in to all services without having to have different windows. Once signed in, you’ve got a list of your offline and online contacts, with a service icon. It animates if a person has sent you a message, with a message box. You may open up as many chat windows as you wish, and change the basics such as font, colour, text style, etc. It runs on very low system resources, and is pretty flexible. There are some limitations such as individual sign-offs (individual sign-ons are possible), a list of emoticons, to name a few.
The web pages use a technique called AJAX, which reduces the load on your browser and the server, allowing speedy page loads. If you experiment, not only do the pages load up faster, but in some cases, you can click-and-drag dialogues and more. Google’s Gmail was one of the few services to implement this technology, hence, the speed. The only limiting factor is your browser — Internet Explorer and Firefox are known to work with many sites, but others such as Opera may not display the pages correctly, or at all. Users with slow connections may not face many problems (except when there’s a huge preloading involved). Not only does this reduce the amount of applications needed on your computer, but helps keep your work synchronized (except for the chatting part, of course).
The Internet is fast developing and the way we use applications may completely change. The main focus is on running programmes online, without having to download or install anything at all. This review highlights some of those programmes/services which can be run online. There are some websites which allow you to run sample operating systems online (while it takes a bit of time on dialup, you don’t have to do anything except double click here and there), but these sites focus more on the productivity side.
