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Fast Track
to
The Web Section II
Advanced

By Team Digit
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Credits
The People Behind This Book

EDITORIAL
Robert Sovereign-Smith Assistant Editor
Nash David Writer, Copy Editor
Bhaskar Sarma Writer
R Srikanth Writer
Kartik Menon Writer
Om J. Bathija Writer

DESIGN AND LAYOUT

Vijay Padaya Layout Designer
Sivalal S Cover Design
Harsho Mohan Chattoraj Illustrator

© Jasubhai Digital Media, a member of the 9.9 Media Group

Published by Jasubhai Digital Media, a member of the 9.9 Media Group.
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form
or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher.

March 2008
Free with Digit. Not to be sold separately. If you have paid separately for this book, please
e-mail the editor at [email protected] along with details of location of purchase, for
appropriate action.
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Introduction

World In A Browser

L
ast month, the focus of our Fast Track to The Web was the PC—
how to get it connected to the Internet, and all the essential
software you need for your online activities—browsing the
Web, chatting with friends and so on. This month, we explore all
that you can do online—you’d be surprised at what you can
accomplish with just a browser!
No doubt you’ve heard of—if not actually used—the many online
office suites that claim to threaten Microsoft Office’s position in
the office application category. Google recently added Presentation
to its offering, completing the Holy Trinity of documents,
spreadsheets and presentations. Zoho’s been around for a while,
and new features are added every day. Not as prominent is
ThinkFree, which impressed us nonetheless. In the first chapter,
you’ll get what you need to start using these applications.
Once you’re done with business, you can indulge in a pleasure
that so many people are—blogging. Blogging engines give you a
platform to create a spiffy new blog in minutes, and if you still
can’t come to terms with them, Chapter 2 will reveal All. We’ve
also looked at the new “microblogging” engines, that don’t
demand as much of your time—just a short quip about what you’re
up to, and that’s it!
There’s been a lot of talk of an online version of Adobe
Photoshop lately, but while we wait for that, other players have
started offering us easy-to-use, free, online image editors that’ll
even send your photos to services like Flickr or Picasa when you’re
done editing them!
That done, you can participate in the activity that’s hogging the
majority of the world’s collective bandwidth—file sharing! Whether
it’s BitTorrent, eMule, Gnutella or Direct Connect—if it’s
controversial activity you hanker for, this is your primer.
And finally, from the deep, dark trenches of the Web, we’ve dug
out services and Web sites that’ll give you software advice, reviews,
and even a friendly hand when things go wrong.
So get that browser window open now!
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CONTENTS

Section II Advanced

Chapter 1 Office Online 7

1.1 Google Docs 8
1.2 Zoho 13
1.3 ThinkFree 18

Chapter 2 Blogging 23
2.1 Blogging 24
2.2 Micro-blogging 30

Chapter 3 Online Image Editors 34

3.1 The Contenders 35

Chapter 4 File Sharing 58

4.1 BitTorrent 59
4.2 µTorrent 61
4.3 BitComet 65
4.4 Azureus 71
4.5 BitTyrant 77
4.6 eMule 77
4.7 Shareaza 80
4.8 DC++ 82
4.9 Conclusion 84

Chapter 5 Online Social Networking Sites 85

5.1 Orkut 86
5.2 MySpace 88
5.3 Facebook 89
5.4 Desi Variants 91
5.5 Friendster 93
5.6 Hi5 95
5.7 OKCupid 96
5.8 Forums 97

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Chapter 6 Software Downloads 99

6.1 Softpedia.com 100
6.2 Download.com 102
6.4 Soft32.com 105
6.5 MajorGeeks.com 108
6.6 Brothersoft.com 111

Chapter 7 Reviews 115

7.1 Software Reviews 116
7.2 Hardware Reviews 119
7.3 Game Reviews 124

Chapter 8 Tech Help 128

8.1 Buying 129
8.2 Using 132
8.3 Disposing 141
8.4 Conclusion 144

Chapter 9 Online Services 145

9.1 Online File Storage 146
9.2 Online Messenger Services 152
9.3 Web Albums 155

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Office Online

S
o what’s the need of today’s netizen? Uninterrupted work—
whenever, wherever! Behold! The answer lies once again with
the Internet. Among the needs of this fast-moving generation
are word processing software, spreadsheets and presentations. We
dwelled among possible alternatives for the rush-hour guy and
came across three websites that serve this rising need. Google is
one (no prizes for guessing that!). The other site is Zoho.com, and
the third is Thinkfree.com.
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I OFFICE ONLINE THE WEB: ADVANCED

1.1 Google Docs

Under the Google Documents umbrella of offerings comes three
vital services—Documents, Spreadsheets and Presentations.
Understandably, these are alternatives to MSWord, Excel and
PowerPoint, respectively. So how do we go about using them?

1.1.1 Google Documents

As most of you probably know, one needs a universal Google
account that can be used across all Google services. This means
that in case you use Gmail then you already possess the prerequi-
sites. To start off with the Google Docs suite, start of by visiting the
URL http://docs.google.com, and enter your user ID and password.
To get a feel of how the online office suites function, start off
with the word processor, also known as Documents. Just below the
logo on the top left of the screen that says Google Docs Beta, you can
see a drop down menu which says New. Once you click on New, you
are given either of four options; namely, a new Document (Word),
Spreadsheet (Excel),
Presentation (PowerPoint) or
Folder. We will first try out
the Document Function—go
to New > Document.
If you have ever used
Microsoft Word, you would
be able to sail through effort-
lessly. As you would have fig-
ured out by now, the blank A blank new document on Google
page with the cursor is the Documents
beginning of your document.
You could continue typing in your leisure as much as you require.
Similar to Gmail, Google Docs periodically saves the changes
made, which comes in quite handy. In fact, keyboard shortcuts are
similar to Microsoft Word, thereby giving you a feel of working on
Word itself. You can adjust font sizes with the button marked “T”.
Most of the functionalities here are similar to MS Word. Once your
document is complete, the next step is saving.
Now consider this—you get a word processor, with password pro-

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tection, data storage, and to top it all, an option to save it either in

.rtf, open office, .zip, Word, and even .pdf formats. Another impor-
tant function here is that these documents can be shared online.
Data could be added by your chosen users—all you need to do is invite
them to use this document. You can set their privileges similar to the
way you do for a shared folder in Windows—for example, deciding on
who gets permission to read and who gets permission to write. This
speeds up the process of data compilation from multiple sources, yet
maintaining security. The Insert tab lets you insert objects to make
your document more lively.
The Revisions tab keeps a track of every change made to your
document—both by you and
those who you have shared
your document with. That’s
the best part, because as the
owner of this document, you
can then track any error that
may have crept in and isolate
it, without having to correct
other areas of the document.
For example, if you first typed Google Docs also lets you add images
a word, a friend deleted it and
then a second friend added it
again. You may have been (ver-
bally) informed of the dele-
tion, but not of the re-addi-
tion. You would get all the rel-
evant information from the
revisions tab along with a
time stamp. To the right hand
side of the page, are two vital Share your documents with all your friends
tabs, namely, Share and
Publish. Click on the Share tab to share your document.
As you would see, from the window, there are two options: “as
collaborators” and “as viewers”. Collaborators are those with special
privileges to change the data just like you, while viewers are those
who have no permission to write, but rather just read. Let us con-

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sider an example: the principal of an institute wants to release the

results of a recently conducted test, and fast—everything’s already
overdue. There is a tremendous amount of data to be compiled.
Conventional office suites would require one person like a data
entry operator to key in the marks of each student for each subject—
this can be time consuming. It is in situations such as these that
online office suites come in handy. They can be time-saving in data
segregation from multiple sources. The easiest way would be to start
a Google Document session. She could then invite the teachers as
collaborators, who would enter the marks in the respective fields. At
the end she could invite all the students as viewers.
The next important function on Google Docs is Publish.
Clicking on this gives the document a unique URL, whereby any-
one can view it.
Google Docs also empowers you with the option of publishing
your document right away as a blog! This gives a reasonably brief
idea of using Google documents, the first alternative to the typical
MS Word processor. One must note that this is in fact just the tip
of the iceberg. Let us analyse another tool by Google which would
serve as an alternative to MS Excel.

1.1.2 Google Spreadsheets

Spreadsheets have literally been controlling our lives for long.
Either directly or indirectly, we have all been associated and affect-
ed by them. Project management, budget and resource allocation,
attendance sheets, payrolls, household expenses... spreadsheets
are inevitable. Besides, the numerous formulae incorporated into
professional spreadsheets that have made the lives of those who
use them a lot easier all this while, are now difficult to do away
with. Now picture this. Your spreadsheet is shared among a team,
with each team member entering data fields relevant to him / her.
This would significantly expedite the time required for updating
data. Similar to Google documents, you need to get to the Google
Docs homepage with your Google account.
In the same way that we started off with Google Documents, go
to New > Spreadsheets to begin.
The toolbar resembles that of MS Excel, with slight differences.

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Let us take the basic example

of a spreadsheet, in say, home
budgeting. Similar to MS
Excel, you could enter the cell
values as shown.
You’ll need to set a date
format first. This can be done
by selecting the cells and
clicking on the drop down
button “Format”. You will be Spreadsheet’s functionalities resemble
MS Excel
provided alternate date for-
mats from which you can eas-
ily select the one you are most
comfortable working with.
Start off by entering all the
relevant data fields such as
the recent expenses, the
amount spent, the date, or
amounts received from an
external source. The screen-
shot gives a typical budgeting Ready to budget your expenses on the
go; as and when you remember
worksheet. transactions, just key them in!
Google Spreadsheets
comes complete with support for numerous formulae that make life
much easier. To get a fair idea of how the value in this case was cal-
culated, click on the Formula tab. If you are not familiar with the
various formulae at your disposal, then you can learn by yourself
with the help documentation provided by Google. Clicking on the
Formula tab gives you a better understanding of the formula used.
The screenshot captures precisely this specific area. As you
can see, the formula used was C9=sum(C5:C7)-sum(C2:C4).
The value displayed in cell C9 is 21350. Another interesting
function is GoogleLookup—move over VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP in
good old MS Excel!
For those of you aware of the VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP func-
tions in MS Excel, this would be a blessing indeed. However, those
of you who are not aware of the lookup function, it is a function

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used often in large

spreadsheets to “look
up” specific data values
in a cell and depending
on the value, a given
operation is executed.
This reduces the burden
on the user to actually
sift through piles of data
wondering what has to
be changed in all directly
and indirectly depend- Use the power of the Internet to ease your
ent spreadsheets. With spreadsheet research with GoogleLookup
the GoogleLookup func-
tion, Google spreadsheets would actually look up the World Wide
Web for data fields. This is as good as your spreadsheet doing
research for you. An example: =GoogleLookup(“India”;
“internet users”) will populate the cell with that figure.
However, many similar attempts initially proved futile. The
closest result we got was for =GoogleLookup(“India”; “cap-
ital”) which yielded the value New Delhi 28°34 N 77°12 E.
The source for this data is highlighted. In this case it is mentioned
as Wikipedia.

1.1.3 Google Presentations

With the markets and finances booming across all domains, it’s
all about presentations! The worst part of it all is the most crucial
things are generally required in the shortest of notice. Tools such
as these help in securing a redundant copy of that crucial docu-
ment, spreadsheet or for that matter even presentations.
The next tool from the stable of Google Docs is Google
Presentation. Similar to the way we used Document and
Spreadsheet, create a new Presentation page by clicking on New >
Presentation. You will see a blank page, similar to the start page
of MS PowerPoint. You can add a title and sub-heading as you did
in Google Documents. Similarly, adding an image is all the more
simple. A simple slide is shown in the screenshot below.

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You can add subsequent

slides by clicking on the “New
slide” button. Once you’re
done with preparing the pres-
entation, click on Save. For the
convenience of users, Google
has retained the shortcuts to
work for essential functions
such as Save ([Ctrl] + [S]).
On the move presentations were never
After saving your presenta- this easy to create
tion, you can view them by
clicking on “Start Presentation”. A new window will pop up and you
will be able to view the presentation that you have just created.
The next site that we present is Zoho.com. Similar to Google,
Zoho also provides an effective alternative to MS Office. In fact,
Zoho provides more than a dozen of associated services—all assort-
ed with and without cream!

1.2 Zoho
The guys at Zoho have done remarkably well in creating an online
alternative for MS Office. In fact, in terms of usability, it’s just as
good as MS Office installed on a computer. During trials, Zoho
responded faster than Google. Again, there is the one-time require-
ment to register yourself to use all the services. All you need to do
is provide a user name and password, and off you go with the
Office suite minus the cost and installation hassles.
Why Zoho? Because it’s all about functionality. Zoho offers you
14 different services, including Project Management software,
Web conferencing, CRM, Database and reporting, an Online organ-
iser as well as a chat facility to hold your group discussion ses-
sions! Among the best is Zoho Creator which is similar to Access.
And its all drag and drop, yet fully programmable.

1.2.1 Zoho Writer

This online word processor from Zoho is a great piece of design.
The best part about this tool is that it has the least number of

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drop-down menus. In fact,

apart from the Font, Font
size, and style of the intended
text, all other functions are
directly accessible as buttons.
Now you no longer need to
wonder under which drop
down menu that last function
you used was—it’s all right
The sample page gives you a feel of how
there. You can also save tem- to go about creating your document
plates like you save any con-
ventional document.
The most evident feature of Zoho Writer is its usability. With an
Internet connection having reasonable bandwidth, Zoho can actual-
ly feel better than Google. Say we want to prepare a sample resume—
something that has text with a different font size and, say, a table
dropped in. Lets keep this simple, just to see the performance and
response of Zoho Writer. Once you login to the site, you would see a

The function you see is the function you get!

sample document. This would read Welcome to Zoho Writer, with all
functions displayed. You can either continue by clearing it or simply
creating a new document. To do this, click on the button on the top
left of the screen which says new. You will now see a new page open-
ing up as a fresh tab. By default
this is named Untitled. You can
rename this by just clicking on
it and typing the new name.
It’s that simple!
Now the first step in writ-
ing the resume would involve
the heading. In this case we
want the word Resume in the
So we start with a blank document
centre of the page with a big- named “Test”

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ger font size than the remain-

ing text. Let us start with a
heading having a font size of
14. The text that follows is
typed with a smaller font size,
in this case 12 being more
appropriate. The following
snapshot precisely highlights
what we get.
Entering text is really easy
It has all been really
smooth and easy as a user to
come this far. Let’s see how
the table responds. The best
part of the document, where
we want to insert a table to
indicate the educational qual-
ifications. Inserting one in MS
Office is troublesome at
times, at least for novices. We
Inserting the table and trimming it is
have all been there once in also so convenient
our lives. Zoho Writer has
really made it easy. All you need to do is click on the Insert Table
button, select the appropriate matrix, which specifies the number
of rows and columns for your table.
Once you are done with writing the text, the next step is saving
the document. It also gives you an option to export the file in seven
file formats, namely, Word, SXW, PDF, ODT, RTF, TXT and HTML.
Before doing that however, don’t forget that Zoho Writer is among
the very few online office suites to offer a spell check service.
Once you are done with the document, you can simply hit the
Save button and sign out. It’s as easy as that. Keep experimenting
and explore for yourself the rich treasure of functionalities embed-
ded into this cool tool.

1.2.2 Zoho Sheet

The next tool on the board is Zoho Sheet. You can start this tool by
using the “Switch To” from the toolbar of any of the Zoho service

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Now convert your files into a wide range of formats!

you are already using or simply go to http://sheet.zoho.com.

Those comfortable working with MS Excel will feel at home
with Zoho Sheet. There are two possible themes available—
Coriander Green and Metallic Grey, which could be changed at
ease depending on your taste. Zoho Sheets can be accessed in 16
international languages in addition to English. Currently, none of
the Indian languages are supported, but it gives you the option to
request your language, so that they could start working on it.
Besides, you could contribute as a translator yourself. The sheet in
the screenshot shows a sam-
ple spreadsheet prepared
using Zoho Sheet. It had good
response time for each cell
entered. It didn’t give a feel
that it was an online tool—in
fact, it felt as good as MS Excel
installed on the system.
An interesting function
provided by Zoho is the chat Zoho Sheet resembles MS Excel in so
function. Once you share many ways!
your sheet with others in
your chosen group, just click
on the chat button to the bot-
tom right of the screen, and
real time discussions are pos-
sible among the group. Next
to the chat button is the
Comments button—use it to
submit offline comments for
others to see. Online spreadsheets have been
simplified by Zoho Sheet

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Zoho Sheets provides full

compatibility with MS Excel,
O p e n D o c u m e n t
Spreadsheet, OpenOffice
Calc as well comma separat-
ed values. Data can be
imported from and exported
to any of these formats.
It’s March, and how can
one forget the tax woes! A
Tell your buddies and associates what to
click on the Product Link but- do in your absence
ton yields files that have been
by other users of Zoho sheet. Among the most interesting ones that
you would find are Income Tax calculators and other similar
sheets. These sheets are handy at this time of the year.
Another interesting function provided by Zoho is the ability to
embed a spreadsheet on a Web site or a blog. Clicking the Publish
button and then on Embed in Website / Blog yields a URL for pub-
lic viewing, and also generates an HTML snippet, which can be
pasted into the code of your blog.
Zoho Sheets comes complete with graphs as well, and this
tool works as well as any commercial spreadsheet. Now be it your
Pareto charts for QCs or analysis of past performance, Zoho
Sheets will do it all for you!

1.2.3 Zoho Show

Zoho Show is an alternative to Microsoft PowerPoint and Open
Office Impress. Whether you are a businessman, a salesman, a stu-
dent, a teacher, a professional or anyone who is in need of making
a quick and neat presentation, this tool will surely be of immense
help to you. There is a uniform limit on file sizes in Zoho, and
Zoho Show is no different. Files need to be under 10 MB in size for
uploading to their server. You can even import presentations in
either of the Microsoft formats (.ppt and .pps) or OpenOffice for-
mats (.odp and .sxi). Overall, 10 MB seems to be reasonable for con-
ventional presentations, unless of course you have rather large,
high-resolution images embedded in your presentation.

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Once you log in to the Zoho

Show interface, you can start off
by clicking on New >
Presentation. You would be
given an option of themes with
six categories to choose from.
Once you select the tem-
plate that best suits you, you To insert images all you got to do is
will be presented with a slide right-click!
having the background as you
chose. You may click on the Title and replace it with an appropriate
one. Similarly, click on the sub-heading and replace it accordingly.
Now, with the basic presentation taking shape, let us also add
an image. All you need to do is right click on the slide and you are
given an option. Select “Add image”.
Even positioning the image is easy in Zoho Show. All you got to
do is drag it to the appropriate location and then with the sliders
at the edge of the image, rotate it as per your requirements.
Finally, you save the slide show. After that, depending on what
you choose to do, you can either save it locally, or export it in a
wide range of formats for use by your associates!

1.3 ThinkFree
The ThinkFree website officially says “Free online alternative to
Microsoft Office, Free 1 GB online storage, Free online document
collaboration, Free document viewer, Free Documents”. They go on
to add that Thinkfree would open Web pages containing spread-
sheets, documents or presentations for you, in pretty much the
same way that MS Office has been doing for so long. To top it all,
Thinkfree gives you 1 GB of free storage space. Another added
advantage is the Thinkfree Docs, which are documents uploaded
by other ThinkFree Online users. This adds the additional power of
social networking. Individuals just like you who share similar inter-
ests have uploaded their documents which can be really useful in
gathering information for that last minute project report or topics,
which may not be as visible online. This significantly boosts knowl-

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edge sharing. ThinkFree also allows importing images from Flickr.

If you use Facebook, you can add “ThinkFree Docs” to your apps list,
and upload, publish and share your documents with your friends.
Without much effort, you can find documents or even PowerPoint
(or rather ThinkFree Show) presentations on topics like Using Ajax
Libraries and Tools, Database objects, and other subject areas from
varying realms of technology. Documents here are even rated in
the genre of being most popular, highest rated and featured docs.
On further searching here, you will find subject areas as diverse as
stress management, animation, stocks and investment, baby care
and even hobbies. It is easy to get lost in the ocean of resources on
this site. The site’s recommendations say that you should have JRE
5.0 or later on your system for comfort while using the service; you
can find the latest JRE on our CD every month. All ThinkFree serv-
ices come with two options—Quick edit and Power edit. While you
can Quick edit without any specific requirements, it is only for the
Power edit that you need the Runtime environment.
So what should we expect from the ThinkFree stable? They
have possibly given all that you can think of. The amount of free
available resources is indeed outstanding. As far as performance of
the whole suite goes, ThinkFree undoubtedly stands out. Among
all the suites mentioned so far, nothing beats ThinkFree on com-
patibility with MS Office. As per the site, they have entered a new
agreement with the largest Australian ISP—BigPond (from the
house of Telstra)—to power a set of Web-based productivity tools.
The tools will be available to the public as BigPond Office, now
available at www.bigpondoffice.com.au. The BigPond testers have done
rigorous testing on the ThinkFree Office suite before giving their
go ahead. Need we say more about ThinkFree?
Considering all the praise that it gets, let take a closer look at it.
Among all the online office suites, it would really be difficult to rate
them, more so against an offline conventional office suite such as MS
Office. The criteria are diverse; needs and tastes vary.
The latest buzz is that Google is in talks with ThinkFree for a
possible acquisition. This is surely a much-sought-after story, and
with so much of media hype around ThinkFree, it’s going to stay
on our radar for quite a while.

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1.3.1 ThinkFree Write

This is the word processor tool by ThinkFree.
The two buttons that you see towards the right of the screen-
shot decide the details of the tools you need. If you just need to
do basic stuff, with little or no formatting, then you definitely
do not need finer tools like comments, highlights, and so on.
This helps in improving the response time of the tool by not
loading unnecessary features for you. You get what you precise-
ly need on priority. We opted for the Power edit to get a feel of
what ThinkFree looks and feels like at its best.
You will surely not be let
down. It rightfully stands to
all the hype and meets our
expectations. For a moment,
you might actually forget this
is not MS Word! Even clicking
on the side grid gets you a
Page setup menu as a pop up
just like Word. As you can see
Feels just like MS Word
in the screenshot, you can
show or hide editing marks—these include spacing, tabs and
other formatting details that were used in the document.
ThinkFree Write does not
miss out on styles and format-
ting either. Once again, it
resembles MS Word. You could
select the same style that you
did while using Word. It is
these small details that matter
and capture your attention
while working on ThinkFree.
Even the smallest functions of MS Word
The biggies like Google also have been retained
fail to give such a feel.
Inserting images and objects into the document is also quite easy.
ThinkFree Write also comes with an AutoCorrect option sim-
ilar to MS Word. For those who have not used AutoCorrect, it is
an option whereby you can set the word processor to replace cer-

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tain sequential text with a specific data field. For example (tm)
can be set to be replaced with ™. Also, most common spelling
errors could be stored and the word processor would correct it
for you. Now you no longer have to wonder whether the word is
spelt “recieve” or “receive”!

1.3.2 ThinkFree Calc

With ThinkFree Write raising the bar, obviously Calc, the spread-
sheet, is not going to let you down.
ThinkFree Calc is loaded
with nearly all the visible func-
tionalities of MS Excel. This is
evident from the very first use.
Even functions such as the com-
plex lookups are just clicks
away. A pop-up window
explains what relevant data
fields need to be entered. A
The spreadsheet from Thinkfree is no
novice at using complex Excel less functional than MS Excel—at least
formulae would vouch for the not in conventional usage
importance of this pop-up win-
dow. It tells you whether the data field you need to enter is a cell
value or a number or a character value. The developers at ThinkFree
certainly have left it due to significant importance.

1.3.3 ThinkFree Show

ThinkFree Show also lives up to
its expectations. Once again,
the appearance is almost iden-
tical to MS PowerPoint.
As is generally the case,
browser-dependent applica-
tions depend heavily on the
Internet. Hence, the Internet
connection plays a vital role in
Online, yet as smooth as MS PowerPoint
the experience you will have
while using these services. In case your Internet connection is a bit

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I OFFICE ONLINE THE WEB: ADVANCED

slower due to last mile connec-

tivity issues, or ISP server has-
sles, it is recommended to use
the Quick Edit function. For
example, if you have a presen-
tation in which you have to
amend a few words, you would-
n’t need the whole range of
PowerPoint functions in it. In Monitor and edit all your docs, sheets
similar situations, it would be and presentation from one interface
wise to select the Quick Edit
function. However, in cases of detailed creativity, the best option is
the Power Edit. The JVM only takes a while to initialise the first
time, and from then on it’s smooth sailing.
With all the test documents that we have prepared during the
course of this article, going back to the inbox of ThinkFree sum-
marises it all. From the interface, you could share, publish and
even synchronise changes with offline documents.

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Blogging

B
logging doesn’t really need any introduction, but since we
always introduce the subject of our article, let us get this
essential job out of the way.
A portmanteau of Web and log-blogs are simply personalised Web sites
that are as good as an online diary.
That was the intended definition. These days, however, collabo-
rative blogs by corporate teams have sprouted all over the Internet.
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II BLOGGING THE WEB: ADVANCED

Since the content in a blog is determined by the user, there can

be blogs on practically any subject under the sun. Blogs are a great
way of expressing opinions unhindered by the fear of censorship
or unwillingness of publishers. It’s free... it’s fast... and it’s easily
accessible! All you need is an account with any of the myriad blog-
ging services which are generally available for free. Customise
your blog with templates, widgets, write content and create a com-
munity of readers. You can also upload pictures and video. Blogs
are a great source of news and have been used effectively by polit-
ical activists, writers, professionals and the like to get their mes-
sage across. To know what the world is talking about, you need to
be familiar with blogs.
A new fad these days is micro-blogging. This is really catching
on as people find that they don’t have all day at hand to write
those long insightful pieces. Such services allow you to write sen-
tences with not more than 200 words, while answering a standard
question like “What are you doing?”. If you have used the status
feature in Facebook, then you probably know what we are talking
about. Here, is a rundown of the most common and popular blog-
ging tools you will ever need.

2.1 Blogging
2.1.1 Blogger (www.blogger.com)
Blogger, is one of the most widely known blog hosting Web sites.
It usd to be an independent site before being taken over by Google.
Therefore, you can use your Google account to create a blog—in a
few minutes, complete with all the bells and whistles and the eye
candy! Here is how you go about doing that.
Navigate to www.blogger.com and sign in using your Google
username and password. You will have to choose a name for
your blog. When it comes to hosting, Blogger offers two
options—either you can host the blog on the Blogger server, or
on a dedicated server. The latter option becomes viable if your
blog has garnered plenty of hits and is very popular. Blogs can
be posted via FTP or SFTP (Secure FTP). Before doing that, how-
ever, you need to set up your blog.

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Blogger has been out of

beta since the beginning of
last year, and there have
been plenty of additions in
terms of features. We have
already seen how the new
drag and drop interface
works when you need to cus-
tomise the blog and add
newer features, but there is The drag and drop interface for
no harm in going over it customising the look of your blog
again. For further details,
please refer to our Fast Track dedicated to blogging in the February
2007 issue. Before this feature was launched, blogs had to be cus-
tomised by going through the source code and modifying the
HTML. This definitely doesn’t appeal to the average user, especial-
ly those without technical know-how. However, their new inter-
face enables users to modify the look of their blog by simple
mouse actions.
The various page elements that you can add to your blog
include slideshows of photos, links, RSS feeds, video,
HTML/JavaScript, polls and labels. Select as per your need, and con-
tinue refining your blog. You could also choose from among the
many templates offered in the Blogger setup. Just go to Template
> New Template and choose your pick. In case you don’t like the
default templates, there are plenty of sites offering free Blogger
templates. Some of these Web sites are www.bloggertemplates.org,
http://www.finalsense.com/services/blog_templates/ and http://www.pyzam.
com/bloggertemplates for high quality templates.
As mentioned earlier, we have covered all the basic features of
Blogger in our Fast Track to Blogging in February 2007. Here, we
would focus on the more recent features. Blogs can be posted in
several newer languages including Hindi. There are absolutely no
keyboard mappings to learn—you just have to type the equivalent
phonetic script in English. We have tested the feature and while
some of the more complicated words are not displayed in very
accurate way, on the whole, this feature is pretty much intuitive.

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II BLOGGING THE WEB: ADVANCED

The Arabic and Persian

script is also supported,
with the alignment and
flow of template ele-
ments looking like a
mirror image of the nor-
mal ones where the
direction of flow of lan- Posting in Hindi
guage is from left to
right. Besides this, a nifty “Auto save” feature is enabled which
keeps running in the background while you continue to type
your post.
Another new feature that has been incorporated is the seam-
less integration between Youtube and Blogger and video upload-
ing features. Videos can be uploaded locally simply with a mouse
click. You could also share all your YouTube videos on your blog.
As previously mentioned, photos from different photo sharing
services like Flickr, Picassa and Photobucket can be displayed
simply by using their feed. All your Blogger photos can be viewed
in Picassa as well, with each post having its own album. You can
also post via e-mail, or enable the settings such that whenever
there is a new comment in response to yours in a blog post that
would be mailed to you. Blogger is compatible with OpenID,
therefore users can even comment on your posts using their
OpenIDs instead of Google IDs. OpenIDs work on other blogging
services such as Wordpress and Typepad as well, so users can
utilise a customised ID for different services instead of signing
up for multiple accounts.
Another neat feature that has been introduced is the use of
custom domains. Blogger will host your site and the best part is
that it won’t end with the usual .blogspot.com for free. However,
you still have to buy the domain either from registrars or
from Blogger. Any posts that you make will be automatically
redirected to the new domain. For this, just go to Settings >
Publishing tab in your Blogger to configure some simple
options. The older BlogSpot address will be automatically for-
warded to the new address.

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BLOGGING II

2.1.2 WordPress (www.wordpress.org)

WordPress is a open source
blog publishing system that
can also be used to host
blogs. It is free to use and is
very suitable for someone
who wants to host blogs in
his/her domain. In case you
don’t have a domain, you can
sign up for your very own
Sign up for WordPress
Wordpress blog.
After reading our review of Blogger, you might be tempted the
rather obvious question—“what makes this different”? or rather,
“why should I use it”? The answer to these questions is control.
Blogger is Google property, and just think what would happen if
your Google account gets hacked? You would be shut out of every-
thing: mail, calendar, reader. And if you have a blog with a flour-
ishing readership, that goes too! Even though such a catastrophe
does not occur, there is always the chance that you will not find
enough configuration options or tweakability to make your blog
stand out from the crowd. These are some of the reasons for using
Wordpress. Another great reason is that with just the click of a
mouse, you can import and export blogs from Wordpress. Did we
mention plug-ins?
Wordpress blogs are the ultimate in tweaking. With enough
time on your hands and by being a tech-savvy, you can make your
blog look as good as a professionally designed site. Wordpress
blogs have plugins—downloadable widgets that can be used to
extend the usability and features of a barebones blog. Get the full
list of plug ins from http://www.wordpress.org/extend/plugins. Some of
the most popular downloadable ones are those that manage activ-
ities such as commenting, posting and statistics. Most of these
plug-ins are free and developed by third-party developers.
Signing up is free and fast-select a name for your blog, user-
name and password and you are all set to blog.
After signing up, choose your template and widgets that
would add more zing to your blog. Wordpress comes with about

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50 default themes, while there are tons of free and gorgeous

themes available on the Internet at http://themes.wordpress.
net/page/1/, www.wpthemesfree.com and www.wpthemespot.com. In fact
themes used in Wordpress can also be used on other blogging
services such as Blogger.
The Wordpress dashboard provides a host of features for
writing, organising and publishing your blog. Apart from the
standard online text
editor, there are
options for categorising
your posts, bookmark-
ing and tagging them
and also setting the pri-
vacy options which
could keep the blog vis-
ible to either all or just
limit them to private.
Themes for Wordpress
You could also decide
on who gets to post comments. An interesting feature of the
Wordpress blog is the integrated stat tool which is as good as a
specialised third party tool such as Statcounter (Dashboard >
Blog Stats). A spam blocker called Akismet, available as a plu-
gin handles spam in the comments section by looking for cer-
tain keywords and sentence patterns. All your favourite blogs
can be managed and also arranged in categories via Blogroll
(Blogroll > Categories).
A new feature that has been implemented in Wordpress is
integration with OpenID. You are automatically assigned an
OpenID, depending on the name of the blog. This URL, can be
used to log in to other sites that supports OpenID where you can
comment. This virtually covers all the other blogging platforms.
The storage space on Wordpress has been jacked up to an awe-
some 3 GB, which means that you can upload even more word
documents, spreadsheets, presentations and pictures. In case
you want more space for your data, you have to opt for the pre-
mium membership by paying in two denominations $50 per
year for 15 GB and $90 per year for 25 GB.

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2.1.3 Live Journal

Live Journal is a blogging plat-
form that lays strong emphasis
on social networking and com-
munity. Its basic features are
available in the free version and
should be quite sufficient for the
vast majority of bloggers.
However, those with specialised
needs could choose the paid
account which starts at $2 per
month. There are two types of
free accounts: Basic and Plus.
LiveJournal blogs look a lit- Comparison between different
versions of LiveJournal
tle bit like the profile page of a
typical social networking site. Invite friends, create and join com-
munities on subjects that you are passionate about. Enter details
like name, birthday and education. You can use up to 15 pictures
for your profile. Finding communities is easy—go to http://www.
livejournal.com/community/search.bml and enter the search parameters
to find out communities. Likewise, friends can be arranged under
different categories like family, local friends, online friends,
school and work. You can add or delete categories, as well as
reshuffle people between categories.
The scrapbook is the one stop shop when it comes to managing
your pictures. Upload pictures, choose or create gallery styles,
manage photos and tag them. It is modelled on the photo man-
agement applications of other social sites and the similarities are
quite evident. There is a Wizard for Windows which can be run to
upload pictures directly from Explorer.
Nevertheless, LiveJournal scores in the myriad posting options.
Apart from the plain vanilla WWYSIWYG text editor, you can
download a client from http://www.livejournal.com/download/ so that
you type your post even while you are disconnected. These posts
then get uploaded as soon as you get hooked onto the Internet,
similar to the Send/Receive function in Outlook! These clients can
run on different operating systems, browsers, cell phones and

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PDAs. There are clients for

Blogger too. Regarding the meth-
ods for posting, you can also
voice-post or blog from your
mobile phone on LiveJournal
(limited to a specific number
every month). There is a newly
launched feature called LJ talk,
an IM which uses the Jabber pro-
Settings for LJ talk
tocol. After adding username
@livejournal.com to your
friend list you can post from the IM clients supporting the Jabber
protocol. If you choose mobile posting, you can perform all your
tasks from a cell phone. Members with paid, permanent and Plus
accounts can set up messaging from the Web, where friends can
send messages to your phone via LJ. You can learn more about
using LJ via mobile phone from http://www.livejournal.com/manage/
mobile.bml

2.2 Micro-blogging
2.2.1 Twitter
Twitter is a micro blogging service that has been around for quite
some time. Updates on Twitter, also called tweets are an answer to
the question “What are you doing?”. The word count for the posts
are limited to 140 words. However, in a day, you can upload as
many times as you want. There are no ads, and the service is free.
What makes Twitter and such micro-blogging tools cool is the
incorporation of social networking features. You can configure
Twitter to follow the updates of your friends as they follow your
own updates. Not only friends, but you can follow the updates of
virtually anybody as long as you know their e-mail ID and they
don’t block you. Consider the applications of this feature—in a cor-
porate environment, where several people are working as a team-
such updates let all the team members know what is being done
by whom. Parents worried about their children staying out late
could take comfort from the “Stuck in traffic” status.

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Now that you know how Twitter can be used, here’s how to set it
up. Go to www.twitter.com and sign up. You will receive a unique URL—
http://www.twitter/username/. Log in using your username and password
and search e-mail services like Gmail, Yahoo!, MSN and AOL for your
contacts. All those who are twitter members will show up in the list
and you will be able to add them to your follow list. There is an
option to invite other people by using their e-mail addresses. Once
you have found the people who you like to follow and have added
them, sit back and follow their updates. Privacy options include the
feature to block a particular person from following your updates and
to keep your posts out of public viewing. You can send private mes-
sages to others on your list by clicking on their names. Similarly, you
can also get private messages from others.
Twitter can be tied in with IM
and SMS facilities to provide great
functionality. Go to Settings >
Phone & IM and enter your IM
screen name and phone number.
In both cases you will be given a
confirmation code. After follow-
ing the instructions given, you Configuring Twitter for IM and phone
can keep an eye out for updates
from people on your list. In case of phones, you need to verify your
number by messaging the code to a specified number. Once that is
done, you can post and receive tweets via your mobile.
One of Twitter’s greatest
advantages is the proliferation of
Twitter widgets. These widgets
increase the available functional-
ity, making it more user-friendly
and following updates a lot less
complicated. For an exhaustive
list of such applications go to
http://twitter.com/downloads and
check out the wide variety of
downloadable Twitter widgets
made by third party developers. The Facebook application for Twitter

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You can choose from downloadable widgets for computers and

mobiles, Firefox extensions and Google gadgets. Most of these let
you tweet without logging in to the Twitter home page. For twitter
aficionados, also referred to as code jockeys, custom made Twitter
widgets can be created by using the free Twitter API. If you love
Twitter and Facebook, then there is an FB application for Twitter
that brings the best of both together.

2.2.2 Pownce
Just launched out of private beta, Pownce is another microblog-
ging tool that has been making waves for its easy functionality
and feature-rich interface. Inspired by Twitter, it adds more func-
tionality to the micro-blogging phenomenon and lets you do more
than just announcing what you are feeling or doing! Get a feel of
it at www.pownce.com.
After signing up, log in to various social networks and e-mail
services to find friends
and contacts that are
already there on
Pownce. Some of these
services are Digg,
Facebook, Twitter,
Gmail, Yahoo!, MSN, AOL
and Flickr. You can do
the usual job of sending Homepage of Pownce
out invites to friends.
The tagline of Pownce is “Send stuff to your friends”. Pownce
lets you share messages, links, files and events with other people.
Items can be shared publicly, privately or among groups. There
are two versions—free and Pro. The free version lets you upload
files of up to 10 MB and is ad-supported. The Pro version costs $20
a year and lets you share up to 100 MB. A download, available
from http://pownce.com/download/ lets you do everything that can be
done on the Web site. The software is cross platform and works on
both Windows and Mac, with Linux support coming soon.
However, to run this application you need to have Adobe Air
installed on your system. The application has latency issues and it

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has been reported that

even on faster machines
with broadband connec-
tion, the Ajax interface
is painfully slow.
Pownce is not very
difference to Twitter.
When trying to share
files, sharing multiple
files made the applica-
tion go crazy. You have
to zip the files and send
the zipped archive as
well. Like Twitter,
Pownce also provides
badges, a widget which
can be put on any Web
site to display your
updates. Nothing new or
notable here. Pownce Badges for your Web site
looks like a me-too serv-
ice and attempts to be a micro-blogging tool. A file sharing utility
with a messaging service, it’s literally the jack of all trades and
master of none!

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Online Image Editors

G
ood, free and basic image editing software are aplenty.
Irfanview, a popular free image editor, offers good image
editing options that are optimum for most users with vast
libraries of personal photos. Basic image editing operations such
as resizing, cropping and changing the hue and saturation are eas-
ily performed with software such as Irfanview. In such a scenario,
the utility of Online Image Editors seems questionable, and we’re
going to provide the answers.
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ONLINE IMAGE
THE WEB: ADVANCED EDITORS III

3.1 The Contenders

3.1.1 Prerequisites
Most sites use Flash or JavaScript to power their interfaces. So, in
order to enable the services, the browser should be JavaScript-
enabled with a Flash plugin installed. Those of you familiar with
either JavaScript or Flash would fervently vouch for the importance
of having a broadband Internet connection, since the interfaces can
be really heavy. While not a prerequisite, having a fast connection
considerably reduces the waiting time. Additionally, some of the
effects available on these sites are quite computing-intensive, and
having a powerful PC yields faster results.

3.1.2 Picnik.com

Editing pictures using the Picnik tab

This is a Flash-based site. A 1.5-MB flash file is first downloaded to

your system prior to using the service. There are two versions of the
service, with the paid premium version offering some additional
effects. However, the free service is sufficient in most aspects for
basic users. While one can register on the site, using the services
does not require one to do so.
Picnik integrates with most online photo sharing sites like
Flickr, Webshots and Photobucket. Images already uploaded to
these sites can be directly edited in Picnik, after logging in into the
site with the username and password of the respective image host-
ing site. Photos on your system can also be edited, after they have
been uploaded. You can even load an image onto Picnik by provid-
ing the URL of an online image. A Picnik add-on for Firefox is also
available, which adds an option in the context menu that makes it
easier to import images to Picnik for editing.
The interface is relatively easy to use even for amateurs at image
editing. A tool tip pops up every time a tool is selected, offering help-
ful instructions on usage. Most popular images formats such as JPG,

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Picnik’s exposure options

PNG and TIFF are supported. The interface is prompt and responsive,
most of the time. The odd lag is noticeable only while dealing with
the Effects controls.
The Edit tab has all the controls that can be used to modify the
image. Here one can Crop, Resize, Rotate, Sharpen, and Control
the Exposure and Hue of the image by using the simple tools that
are presented. Some of the tools have an Auto mode where the rec-
ommended changes are automatically applied. Additional manual
controls are also provided, and allow greater control over the
process. The Red Eye tool can be used to treat the red eye effect
seen in many photos.
The Create tab further bundles image editing tools. Under the
Effects button, various effects can be applied to enhance the image.
The effects include converting into Black and White and Sepia and
also creating a “Soft focus” effect on the image. Although most of
the effects listed here are not freely available, watching their results
is quite interesting. The Soften effect deserves special mention since
the results are truly impressive, rivalling the work of professional
photographers. Each of the effects can also be manually tweaked by
you to create even better looking pictures.
Text can be added to the image with the Text button. Here, a
selection of formal and fun fonts is presented to be used for the text.
Most of the fonts are reserved for premium users.
Under the Shapes button, different set symbols and shapes are
presented which can be readily inserted into the image. Most of the
symbols are available only for premium users. The shape, orienta-

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tion and position of the shapes and text boxes can

be changed by you. The Frame button allows the
image border to be created or modified, making it
easy to have a circular or oval border instead of
the usual rectangular one.
Multiple effects can be applied to the same
image, though while moving from one effect to
the other without saving the results of the previ-
ous effect, Picnik alerts you to either save or dis-
card the changes made. However, considering that
there is no limit to the steps that can be undone
with the undo button, you can experiment to your
heart’s content without having to worry about
starting all over again.
The mouse wheel can be used to control the Picnik’s shape
level of Zoom. This is a nifty feature and is avail- options
able throughout the interface. The context menu
can be accessed by right-clicking anywhere on the interface, and
allows quicker access to the main menu options.
The final image can be saved on the PC, or directly sent to the
same online image hosting sites like Flickr or Photobucket. The file
formats supported are JPG, GIF, TIFF and PDF.
Fortunately, Picnik doesn’t grey out the premium options which
make it easier for you to discover the additional available features
and also discern whether it is worth paying. There are some premi-
um effects that are really interesting and worth experimenting
with.

3.1.3 Pixenate.com
This is an AJAX-powered site. It is considerably quicker off the block
than Picnik because the interface is lighter. But the flipside is that
it features fewer tools and a higher amount of data transfer, causing
delays with every action.
Pixenate only supports the JPG file format, and integrates only
with Facebook allowing the editing of images uploaded to that site.
Online images can be loaded for editing by providing the URL.
The site offers basic tools such as Crop, Resize and Rotate. The

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Crop and Resize controls allow you to set the

desired parameters, but the Rotate control
can only rotate the image clockwise by 90
degrees with every click. For finer rotation,
the Spirit Level tool needs to be used, which is
a bit cryptic to figure out without reading the
accompanying tool tip. Pixenate offers two
controls—Enhance and Fill Light—to quickly
modify the Contrast, Saturation and
Brightness aspects of the image. You only
need to click on the button to apply the effect.
There are no modifiable options to control
the amount of applied brightness or colour.
You can, however, apply the effect as many
times as the need arises. Finer grained modi- The Pixenate toolbox
fications are possible from the Colours con-
trol, where the levels of brightness and contrast can be individually
set. The Sepia control allows the picture to be coated in a Sepia tone,
but also allows the application of other colours. The image can also
be converted into Greyscale. The Red Eye
and Whiten tools are used to touch up
the images exhibiting artificial or natu-
ral defects.
Besides the basic tools, Pixenate also
offers a few “fun” tools. The Text tool
allows inserting text into an image. The
orientation of the text box cannot be
modified, and there are only limited
options on where to place the box.
Besides that, the font, colour and inten-
sity can be modified. Speech bubbles can
be included with four options to choose
from. The font characteristics, however,
cannot be modified. The Lomo control,
Filter Control and Oil Paint control
allow the addition of some cool effects Pixenate’s colour options and
to the image. Some of the controls preview box

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include a preview box, which reduces the delay normally associated

with applying the effect to the entire image.
The final image can be uploaded on Flickr or saved to your PC.
There are no options representing the file type and compression
levels used in this process.
Pixenate, while not in the same league as Picnik has its own
advantages. The lighter interface loads faster and consumes less sys-
tem resources, which makes it more attractive for those who don’t
have a fast Internet connection or computer. The tools, while com-
paratively fewer, include the most frequently used ones and deliver
the desired results. If you bore easily, waiting after every step will
cause you hairloss.

3.1.4 Snipshot.com
This is another lightweight, AJAX-driven service that manages to
trim the waiting times witnessed in Pixenate.com, in spite of data
transferred with each step. Unfortunately, its free version is even
more featureless.
Snipshot allows images to be uploaded from your PC or any
online source with a URL. The spartan interface has a toolbar on top
with just the basic controls.
When the image is loaded, the Resize control is activated by
default. There are no options available to you to enter a specific size,
and instead the image handles need to be dragged till the desired
dimensions are achieved. A tooltip that offers information about
the image size while being resized is the only aid that you get.
Similarly, the
Crop control has
to be manually
operated to
achieve the
desired results.
Even here, the
tooltip is the only
guide you get.
The Rotate con-
trol rotates the Snipshot’s interface is light but featureless

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image clockwise by 90 degrees with every click. The Enhance con-

trol automatically sets a recommended level of contrast and satura-
tion for the image. The Adjust control can be used to manually
adjust these levels. Here, the rotation angle can be set. Besides, the
levels of exposure, contrast, saturation and hue can also be finely
tweaked. The Effects control only allows converting the image to
greyscale for free account holders. The other more interesting
effects are reserved for premium customers. Unfortunately, the
effects cannot be previewed, as in the case of Picnik.com.
Snipshot.com is ideal for someone who wants to perform some
quick and basic maintenance operations on an image. Its light-
weight AJAX interface, in addition to its effectiveness in cutting
down on the waiting cycles as data is transferred between the brows-
er and Web site, make it a worthy service. The lack of ease of use for
first time users is a turn off.

3.1.5 Splashup.com
Earlier known as Fauxto (pronounced “Photo”, and still making
an appearance in the File Menu of the interface), Splashup is a
Flash-powered service. It is probably the most advanced of the
services discussed here. With an interface resembling that of
Adobe Photoshop, it can seem a bit intimidating for those who
just want to crop an
image. However, if you
have spent some time
on Photoshop, you will
appreciate the ability
of Splashup to work
with Layers. Though
Flash powered, it has a
less bulky interface as
compared to Picnik,
contributing to faster
loading times.
Splashup is compati-
ble with many online
Xplashup’s photoshopesque interface
image hosts such as

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Flickr and Webshots and can work directly with images stored on
these sites. It can also import images from the system or from any
given URL. It can also use images captured from a Webcam, if one is
connected to your PC.
Tools required for basic operations are found under the Image
and Filters menu in the toolbox. Under the Image menu, the
Image Size and Canvas Size options allow resizing of the image.
The desired dimensions can be entered in the relevant boxes.
Selecting the Constrain option ensures that the aspect ratio of
the dimensions is maintained. The Autocrop tool automatically
identifies and deletes blank areas in the image. To manually crop
an image, the Crop tool from the toolbox needs to be selected. The
area that needs to be cropped can be selected and the rest of the
image automatically gets deleted. Since the crop tool doesn’t pres-
ent an opportunity to fine tune the crop area, the Marquee tool
can be used with a similar effect. After creating the marquee, the
Crop link in the Image menu can be used to delete the items out-
side the marquee. Selecting any tool in the Toolbox opens a menu
bar below the main menu containing additional configurable
options pertaining to the tool.
The Rotate Tool can be used to rotate the image. Clicking on the
tool provides the centre of rotation of the image. This point can be
repositioned by you. To rotate, drag the corners of the image to the
desired angle. You can change the shape of the image with the Free
Transform tool. After clicking on the tool, the borders of the image
can be dragged in any direction to create the necessary effect. The
rest of the tools in the Toolbox pertain to adding colour and shape
to the image. The Text tool can be used to insert text into the image.
Font style, size, and strength can be set from the tool menu.
Under the Filters menu, more powerful image editing controls
can be accessed. Here, the image can be Sharpened and Blurred.
These controls do not offer additional options. The Hue and
Saturation as well as the Contrast and Brightness control can be

Splashup’s main menu and text submenu

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modified by using the related option. Some of the other fancy

effects that can be added are pixellation, embossing, inverting, and
preparing posters.
Layering is a powerful image manipulation method. Those of
you who are not familiar with this aspect of image editing can con-
sider a Layer as a transparent medium placed over an image. The
effects are applied to the layers, and by controlling the visibility of
the layer the impact of the effects on it can be controlled. Many lay-
ers can be created, each with a different effect making it easier to
manage the editing process, since working with one layer does not
affect the others.
In Splashup, the Layer box lists the different layers in the image.
A layer can be selected by clicking on it, thereby making the effects
that were created on the layer accessible for editing. Splashup offers
a Layers menu that allows managing layers—adding, deleting, merg-
ing, positioning and rotating. Besides, a Layer Effect option that
includes some more effects not available under the Filters menu is
also available. The effects include the Drop Shadow, Bevel, Gradient
and Glow effects. Each layer can contain more than one effect.
Since normal image formats such as .jpg do not save informa-

Splashup main menu and text submenu

tion about the layers, Splashup allows images edited on the site to
be saved in a unique file format which retains the work-in-progress
detail. The .fxo file format is capable of retaining information across
sessions. So the next time you visit the site, the details about the lay-
ers and other aspects can be retrieved.
The final image can be saved directly to an online image hosting
site, or saved to your disk.
Splashup, in spite of all the potential, has an Achilles’ heel—the
absence of a proper manual. Simple tasks can seem really daunting
with the controls hidden under layers of menus. With all this,
Splashup only manages to appear aloof to most lay users seeking a
quick touch up of their photos. While those familiar with

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Photoshop may feel comfortable with the interface, the rest of

humanity will have a tough time performing even a simple opera-
tion such as Resizing an image.

3.1.6 myImager.com
This is a normal HTML-based service, with minimal interaction.
Each user selection has to be passed to the Web site, and the modi-
fied pages and images are refreshed in the browser. System
resources are sparingly utilised by this service and so slow systems
can also be used without any performance glitch. The lack of inter-
action means you will have to be more patient, with each selection
of a tool requiring a page reload. The webpage is loaded with a few
ads, besides the applicable 500 KB file size limit. However, these
restrictions can be overcome by registering for the paid service.
The interface is simple, with a row of drop down boxes making
up the toolbar as seen on other image editing sites. Myimager
doesn’t integrate with any other image hosting site, so either the
file can be uploaded from your system or directly taken from a
Web site, if the URL is provided. Myimager only supports the .jpg
and .gif file formats.
Myimager can also be used to create an image, button or tex-
ture. The options to do so are available under the File Drop down
menu. Selecting any of the mentioned options causes the page to
refresh. This is the case with each menu choice made throughout
the site. Myimager comes preloaded with a lot of interesting tex-
ture and button design choices that can be used as a base to build
on or modify.
Once the image, texture, or button is loaded, the Edit menu
offers basic options to resize, crop, rotate and flip the images. The F
Switch option can be used to convert the .jpg file into .gif and vice-
versa. With no interaction, you cannot use the pointer to define the
areas to crop or the angle to rotate. This can be troublesome while

The myImager toolbar

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trying to crop or rotate an image,

requiring a lot of trial and error.
The Adjust toolbar can be used to
change the colour aspects of the
image such as the brightness, con-
trast, hue and saturation. Here, you
are expected to enter numeric values
for the desired levels. This also
involves a lot of trial and error. The
Adjust drop down also has a few Texture choices in myImager
other effects such as converting to
Greyscale or black and white, nor-
malising and colouring. Most of
these controls have additional con-
figurable options, while the others
such as Equalise and Normalise are
automatically applied.
Myimager probably supports the
...and button choices
most fun effects among similar sites.
There are over a dozen special effects, besides the popular ones such
as Sharpen and Blur. Selecting the text tool allows inserting Text
into the image. The font styles and colours can be changed, along
with the position of the text box. Since the position has to be speci-
fied as coordinates, some trial and error will be needed before arriv-
ing at the exact desired location.
Most effects cannot be configured and are applied to the image
as a whole with the centre of the image used as the reference
point. Effects such as Oil Paint, Charcoal and Pixellate can be
applied with a single click, while some effects like Motion Blur,
Wave and Solarize need addi-
tional control.
The Draw drop down box
allows inserting shapes into
the image. Only basic shapes
such as Rectangles and
Ellipses are supported,
though they can be modified myimager has some cool effects

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to create circles and squares

as well. Besides, as an exam-
ple of interaction, the loca-
tion of the centre of the shape
can be selected by using the
mouse pointer. An image bor-
der with varying thickness
and colour can also be myImager’s draw options
applied here.
Before saving the image, the quality of the compression can be
set by the Optimise drop down. The finished image can be saved by
the Save option in the File drop down list.
Although Myimager offers an Undo button, in functionality it is
as good as clicking on the browser’s back button.
Myimager is noteworthy, thanks to the interesting effects on
offer and the choice of pre-designed textures. Those of you who are
seeking to create a unique background for their graphic or Web site
will find a visit to this site worthwhile. Also, the lack of bare mini-
mum interaction with the need to reload the page for each image
several times to apply a single effect, significantly mar the user
experience. In a way, the file size limitation is a boon in disguise.

3.1.7 Fotoflexer.com
This is arguably the best online image editor. It combines the ease
of use of Picnik, the breadth of features of Splashup, and adds a lot
more to offer a truly awe-inspiring example of the power of Flash.
Superlatives will come naturally when interacting with Fotoflexer’s
elegant and simple, yet powerful interface.
Fotoflexer integrates with most popular image hosting sites
and images stored in them can be directly accessed by signing into
those accounts from Fotoflexer. Images can also be uploaded from
your PC or can be loaded from a given URL. It supports .jpg, .gif
and .png formats only, although it can save images only in the .jpg
and .png formats.
The interface takes its own sweet time to load and seems
almost similar in size to the one used in Picnik.com. But that is
where the similarities end. The Fotoflexer interface is more intu-

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The Fotoflexer toolbar

itive with everything properly organised in tabs. Clicking on a tab

reveals additional buttons which are neatly labelled, making life
easier for neophytes.
The work area on Fotoflexer is spacious and uncluttered and
doesn’t feel constrained and restricted as in Splashup. The Basic tab
lists basic tools such as Rotate, Flip, Resize and Crop. A helpful addi-
tion is the ability to create a duplicate of the image to be modified
rather than working on the original, making the Preview function
redundant. The Autofix button can be used to automatically per-
form the recommended changes to the picture. While the Red eye
tool can be used to remove those artefacts. The Rotate button rotates
the image by 90 degrees in either direction at one go. For better con-
trol, you could use the rotate handles that appear when the image
is selected. Clicking on any tool that requires user intervention will
cause a message to appear on the toolbar explaining the appropri-
ate steps to be taken.
Fotoflexer offers many options under the Effects tab that can be
used to change the colour or contrast aspects of the image. Each of
these controls is descriptively labelled making it easier to figure out
what the expected results are. Besides the commonly seen effects
such as Sepia, Greyscale and Pixellate, some of the novel effects are
Nightvision, Fresco and Neon. Some of these effects take time to be
applied and during this period the workspace gets blurred. All of
these effects allow user configuration. Clicking on the button for a
particular effect brings up the additional options.
The Advanced Options button available with most effects
allows you to change the scope of the effect—either apply it to

The Fotoflexer effects tab

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the entire image or

just to a selected por-
tion. It is easy for you
to get lost in the
plethora of options
provided by Fotoflexer
Fotoflexer’s additional advanced effects options
in this tab. And each
tweak and turn is
immediately reflected
on the selected image
making the whole
process much fun.
The Decoration tab
contains controls to
spruce up the image
with additional art-
work. The Shapes but-
ton offers a wide range Fotoflexer’s add shape options
of pre-designed shapes
that can be included along with the image. Noticeably, some of the
shapes that were reserved for premium users in Picnik are freely
available here. The colour of the object can be modified before it is
inserted in the image. Similarly, the position and orientation of the
object can also be changed. In addition, text can also be entered
with the Text button. The Font choices are truly mouth-watering!
The Draw tool can be used to create freehand drawings on the
Image, similarly the Erase tool can be used to erase parts of the
image, which are specifically useful when dealing with image lay-
ers—erasing one layer reveals the contents of the layer beneath it.
The Fill tool can be used to add colour to an area with a different
colour. Fotoflexer automatically selects the contiguous areas with
the same colour and applies the Fill colour to those areas only. This
frees you from having to manually mark those areas. The Colour
picker tool can be used to choose a particular colour from the image
to be used by other tools like Draw and Fill.
The Insert-A-Face and Greeting tools are truly path-breaking fea-
tures. The Insert-A-Face tool automates the process of cutting the

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face from an image and

applying it on to anoth-
er. You only have to click
on the “centre of the
nose” of the face in an
image. This pops up a
list of possible areas
where the face can be
reapplied. The options
include a kitten, a goril- Fotoflexer’s text options
la and few lesser-known
primates. The size, ori-
entation and colour
aspects of the cut face
can be modified. The
ease with which the
exercise is completed is
breathtaking.
In terms of opera-
tion, the Greeting Card
tool is similar to the
Insert-A-Face tool except
that it also allows inser-
Fotoflexer’s insert-a-face feature
tion of text. The Border
tool also offers much more than what has been seen so far, going
beyond just allowing colour and thickness as options to the border.
Here, one can also create fancy picture-frame like borders, adding a
lot of appeal and character to the simple image.
Under the Beautify tab, tools to Smoothen and Sharpen the
image are presented. Clicking on the button suitably modifies the
image. Two additional controls are labelled as Fix Blemishes and
Smoothen Wrinkles, but effectively they are just the Smoothen tool
with a user configurable area of effect.
Under the Distort tab are another set of tools to manipulate
images. These tools allow the image to be Twirled, Bulged, Pinched,
Stretched and Squished, mostly producing hilarious results. These
tools cannot be applied to the entire image and their scope and

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The Fotoflexer distort tab

Fotoflexer’s layer options

strength can be set by you.

The Layers tab allows you to manage different layers in the
image. The term Layers is probably misleading-Fotoflexer considers
a layer as an image, and vice versa. However, in the case of Splashup
or Photoshop a layer can contain other items as well.
Under the Layers tab, additional images can be opened. To
simultaneously work on more than one image, a Fotoflexer account
is needed because only images uploaded to the Fotoflexer account
are made available for addition as a layer. Here, the order of the
layer can be changed and its opacity can be set. Layers can either be
grouped and ungrouped, but merging two layers is a one-way street,
as there is no Unmerge button.
The Geek Tab has some truly fascinating tools. The Smart Resize
tool can be used to change the size of the image without resorting
to the normal crop or resize tools. Using a method called Seam
Carving, portions of an image can be deleted without changing its
dimensions. This is done by spreading the existing bits of the image
to cover the unwanted part. Since the existing image is being
spread, the area to be deleted has to be suitably small to avoid dis-
torting the image. Similarly the image can also be expanded to occu-
py a larger footprint-again, to avoid distortion it is best not to aim
for a significant increase in percentage. Fotoflexer allows you to
mark specific areas in the image that need to be covered up and
those areas that should not be distorted to make the process more
precise. The tool is best seen in action, since putting it in words may
not do it justice.

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Fotoflexer’s Geek tab options

The Smart Recolor and Smart Cutout tools operate on similar

lines-identify important and unimportant parts and let Fotoflexer
do the rest. In case of the Smart Recolor tool, the areas marked
unimportant are coloured over with the user-defined colour, while
in the case of Smart Cutout, the areas marked unimportant are
erased from the image.
Both these tools are
computing-intensive Seam Carving
and the time for com- This is a relatively new invention in the
pletion will depend graphics arena. The complete technology
on the speed of your details and a Youtube video of the technol-
system. ogy in action can be accessed at seamcarv-
Smart Scissors ing.com. Briefly, the technology involves
allows you to mark an adding or removing pixels in the unimpor-
outline of the area in tant parts of an image to increase or
the image that needs decrease its size. A Seam refers to that
to be deleted. The frontline where the image manipulation is
selection can also be taking place. The best place to see this
inverted to leave the process in action is at Rsizr.com. Rsizr also
marked area and allows other forms of image editing such
erase the rest of the as Cropping and resizing. However, the
image. The Web cam interesting effect is under the Retarget
tool can be used to tab, selected by default. Any image can be
capture images from uploaded to the site and the important and
a webcam connected unimportant areas marked. The sliders to
to the system. set the final vertical and horizontal dimen-
Fotoflexer also allows sions are present on the respective axes.
different effects to be Setting the marker on this slide initiates
applied to the cap- the process. As the carving takes place, the
tured images (as men- seam is marked in red. Worth a thousand
tioned in the blog words. You can view other people’s experi-
and not tried out by ments with Seam Carving at http://rsizr.
us). com/about/gallery/.

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The Curves tool allows the image’s colour characteristics to be

tweaked by manipulating the individual constituent colour chan-
nels (Red, Green and Blue). Advanced users who can work with
colour histograms will find this tool informative. The Contrast and
Adjust tools allow tweaking individual parameters such as contrast,
brightness, hue and saturation. The Morph tool remains an enigma.
Not being a pro in the Animation arena, the reviewer had a tough
time figuring out how to import “control lines”, start image and
final image. Throwing another spanner in the works was the lack of
coverage of this tool in the brief demo that covered the other Geek
tools. What can be stated authoritatively, though, is that it is a com-
puting-intensive process. And Fotoflexer helpfully reports the
expected time for completion. In our aborted attempts at morphing,
the expected time for morphing
between two images each measuring
400 × 300 pixels was over 90 min.
Fotoflexer also implements a fea-
ture-laden context menu, which has
most of the frequently used options.
Rotating, Flipping and Deleting an
image can be accomplished from
right here. The Smart Cutout tool and
Smart Recolor tool can be accessed
directly as well.
The complete image can be saved in
any of the several online webhosts that Fotoflexer’s smart cutout
Fotoflexer integrates with or can be options
stored offline.
Undeniably, Fotoflexer is a great service.

3.1.8 Picresize.com
This is an AJAX-powered Web site that offers the basic tools in a
pleasant and interactive interface. It offers you the option to choose
from two versions of the service, the non-AJAX powered older ver-
sion 2 or the newer, version 3. The latter is better.
There is nothing to write home about the tools on offer. The
usual Rotate, Resize, Crop and Contrast tools are all available. The

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effects can be applied to the entire image or to just

a selected area in the image-dragging the pointer
over the image will cause a rectangular area to be
selected. Text can be inserted, but the position is
restricted to the top left of the image. Other cre-
ative tools like Oil paint and Spread are also avail-
able to manipulate the image. Some tools, like the
Spread and Blur tools, allow additional user con-
trol over the results. The ability to keep more than
one tool window open at the same time on the
screen will find many admirers.
What makes Pic Resize stand out though, are the
non-image manipulation tools. The Batch Resize tool
which can be accessed by a link placed way down in
the toolbar, allows you to upload several images to
the site and set a final size as a percentage of the
original size with only three options being available
here—25%, 75% and 50%. The resized images are
The pic resize
available for download as a single zipped file. Resized toolbar
images are available only for 20 min for download on
the server. The other feature worthy of mention is the Select Quality
link that can be used to set the compression level for the file. The
link pictorially presents the image amidst four different quality set-
tings on offer, making it easier for you to appreciate the relation
between file size and quality.

3.1.9 Lunapic.com
This is a simple HTML Web site that suffers from the usual lack of
interaction with increased refresh cycles. But it stands out purely
for offering the most numerous effects and tools on offer among
online image editors.
Lunapic can handle image files such as .jpg, .gif, .png and .bmp
in addition to video files such as AVI and RM. It can directly work
with images stored on sites like Photobucket and Flickr, besides
images available either online or offline.
The menu lists all the options available for you. Besides the
menu bar, it also has a toolbox that contains the most frequently

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used tools like Rotate and Crop. As already mentioned, being coded
in HTML each menu selection is accompanied by a page refresh. In
turn, you have to be patient enough as the refreshing can take time
depending on the size of the image being modified.
The Edit menu offers the options to Crop and Resize the image.
The Draw menu has options to insert Text into the image. The posi-
tion of the text can be altered by dragging it. Other tools grouped in
this menu are the Border tool, Fill/Paint bucket tool, Freehand draw-
ing tool and the Speech Bubble tool. The Zit and Blemish remover is
a smoothening tool in disguise. The Cosmetic Surgery tool allows
selected areas in the image to be squeezed or expanded.
The Adjust menu groups some of the other familiar tools—Flip,
Blur, Motion Blur, Contrast/Saturation control, Greyscale conver-
sion, Sepia tone addition, and Red Eye Reduction. The need to con-
tinuously reload the image takes away from the fun of watching the
results of these tools, but nonetheless they are still useful.
The Effects menu is what makes Lunapic worthy of mention. The
long list of effects contains esoteric names like Andy Warhol Effect,
Thermal Effect, Lightning effect, and Fire Effect. Some of the effects
that have been previously experienced are Charcoal, Pencil Sketch
and Emboss. Using most of these effects is a single click affair, with
no user configurable options.
Lunapic also supports several animation effects. The old Java
applet based Reflecting water effect still makes its presence felt
in the list (though in this case it is a .gif file). To view sample ani-
mations, click on the More anima-
tions link.
Completed files can be saved in a
variety of formats such as .jpg and
.png (without animation), and .gif and
.swf (animation).
Lunapic is a very strange site to say
the least. In spite of all the goodies,
the site seems stuck in a time warp, as
advances in Web site scripting appar-
ently have given this site the slip. The
use of antiquated HTML to power a site Lunapic’s toolbox and menu

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that needs better interac-

tion presents the biggest
hurdle in thoroughly using
the tools on the site. The
repeated refreshes can be
an annoying exercise.
Additionally, the ads on the
site do their bit to aggra-
vate you. Hmmm! Now,
what was the word that
Lunapic’s speech bubble options.
rhymes with “Lunapic”?

3.1.10 Picture2Life.com
Picture2life is an AJAX-powered site. Unlike the other sites listed
here, P2L doesn’t present the toolbar or menu right off. Getting to
the editing part requires some navigation and scrolling through the
page to find the relevant link. And, though the interface has a lot
going for it, it has the inclination to act up more frequently than
can be considered polite. Most importantly, after uploading the
image, before starting to edit, the page seems to get stuck. (this was
true in our case, atleast). If this does occur, click around a few but-
tons-applying the “Featured Effect” seems to get the process back on
track many times. Once the interface overcomes the initial teething
troubles, it is a pleasure trip.
P2L integrates with the popular sites such as Facebook and Flickr
and images can be imported from your accounts on these sites.
Images stored online as well as offline can be imported.
P2L has a different approach to image editing. Rather than pre-
senting a menu with buttons, it presents a brief description of the
tool, along with a preview thumbnail of the image after the associ-
ated tool has been applied. This makes it easier for you to decide on
the impact of the effect without having to apply the tool to the
entire image. Besides this, P2L offers statistics about the tools that
are popular among its users, and also keeps track of the tools fre-
quently used by you, making it easier to access them the next time.
The scroll wheel can be used as the Zoom tool when the pointer is
positioned above the image. The basic tools—Resize, Rotate and Crop

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are always available above

the image.
The tools offered on the
site are displayed on the
left sidebar. The tool
description and general
information for you is avail-
able in this area. A thumb- P2L’s everloading interface
nail of the image contain-
ing the effect is displayed alongside the tool description. The lan-
guage is friendly and makes even novices comfortable in spite of
powerful effects and filters being utilised.
The Quick Fixes link presents all tools like Blur, Border, Hue and
Saturation. Here, you can directly apply the effect to the image by
clicking the Apply button. You can also further customise the effect
by clicking on the Customise button. Doing so will open the options
for the particular tool in the sidebar. Additional changes can be
made, and the changes are reflected in the image. However, unless
the Apply button is used, the changes are not saved. The Sample but-
ton can be used to see the samples of the tool (sometimes with com-
bination with other tools) in action. If needed, you can choose to
apply the effect as seen in the sample by clicking on it. This will save
you a lot of effort, since doing it manually would require quite a few
clicks and tweaks and the use of more than one tool.
The One Clicks link takes you to the same Samples gallery that
can be accessed by using the sample button from the Quick fix tools.
Here too, applying the effects in a sample requires a couple of clicks.
There are too many samples on display, with all of them grouped
under different headings accessible from the drop box on the top of
the sidebar.
The All Effects and Adjustments link displays the 42 tools cur-
rently available on the site. The tools are filtered by default, and this
can be changed from the drop down box on the top of the list.
The Changes link alongside the Undo and Redo links on top of
the image can be used to launch a box on the right side that lists all
the effects that have been applied to the image so far. Effects can be
quickly accessed by clicking on their names from this box. If

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required, the effects can be undone in a

non-sequential manner, which is a useful
feature, not seen in any of the image edi-
tors reviewed so far. If needed, the effect
can also be stored under a different cate-
gory—My Effects—which is present on the
left sidebar (needs registration). The
effects thus saved can be easily accessed.
The final image can be downloaded to
your PC or saved in the P2L account, pro-
vided you have signed up. The quality of
the JPG image to be saved can be changed
from the account settings link, again, pro-
vided you have signed up. By default the
P2L’s quick
quality is set at 90 per cent. The default fix options
size of the image to be displayed while
editing it can also be set here. This size refers to the
P2L’s one
displayed size and not the actual size of the image. click’s sample
P2L is an excellent service, minus the starting trou- gallery and
bles. By avoiding the usual interface cues—toolbar, categories
menu, toolbox, icons and buttons—P2L has managed
to make the site and the image editing process appear less intimi-
dating to the lay person. Of course, the capabilities of the site are
second to none.

Conclusion
With many good image editors available for free download, at first
glance, online image editors seem redundant. But a close look at the
features offered by free offline image editing software shows that
they are significantly under-featured than their online counter-
parts. While they all offer the basic functions—rotate, crop and
resize—more interesting features that are commonly available in
online sites such as adding special effects Charcoal, Blur and
Softening, etc., are frequently absent
Online Image Editors fill a very important void. Users who
require something more than what is offered by most free software
or are not willing to spend money for the more powerful paid coun-

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terparts, will find online image editors really useful. The fact that
they can be used right away, without requiring any download and
installation also works in their favour. Also, the meteoric rise in the
use of social networking sites and image sharing sites makes it more
convenient to edit and store images online without going through
the download, edit and upload cycle.
Adobe, the makers of Photoshop, which is considered to be the
most popular image editing software (and costs a bomb!), is expect-
ed to launch an online service of its own—Photoshop Express. And
this is a good indicaton of the direction that the wind is blowing.

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File Sharing

T
he most popular way to transfer data across the Net is
through the client / server model; the alternative, and now
very popular, method is called the Peer-to-Peer or P2P
model. In this chapter, we are concerned with the latter.
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FILE SHARING IV

4.1 BitTorrent

4.1.1 Introduction
Bram Cohen created BitTorrent, the first BitTorrent client,
using the Python programming language. It is considered
rather basic. This drawback was rectified by buying µTorrent—
another BT client—and re-branding it. All versions of BitTorrent
up to 5.2 are “original.” BitTorrent is open source and cross-
platform. We shall discuss the last original version of
BitTorrent (5.2).
At first glance, the spartan interface of BitTorrent makes it
clear that simplicity of use is the focus here. There are compar-
atively fewer buttons and menu options.

4.1.2 Usage
A new torrent download can be started by clicking on the Add
button and providing the path or URL to the torrent file. The
location to save the datafile is asked next, after which the down-
load begins.

Peer statistics (stats) in the original BitTorrent

To view the download speeds of the client, enable the View

Details option under the View menu. This brings up a frame in
the lower half of the client window, which shows the download
speeds graphically. Other information like the total bytes trans-
ferred and the average speeds are also displayed. A torrent is
accorded normal priority by default. To selectively increase or
decrease the speed of a particular torrent, its priority can be
increased or decreased under the Torrent menu or by accessing
the torrent’s context menu.

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Details of individual tor-

rents can be viewed by click-
ing the Info button after
selecting the torrent, or
from its context menu. This
will bring a pop-up window
displaying statistics about
the torrent—the number of
connected peers, the swarm
size, the seeders, etc.
You can also see the
progress of each file in the
torrent, and the preference
for download of each file
can be specified. Marking a Torrent options in the BitTorrent client
file for first download caus-
es it to be downloaded first.
BT also allows creating a torrent file, provided a data file.
These options are available under the File menu. One can speci-
fy the piece size and the tracker URL or DHT facility too.
Once a new torrent is created, it should be uploaded to
torrent sites for people interested in the datafile to be able to
find it.

4.1.3 Configuration
The client’s Settings are accessible under the View menu. Here,
under the Network tab, one can set the maximum upload and
download speeds and specify the port to be allocated to BT.
Slight modifications to the interface can also be effected
under the Appearance and Language tabs. The default location
to save the data file can be specified under the Saving tab.

4.1.4 Comments
Though simple to use, BT falls significantly short in one area—
it does not allow selective downloading of files, in case a tor-
rent has more than one file. This is an important, user-friend-
ly feature.

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4.2 µTorrent

4.2.1 Introduction
This client was a blast of fresh air in the BT arena. It offered many
advantages over other existing clients—it was small in size, used con-
siderably fewer system resources, and offered all the features
required in a BT client—and it was free of wares (spy, ad, mal, et al).
All the good points in its favour resulted in µTorrent (uT) being
bought out by Bram Cohen’s BitTorrent. The latest version of
BitTorrent (version 6) is just a re-branded µTorrent. For this reason,
this guide on uT also applies to BT version 6.

4.2.2 Usage
At first launch, the Speed Guide module is executed. This includes
basic configuration routines that verify if your system has the
required networking features enabled. The speed guide allows you
to test the speed of the connection by connecting to dslreports.com
(which launches the default browser); you can specify the maxi-
mum bandwidth to be allocated for data transfer, and if necessary,
whether data should be encrypted. Port Mapping can also be
enabled here, but this applies to PCs on a LAN connected to the Net
through a router.

File piece statistics in µTorrent

µTorrent can be used right out of the box. Any torrent can be
opened by using the File menu. This pops up the Torrent options
windows, which lists the files included in the torrent. Here you can
select those files that need to be downloaded. The location to save
the downloaded file can also be specified.
A Hash check can identify corrupt files before beginning the
download, and is enabled by default. This can be disabled in the File
Open window to speed up the proceedings a bit. Under the

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Advanced options, the

maximum upload and
download bandwidth can
be specified.
The main window is
split into different
frames, with the lower
frame providing a host of
information about the
download and upload
progress. This frame can
be disabled from the
View menu. The file lists
are displayed, and right-
clicking on any file pres-
ents the options on allo-
cating priority to that
particular file.
The general tab shows The µTorrent speed guide
information like the number of peers connected, the number of
pieces in the file, the hash value, the amount of data that was dis-
carded because of corruption, etc. Under the Peers tab, you can see
the connected peers. µTorrent not only tracks the IP address, but also
finds the geographic location of the IP with regard to nationality.
Under the Pieces tab, you can see the download progress of each
piece of the data file. The speed tab displays a real-time graph of the
data transfer speeds for download and upload.
Right-clicking on the torrent displays a context menu that allows
the various settings of the torrent to be modified. Under the
Advanced option, the Download Bar can be enabled. This is a small
status bar that displays the progress of the torrent. It can be posi-
tioned anywhere on the screen, and is visible even when uT is min-
imised to the System Tray. The bandwidth allocation can be changed
per torrent on the fly using the context menu.
µTorrent supports a system of categorising torrents based on
user-specified labels. Torrents that have the same label are clubbed
under that heading making it easier to access them.

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To create a torrent
file, select Create New
Torrent under the File
menu. The data file or
folder needs to be
identified. Piece size
can be set manually or
set to auto. The tracker
URL needs to be pro-
vided. A list of public
trackers can be easily
downloaded from the The Scheduler in µTorrent has a host of options
Net, or the torrent can
be created without one—in which case other means to discover peers
will be used. Clicking on Start Seeding will load the torrent once the
hashing is complete. Initial Seeding is a special mode of seeding,
which can be activated from the torrent’s Properties link (available
in the context menu). Rather than randomly upload pieces to peers,
in the Initial Seeding mode, the emphasis is on selectively uploading
pieces so that all the pieces are available among the peers the quick-
est. This ensures that the superseed does not have to wait till at least
one peer gets the entire data.
µTorrent allows the system to be shut down based on the sta-
tus of torrents using the Auto Shutdown option under the
Options menu.

4.2.3 Configuration
µTorrent can be further configured with the Preferences option
under the Options menu. Here, under the Connections link, you can
specify the maximum bandwidth to be allocated for µTorrent for
downloading and uploading. Under the BT link, you can specify the
number of connections that are permitted. You can also enable the
use of DHT and other methods to find peers sharing the data file.
Local Peer Discovery is a method that gives preference to peers that
are geographically closer, since this improves data transfer speeds
(within a given connection type). Under the Queuing link, you can
specify the number of active transfers. If more torrents than this fig-

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ure are added, they are automatically queued and activated only
when an active torrent is completely downloaded. You can also auto-
mate the seeding behaviour of µTorrent here, setting the time or
ratio before uploading should be stopped.
The Scheduler link is useful to control the behaviour of µTorrent
during different times of the day and during different days of the
week. This feature will be useful only for those who have an unlim-
ited connection and leave their PCs on all day. Each day is split into
one-hour durations, and the bandwidth to be used for that hour can
be set to one of three values—Full Speed, Limited, or Turned Off.
Dragging the mouse over the intervals will set the speed limits, and
is easier than individually clicking on each box. The limits of the
Limited mode can also be specified here.
Under the Downloads link, you can prevent the system from
going into standby when downloading. This is useful since long peri-
ods of inactivity can cause the PC to enter a power saving mode,
which could cause the network to disconnect. The Advanced Link
allows expert users to tweak individual parameters that influence
µTorrent’s working.
Under the Disk Cache link, the default settings can be changed
according to your specifications. Disk Caching is a method of storing
the frequently used data pieces in the RAM to avoid having to access
the hard disk. Having a larger cache will reduce hard disk use, but in
case of power failure, the amount of data lost will be larger.
Under the User Interface link, the search engines to be used for
reporting results can be changed. These engines are used by uT when
you use the inbuilt search box. The default browser is launched to
display the search results.
uT can also be monitored and controlled remotely. The settings
for this are available under the Web UI link. If the Web Interface is
enabled, uT can be controlled by typing in the IP address of the
machine and the port number. By default, uT uses the same port it
uses for transferring data, but this can be changed in the same win-
dow. The username and password can also be specified here.

4.2.4 BT version 6
In BT 6, besides the µTorrent client, another module is inserted into

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your system. This is called

DNA or Delivery Network
Accelerator. This module
applies the BitTorrent
principle of sharing files
among peer PCs to nor-
mal downloads from Web
sites. So when DNA is
enabled and the PC visits
a graphics-intensive site,
the data that is passed on
to your system comes
P2P for Web sites!
from other peers as well
as the server hosting the page. Thus the server’s bandwidth is saved.
You continue to upload pieces of the just-downloaded content to
other users in the background, and even when the page is closed, the
transfer continues in the background.
This is still in its infancy, and there are very few sites offering
DNA-supported content. A demo can be seen at
www.bittorrent.com/dna/demo/. You’re is not explicitly asked permis-
sion for installing DNA while installing BT 6. DNA can be switched
off from the control panel or uninstalled from the Add / Remove
Programs applet without effecting BT’s performance.
Additionally, rather strangely, uninstalling BT doesn’t remove
DNA, though it is rendered ineffective.

4.2.5 Comments
For those seeking a feature-rich yet lean BT client, uT is the best
choice. One feature that is sorely missed is the inability to fine-tune
downloading behaviour to support file preview.

4.3 BitComet

4.3.1 Introduction
If first impressions mattered, BitComet (BC) would not be on any-
one’s BT client list. The absurdity presented by the BitComet site

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prior to downloading the client is enough to put you off. The file
download is deliberately throttled by the site, leading to extremely
slow downloads—3 to 4 KBps! And this is done to prove the point that
downloads would be faster with BitComet installed.
In a world of abundant options, it would not be wise to expect
you to silently endure this irrational behaviour—even if it is a matter
of 5 MB. Besides these issues, BC is also buggy and prone to whimsi-
cal activities that are beyond your control.
BC is more than just a BT client. It bundles some tools: a Flash
Video player (for .flv files beamed on sites like YouTube) that can only
be accessed from the Program Files menu; the BitComet Resource
Browser, which is a modified version of Internet Explorer; and a
download manager. Besides these, two standalone applications can
be downloaded from within BC, and though they are called plugins,
they do not depend on BC for their functionality. The “plugins” are
eMule, an eD2K client (discussed in a later section), and a media
player (MPC star).

4.3.2 Usage
At every launch, unless you have tweaked your system with network
utilities to maximise speeds, a pop-up will recommend increasing
the number of “Half-
open TCP
Connections.” A TCP
connection is half-open
when it is awaiting con-
firmation from the tar-
get PC about availabili-
ty of a port than can be
used for data transfer.
Increasing the number
of allowed half-open
connections allows
more peers to be simul-
taneously contacted,
which in turn increases
the speed with which The main BitComet interface

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the P2P connection

is made. By default,
in Windows, this
number is 10.
For our review,
BC was installed on
three different PCs.
On one occasion,
the left bottom
quadrant contained
something undeci-
pherable—which Selecting files to download in BitComet
inspired this
reviewer to look for the minimum system requirements for BC.
Unfortunately, this was nowhere to be found—not in the installation
folder, not on the Web site. Which brings one to the site itself: it is
authored by someone whose name begins with a “D” (in English). On
the second instance, the content in that frame showed up in English,
which appeared as a login form to sign in into the BitComet site. But
clicking on the Sign up link launched a Chinese-language site. Only
on the third occasion did the client act as expected.
The bottom left quadrant integrates the BC site with the client.
You can sign in to the BC site by the form displayed here. As a regis-
tered member, you can download content displayed on the site, some
of which are free. And as the sign-in page in this quadrant reminds
you, registered members can experience faster downloads.
To start a torrent, the Open Torrent option in the file menu
can be used. After selecting the torrent file, a pop-up window
shows the files comprising the torrent. If needed, files can be
selectively downloaded.
Under the Download order, preference can be given to certain
files over others by changing their downloading sequence.
BC also allows categorisation under the “task” label; torrent tasks
are displayed under their respective headings on the left top quad-
rant, allowing quicker access. Once the transfer begins, right-clicking
on the torrent reveals a lot of options. The notable ones are “Copy BC
link”. This link starts off with “bc://” and can be used like the other

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P2P link (eD2K), and carries the metadata to access the particular
datafile directly without needing the torrent file. The link can be
placed in any HTML file and clicking on the link will cause BC to be
launched.
The other notable option is “Preview Download Mode,” which
when enabled preferentially downloads the pieces of the data file
that are closer to the start of the file. Doing so allows the file to be
previewed, if it is a media file, before downloading a large portion.
Under the Properties of the torrent, different aspects of the data
file can be configured, if
that was not already
done while beginning
the download.
Besides usual stats
like the rate of data trans-
fer and share ratio, addi-
tional details in the form
of other user’s com-
ments can be accessed.
The Comment Link
opens the Web page (in
the quadrant itself)
where you can add com-
ments and read other
users’ comments. The
comments are stored on The “Make Torrent” window in BitComet
the site, and are available
to anyone who downloads the same torrent. A pictorial representa-
tion of the downloaded content is shown in the Piece Graph link.
Each piece is represented as a small box in the array, with a colour to
convey whether that piece has been downloaded or not.
BC insists on loading its custom search page in this quadrant,
under the Summary, Content and Recommend links—every time
the client is launched (this behaviour cannot be modified in the
settings). So irrespective of whether any torrents are active, a few
100 KB are transferred both ways every time the client is launched.
And this transfer is not reflected in the statistics (but can be detect-

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ed if some network monitor or firewall is installed), which only irri-

tates most people.
The buttons on the toolbar—movies, software, games, etc.—when
clicked will take you to the BitComet Web site. Either the default
browser can be used, or BC will ask whether to launch its own BC
Resource Browser (a modified version of IE, like Maxthon).
BC also includes a download manager function. The link to the
file to be downloaded can be captured by BC from the browser, and
this will cause BC to be launched. A floating drop-box is also provid-
ed so that any link that needs to be downloaded can be dragged and
dropped into it to start the client. Besides searching for mirror
servers, BC can also use P2P sources to complete the download by
searching for other users having the file to be downloaded. This can
be enabled or disabled under the options that appear by clicking on
the More button on the download file pop-up.
You can create a torrent by using the Make Torrent option
under the File menu. Besides the usual options, there is an option
to “Align File to Piece Boundary.” Enabling this will ensure that
pieces are so created that each one would contain data from a sin-
gle file only. This setting is needed only in case a torrent has mul-
tiple files. With this setting enabled, users who download individ-
ual files from a torrent will not download additional content, as
would occur when a piece is shared by two files. The eD2K link for
the file can also be created simultaneously, which allows the file to
be accessed though that network as well.
Long Term seeds are those dedicated seeders who continue to
offer the file for sharing for a long period—for example, Linux dis-
tro seeders.
BC’s feature set can be expanded by adding plugins. The eMule
plugin, installable from the Tools menu, incorporates eMule in BC.
eMule is a client for the eD2K P2P file sharing protocol, and is the
covered in a later topic.

4.3.3 Configuration
Under Connection, you can set the maximum bandwidth to be
allocated for BC for uploads and downloads. The Task Schedule sec-
tion contains the option to set the maximum number of simulta-

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neous download tasks. There is also a useful setting wherein if the

total speed of all active downloads falls short of a certain limit, a
new download can be automatically activated. This will ensure bet-
ter utilisation of your bandwidth. The Listen port is how incoming
connections connect to your PC; this port number can be set here.
Under the Proxy link, BC can be configured to channel its data
through the proxy.
Under the Task link, various options that control downloading
behaviour can be set. By enabling “Optimize Download Strategy for
Preview,” the datafile pieces closer to the start of the file are down-
loaded preferentially to enable previewing of the file.
Tasks are automatically stopped when certain conditions are ful-
filled. These can be set under the BT task link. Here the maximum
and minimum uploads rates per torrent can also be specified. Under
the ED task link the port allocated to eMule can be set. Further con-
figuration of eMule can be done from within, by launching eMule.
The HTTP / FTP link contains the settings for the download manager
function of BC. Here BC can be configured to monitor the Clipboard,
so that when any browser copies a link, BC will be launched. BC can
also be set as the default download manager for IE, and integrated as
a context menu option in the browser. The type of files to be moni-
tored can also be set. BC will be launched only if links to these file-
types are clicked.
Under the appearance link, the behaviour of the UI can be set.
On selecting a torrent, the default information displayed can be set
under the “Default Task Related info pane.” Setting this value to
“Comments” ensures that user comments are displayed by
default—though this doesn’t stop the pages under the other head-
ings from being loaded every time BC is launched. You can auto-
matically log in to the BC site every time BC is launched, by
enabling the relevant option.
Under the virus scan link, the path to the anti-virus application
needs to be provided, so that once the datafile is downloaded, it can
be scanned by the AV application automatically.
Under the Advanced link, the “Long Term Seeding” option can be
enabled. When in this mode of operation, as the tool-tip informs,
stopped tasks are automatically started. The “Boss Key” is the key

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combination to hide the application in a hurry—the icon in the

System Tray is also hidden.
BC also incorporates a scheduler which is similar in operation
and configuration to the one seen in µTorrent.

4.3.4 Comments
If the initial prejudices can be overcome, BC proves to be a capa-
ble BT/eD2K client. The core application itself stands out for a few
reasons—its ability to prioritise data file pieces based on their
location in the file, and the ability to preview media files—which
is a by-product of the former ability, and the integration of the
online site features with the application core. For those looking
for a simple BT client, BC will seem bloated, especially after a ses-
sion with uT. The absence of any graphical representation of the
data transfer speeds is a major let down (besides the bugs).
Nonetheless, the ability to fine-tune the download process to
allow faster previews is a must-have, especially for those who
download huge media files. The ability to read and add com-
ments without visiting an external site will also encourage
users to express their views about the file, which can be of use
to other peers. For these reasons, one can indeed overlook the
irritants in BitComet.

4.4 Azureus

4.4.1 Introduction
This is a BT client written in Java, so it requires the independently-
available Java Runtime Environment to be installed. It uses compar-
atively higher resources than any other BT client. Since it is coded in
Java, it is cross-platform, as long as the JRE is installed.
The latest version of Azureus is 3.0.4. With the launch of version
3, Azureus Inc. was renamed Vuze Inc (pronounced “views”), and is
positioned as an entertainment delivery portal / company that uses
Azureus and the BT protocol to deliver content. There is a tight inte-
gration of the BT client with the online media portal, in a manner
that is seen in BC—dedicated buttons that take you to sites offering

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The Azureus (Vuze) Dashboard

content of that particular type, movies, songs, TV shows, etc. The

default interface, called Vuze, is too graphics-intensive for some peo-
ple, with shiny tabs and rounded edges, and obviously is a resource
hog (consuming 90 MB of memory).

4.4.2 Usage
At first launch, content from Vuze.com is automatically loaded in
the client under the Dashboard tab. Borrowing design elements
from Windows Media Player 11, the interface is polished, with the
right half showing the files that are being shared by other users and
the left showing files that are on your PC. The Vuze interface is prob-
ably one of the best examples of user-friendly BT implementation in
the Audio / Video content distribution arena—similar to what is expe-
rienced at YouTube, except that in this case, the data is also trans-
ferred via P2P.
The technicalities of downloading a torrent, seeding, and leech-
ing are all relegated to the background, with your only task being
finding interesting content and downloading it. Files being shared
by other users and available on the site are listed under different cat-
egories—TV shows, movies, etc.

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All you have to do is click to download the file. After the file is
downloaded, it can be played with the inbuilt media player interface.
Downloaded files are displayed under the Library tab as well.
Content once downloaded will be uploaded to others when need-
ed, but there is no status indicator for uploads and downloads, no
graphs, no share ratio, etc. to divert your attention from the primary
job of enjoying the content.
The Vuze interface allows you to rate downloaded content; the
rating is stored on the site and shared with other users. When play-
ing downloaded content, the interface handles it smoothly, without
launching an external media player. The interface also has a search
facility and the results are displayed right in the application without
launching the default browser. The term “torrent” is nowhere to be
seen in any of the results or file names. Everything is handled very
efficiently. The only time you are presented with the “t” word is
when a specific torrent file needs to be downloaded, and for this, the
Open option in the file menu needs to be used. After browsing to and
selecting the relevant torrent file, the torrent is included in the dash-
board where the download progress can be viewed. You are saved the
labour of identifying a download location or setting the priority for
the download or selecting the files in the torrent.
Even the job of creating a torrent file from a data file that you
intend to share is simplified. This can be done in the Publish tab. The
emphasis is on multimedia content, since Audio and Video are the
only two categories of content that can be shared—though selecting
an EXE file and categorising it as a video or audio file doesn’t bring
up any errors.
The torrents are
hosted at Vuze.com, and
after the torrent is creat-
ed, the file is uploaded
to the site. You are pre-
sented with the option
to “Share for Free,”
though a “Make money”
option sometimes flash-
es before being hidden The “Publishing” options in Azureus

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(probably limited to users in the US). You first have to create an

account at the site before publishing content, which is easily accom-
plished under the same tab.
While the Vuze interface is adequate for someone looking for an
experience similar to that offered at YouTube, or for people ventur-
ing into torrent territory for the first time, it is insufficient when
greater control needs to be exercised on other aspects of torrent
downloading—like file selection, bandwidth control, queuing, etc.
since no options to do so are presented in the interface. This requires
firing up the Advanced interface. The Advanced tab is placed so far
away from the other tabs, it seems to have been cold-shouldered by
the developers! Switching over to the Advanced mode will reveal the
more familiar controls to open a torrent and watch the progress bar
and other statistics about the torrent. All the files being shared, and
listed in the Dashbar and Library tabs, can also be viewed here. The
menu bar also fills up with a lot more options when in the Advanced
mode—and this is the only way one can change the default behaviour
of Azureus. And since this mode doesn’t use too much eye-candy, the
system memory usage is reduced to half.
Under the Advanced tab, the Change UI button is prominently
displayed. Using this the default interface can be set. Switching to
the Classic interface requires an application restart.
Here the familiar options as seen in other BT clients make
their appearance. Right-clicking on any torrent will display addi-
tional options.
The View Details option in the context menu offers the usual sta-
tistical information about the torrent data transfers. Two interesting
bits of information are the Piece Map visible under the Peers and
Pieces Tabs.
Here, each datafile bit is represented as a box, and is coloured dif-
ferently based on whether it has been downloaded or not. The num-
bers reflect the number of peers having that piece with them.
Selecting a Peer in the Peers tab will reveal the status of that peer’s
file download progress. The Swarm tab displays a pictorial represen-
tation of the P2P network connected with the same torrent file.
The Context menu also allows changing the transfer bandwidths
on the fly, under the Advanced link. A novel feature in Azureus is the

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creation of a “Magnet” link that can be inserted in an ordinary Web

page. Clicking on the link, if Azureus is installed, will allow the data
file to be downloaded without having the associated torrent file. This
is similar in operation to the BC link created in BitComet. The option
to create the Magnet link is available in the Context menu. Under the
Options tab, the data transfer speeds can be set.

4.4.3 Configuration
The Tools > Options menu offers the configuration settings
for Azureus. Under the Transport Encryption link, the option to
encrypt the data transfer and the mode to do so can be config-
ured. Under the Transfer link, the number and bandwidth limits
of connection with other peers can be configured. Here, Azureus
can also be configured to download pieces of the file that are clos-
er to start and end of the file, which will help in previewing the
file before a large part is downloaded. Additionally, files that have
a higher completion rate can be preferred over those that are just
starting out. Azureus can automatically control the speeds of
data transfers to prevent one file hogging all the bandwidth.
Auto-Speed is a facility to control the transfer bandwidth auto-
matically. This is done by regularly checking the total bandwidth
and adjusting the limits. The different options for this facility,
including the checking frequency, can be set here. Under the LAN
settings, a different set of speed limits can be set for peers on the
same LAN as yourself. Under the Performance link under the File
tree, one can set the disk caching options. Different aspects of the
interface can be set under the Interface link.
The Mode link lets you set a level of expertise. This will influ-
ence the configurable options available to you. By default the
user mode is set to Beginner, in which case some of the links in
the Options tab are unavailable. Setting the mode to Advanced
will free these options. IP Filter links can be used to block peers
by their IP. The condition of marking a peer for blocking can be
set, based on the amount of bad data sent. Azureus has an inbuilt
tracker, which can be activated under the Tracker-Server link. To
be able to do this, the external IP of your PC needs to be entered.
This can be automatically found by clicking on the Auto Discover

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button. With the internal tracker enabled, the next time you cre-
ate a new torrent, the option to use the inbuilt tracker becomes
available. Under the Queue link, one can set different conditions
under which to stop or start active transfer of torrents.
Under the Tools—Statistics menu, one tool worth a look is
Vivaldi. Though not of much practical use, Azureus claims it is a
positioning system that is created from the ping times of each
peer. The map is unique for each user since the ping times from
each user is used to create it. The map can be zoomed with the
ping times of each peer displayed in milliseconds. Besides the
Vivaldi tab, the other tabs in the Statistics window display other
information about the usage of cache and Distributable database
(also called DHT) which is used by a peer to find other peers with-
out using a tracker.

4.4.4 Comments
Azureus shows the path ahead with regard to the opportunities for
legal use of P2P technologies. The slick veneer of a multimedia plat-
form, smoothly hiding the intricacies of P2P technology, is bound to
attract many users who are interested in only the content. This lends
credibility to Vuze’s claim of being one of the most popular (aren’t
they all?) multimedia portals.

Do take a look at the Vivaldi tool

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4.5 BitTyrant
This is a modified version of Azureus version 2.5. The sole difference
between these clients is in the way BitTyrant preferentially allocates
more upload bandwidth to those peers that send more data to you.
By default, in any BT client, the upload bandwidth is equally
distributed among the connected peers. BitTyrant does not limit
upload bandwidth; rather, it distributes it in proportion to the
download bandwidth available from the peers. For example, if a
you’re downloading a file from two peers, with one peer sending
data at 10 kbps and the other at 20 kbps, BitTyrant will preferen-
tially upload data to the latter peer at twice the rate it uploads to
the former. It is claimed that doing so improves the download
speeds of swarms by up to 70 per cent!
The interface and configuration options of BitTyrant are similar
to those in Azureus (using the Classic interface).

4.6 eMule
4.6.1 Introduction
eMule is an eD2K client—the most popular one.

4.6.2 Usage
When eMule is launched the first time, a wizard guides you through
the different steps to configure the system to connect to the network.
After the initial configuration, it presents a list of servers. These are
the servers that hold information about other peers and the files
that they are sharing. To connect to any network, you select it and
click the Connect button.
After a server has been connected to, the files shared by the other
users in the network can be searched. If the desired file is being
shared by anybody, and shows up in the search results, it can be
downloaded. The search results can be sorted under different heads
like Availability and Complete Sources. It is best to select a copy with
more sources in case more than one copy of the file is found.
eMule also implements a serverless network, called Kademlia,
shortened to KAD. This is similar in principle to DHT or Peer Exchange
in case of the BT protocol. Since it is possible to configure the client

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to work only on the KAD net-

work, you can find addition-
al sources of files if connect-
ed to KAD in addition to
eD2K. After connecting to
KAD, the required file
should be searched for just
as in the case of the regular
eD2K network. A typical server list view in eMule
Right-clicking on any file being downloaded will offer additional
options. The file bits can be preferentially downloaded to aid quick-
er Previewing by enabling the “Download Parts needed for Preview
First” option in the context menu. The priority of the download can
also be similarly set. Details about the file being downloaded can be
accessed by clicking on the Details option in the context menu. This
will pop up a windows with details about the peers, the download
speed, etc. One useful feature is the Content tab, which can list the
contents of the file being downloaded in case it is an archive.
eMule also incorporates an IRC client, which can be used to chat
with other peers. This can be a great place for newbies to seek tips on
mastering eMule.
Clicking on the Statistics button will bring up a lot of facts and
figures about the data transfers, in the form of real-time graphs and
also historical data.
The Shared Folders button lists the files that have been shared by
you. Right-clicking on the file will allow the creation of eD2K links
for those particular files. These links can be included in normal Web
pages, and clicking on these links will allow users to access that file,
given that an application that can handle eD2K links is installed.

4.6.3 Configuration
eMule can be configured by clicking the Options button.
Under the Display link, some settings to save system resources
can be enabled—for example, “Disabling Known Clients List.” Under
the Connection link, the maximum data transfer limits can be set.
You can also check if the ports are properly opened to allow data
transfers here. Under the Directories link, the locations to save down-

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loaded data can be

specified, and the
directory that is
shared with other
peers can be selected.
After a folder has been
marked as shared, the
contents of the folder
are scanned and hash
Making a KAD connection using eMule
values created. The
filenames are associated with the hash values. The hashing process
can be time-consuming depending on the number and size of files
shared, though no progress bar is displayed.
Under the Files link, the downloading behaviour can be modi-
fied to allow quicker previews by enabling “Try to download pre-
view chunks first.” eMule can also be configured to launch every
time an eD2K link is copied, by enabling “Watch Clipboard for
eD2K file links.” Under the IRC link, the username to be used while
chatting, and the IRC server to connect to, can be specified. Under
the Security link, the option to enable Protocol Obfuscation is avail-
able, which can be used in case eMule data is being blocked by the
ISP. IP filter can be used to block certain peers from connecting to
you. An online source can also be specified to take advantage of
other users’ knowledge of known offensive peers. Under the
Scheduler link, eMule can be configured to automatically start
downloads at set times on set days of the week.
You can control eMule running on any PC by accessing the IP
address of the PC with the port number specified here. Under the
Extended link, advanced options can be set. Here, the disk cache
to be used can be set. Enabling the “Use Credit system (reward
uploaders)” allows those with favourable share ratios to enjoy
faster downloads.

4.6.4 Comments
eMule is a user-friendly client to share data on the eD2K net-
work. The ability to manage downloads to allow faster previews
is a definite plus.

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4.7 Shareaza
4.7.1 Introduction
This is a client that works on various P2P networks: Gnutella,
Gnutella 2, eD2K, and BT, though it is positioned mainly as a
Gnutella 2 client. It also incorporates a download manager.

4.7.2 Usage
After installation, Shareaza connects to the Gnutella 2 network auto-
matically. While the number of connections seems small in compar-
ison to eMule, the nature of the Gnutella network ensures that this
is of little significance.
The Gnutella / Gnutella 2 protocol network is in the Hub and
Spoke (or leaf) architecture. So connecting to two hubs means that
one is indirectly connected to all the spokes in the hubs, and since
some of these spokes are also connected to other Hubs, even those
peer’s shared files are accessible to you. The number of peers that are
connected to you are displayed in the status bar. If needed, connec-
tions to the Gnutella network and eD2K network can also be made
by clicking on the buttons bearing their names.
The Home interface is presented upon launch of the program. In
this view, a summary of all the activities and status of the client can
be had. The number of peers connected to, the downloads in
progress, etc. are all mentioned. There is a search box which can be
used to find content shared by other peers, which is the first step.
For greater control on the search process, the Search interface
can be accessed by clicking on the Search button. You can specify
which network to search in—eD2K or Gnutella or Gnutella 2. The
search results are displayed in the application itself.
The range of the search is displayed under the search box,
showing the number of hubs and leaves searched. Details about
the files being shared by other peers are listed, along with prop-
erties of the connection, including the number of copies, speed of
that connection, etc. It is best to select a file that has the higher
Host / Count and the highest download rates. After selecting the
file, one uses the context menu to download the file.
Shareaza can also be used to directly retrieve data from the
shared folder of another peer using the Gnutella 1 or 2 protocol. For

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this, right-click on any of

the connected peers and
select “Browse User”. This
will display a list of files
shared by that peer, if that
peer has enabled the brows-
ing feature. Files that are
marked for downloads
appear in the Transfer
interface. All data transfer The main interface window of Shareaza
actions are listed under the
Transfer tab. Here, details regarding the speed of transfer, the num-
ber of peers, etc. are listed. Hovering the cursor over the entry will
display a graph showing the transfer speeds.
Files shared by connected users, as displayed in the Network
interface, can also be directly browsed by using the Browse user
option in the context menu. Adding a torrent file for download
can be done by accessing Download file / Torrent option in the
Tools menu. This will pop up a window asking for the torrent file.
Once provided, the BT network is connected to. Further options
cannot be specified, like downloading selected files only, or the
priority of the download. The same window can also be used to
download files from Web pages. The Home interface also offers a
link to launch the download window.
Shareaza can also be used to continue partial downloads done
in eMule. Partially-downloaded files are named .part by default,
and loading these files in Shareaza will resume the download.
This facility can be accessed from the Tools menu. The location of
the eMule temporary folder needs to be provided, and Shareaza
imports the relevant files from it.
Shareaza has an integrated media player which can be used to
preview downloaded media files without starting an external player.

4.7.3 Configuration
Shareaza can be configured by using the Settings option under the
Tools menu. Under the Web link, the filetypes and protocols to be
associated with Shareaza can be set.

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Piolet is (yet) another P2P file sharing network that Shareaza can
work with. Under the Connection link, the bandwidth allocated for
upload and downloads can be specified. Under the Download link,
the number of active downloads and speed limits for this can be
specified. Under the Upload link, upload limits can be specified. The
remote access link presents the options to allow the client to be
remotely controlled from another PC. The Scheduler allows pro-
gramming of the client to download at specific times of the day and
sets the limits to download. Under the Network link, the different
networks to be connected to can be specified, and the connection
characteristics tweaked. Since Shareaza cannot create torrents, the
external agent to do so can be assigned here. Shareaza comes bun-
dled with a few skins, and these can be applied under the Skins link.
The Plugin link displays the plugins already installed in Shareaza,
and the behaviour of each can be configured. The Advanced link dis-
plays the various options that experts might want to configure.

4.7.4 Comments
Shareaza is the Swiss Army Knife of P2P clients. Those seeking sim-
pler interfaces would be put off by the gaudiness, but the features on
offer more than justify the discomfiture.

4.8 DC++
4.8.1 Introduction
This is a client for the Direct Connect P2P protocol. Like eD2K, DC
also has hubs that store information about the peers connected to
them, and the files shared by each.

4.8.2 Usage
DC++ can be comparatively challenging to use. At first launch, you
are presented with a blank window with no messages or Wizard to
help out. The first step is to configure the client by visiting the
Settings option in the File menu. Once the client has been set up
with the bare basics—specifying a nick / username and identifying a
share folder—selecting the Public Hubs option under the View menu
will bring up the list of DC Hubs available.

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The massive list can be sorted under various headings, including

number of users, minimum share size, and nationality. Right-click-
ing on any hub will present the option to Connect to it. If selected,
the client will attempt to
connect to the hub. Once
connected, you are pre-
sented with a welcome
message and a chat win-
dow displaying the list of
other peers on the hub. If,
A typical view of a public hub listing in DC++
for any reason, you are
unwelcome, a reason is specified along with the disconnection mes-
sage. You can connect to more than one hub at a time.
If successfully connected, either the search function can be used
to find a particular file in the hub, or files shared by individual users
can be browsed. To search for files, you use the Search option in the
view menu. The hubs to be searched can be selected. After entering
the terms to be searched and clicking on the Search button, be pre-
pared to wait! Alternatively, right-clicking on the Peer name in the
chat window will give you the option to Get File List. Selecting
this will generate a list of files shared by that peer, unless all the
uploads slots set by the peer are already occupied—in which case
a relevant message is displayed, and you will have to retry.
Once the needed file is found, right-clicking on it presents the
option to download it. Once that is selected, the download process
begins, and the progress is displayed in the status panel below. By
default the file is downloaded to the location mentioned in the set-
tings (while configuring the client), but the file can be saved in an
alternative location by choosing the Download to option.

4.8.3 Configuration
The client can be configured by using the Settings option in the File
menu. At least the nick field in the Personal Information column
needs to be filled, since otherwise, connecting to a hub will be diffi-
cult (there exist scripts that disconnects a user without a nick (user-
name)). Under the Connection Settings, the details about how you are
connected to the Net needs to be provided, which is of concern only

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if you are not directly connected. Under the Downloads link, the loca-
tion to save downloaded files to can be set. The maximum number of
simultaneous connections can be specified here. Public Hub lists are
lists of DC hubs addresses available from different online sites. It is
best not to modify this, unless you have achieved some level of expert-
ise (in which case you wouldn’t be reading this!). Under the Queue set-
tings, the client can be configured to automatically prioritise / de-pri-
oritise files based on size; similarly, sources of data can be dropped if
they do not meet specified criteria. Under Sharing, you can specify
the folder that can be accessible to other peers.
Since many hubs limit peers without a minimum shared data
size, it is recommended to ensure that an empty folder is not being
shared. Once a folder is shared, its contents are scanned and hash val-
ues prepared. Depending on the size of files shared, this process can
be lengthy, and so you can relegate the hashing process to the back-
ground. Files will not be shared before they are hashed.
The number of upload slots can be specified here. Under the
Appearance link, the visual aspects of the bland interface can be
spruced up—just a bit. The Advanced link offers additional tweaking
options. The option to “Register with windows to handle magnet:URI
links” will ensure that clicking on such a link will launch DC++.

4.8.4 Comments
DC++ offers a lean interface that is similar to that of µTorrent in
many ways. Since no other client (except for Strong DC++, which is
very similar) supports the Direct Connect protocol, you are left with
a Hobson’s choice!

4.9 Conclusion
Every network has its advantages and disadvantages. While
BitTorrent is the fastest way to get the latest content, the other net-
works offer greater interaction between peers. Data retention is the
poorest in BT while it is possible to find the most arcane stuff in the
niche hubs in DC networks. You just need to know where to look.

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Online Social
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I
t is believed that early man used sign language to communi-
cate with each other. Later on he learnt to talk. Then, he began
to use smoke signals to communicate over long distances. Then
came the advent of letter writing. The 19th century has witnessed
the invention of the telegraph and telephone and as a result
human interaction has become easier. But the most phenomenal
method of communication and interaction evolved in the 20th
century—the Internet.
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The Web started from bulletin board services and forums and
has evolved to a more complex method of social interaction—social
networking sites. The sites offer a safe, secure and fun-filled way
for people to connect, interact and socialise on the Internet. We
did some research on the popular as well as and not-so-popular
sites, and cover ten of them here:

❍ Facebook
❍ Orkut
❍ Fropper
❍ BigAdda
❍ Yaari
❍ MySpace
❍ Friendster
❍ OkCupid
❍ Hi5
❍ Forums

5.1 Orkut
Orkut is the site to start with. Who has not heard of Orkut? Started
a few years ago, this is perhaps the most popular social network-
ing site amongst Indians. The site has been developed by Google,
and your Google Account login works here too.
If you do not already have a Google Account, this site will
help you get one. Google sends you an activation link to your
email account and once you click on it, your account is activat-
ed. When you sign in, the first thing you want to do is enter your
complete personal details. Click on the “Edit Profile” link to the
left of the page and you are taken to a page showing four links.
Click on the general link to enter basic information about you.
This includes information like age, interests, hobbies, favourite
music and movies. Click on the social link to enter information
about your height, looks and you ideal match. The contact link
is used to enter your contact information such as your e-mail ID,
your cell number and your address. The last link, professional,
lets you key in information about your professional life. In your
profile, you can decide on the information fields that should be

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visible only to you, your friends

or the general public. This kind
of granular level control can be
applied by you on fields such as
age, e-mail ID, cell number and
address—fields you may not want
to reveal in totality. Remember,
your profile is what others view
The Orkut Home Page
when they browse for friends, so
it can be the deciding factor in
catching someone’s interest.
The next thing you would want to do is upload your photos
on the site, so that people can see how good you look! Similar to
your profile, a photo definitely makes a difference in catching
anyone’s attention. You can even upload short videos of yours on
the site. You have to upload the video to either Google Video or
YouTube and specify the link to the video on Orkut.
To start interacting with people you can search for people
and write in their scrapbooks, or else you can join a community
on this site. There are all sorts of communities out there having
people with common interests such as entertainment, sports,
health, literature, technology, computers and what not. You
may be slightly shy, but joining one of these could get you
invites to events that these communities hold and you could
start building a social circle.
You could also build your own social circle by inviting peo-
ple to your own events. If you are a little rushed, when you
search for people you can even mark them as your favourites or
as your crushes and contact them later—similar to tagging or
bookmarking the “important” ones.
If you are the bold kind, you could either directly message
people or message them later after they have responded to your
scraps. There is also a provision for blogging on the site and peo-
ple can respond to your blogs and of course you can post replies
to other blogs too.
Orkut is a must-sign-up-for site if you want to be visible in
the online social networking circuit.

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5.2 MySpace
MySpace is yet another popular
social networking site on the
Internet. True to its name, it
gives people their own space on
the Web. This site, like Orkut,
offers the facilities to socialise,
to make friends and join com-
munities of people who share
The MySpace Home Page
similar interests.
Once again, to get started, sign up for this service. Once you
sign up, this site sends you an activation link at your e-mail
address and once you click on it, your “space” is activated. Once
again enter your complete personal details after signing in. Click
on the “Edit Profile” link on the right side of your name and you
are taken to a page where you can enter more on your personal
details. In the “Personal Info” tab, there are several links. Click on
“Interests and Personality” to enter your hobbies, favourite film
stars, favourite movies, and favourite music. Next go to the name
section to enter your full nomenclature! Move on to Basic Info to
enter your e-mail id, cell number, address, and other details. Like
Orkut, this site too offers granular control over the visibility of sev-
eral items. On the background and lifestyle page you could speci-
fy on fields such as drinking, smoking and what you are looking
for on the site.
On the “Schools” page, enter the names of the institutions
where you have studied and on the “Companies” page enter your
work details which includes the nature of your work, your place
of work, and the name of the firm. On the networking page, you
can see your friends, while on the “Song and Video” page, you
can upload songs you may have sung or for that matter any
other song and videos about yourself or your friends that you
want to share.
The next tab after the Personal Info tab is the Groups tab,
where you can see a list of groups that you are the moderator of
and on the Comments tab you can see the comments people have
posted to you.

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Before uploading videos, we do recommend uploading your

photo so that you make a good first impression on people’s search-
es. Just as the case in Orkut, you can browse for friends and mail
them. You can invite friends to join your network and similarly
widen your social circle. Here, too you can mark people as your
favourites during searches in order to mail them at leisure. These
people would be distinctly visible on another page in your “space”,
a feature similar to Orkut. On MySpace you have blogs and forums
as well. Blogs and forums are somewhat similar, but blogs are usu-
ally larger in content than forums are. Also, forums are more of a
discussion on various topics, while blogs are more descriptive of
your experiences or are short stories like a diary. You can join var-
ious groups on MySpace too. After all, there are people with com-
mon interests such as sports, books, entertainment, movies, arts,
and crafts. You can also attend events or invite people to events on
MySpace. What distinguishes MySpace from Orkut is MySpaceTV.
This shows video clips such as the latest movie trailers, funny
videos similar to YouTube or Metacafe. This site provides people
with audio entertainment in the form of music and songs as well.
We rank this site highly as well.

5.3 Facebook
Facebook is yet another online social networking site on the Web.
The name, as we gather, means a book of faces or a collection of
faces. Just like Orkut and MySpace, this site too, offers the facilities
to meet people, make friends and socialise on the Web.
As in the earlier cases, to get started on Facebook, you need
to sign up. Click on the
activation link that
Facebook sends to your
e-mail account and fol-
low the three steps that
ensue. Step one does a
search for friends from
your e-mail address
book who are already on
The Facebook Home Page

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Facebook. Step two is to enter the name of your school, univer-

sity and company so that Facebook can search for people from
those institutions who are already on Facebook. Finally enter
your country name and you are through.
Next, as with Orkut and MySpace, complete the entry of your
profile. Click on the “edit” link next to the Profile link on your
home page. On Facebook, you find a Basic page where you enter
basic information such as your age, location, profession—
whether you are in school, college or working. On the Contact
page you could enter your e-mail id, cell number, and address.
Once again, be assured of the visibility of these items. In rela-
tionships enter whether you are looking for just friends, dating
or serious relationships.
Move on to the Personal page to enter your interests, hobbies
and your favourites. Specify your education and work details in
the next two pages and then proceed to upload your photo to
the site.
Facebook offers you the same plethora of features that
MySpace and Orkut do. Once done with your personal details,
you can make friends by searching and messaging them or join-
ing groups of like-minded people on this site. If you don’t want
to jump into this right away you or do not want to write mes-
sages in peoples’ scrapbooks, you could “poke” them, as
Facebook terms it. You could also message people directly to
build up your guild of comrades. Once well known to each other,
as with Orkut and MySpace, with your comrades in arms, you
could go to their events or invite them to yours.
On Facebook, you can post comments on people’s walls. This
is called newsfeed and there is a separate page reserved for
newsfeed in your area on this site. This is very somewhat differ-
ent from blogging or forums, but similar in the sense that you
can post your reply to these newsfeeds. Here too, you can, in
addition to photos, upload videos. Facebook offers the feature of
uploading videos up to 100 MB in size, which can make for
videos which would be a bit lengthy with today’s compressed
video file formats.
That we guess, is for the book of faces!

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5.4 Desi Variants

BigAdda, Fropper and Yaari are the three online social networking
services we cover next. BigAdda, as the name suggests, is a site
which gives you your own “adda” on the Web. For those not famil-
iar with the term, adda means a hangout—a place where you meet
your friends, chill out and have fun. Precisely, the tea stall outside
your college, where buddies catch up on some hot and spicy gos-
sip! Yaar means friend, while yaari means friendship. Fropper, we
guess is where everyone hops to make friends and connect.
The significant point here is that all three sites are Indian.
That is not to say that you cannot interact with people from
other countries. People from all over the globe subscribe to
these sites. Check out these sites and see for yourself. Moreover,
these sites offer as much as international sites in terms of serv-
ices, if not more. In fact, when we started out research for this
chapter, we did not expect these sites to be as popular as Orkut,
MySpace or Facebook. What we see, however, is that these sites
are as much a rage as international online social networking
sites, and offer the same in terms of quality of service as well.
You can expect the same promptness you get from Orkut or
MySpace or Facebook, from these sites as well. Moreover, these
sites have that distinct Indian feel to them, which you will rel-
ish once you start using them.
Sign up for any one of these services and you go through the
now familiar procedure of receiving an activation link, which you
need to click in order to activate your account. Fropper and
BigAdda have something called themes for you. This specifies the
layout of the pages that you see in your adda in BigAdda and your
zone in Fropper—that’s right, your space is called a zone in
Fropper. In addition, Fropper has a separate section called rela-
tionships. In this section you can meet people and connect with
your buddies. In Fropper, you cannot send messages to people
unless you create your relationship section within your zone. This
also needs to have a different username from your zone username.
Fropper, thus, seeks to segregate your space or zone from your
friends, which gives you greater privacy on the site.

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Once you get to your home page (BigAdda calls the home page
a dashboard) on any of these three, you need to once again go
through the process of completing the entry of your personal
details. Once again on the various pages of the profile, you specify
details such as your full name, age, cell number, e-mail ID,
address, looks, hobbies, interests, activities you enjoy and the kind
of people you are interested in. There is provision for entering
information about your school and the college you have attended
or are attending. Besides, you can specify your work details such as
the nature of your work or the place of work. These details are
entered on different pages in these three sites. These sites too offer
control over the visibility of certain fields such as age, cell number
and address, which users may be sensitive about.
Some people feel this is unnecessary, but there are a whole lot
of weird people out there on the online social networking circuit
to make this a good feature.
Be warned: it is not that all is hunky dory on the Web and untoward
incidents can happen on these all-so-convenient sites.
We recommend uploading at least a photo if not a video to
catch the interest of people on these sites. When people browse for
friends on these sites just as you would, your name shows up along
with your photo in the search.
Regarding videos, BigAdda has provision for uploading videos
in the latest video file formats, unlike the other networking sites,
which request you to upload your files to YouTube and specify a
link. As with any online social networking site, you can connect
with people on these sites—message them or join groups. As
before, you can search for people and mark people who match
your search criteria as favourites. Yaari calls such people “hot
years”.
This kind of linguistic mixing gives these sites the “desi” feel
that we spoke about earlier. Moreover, since the world is becoming
a globalized place, there is a trend of people borrowing words
from different languages for communicating. This is healthy for
cross-cultural interaction.
Fropper, like Yaari, has groups, while BigAdda calls them
addas. The word adda in BigAdda parlance, has two meanings—

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one, it means the personal space of its subscribers and two, it

means the group space for its groups. Similar to international
sites, there are all sorts of groups on these sites from technology,
to films, to sports, to even literature groups.
On these sites too, you can invite people to events and of course
get invited to some as well. There are forums and blogs on these
sites too. As with other sites, you can write your views on a partic-
ular topic and invite views and opinions from other members on
these sites. You can also maintain your blog and invite people to
write comments in response to other people’s blogs and of course
write your own feedback to other peoples’ blogs as well. Once
again we should exercise caution. Do take what is written on these
forums and blogs with a pinch of salt. People often write things in
jest on forums and blogs. Do not take these snippets of words so
seriously that you begin to lose sleep over them.
Also, in general, avoid writing strong comments in response to
peoples’ statements on forums and blogs as these can cause a
chain reaction and work against you and your pals in the group.
The online world offers much in terms of freedom of expression,
which is very often abused; especially since people can stay anony-
mous online.
In addition to these, Yaari offers a unique feature—you can SMS
people through Yaari. There is a “Mobile” tab on your home page
in Yaari. Click on it and you will see instructions on how to SMS
people and allow people to send SMSes to you as well. Fropper, too,
has a unique feature to offer. You can chat with people using this
site. Fropper has its own online messenger service (only for its
members) as part of its relationship zone by means of which you
can find out who is online and chat with them just as you would
do with Yahoo! or MSN messenger.

5.5 Friendster

Friendster is the next online social networking site in the offering.

This offers the advantage of being a multilingual site. This site can
also be viewed in languages other than English. The site’s home

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page says that it is available in English, Spanish and what seem to

be languages of the eastern countries.
As usual you start out by signing up for the site. Similar to
Facebook, after signing up for this service, you need to follow the
usual steps. This has just two, not three. After you enter a few per-
sonal details, you can invite your friends to join in, which is step
one. Then, upload a photo to the site, which is step two. After
completing these two optional steps, you can enter your complete
personal details. This is getting a little clichéd, but this is essential
to any social networking site. Click on “My Profile” on your home
page and you see four tabs. On the main tab you enter your per-
sonal details such as age, address, favourite music, movies, hob-
bies and interests. And, of course, in the college and school tabs
you enter details about your college and school. After this you are
just about done with your personal details. This site isn’t so
detailed in its format about the information you enter in your pro-
file. Also this site doesn’t offer that much in terms of features as
say Orkut, MySpace or even Facebook does. It is a rather simplistic
site which is good from the point of view that it doesn’t bog a per-
son down with too many details.
After you have filled in your personal details, you are ready to
roll! Click on the “My Connections” link to see your list of friends.
With this too, you can search for people and socialise and make
friends. This site offers an interesting feature—it has its own
search engine powered by Google. It provides two options—to
search either the Web or Friendster. This service is also useful if
you want to search for anything particular on its bulletin board
services. That’s correct this site does not offer forums or blogs to
write in. It offers bulletin board services (BBSs). BBSs are some-
thing the Internet started out with and are similar to the news-
feeds feature that Facebook provides. These are basically like a sec-
tion where people can write their comments like graffiti on the
wall and you can view what they have written. You too can write
your own graffiti on other people’s walls. On this site you can
upload your videos by uploading them to YouTube, Crackle or
Metacafe. This is similar to Orkut in that you can upload your
videos to YouTube or Google Video.

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5.6 Hi5

Hi5 is another social networking site that is multilingual. Apart

from oriental languages, this site is available in several European
languages such as French, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and even
German.
Start by signing up for this site, and there’s no need to go hunt-
ing for an activation link. So, just enter a few personal details and
you’re in. It makes the sign up process simpler and there is provi-
sion to prevent spam using the usual technique of asking the sub-
scriber to enter a random sequence of characters just as all the
social networking sites do.
Once signed in, click on “My Profile” on your home page to
complete the entry of your personal details. This site, like
Friendster is very basic in its requirement of personal details,
although it does have a few more features in other departments.
In your profile, enter your lifestyle, favourite music, hobbies, and
schools and you are done. One interesting feature of this site is
that you get your own domain name on the Web with this site.
This means that if someone named abcxyz signs up for this site he
gets a domain by the name http://abcxyz.hi5.com with this site and
his friends would communicate with him using this domain. This
feature is very nifty for people who would like to have their own
space on the Web named after them.
This site allows photo uploads and video uploads as well. For
uploading videos, Hi5 has tied up with VideoEgg, which is an
online video editing service. Similar to Orkut, Hi5 has the feature
of scrapbooks. Similar to other social networking sites, you do this
after a search for the kind of people you would like to meet. You
can send messages to people on the site and can mark your
favourite people for later interaction as well. And, of course, you
can join a group to meet people who share their interests with
you. There is provision to enter your information about your
school and college, which can help you find those old friends, for-
gotten pals or gals (in the right spirit!). The other social network-
ing sites club it with the rest of the profile. Meeting old chums is
always a pleasure. And last but not the least, you can maintain

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journals on this site. These are very similar to blogs, where you
write your experiences of life or just short stories to entertain
yourself and others. There are no forums on this site, but the jour-
nal does make up for it, or rather, for the lack of it. We would say
that this site is somewhat similar to Friendster and has features
more basic than other sites, although, it does manage to beat
Friendster.

5.7 OKCupid

OkCupid is a very interesting online social networking site that

we would like to describe here. Cupid is the name of the Greek
god of love, and the name of this site very aptly describes its pur-
pose... This site is more suitable than the other sites described
here for people who want to date more than make friends.
OkCupid is different from other sites both in purpose as well as
its features. For instance, when you sign up for this site, you are
greeted by a lady cartoon character called Inga. Inga first asks you to
enter a screen name for yourself and enter your e-mail id. She then
requests for further information such as your age and gender, on
subsequent pages. Lastly, she asks you to write a short essay on your-
self. Do these and you’re in. The site does send an activation link, but
that doesn’t seem mandatory to continue using it. Here, you don’t
have to enter the plethora of personal details that other sites require
you to, so you don’t click on the “edit profile” link next (there isn’t
one anyway). The makers of this site have decided to cater to exclu-
sive clientele—people who want romance in their lives more than
friendship. So what you actually do is answer a whole lot of questions
related to what you would be looking for in a significant other and
also answer if you would expect your match to have a similar or dis-
similar answer to those questions. Lastly, you specify what age group
of people you are looking for, their “preferences” and their location.
Once this is done, the site matches you with other members on the
site so that you come to know who among the members your ideal
dates are. There is provision to mark your favourite people on this
site just like other sites. So, search away and match away.

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This site offers another interesting feature—40000 personality

tests. Yes! That is what the site claims to offer: “40000 tests to find
out your personality type.” We wonder how the makers of the site
made time to compile all those tests? These are simple tests such
as the “can we date test”, the “can we be friends test” or even the
“tough-o-meter test”. There are some really weird ones too like the
“spiritual aptitude test” or the “which autobot are you test” or the
“Dr. Seuss cat test”. Autobots are robots from the Transformers car-
toons/movie.
If you want a few laughs, or if you have a lot of time to kill and
are simply looking for pure entertainment, do try some of these
tests. You will find both, the tests and the results quite amusing.
However, the most amusing feature of this site that we found was
its sign out line, which said, “Leaving already? We’re sorry to see
you go. It’s a big, scary Internet out there. Stop back soon!”

5.8 Forums

Forums are the last online social networking method that we are
going to talk about. It’s a method of communications, not a site
name. Forums are essentially one of the oldest methods of net-
working on the Internet. Before online networking sites such as
Orkut, Fropper and Friendster existed, this was the most common
used way in which people would connect and interact with each
other. Sites like Orkut offer more features than forums, stepped
into the scene much later.
So what is a forum? A forum is basically a site where you can
start a topic for discussion and other users can post replies to the
statements which started the forum. Forums are usually named in
the format of http://forum.<sitename>.com like http://forums.mysql.com
or http://<sitename>.com/forum, such as http://thinkdigit.com/forum
People can post replies to the replies as well and this can go on
indefinitely. Forums offer a great way for people who want to be
heard to speak their hearts out. Nowadays online networking sites
like Fropper and MySpace offer their own forums on which mem-
bers can post replies and voice their opinions. Very often people

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are shy to express themselves to others. Forums offer the chance

for people to shed their inhibitions and speak up. People do voice
their opinions on forums as these sites offer the unique advantage
to people to do so without revealing their identity. Since you don’t
really know who the person who started the topic, or posted a
reply is, people can make themselves heard without fear. Hence, as
already mentioned, it is wise not to take forums too seriously.
There are forums on every topic on the Internet. There are
forums on general topics like movies, music, and entertainment,
more specific topics such as politics and environmental issues and
also more technical topics such as computers, Internet and elec-
tronics. Whatever be the topic, you can simply start a discussion
on a forum and set the ball rolling.
In the technical world, people start discussions on technical
problems and receive solutions to their replies from others who
have encountered the same problem earlier in their lives and have
found solutions.

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T
here are loads and loads of software out there waiting to be
discovered and downloaded. With way too many sites offer-
ing them for download, it really is a nitty-gritty task of sep-
arating the wheat from the chaff. But hey, that’s what we’re here
for. We have split each site on three lines. The first is What’s on
offer? Here, you will find information on why you should visit the
site. Interface, is a quick review of the same, and Download Test, is
a description of how easy (or hard) it is to find and download the
software you are looking for. So here we go.
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6.1 Softpedia

Softpedia is a name synonymous with downloading. If you don’t

get it, it is like the encyclopaedia of software. They offer an
absolute plethora of services which most people will find helpful.
Here goes the list:

6.1.1 What’s on offer?

Downloads: This is a download site… but what a site! They offer
everything from software for Windows, Linux, Mac, handheld
devices and even mobiles, to the latest drivers as well as the latest
gaming files, so that you stay in pace with your clan, if not be the
geek yourself! It is really well categorised. They even have a section
for iPod tools… now can you beat that! And mind you… all these
are updated regularly.
Reviews: Softpedia also reviews a lot of stuff. There is nothing like
having a trusted review to tell you whether a download is worth it.
We went through quite a few reviews and they are all very thor-
ough and comprehensive. In spite of the fact that there is no edi-
tor’s review, Softpedia enjoys huge fan following that would
ensure you know about any software you care to name. They even
showcase the latest in handheld devices.
News: With frequent updates, Softpedia offers the latest in news.
This is value addition in case you get tired of downloading or if
your PC gets tired of you downloading!

6.1.2 Interface
It seems as if there is more content on the home page than an aver-
age page of a dictionary. You get a quick update of the latest in
Windows, Mac, Linux, handheld software, games and mobile
phones with interesting stuff to read along with the latest news,
latest reviews and their top downloads for the past week (try say-
ing that in one breath).
You would go crazy with amount of stuff packed into one lit-
tle page and is kind of overwhelming to a new user. But once you
get used to the interface, you will realise that there are a lot of
little touches packed in to help you along. First off all, the “On

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this Page” header gives you a quick

summary of the contents of that
page. This is very useful as there is
nothing as agonizing as scrolling
down a horrifyingly long page only to
realise it has nothing to do with what
you want. There is also the cool
“Program Finder” (more on that
later). It is also possible to sort soft-
ware by license, but this is rather tir- The feature-packed Home Page
ing. Each section has an RSS button
and a KLIP button so you can subscribe to it and be updated
through your favourite news reader. The title bar also displays
how recently that particular section was updated. We loved the
download basket which allows you to queue up downloads and
download them all in just one go. Kind of like a shopping basket.
However, you do need to complete a free registration form to use
the download basket. While browsing
software, the list displays a very large
number of programs on one page
with very little information. We
would, however, have preferred fewer
items, but with more information in
a single glance. Although feature
packed, it can be a intimidating to
the new user. There are also various
tidbits scattered around the site such
The typical download page.
as “This week’s pick” which helps you
find cool new software while you are
browsing. Though very nifty, this seems to clutter the interface.
The typical download page consists of basic software informa-
tion including a rating and an extremely obvious download but-
ton. This page is nice and clean and very simple. Whatever ads
you see on the site are text ads.

6.1.3 The Download Test

The download test was for a freeware Web browser, but not the

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usual Firefox or Opera. On the home page, it was pretty obvious

the easiest path to follow would be to click on All Download
Categories. This brought out a nice and categorised list, where we
quickly found browsers under the Internet. Now for the freeware
part, on the left there was a category options box that allowed us
to filter out anything but freeware. We chose freeware and rating
as descending. The top result was a toolbar. Disappointing as it
may seem, the second was a browser called K-melon. We clicked
the link and were taken to the download page, where we were told
it had received a rating of 4.75 from 200+ users. Nice! The extreme-
ly obvious download button took us to a download page offering
several server options as well as language packs. We chose a server
close to India and were good to go! However, we couldn’t help get-
ting the feel of too many clicks.
The fact that Softpedia allows you to choose different servers
to download from is pretty nifty.

6.1.4 Verdict

▲ Lots of stuff, well categorised, choice of servers, power-packed UI.

▼ Interface intimidating to new users.
Softpedia is easily one of the most comprehensive download
sites out there and definitely one to check out. Once you get used
to the mildly cluttered interface, this will easily be your best bet to
find any software you care to name.

6.2 Download.com
If you need to download something, isn’t the most obvious Web
site that pops into your head Download.com? This is a sister site of
CNET, and is highly reputed among geeks. But is it really the best
out there? It wouldn’t have the slightest shot at being the best
without offering a plethora of services.

6.2.1 What’s on Offer?

Downloads: Download.com offers a wide range of Windows, Mac
and Mobile Software, as well as the latest drivers and utilities and of

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course the latest game demos and patches. If you haven’t noticed,
this list is shockingly short as compared to the earlier Softpedia,
with the exclusion of Linux software. To add to the injury, the num-
ber of drivers available was very short as well, with less than a thou-
sand overall. This is not all that great. What we did like is that they
offer a large selection of Web ware as well, which is Software you
can run on your Internet browser. Download.com also offers free
music downloads. Don’t worry it’s completely legal and at the time
of reviewing they had over 1,00,000 free songs for download. The
best part is that all the software on the site is very well categorised
into several logical categories. This makes it very easy to browse for
the software relevant to what you are looking for. Also, the editors
pick out what they think are the best of the best and display them
under the editor’s picks section for your convenience.
Reviews: Download.com also offers several reviews and these are
found on the download page itself. Sadly, the reviews were
nowhere as comprehensive as we would have liked. It lacked
screenshots and were more descriptive than anything else.
Luckily, the pros and cons in any software you care to name are
brought out by the user base at Download.com. The user reviews
are also found on the download page. Though we would have pre-
ferred a longer review, it does make sense to have a short review as
people really don’t consider downloading a rather risky thing. But
in case what you are downloading is a 2+ GB mammoth, a full
review would surely be appreciated.
Blog: The editors of Download.com actually maintain a download
blog simply called, “The Download Blog”. This is an absolutely fan-
tastic addition as it tells you the latest tech secrets that you need
to know. Even if you don’t end up visiting Download.com a lot, the
Blog is worth visiting.

6.2.2 Interface
The interface at Download.com is undoubtedly a lot cleaner than
most sites out there, but this comes at the cost of providing less
information per page. But this is a great balance and will satisfy
both the newest users and hardcore download junkies. The home
page is awesome, with your long, collapsible and expandable list

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of categories on the left and

the most happening software
on the right. This list itself
will tempt you to start down-
loading. Any ads you see are
text ads and are as a result not
too heavy on your connection.
Moving on the listing method-
ology followed, this is bang on
target. Each item on the list
was accompanied by the edi-
tor’s rating, the user rating,
the number of downloads, the The Download.com Home Page
date added and a short
description yet being remark-
ably clean. This makes brows-
ing for software an absolute
delight as most of the infor-
mation you would need is pre-
sented at a glance. You can
also use several filters to
achieve a list that is most like-
ly to contain what you are
looking for. Letting your
mouse hover over a software
in the list present even more
information, like the license A typical download page.
and last week’s downloads.
The download page continues
the overall theme of the site and is surprisingly open and airy. It
contains the editor’s review, a couple of user reviews and a pub-
lisher’s description, and even a more-to-try list that lists similar
software. A nice addition was the “watch list”. This is basically
Web ware that keeps track of your favourite software for you and
alerts you when it has been updated. Overall, the Download.com
interface is superbly designed, offering the perfect balance
between information and cleanliness.

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6.2.3 The Download Test

With the interface being as fantastic as it was, we expected to be
able to find the test subject pretty easily and were not disappoint-
ed. We typed “Web Browsers” into the extremely obvious search
bar at the top of the page. Sadly, the results were badly contami-
nated with software that was not very relevant and even included
encryption software. But sorting by category and license led to a
list that had only freeware Web browsers. The whole process was a
breeze and was very intuitive and easy to pick up.
Even if you did not actually perform a search, finding the soft-
ware you needed by using the categories is just as easy if not easier.

6.3.4 Verdict

▲ Interface, blog, music downloads.

▼ Exclusion of Linux software, very few driver downloads.
Download.com has what is probably the best interface online,
but its relatively small directory of downloads prevents it from
becoming number one.

6.4 Soft32.com

Soft32 is the lesser known underdog, overshadowed by

Download.com and Softpedia.com when it comes to download
sites. However, it aims to be a blend of both that makes it a serious
player in the download world. After all, a site that offers as many
downloads as Softpedia with the fantastic interface of
Download.com would truly be a dream. Sounds good on paper, but
how does it all add up in the download-o-sphere?

6.4.1 What’s On Offer?

Downloads: The veritable platter available here. You get
Windows, Mac, handheld and Linux software. The game and driv-
er downloads are contained within the Windows downloads sec-
tion. This is a little confusing, as they really should be occupying
different categories all together. Sadly, it does not offer free

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music downloads ala Download.com! You will still have to head

elsewhere to get your musical fix. There is no Web ware either.
The fact that game and driver downloads come under the
Windows category gives you the impression that there is a
humbly small amount of downloads available in either category,
which is certainly not so. Both have a large variety of downloads
and you should, in most cases, be able to find what you are look-
ing. Although not an if-it’s-been-made-we-have-it scenario, it cer-
tainly is more than satisfactory. Categorisation, though present
in vast amounts, is slightly confusing and not as intuitive as it
should be. Overall-pretty good, not revolutionary or anything,
but definitely above average.
Reviews: All said, the editor’s reviews on this site are what might
end up making it your regular download site. The reviews on
Soft32 are the perfect length and most importantly the draw-
backs and plus points of the software being reviewed are bought
out very well. This is a huge value-added feature to the software
junkie. Fantastic! The user reviews are there, but due to the fact
that Soft32 is one of the lesser known download sites, it’s fan
base is significantly smaller than Download.com or Softpedia
and as a result there are a small number of user reviews avail-
able, but the editor’s review more than makes up for it.
News: Yes, it does offer the latest tech news, served fresh out of
the metaphorical oven. Thankfully, the news is nicely classified
and you have the option of subscribing to a particular category.
This is a nice way to get your daily news update and they are
refreshed quite regularly. A nice value-add to an already nice site!

6.4.2 Interface
To be truly honest, the interface is like someone took the
Softpedia interface and tweaked it. The result is an interface that
shows just less information than the Softpedia interface but is at
the same time nowhere near as user-friendly as the
Download.com interface. If pulled off correctly, this would have
been among the best interfaces in the business, but sadly, it isn’t!
The main page shows the latest and hottest software across all
platforms. It also sheds light on the latest tech news and lists out

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the download categories avail-

able. On the right you have
categories and the hottest
downloads. On top you get
tabs separating the cate-
gories. This is a nice touch as
new users will appreciate
something they are familiar
with. Something we appreci-
ated was the inclusion of an
“Our picks” section, which is
basically a list of hand-picked
software the editor considers The Soft32 Home Page
worthy, as well as an
“Essential software” section,
which is a list of software
your PC needs to keep it up
and running. It was nice to
see that apart from the edi-
tor’s review appearing on the
software’s download page,
you could also view all the
reviews under a separate cate-
gory. The listing method was
great, as the lists featured a
plethora of information that
includes a screenshot, the The download page
license, ratings and a short
description. This was actually quite nice because you can show or
hide information or screenshots as you may please. The filtering
system was again influenced by that used in Download.com The
download page looked very familiar as well, but displayed more
information than any other site. Luckily, all this information is
well categorised. Overall, Soft32’s interface is very well influ-
enced by its two big brothers, but sadly it is not a very successful
blend. Although not too hard, it’s not particularly easy to use
either. Something like mid way—maska chaska!

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6.4.3 The Download Test

Although we initially expected this to be slightly easier than
Softpedia and slightly harder than Download.com, we were
proved to be totally wrong. The search was shockingly effective
and even a basic search threw up a comprehensive list of Web
browsers that barely contained anything other than just that.
But it all ended there. We were taken aback when we realised
that you could not sort your search results by license. So we had
no option but to abandon the search and head to the advanced
search. The advanced search looks exactly like Google’s and this
had us looking around for a “Powered by Google” logo, but there
wasn’t one. The advanced search was as effective as ever, and
with the results containing just freeware as specified, we were
downloading in no time. Had it not been for the in ability of the
sorting of search results by license, this would have been an
instant winner.
It’s a nice feature that you can choose your download server on
Soft32 as well.

6.4.4 Verdict

▲ Interface, editor’s reviews, choice of servers.

▼ Small user base.
Soft32 could have been one hell of a site. Sadly, it fails at doing
so due to its small user base and lack of innovation.

6.5 MajorGeeks.com

The sole aim of most download sites is to be a portal for just about
anyone to be able to download—software sans any hassles. Not
MajorGeeks! MajorGeeks will certainly give you what you need to
keep your system up and running while giving you a healthy dose
of techie know-how while you are at it.
Every geek worth his salt is a regular here! That doesn’t mean
novices are neglected here! They are welcomed just like how a new
recruit should be.

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6.5.1 What’s on Offer?

Downloads: MajorGeeks really needs to be looked at from a differ-
ent viewpoint. It is not about providing you with just about any
software under the sun. It’s more about showcasing software that
deserves it. MajorGeeks is dedicated to finding the best software
out there and you will rarely find software that is not worth it fea-
tured on their download pages. You will find that the number of
programs available on any other download site far surpasses that
of MajorGeeks, but MajorGeeks really does have all the important
software you could need. One section every gamer must check out
is the game tweaks section. Though there is not too much of soft-
ware on MajorGeeks, one visit and you will be downloading stuff
and wondering how you ever lived without it!
Support Forums: There are lots of extremely helpful tips and
tweaks and things you just need to know about scattered around
the various forums. One visit to the MajorGeeks forums and you
will be hooked will stay there for irrational amounts of time till
you mom screams at you! There are lots of helpful people who are
willing to answer any questions you might have, from malware
removal to overclocking—just remember to ask politely!
News: MajorGeeks provides the latest news, tech or otherwise. But
this is nothing more than value addition as they aren’t updated as
frequently. But you should check them out anyway, as they are all
interesting articles.
Geektionary: The Geektionary is a glossary of all things tech. Ever
wondered what WYSIWYG stands for? Or what a Daisy-Chain is?
Head over to geektionary to find out! Sadly, this glossary is
nowhere near as comprehensive as we would have liked it to be.

6.5.2 Interface
MajorGeeks has a unique interface, but that does not mean it’s
not good. The interface, to be honest, is not too polished. In fact,
it is very basic and lacks the neatness of the other sites reviewed.
Besides, it has a couple of graphic ads, causing it looking even less
elegant. But as most people will agree, it’s more about function-
ality than looks. Functionality is something that this site scores
really well as the interface allows easy access to the various soft-

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ware contained within. Sadly, there is no search option other

than a standard Google-powered one. The main page is totally
unique, adopting a more blog-
esque interface with the day’s
updates and news being posted in
reverse chronological order. This
change is indeed welcome, espe-
cially if you are a regular here. To
the left are all the categories, in
plain simple text. No collapsible
menus or tabs here. To your right
are a lot of useful links that Home of the Geeks
should be read on your first visit.
You keep getting the feel that the
site is run by two extremely geeky
brothers sitting locked up in their
room, which is in fact true. The
site is indeed owned and main-
tained by two guys who refer to
themselves simply as Tim and
Jim. On the top are useful links as The download page
well. The lists are again drop-dead
simple but informative. The download page itself consists of a
short description. There are no editor reviews though. While this
would have been an interesting addition, you can be rest assured
that if a program is featured on MajorGeeks, it’s worth checking
out. There is of course, the ever useful user rating and consider-
ing the volume and type of users that visit MajorGeeks, this
almost makes up for it!

6.5.3 The Download Test

We assumed that with the super-simple interface this would be an
easy task, and were totally right. A click on Browsers in the left
pane took us to a page listing browsers and other tools connected
to them. The “Sort By License” link gave us an updated list with
freeware on top. We picked one on the list and were good to go.
Though this was quite easily the simplest procedure ever, it does

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not give you results that are very refined, as along with the
browsers, we were looking at plugins, add-ons and what not! Still,
it was quite commendable. However, we must remind you that if
the software you are looking for fits into more than one category,
it can be quite troublesome to find it due to the lack of a dedicat-
ed search. But you could always run that custom Google search.
There is also a decent number of servers to download from
(usually four or more) and these are well spread out.

6.5.4 Verdict
▲ Unique, Great source for gyaan, awesome support forums, easy
to use UI, good choice of servers, Very useful software fea-
tures.
▼ Interface not polished, less number of software.
MajorGeeks is easily one of the best sites out there to find some
new software, as it has done the segregation for you. Do visit this
site once. It is a great source of knowledge and the forums will be
more than helpful.

6.6 Brothersoft.com

Brothersoft is again, like soft32 an underdog when compared to

Download.com and Softpedia, but with a text-driven interface
that’s clean and easy to use and a huge directory of downloads (six
times that of soft32’s) they are hoping to be more successful than
soft32.

6.6.1 What’s on Offer?

Here we go again:

Downloads: As mentioned before, Brothersoft claims to have a

download directory 6 times that of soft32’s, so one might assume
that they have downloads from every category under the sun.
Sadly, what Brothersoft does is actually just focus on Windows
software. We were kind of shocked when we saw that there was no
Mac, Linux or handheld software, nor were there game patches

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and updates. The games section provides a list of arcade-style

games available to buy, no Call of Duty 2 or Crysis here, just 3D
Pacman. But, looking at this in a positive light, this means that
they have 60,000 Windows-only downloads. This is enough to
make most hardcore Microsoft lovers faint. When it comes to
Windows software, if you need it, chances are Brothersoft will
have it. But a little incident left us shell-shocked and battered. We
wanted to see the range of drivers they offered and clicking on
drivers instantly took us to another site, which asked payment to
download drivers! This led to a frenzy in which we went back to
the Brothersoft homepage and clicked on around twenty links to
see if they were authentic. Luckily they were. But if this is how
Brothersoft claims to have 60,000 downloads, it’s suddenly not
that impressive anymore.
Reviews: This should actually have been in the “What should have
been there but is not” section, but since there is no such section,
we thought we might as well put it here to bring it to your atten-
tion. There are no reviews on this site. No reviews, whatsoever.
Not by the editor, not by users, nothing. All you get is a descrip-
tion. This is something shocking, as it renders the site useless for
browsing software. It seems that Brothersoft does not even try to
be a site where you can surf through a lot of downloads for cool
new software but instead just come to download software you
know about.
This brings us to a rather abrupt ending, because downloads is
all that Brothersoft has to offer. No news, no support forums,
nothing extra really! In a way this may be good, because that
means the editors have more time to focus on downloads.

6.6.2 Interface
The interface is clean and easy to look at. It is by no means gar-
ish or over-crowded. It is very easy for a beginner to get used to,
especially, due to the usage of text. Ironically, there are quite a
few graphic ads present. On the home page, you get two of the
editor’s picks, taking up unnecessary prominence. To the left
you have this plethora of categories that they offer downloads
for, all in plain simple text. Scattered all over the page are rec-

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ommended programs. This makes

it really tough to figure out if these
were really editor recommended
programs, or just advertising. This
is quite misguiding. Moving over to
the listing methodology, the lists
need some finer polishing to get
the license, description and the
size. Not really all that bad,
because it does provide useful
information at a glance. Sadly, you The Brothersoft home page
can only filter lists by downloads,
date and license. The download
page itself seemed useless due to
the lack of editor’s review or even a
user rating. They provide a single
screenshot of the software,
though, and a more elaborate
description with details.
Something that was appreciated
was a list of software by the same
publisher. This was actually quite a The download page
nice touch. All over the site, the
“Most-searched” box is visible that shows you the most-searched-
for software. The search function though, is a bit weird. If you
conduct a search, it opens a new window with the results. The
new window has a completely different interface that looks like
it was updated a couple of years ago. There really is no excuse for
this. Overall, the interface was quite simple to use, but with very
few frills and a few major caveats.

6.6.3 The Download Test

Considering the fact that the entire interface was text-based, we
expected this to be fool-proof. Luckily, Brothersoft finally had a
breakthrough here. It took us all of ten seconds to get a list of
freeware Web browsers from which we picked one and were
downloading in no time. This was one of the smoothest process-

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es we have come across but without a single review in sight, it

was like taking shots in the dark.
The search function, though irritating with the new window
and what not, was surprisingly accurate. If only this accuracy was
implemented better!

Verdict
▲Easy to use interface, large number of Windows software down-
loads.
▼ Nothing other than Windows software, search implemented
badly, drivers, no reviews.
Brothersoft really has a long way to go if it wants to get to the
top—a longer way than any of the sites listed here, anyway. But it
still is a commendable source for Windows software downloads.

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Reviews

T
he Internet can be your guide to just about anything as long
as you know where to go... The sites we will talk about in this
chapter review the myriad hardware and software products
that exist in the technology world. They separate the good from
the bad, all for your convenience and satisfaction and for free! This
chapter will point you to the right places on the WWW to help you
spend your money wisely.
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7.1 Software Reviews

7.1.1 FreewareGenius.com
This is a slight detachment from the trend because
FreewareGenius is not a site, it’s a blog! This amazing contribution
to the free movement is a personal blog maintained by a single
person. If this does not inspire you enough to visit it, we don’t
know what will. The whole point of this site is to prove to everyone
that the usability and features of the best freeware can surpass
even paid software. The author hand-picks the very best freeware,
personally tests it, and then posts a review. Needless to say, these
are some of the best reviews on the Web.
The author’s been
posting since October
2006, and is still going
strong. You can’t actual-
ly download anything
from the site, but down-
load links are provided.
The author says in his
FAQ that only the best
software gets featured
on the blog, and we
found this to be quite The revolution that is FreewareGenius
true as we browsed
through what the blog had to offer. Some of the most incredible
freeware on the Web is to be found among these pages. However,
one must consider the fact that this is indeed a blog, and as a
result will have two caveats. It will not be updated nearly as fre-
quently as a full-blown Web site. It is updated about once in 2-3
days. But hey, good things come to those who wait, and it’s not like
you have to keep checking back on the site, you could just sub-
scribe to the RSS feed and you’re good to go.
Also, the interface is a bit tough to manoeuvre, but a blog is not
meant to be used like a regular Web site—you’re supposed to go
through the posts one by one, and this holds true here as well,
there are over 25 pages for you to go through, and we guarantee

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that you will download at least one freeware from each page. So get
reading. Assuming that you are in no mood to sort through 25+
pages, the posts are luckily well categorized, and any category is
easily accessible. So if you need that freeware image editor or that
free database software, don’t sweat it. Besides the categorisation,
you can always run the Google powered search. Finally if you are in
a tearing hurry, you can just check out the Top 20 list—we guaran-
tee that you will not be able to resist downloading a few of these!
We just wanted to mention that the author does accept user-
submitted reviews, so you can have your say as well.

7.1.2 SoftSea.com
It really is a sea of software out there, and the good people at
SoftSea understand that, hence their name. Softsea is one of the
best software reviews Web sites out there, and they also offer the
software they review for download. It is updated quite regularly,
and one visit will keep you coming back for more.
The interface lacks eye-candy, and looks pretty unfinished. In
fact we even tried using
different browsers just in
case it was due to browser
incompatibility, but no
luck. It is still very usable
though. The main page is,
like the rest of the site,
rather bland and boring,
but usable. All the cate-
gories and the latest soft-
ware reviews are listed out.
We should warn you that
the site is ad-heavy, so keep
your trusty freeware ad-
blocker ready. The lists
throughout the site make
browsing through the soft-
SoftSea’s minimal interface
ware list really easy—you
get a rating and even a screenshot. In fact, the whole site is nicely

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peppered with screenshots of every application reviewed. Head

over to the download page to get your hands on said software.
Software is also classified into well thought out categories to make
life really easy for you.
The site offers not just freeware reviews, but even shareware
reviews. It is as a matter of fact one of the very few sites that
stretch beyond freeware reviews. Software is accompanied by a rat-
ing out of five stars and anything that gets four stars and above is
really worth the download. We went through quite a few reviews
and found them to be of sufficient length and detail. They do
bring out the pros and cons of the software in question; unlike sev-
eral sites whose reviews are just descriptions of the software.
Definitely one more site to add to your “must-visit” list.

7.1.3 LifeHacker.com
Don’t be intimidated by the garish title, this site is not about hack-
ing at all. In fact, it is one
of the most informative
sites on the Internet.
LifeHacker handles more
than just reviews, though,
and is more of a technolo-
gy lifestyle site… err… blog.
Well, it’s either a site
designed to look like a
blog, or a collective blog of
technology writers that are LifeHacker, a collective blog
employed by LH. Updates
are frequent, thanks to the multiple bloggers, and you will typi-
cally find between 10 and 30 new posts a day.
A lot of these posts span the entire gamut of technology, and
are not “software reviews”, which is what we were interested in
finding. Just head over to the “Windows” section and then to the
“Downloads” section, and you will find your software reviews. We
should tell you that LH is better suited for those who like to stum-
ble across great software while surfing, and not really for the “I-
want-a-review-of-so-and-so-software” surfer.

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The interface is surprisingly nice for a blog, and is a lot easier

to navigate than, say, FreewareGenius—which is probably thanks
to the bigger team that works for LH.
All the reviews are superbly written and leave little to imagi-
nation. The good and the bad are brought out pretty well, but not
as well as say, FreewareGenius. Overall, a fantastic site to visit if
you’re a tech junkie, but it can’t beat FreewareGenius in terms of
software reviews.

7.1.4 Freeware Wiki

http://freewarewiki.com/FreewareReviews
The above is a direct link to a huge number of Software reviews
that you should definitely check out. It is a long list, and is main-
ly freeware. The entire list is all text based so it is extremely easy
to just call up your browser’s search function and see if what you
are looking for is present. There is no categorization to speak of
though, so this does make browsing through reviews really tough.
You should know that this is a hand-picked list, so the reviews are
very short and mainly descriptive. But if software is present here,
chances are you will like it. Definitely, one to bookmark.

7.2 Hardware Reviews

7.2.1 Tom’s Hardware

www.tomshardware.com
For many years now, Tom’s Hardware has been one of the most
trusted hardware review sites on the Net. Geeks and techno-
phobes alike consider anything that is published on Tom’s
Hardware as Gospel truth. It isn’t just reviews that are published
here though—you get comparison charts, tech tips and the latest
news about hardware launches.
However, there is a twist in the tale. Tom’s hardware is not
your typical review site where a single device is the focus of
attention and all the negative and positive aspects are covered.
(If you are looking for a site like that, it’s up next) The “reviews”
on Tom’s Hardware are actually articles that select the best of

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the best from each cat-

egory and tell you why
it is the best. This
makes a lot of sense
really, because what
you are doing by read-
ing different reviews is
comparing products
and Tom’s Hardware
does just that for you.
The biggest caveat
of Tom’s Hardware is
that the site focuses
mainly on PCs and PC
Tom’s Hardware
hardware, and rarely
extends into gadgets and mobile phones—which is what a lot of
us are looking for. That said, if you’re the type who wants to
know what the performance gains of the new 45nms are, or if
the new AMD chips can oust Intel, look no further.
The interface looks great while being perfectly functional.
The home page is a quick summary of everything the site has to
offer and is enough to hook you on to it. The ads are relatively
non-intrusive—always a good thing. Whatever Tom’s Hardware
does, it does with aplomb. All the articles are fantastically writ-
ten and great care is taken to ensure identical test conditions.
Their whole testing methodology is laid out in an article for
your perusal.
Results are well displayed with a heavy use of graphs and
charts. Tom’s Hardware is not just about making good buying
decisions; it is also about getting the most out of hardware you
already own. But that is a topic for another Fast Track all
together.
If you’re an overclocker, you will love Tom’s Hardware, and
also remember to check out their forums—a treasure trove of
information for hardware fanatics. In conclusion: the best site
there is for performance-hungry geeks looking for information
on the latest hardware.

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7.2.2 CNET.com
CNET is probably the most
well-known review site in
the world. It offers so much
more than reviews, though,
and if we started listing out
all it offers, we’ll waste
quite a few pages of this
book. The solution is simple
really, just type in
www.cnet.com into your
The CNET Home Page.
browser and let yourself be
dazzled by the sheer volumes of information that is available in cat-
egories such as—tech news, blogs, interesting articles, CNET TV, etc.
Reviews are, obviously, the prime focus on CNET, and almost all
products have a video review—which is short: to give you an idea of
what the product looks and feels like—and a long, well-detailed text
review to tell everything you need to know about the product. The
reviews are well-written, and bring out all the pros and cons of the
hardware in question. CNET scores on a scale of 10, so anything
that’s rated 8 and above should be a spectacular product—CNET has
really high standards.
As we mentioned earlier, Tom’s Hardware is all about PC com-
ponents… CNET is all about everything else. It focuses on gadgets
and stand-alone devices such as cell phones, MP3 players and
HDTVs. CNET has several sister sites—CNET Asia, CNET UK and
CNET Australia, to give you content that’s relevant to your area.
CNET Asia is well known for its Mobile Phone reviews.
The CNET interface is top-of-the-line, and you know when
you’re browsing through the site that it was well planned and
expensive to build! The interface is the perfect balance of eye-
candy, and usability. Make sure you check out the blogs once you
are done reading the reviews. There are several blogs like The
Audiophiliac, an audio-oriented blog which is maintained by
Donald Bell, one of CNET’s senior editors. These blogs are great
sources for in-depth information on any particular subject.
Another must-visit.

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7.2.3 Ars Technica

ArsTechnica.com
Ars Technica (AT) adds a little bit of humour into everything they
do. Sometimes we wonder if they have comedy script writers inject
humour into every review, and their articles are guaranteed to
elicit a giggle or four.
AT is not specif-
ically a review site.
There, we’ve said
it. However the
supreme quality of
the reviews that
are available make
it worthy of a men-
tion. The site offers
a bevy of interest-
ing articles that
are in some way
related to tech.
Since they are not
an exclusive
review site, you Ars Technica in all it’s glory.
will only find
reviews of popular products. You can get to the hardware reviews
by clicking on the “Articles” link at the top of the home page, and
then choose the “Hardware reviews” category from that page.
The layout of articles is excellent, and usability is a snap. AT
also goes above and beyond most other sites in they way they test
by conducting (extreme) “stress tests” and even taking hardware
apart to reveal the innards. So if you want to know if an iPod
Shuffle can be dropped from a third-floor balcony, be dunked in a
beer mug, and still play back your favourite drinking songs, this is
the site to find it all out at. For those who want to know right
away, the iPod Shuffle survived the test!
One little caveat: you don’t get the overall rating on the first
page of a review, and you will have to navigate to the last page of a
review to get that all important final score. Finding a review is made

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simple by using the well integrated search feature. Apart from this,
the site’s quite an interesting read, and another worthy bookmark.

7.2.4 Mobile-Review.com
As soon as you get
to the site you will
be scratching your
head trying to fig-
ure out all the gib-
berish—unless you
can read Russian.
Right at the top of
the page, look for
the English link.
You will be taken
to a slightly less
featured, slimmed
down, English ver-
sion of the site. It’s The home page.
still one of the
most comprehensive mobile review sites out there. Though it’s
called “Mobile-Review” the site also reviews PDAs and MP3 players,
though nowhere near in as big a number as cell phones.
A quick click on the “Handsets” link on the left will take you
to a page that contains links to reviews of what seems like every
phone model ever manufactured—probably a lot better, but suffice
to say that there are enough handset models to dissuade you from
trying to keep count.
With this many reviews, you’d expect the rviews to be short
and sweet—no way! The reviews are exhaustive, and every detail
you can think of is covered for each handset model. A warning for
those on slower pipes: every review is peppered with a dangerous
amount of pictures, with shots of the product from every conceiv-
able angle. You can also view or download pictures and videos that
were shot using all phone that have camera capabilities—all
uncompressed and untouched-up, so you know the quality of the
camera on the phone model.

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The interface isn’t exactly ideal, but those of you who love
details will not give a hoot. Bookmark this site if you every plan on
upgrading your phone.

7.3 Game Reviews

7.3.1 Gamespot.com
This is yet another site from the CNET camp that has revolu-
tionised its field. It is pretty much a unanimous choice for gamers.
It offers a lot more than just game reviews, but it’s the reviews
that it’s most famous for. Still, apart from the best cadre of
reviews, you can find previews, news, cheats, downloads, inter-
views and more.
You can sign up and take part in the HotSpot feature, which is
actually a live audio show for users like yourself to take part in. There
are podcasts, a SoapBox for rants and arguments and even more fea-
tures for those of you willing to pay for a premium membership.
Getting back to the reviews, we strongly urge that you sign up
here if you’re even remotely interested in gaming. Although read-
ing reviews doesn’t require it, a sign up will allow you to leave
comments, submit your own short reviews for games, track your
favourite games and even
write in the blog that comes
with your account. You also
gain full access to the well-pop-
ulated forums to discuss the
most specific strategies and
tactics with fellow gamers.
The reviews are in-depth,
well written and peppered
with pictures. Gamespot
recently revamped their Pros
and Cons methodology and
apart from just telling you the
ups and downs of a game, they
also award medals if a game
excels in a particular area. Like
The clean yet informative home page.

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there is a medal for outstanding graphics, one for outstanding

gameplay and an “Oh Snap” medal which is for games which have
unexpected yet delighting moments. Overall, it is great fun to read
reviews on Gamespot, and also very informative. Most games have
a video review, so that you can actually get a feel for the game
yourself as well.
The entire experience is enhanced by a top-notch interface
that’s well designed for gamers. You can browse through the
games by selecting genres and platforms, thus making it easy to
find games that interest you. The search function is good, and
even the search results are separated into categories. Of course,
being such a popular site means that you’re bombarded with
advertisements, but it’s nothing a good Flash ad-blocker cannot
handle. Overall, Gamespot is arguably the best site to spend your
time on for a game review or two.

7.3.2 IGN.com
There really never is a monopoly in any field is there? Microsoft
has Apple, Intel has AMD, and Nokia has Sony Ericsson. Similarly,
Gamespot has IGN; a site that takes away some of Gamespot’s
thunder. For us gamers, it’s really tough to make a call and say
which one is really better, but thankfully, you don’t have to
choose—just get the best of both worlds.
IGN offers a plethora of features through mini-Web sites called
channels. This sounds harrowing conjuring up images of a dan-
gerous number of tabs, but don’t worry, it works really well.
Coming back to what they offer, it is a huge range of features. It
seems like IGN reviews everything, for on their main page you will
see reviews of Games, DVDs, movies, TV shows, Anime, Music,
Comics and even the odd MP3 player. And it’s not just reviews—you
can even find features, previews, photos, videos, podcasts, cheats,
guides, FAQs and the latest news. That is a lot of stuff, and just
browsing through the different categories should keep even the
speediest surfer occupied for quite a while.
Reviews are fantastic, and rival Gamespot’s reviews well.
Each review is exhaustive, and often runs into several pages.
However, instead of listing the pos and cons up front, IGN opts

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for the “wait-till-the-last-

page” way, which can be quite
painful. Signing up for an
account will get you more in
terms of features, but if it’s
only reading reviews that you
crave, you can skip this. The
one-time procedure is a snap
though, so sign-up if you have
30 seconds to spare.
The interface (mini-chan-
nels and all) works surprisingly
well, and is perfectly navigable. Stealing Gamespot’s thunder?
Filtering out the information is simple and easy, and it’s easy to
find reviews for games that you might like—all nicely sorted by
platform and genre. Like Gamespot, IGN is ad-heavy, and it’s time
to whip out your ad-blocker, pepper spray. We’ll leave it to you to
decide whether IGN is really better than Gamespot or not, because
we just can’t seem to get enough of either.

7.3.3 GameRankings.com
We expect everything to be served up on a platter these days, and
why not? The customer is king after all. So if you don’t consider
yourself a “gamer”, or if you’re just to lazy to care, hunting for
game reviews based on genre and platform may just be a little too
much work. That’s where GameRankings (GR) comes in. Think of
it as a no-nonsense way of choosing the next game to buy. Let GR
do all the dirty work, review all the games out there and just take
their word for it when they make suggestions…
GameRankings does not review games itself, but instead, col-
lects reviews from a lot of other sites, analyses the ratings a game
got and then comes up with its own percentage score. So basical-
ly, GR is a site made by the lazy, for the lazy and of the lazy—no
that’s not their tag-line, we’re just making stuff up.
Here’s how it works: when a game is released, it doesn’t show
up immediately on GR. A game only qualifies for a GR score if it’s
been reviewed and rated on 20 or more of the most popular gam-

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ing sites. Once that’s done, GR

takes the scores that the game
got, uses some really complex
algorithms (or at least we hope
they do) and comes up with a
percentage score and ranks the
game. This way, you’re sure to
find games that are big enough
to be reviewed by the majority
of the gaming world, and you
get the general feel of how good
the game is even before you buy
it. No more biased reviews, no
more reading rather large
reviews to decide on a game.
The Game Rankings Home page.
GR is not just about ranking
based on noteworthy gaming sites, and it also allows you to see
which games its users voted for. All you need to do is look at the
average review rating and also the user rating to decide whether
the game is good or not.
The GR interface is surprisingly functional, and even though
you’d think of it as being rather cluttered, the home page is so
simple, you’ll be wondering if you’re at the wrong site. The filter-
ing is also achieved quite well, and you will find that the plethora
of filters that are at your disposable makes searching feel like
overkill—though at least you will find better search results. You
can sort by platform, category, ESRB rating, the date and of course,
by the rating. Once you click on a game in a list, you’re taken to a
page that contains details of the reviews, their sources and the var-
ious ratings that the game was awarded. If you want to read a par-
ticular gaming site’s review, all you need to do is click on the
appropriate link. Game listings also include fan sites, and other
sources for cheats and tips. Again, GR is ad-heavy, but you’ve come
to expect that already, haven’t you?

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Tech Help

W
ell... what exactly constitutes tech help? Popularly, the
most obvious interpretation of tech help is to find a solu-
tion for any of the following situations: buying, using
and disposing. Users involved with tech help can be classified into:
Neos (those who seek information) and Pros (those who share
information). And we’re here to help these two find each other.
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8.1 Buying

8.1.1 Product Reviews

Sites with tech-product reviews have been covered in the previous
chapter. It is worth noting that the information on these sites has
a one-dimensional, one-directional aspect to it. The site is general-
ly supplied with the products to be tested and their reviews are
based on the performance of the product during a brief testing
period. The single dimension here is performance. The long term
user, which is what most buyers are, is not represented in the
whole process.
Additionally, the flow of information is unidirectional, since
the user can only passively read the information without being
able to ask questions. Nonetheless, these sites are great places to
find comparative information across brands of the same prod-
uct type.
Only a long term user can describe absolute usage experience
of the product. For a valid and healthy discussion, one needs to
look at forums. To find usage reviews, head to one of the follow-
ing sites:

Mouthshut.com
Probably the only one of its kind in India, the importance of this
site in shaping purchase decisions is at par with that of the
review sites. While performance is a good yardstick to choose a
better product, the total user experience is also influenced by
other aspects such as ease of availability, product ruggedness,
prompt support and warranty issues. Such information can only
be shared by Pros with the experience of buying and using the
product.
While the site
boasts of a healthy cov-
erage of many products,
it seriously lags when it
comes to PC compo-
nents. More Pros need
to share their views on Get the stratight dope at Mouthshut.com

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the products they have used for Neos to benefit. Also, the site
accommodates Neo requests seeking reviews on certain products.
This site is ad enriched and some of them intrude into the
reading area as well. Fortunately, most of the ads are text based.

Thinkdigit.com/forum/
The review section in the forum offers many user-written products
reviews. With over 6,700 relevant reviews, this is the largest Indian
user-review repository available online. Neos can also request for
reviews, which Pros can address.
We’re not going to dwell on it for long bcause it’s Digit’s site,
but we had to mention it for lack of any other technology-biased
communities in India.

e-tailer Sites
Many etailer sites based abroad have a customer review section
associated with each product. They are great places to find user
reviews. Some popular etailer sites are ciao.co.uk, reviews.ebay.com,
reviews.ebay.co.uk, newegg.com, amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, reviews.price-
grabber.co.uk, comparestoreprices.co.uk and shopping.yahoo.com. The
respective domains provide country-specific content.
It is rather strange that Indian etailer sites, notably ebay.in
(unlike its UK and US sites), does not have a product review section,
although many offer a seller review.
With regards to non-Indian sites, while the information about
the dealer may not be useful, the information regarding the usage
of the product is relevant.

Other Indian Sites

Other Indian tech sites that have a dedicated Review section or
subforum are techtree.com, techenclave.com/forums/, and forums.
techarena.in. These are places where Pros can voluntarily post their
user experiences to benefit Neos.

8.1.2 Price Related Information

To check if the local dealer is not overcharging, Neos can visit any
of these sites to find benchmarks.

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Computerwarehousepricelist.com
Maintained by a dealer
in Bangalore, the user
can browse the site and
check for prices (and also
place an order) or simply
download the pricelist
which the creators have Indicative prices for Bengaluru
thoughtfully made available. The link to download the pricelist is on
the first page itself. This is an MS Excel spreadsheet which has an
extensive listing of the prices of products carried by the shop. For
those who would like to track prices, it is a good exercise to revisit the
site regularly, download updated pricelists and compare them.

theitwares.com
A Mumbai-based site, this has a multi-page, well categorised and
extensive price listing of
the products it carries.
For some inexplicable
reason, it also stuffs the
pages with ads of other
shops selling IT goods.
TheITWares offers indicative Mumbai pricing
Harakiri or what?

npithub.com
Nehru Place, the IT hub
in New Delhi has this
community Web site to
represent all the dealers
in that area. This site is
also ad filled, but most of ...and the Delhi version is NP IT hub
the ads are those of the dealers who have presence on the Web site.
The Download Pricelist link is in the left side bar and a user regis-
tration is needed to access it. Compared to the other pricelists
mentioned already, the npithub price list can seem haphazard-it is
a consolidated listing of the prices of all the shops on the site, sort-
ed shopwise.

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Computers.ebay.in
If none of the previous sites satisfy the need to have a rough esti-
mate of current product prices, give ebay.in a glance. The interface
is too bulky, and prices are mostly on the higher side. But, if your
requirement is that esoteric, there would not be a better place to
find it than on ebay.in. This site is suitable especially for finding
second hand goods or the indicative prices thereof.

Other Sites
deltapage.com
This site belongs to a shop in Chennai. This one page wonder dis-
play the prices on the page itself, with minimal fuss and bloat. The
product range is comparatively limited though.

Priceguru.in
With a name that sounds so inviting, it would seem to be the first
place to head, but the site is not as regularly updated as the others
already mentioned.
Most etailers such as
shopping.rediff.com, indi-
aplaza.in and shopping.indi-
atimes.com have a comput-
er section that you can
use. Using eBay to get approximate prices

8.2 Using

8.2.1 Tech Problems

There are many places to find information to solve a tech issue.

Search Engine
For Neos, the first and best course of action to get prompt tech
advice is to do some searching. It is possible that the question has
already been asked by someone on some forum or site and a quick
search will reveal the answer faster than a direct reply by a Pro.

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Tech Help Sites

Another alternative is to visit tech help sites and forums and post
the problem. A tech support site without a forum is hard to come
across. Unlike manufacturers with a dedicated (and paid) team to
answer user queries, forums leverage the knowledge pool existing
in its user base for answers. It is the community spirit all along the
members that drive a forum.
It needs to be noted that there are Web sites dedicated to prob-
lem solving. Besides, there are tech review Web sites that do not
primarily focus on tech support, but also have a forum where tech
savvy people can offer suggestions to resolve similar problems
faced by other users. Being a popular destination for technophiles,
a forum is a natural extension to such sites. For the purposes of
this chapter, we shall not make a distinction between these two
types of sites.

Identifying a “proper” forum

To promptly identify forums offering relevant solutions, one
needs to look for clues such as the number of members, number
of questions, number of topic categories and age of the forum.
The more the members, the better is the chance that you will
get a better and quicker answer. But, if the site is old, the member
strength could be mis-
leading.
The number of
queries/posts is a good
indicator of the depth of
the site. The larger the
number, the greater the Screenshot 5 : Computers.ebay.in.jpg
answer database and bet-
ter the chance of finding a similar question answered previously.
The “weightage” of the subforums in a site is also an indica-
tor of where the strength of the forum lies. A “tech” forum hav-
ing the highest number of posts in a casual chat section is prob-
ably not the best place to expect a relevant answer to a tech prob-
lem. Sites that are spread too wide also can hide deficiencies—
seeking an answer for a problem in C++ at a site with 90 per cent

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of its queries under the hardware section has poor chances of

eliciting a response.
Another good clue is the language in use. If you see too many
SMS-style answers, you know you are dealing with bubblegum-
chewing teens who may be incapable of understanding your prob-
lem properly, unless you are one yourself! They may answer your
question, but besides the headache that will result from trying to
figure out what is being conveyed, after decrypting the code you
will realise that the answer is too irrelevant!

Newgroups
The last alternative to get tech help is to head to Newsgroups.
Since it is hard to come across a forum that does not display ads,
those put off by ads have no other option. A newsgroup user tends
to be more mature and hence experienced in their field of activi-
ty, which is reflected in the answers. However, replies usually take
more time than forums (which is why it is the last alternative).
While a newsgroup that serves a subject may be available,
whether it has a sizeable number of queries or whether the mem-
bers are active, are factors that need to be considered. The post
count is a good indicator, but to
find more information it is best Dealing with Ads
to use online newsgroup read- Ads are a necessary evil. When
ing sites such as groups.google. you expect the site to offer
com. Unlike newsgroup reader good quality answers for free,
software (discussed in the previ- the least you can do to thank
ous issue of FT), which can only them, is to allow the ads to be
display the messages on the displayed. It somehow seems
server, groups.google.com also pro- the morally right thing to do.
vides access to archived posts While most sites rely of text
no longer available on the ads, some sites will load mas-
newsgroup server. It also reveals sive flash ads that besides using
the number of members and up bandwidth also intrude the
the total number of messages process of reading the message.
available, besides a rating of the It is upto the user to decide
level of activity. The last param- which types of ads to allow and
eter is a good indicator of how which to block.

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long it would take for a reply to be forthcoming. Low activity news-

groups are not the best places to expect a prompt response.

8.2.2 The Sites

Next, we shall look at some notable tech help sites.

Official Sites
If the question is product specific and if the product is in warran-
ty, it is better to approach the manufacturer directly for assis-
tance. Most manufacturers have a customer support crew to han-
dle such queries. For manufacturer-specific tech help, visit the
home page and search for any link labelled “Support”. Almost all
hardware and software manufacturers with a Web site include a
forum, where users can exchange views. Please note, this does not
refer to the official support Web sites where the company’s sup-
port team answers queries.
Major software vendors such as Microsoft (e.g., Visual Studio),
Sun (e.g., Java), Oracle (e.g., Oracle RDBMS) and Adobe (e.g.,
Photoshop) have their own support forums at forums.microsoft.com,
forum.java.sun.com, forums.oracle.com, adobeforums.com, respectively.
Hardware manufacturers such as ASUS, NVIDIA, and Apple also
have their own forums at vip.asus.com/forum/, forums.nvidia.com, dis-
cussions.apple.com, respectively.

Techguy.org (helponthe.net)
Numbers speak loudest—6,44,000+ posts under the hardware sub
forum and 6,94,00+ posts under Windows OS sub forum. There
are quite a few ads, but most of them are text based. Besides
these two sub forums, there are others that cater to
Malware/Spyware removal (7,50,000 posts), General Software,
Linux/Unix and Games.
The fall out for this site
is the comparatively lim-
ited posts in the non-
Windows OS and soft-
ware development sub
forums. However, at The Tech Support Guy!

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30,000+ posts in each page, it still is more that what is seen in

other dedicated forums.
Each page has 3-4 ads, but none of them show up in the mid-
dle of the message.

Tomshardware.com/forum/
Besides being a popular
tech review site,
Tomshardware.com also
has a very active forum,
with sub groups span-
ning the entire gamut of
topics covered by the
site. Each sub group is
well stocked with
queries and replies. A
cursory sampling of the
queries and answers Tom’s Hardware has an active forum
show that the answers
are prompt. As expected, the most popular sub forums are hard-
ware related—with the CPU sub forum weighing in with 6,15,000+
posts. Other popular subforums are Graphics and Displays
(4,50,000+ posts) and Motherboards and Memory (3,00,000+
posts). There are software related sub forums as well, with the
Windows XP sub forum being the most populous with 3,85,000+
posts and the Games sub forum having 5,00,000+ posts.
The ad content is a bit on the heavy side, but this seems to be
the case with most sites in this genre.

Forums.anandtech.com
This site is similar to tomshard-
ware.com in most areas. The most
apparent difference, however, is
the number of ads, with fewer
making an appearance here.
Though total posts figures are not
available, the number of queries
The Anand Tech Forum

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www.Experts-exchange.com
This used to be a free
service, with experts
being awarded points and
ranks for answering
questions. Probably, the
quality and promptness
of the answers were so
good that the promoters of the site stopped offering the service
gratis and began charging users for access to the answer database.
While the site will turn up in Google search results, the user is usu-
ally led to a page where the query is listed, along with statistics on
the number of people who found the answer useful. The answer in all
cases will be withheld.
So, if none of the free solutions offered by the other sites seem
to work for you, www.experts-exchange.com may offer the ray of
hope, at a cost.

are listed and they serve just as well as an indicator of the forum’s
activity. Software finds no mention on this forum. Most of the
queries are asked in the General Hardware subforum (91000+
queries) and the Video Cards and Graphics subforum (42000+
queries).

LinuxQuestions.org
Most forums offer Linux
as a sub forum and all
Linux distro creators
have a forum of their
own. But, if there is one
forum that towers over
all the rest it is
Help for Linux users
LinuxQuestions.org. With
close to 3 million posts on Linux, Linux and more Linux, there is
no better place to find answers to Linux queries. It also has sub
forums dedicated to other Unix-based OSes. Ad wise, text ads show
up in the middle of the messages.

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Forums.devshed.com
This site is probably the
best place to visit to get
answers to queries on
PHP (4,50,000+ posts),
MySQL (1,00,000+ posts)
and other Web-related
software. The coverage of
PHP and MySQL help
MS software is limited,
but still substantial (30,000 posts in Visual Basic sub forum). Some
of the other sub forums that cover Java and JavaScript (about
75,000 posts each), C (1,00,000+ posts) and HTML programming
(90,000+ posts).
There a quite a few ads, but thankfully they do not show up in
the middle of the page.

Codeguru.com/forum/
This is another program-
ming support site. But its
forte lies in MS program-
ming tools. The Visual
C++ sub forum has over
8,30,000 posts and the
Visual Basic 6 sub forum
Screenshot 12 : forum at codeguru.com.jpg
has over 2,00,000 posts.
Besides, there are well stocked sub forums on C++ and .Net lan-
guages. A couple of ads are all that are seen.

forum.notebookreview.com
As the name suggests this
site emphasises on porta-
bles. With about 2,60,000+
posts under the sub forum
titled “Which Notebook
Should I Buy?” the target forum.notebookreview.com.jpg
audience is obvious. There
are sub forums dedicated to major manufacturers as well.

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Thinkdigit.com/forum/
Arguably the deepest and widest Indian tech forum can be found
at thinkdigit.com—the online presence of Digit magazine. The
forum is quite active and well stocked with members, queries and
answers. However, those seeking solutions to programming
queries will be disappointed. A quick survey reveals that the site
has many active members and queries are answered relatively
quickly. The most active subforums are QnA (1,45,000+ posts) and
Hardware troubleshooting (68,000+ posts)

Broadbandforum.in
This site primarily focuses on exchanging views on Internet
Service Providers in India. It is also a good site to find reviews of
Cable TV and DTH providers. Another site that has similar content
is vinuthomas.com/forums.html, though it is heavily skewed
towards discussion on BSNL services.

Other Web Sites

forums.pcper.com: Inexplicably there are 12,50,000+ posts under
the “AMD Motherboards” sub forum. Other sub forums getting
attention cater to Gaming, Overclocking, Modding, Graphics
cards, and CPUs-each with over 1,00,000 posts.
hardware.mcse.ms: Not a Microsoft supported site. There are many
sub forums on the site, each of which is linked to a newsgroup. For
example, the Computer Tech Support sub forum (2,68,000+ posts) is
linked to the 24hoursupport.helpdesk newsgroup.
mac-forums.com: probably the best alternative to the community
at apple.com, which has already been mentioned.
cybertechhelp.com/forums: has 1,00,000+ posts under Hardware
and Windows XP sub forums each.
What becomes obvious at this point is that there are many
sites/forums that offer information on different topics, with each
having a niche subforum. As mentioned earlier, to find a forum
that has the answer it is much easier for Neos to use a general
search engine such as Google, rather than go hopping from forum
to forum and using the local search facility to find if the answer
has been answered already.

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8.2.3 Newsgroups
Alt.comp.freeware
Everyone loves freeware. Downloading, installing, executing and test-
ing it without a moment’s consideration. Which is why many mal-
ware/spyware dress up as freeware. There are many sites offering free-
ware downloads, but only a few allow users to post reviews about the
application. Freewarefiles.com is one good example of such a site.
Alt.comp.freeware is a newsgroup that is dedicated to the dis-
cussion of freeware application. It is an ideal place for Neos to seek
opinion about a particularly enticingly described freeware applica-
tion. If the absence of user reviews for a particular application, this
newsgroup is the best place to head to. This is a high activity news-
group and answers are usually prompt and very relevant. Besides
contributing to the newsgroup, the members also vote for the best
freeware of the year, included in the Pricelessware.org site. So, one
can be assured that the applications on the site are trustworthy.

Other Newsgroups
Some other high activity newsgroups related to IT are mentioned
below. The subject of discussion can be inferred from the news-
group name.
Languages: comp.lang.c, comp.lang.c++, comp.lang.java.program-
mer, comp.lang.javascript
Hardware: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt, alt.comp.hardware,
24hoursupport.helpdesk
Linux: comp.os.linux.advocacy
Computer Games: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action
There are many other newsgroups which address other tech
areas and the entire list can be accessed at http://groups
.google.com/groups/dir.

8.2.4 Conclusion
In conclusion, it is evident that most of the well stocked
sites/forums are not based out of India. While a large database of
answers will be of help to Neos, the Pros would be doing greater
service by frequenting Web sites that are just starting off or do not
have a large database yet.

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8.3 Disposing

After having used a PC to the point where it begins to show its age
and no longer meets the user’s computing needs, the user is faced
with a problem of finding a use for it. Many dealers will buyback
the old PC and offer a discount on the new one. A few other
options are discussed next.

8.4.1 Sale/Barter
Bazaar forum on Thinkdigit.com
This is a good site to find bargain hunting buyers or others who
are willing to barter. The sub forum is quite active with many
used computer components on offer by users. Though 1600+
offers are listed, since many completed transactions continue to
be listed, the number of actual open offers is lower. While
thinkdigit.com is the medium, it is not liable for the conduct of
the parties involved in the transaction (which holds true for all
sites offering such a facility).

Techarena.in
This is another Indian tech site that has a dedicated sub forum for
trading in computer components. Currently, there are about 700
threads listed.

Computers.ebay.in
Admittedly, this is probably the best place to sell and buy used
stuff (new stuff always costs more on ebay than what is available
locally). While the selling process used to be quite straight for-
ward earlier, presently, ebay insists that sellers signup for its
Paisapay service as a prerequisite, an online money transaction
service like Paypal. But, in return, eBay will insure the transaction
allowing buyers to part with their money with assured security.

Other sites
Techtree.com:
This site also allows registered users to put up classifieds.
Olx.in, geo.craigslist.org/iso/in, used-computer.vivastreet.co.in

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/laptop-computers: Other places to find bargains or buyers.

8.3.2 Donation
If stingy buyers do not offer a handsome figure for your beloved
used rig, you may might as well donate it. Atleast, you will have
the moral satisfaction of not surrendering to the whims of the bar-
gain hunters. Some organisations that accept donations in the
form of computers are mentioned below.

Ashanet.org
Asha for Education is a wide spread organisation involved in social

Donate your old computers to worthy causes

activities. It has many offices in India besides other countries. In

India it has a presence in cities such as Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi,
Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata and others. The contact details are avail-
able on the site or you can visit http://www.ashanet.org/index
.php?page=contacts&c=India

Aidindia.org
Association for India’s Development is another social service

Aiding India, with technology

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organisation that seeks donations in the form of PCs. It has many

chapters spread across the globe. In India, its chapters are in
Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune and a few other cities besides the four
metros. Each chapter has a subdomain in the main site such as
delhi.aidindia.org and kolkata.aidindia.org etc with details on
how to donate.

Other Options
Another Web site seeking PC donations is smilengo.org but it only
operates in West Bengal.
Last, but not the least, the clichéd statement again—Google is
the only page that is needed to find techhelp. A more rigorous
search will yield information about other organisations needing
PCs. Of course, it is always possible that the next door charity
organisation does not have an online presence, and yet needs a PC.
It is prudent to delete personal information from the hard disk
before donating the PC. Using specialised software to ensure thor-
ough data overwrite is recommended.

8.3.3 Recycling
If the PC breaks down with no hope of repair for want of spares, it
should be recycled. Unfortunately, very few PC recycling plants
exist in India and there is no legislation to control how PCs are to
be disposed. So, the local raddiwalla can relieve you of the burden
of the dead PC, just as larger raddiwallas relieve foreign compa-
nies of their dead PCs by importing them.
Evidently, Ramky (http://www.ramkyenviroengineers.com/) is the
sole Indian company involved in recycling eWaste in India, and
have (or are building) two recycling plants in Chennai and
Bangalore. Those conscientious about the environmental effects
of inappropriate disposal of PC components can contact the recy-
cling plants, if they do find the contact address.
Sharing the experience on any of the sites/forums covered in
this chapter would be quite helpful for others who intend to fol-
low the same path.

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8.4 Conclusion

“Tech Help” can be viewed as being much more than just solving
either a hardware or software problem and encompassing all the
areas where a person will need an informed opinion with regard
to hardware or software. We have attempted to cover the entire
product-user interaction cycle in this chapter.

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Online Services

A
ll over the world people are teeming with ideas to make
information access easier, more reliable, secure and enjoy-
able. Information technology is the field where software,
hardware and telecommunications converge. This convergence
has fuelled a growth spurt in each component of information
technology causing a chain-reaction which spirals the growth of
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IX ONLINE SERVICES
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other components of information technology.

This chain reaction has caused an explosion in the Internet
and because of this explosion and congregation of technologies
and ideas; the Web has now become notorious for services which
were once the domain of software which ran on PCs under the
heading of packages and utilities. We thought of trying our hand
at some of these services and were amazed. Three of these services
are explored in this chapter.

9.1 Online File Storage

If you are the person who has a business operation spanning

countries or even cities, or if you’re someone who the traveling
bug has bitten badly, and needs to access large amounts of data
wherever you go, You’re going to need online file storage servic-
es. Besides this, if you find that your e-mail service has an attach-
ment limit that’s just too small for your liking, again, online
storage is for you.
Other advantages of these services include security against
virus attacks and data corruption—even backing up to CDs fails
every now and then. Some of the sites we will look at are free,
while others offer both free and paid options.
If you do not want the hassles of upgrading to new hardware
every time you run out of disk space, or when storage technology
changes, you should consider online storage as an option for stor-
ing, accessing and sharing your data.
With all of these sites you get a few GB of storage, so you don’t
have to worry about the size of the data you are backing up or just
sharing. In addition, some sites have rules against objectionable
content, which are adhered to strictly.
On the more technical side, the memberships to some of
these Web sites also offer more facilities in terms of downloads
per hour, maximum storage allowed, support for download accel-
erators, password protection for each download, choice of HTTP
or FTP download, and sending files to multiple recipients.
Moreover, you can also choose to share your files with the

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world—free public access.

We tried six of these services: MegaUpload, RapidShare,
YourFileHost, Xdrive and Cyn.

9.1.1 MegaUpload (www.megaupload.com)

We found that
MegaUpload is leading
the online storage race.
Using this site is simple
enough. You don’t have
to join or register or
anything like that to
upload files to it. From
the main page just click
the browse button and
select the file you want MegaUpload, loads of storage space
to upload. After the
upload completes you can see a link on the next page just about
where the browse button was on the previous page. Copy this link
to a file on your PC. To download your file, simply paste it in the
browser’s address bar and the download begins. It’s really that easy!
The site tells you about a hotlink package, which if subscribed
to, makes downloading easier. This facility causes the file to be
downloaded like an FTP download, without needing to open the
MegaUpload site.
If you want your own space on the site, you will have to sign up
for membership. Just sign up by entering your personal details
including your e-mail address, and the site will send you a confir-
mation link, and clicking it will activate your account. Now, to
upload files use the same browse button from the main page as
described earlier. Premium users are offered more in terms of stor-
age, and uploading is still just as simple.
You are allowed 500 MB uploads for non-members, 1 GB for reg-
ular members, while premium members have no restrictions—
unlimited file size, subject to storage limits of course. Storage
space is capped at a whopping 250 GB for premium members, 50
GB for members, while non-members can only download files or

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upload individual files.

MegaUpload offers its services at a range of prices—$9.99 for a
1 month membership, $59.99 for a year, and even $199.99 for a
lifetime platinum membership. It even offers reward points for
premium users, which translate into free uploads depending on
the number of points accrued. On signup itself it offers 9000
reward points free.
It has a cool GUI with buttons to view statistics such as the pre-
vious 100 downloads, the top 10 uploads as well as the top 10
downloads, world statistics for each file being downloaded in the
case of files which are available for public access. Some of these
buttons are, however, enabled for premium users only.
As a bonus the MegaUpload site offers a toolbar as well as a
turbo utility free, which enable batch uploads and provide their
own support for resuming broken downloads. We tried using the
toolbar on an occasion when the site said that network traffic con-
straints were preventing file download with a free account and we
were impressed. This means that with the toolbar you get priority
for your download as much as a premium user does.

9.1.2 RapidShare (www.rapidshare.com)

RapidShare is anoth-
er popular site which
offers unlimited
number of file
uploads. To use this
site click on the
browse button to
select the file you
want to upload and
then click on the
upload button. The
site then takes you to Sharing files with friends, rapidly
a page which gives you two links one to download the file and
another to delete it from the site if you need to. You can download
the file using the download link and delete the file by entering the
delete link in the browser’s address bar. When you enter the delete

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link, the file is deleted and to confirm this, a message box pops up.
Below, on the same page you are given the option to get a collectors
account. This is the free-members area which requires you to pro-
vide your e-mail address and personal details to get and account.
Alternatively you could get a free membership from the free
zone menu item on the first page. If you get a membership, you
get access to a space on the site in which you can see a list of your
files, and you can add more files or delete those you don’t need
any more. The site uses SSL encryption for uploads, so you’re
assured of secure file transfers. Premium memberships require
the same procedure to upload files. When you download the file,
it asks you if you are a free member or a premium member. Click
the appropriate button, and then choose a mirror to get faster
download speeds. To prevent against robots and scripts wasting
bandwidth, you are required to enter text that’s shown visually to
you to confirm that you’re human. Click on the ‘download via mir-
ror’ link, and you get your file.
RapidShare has a size limit of 100 MB per file. Larger files have
to be split using a utility like FileSplitter, and then individual com-
ponents uploaded. Premium users, however, are allocated a 2 GB
file-size limit. You can get a RapidShare premium membership for
16.99 (Euros) for 3 months and 54.99 for 1 year.

9.1.3 YourFileHost (www.yourfilehost.com)

YourFileHost is another amazing site which offers unlimited
uploads, but allows a
file-size of a mere 25
MB. Unfortunately,
this site does not
have a “premium”
option, and is sus-
tained by advertising
and donations from
its users.
To use this site,
click on the upload
link on the main YourFileHost: small file sizes

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page and then on the add files to upload button. Select the files to
upload and then select ‘general’ or ‘adult’ on the GUI—making it
compulsory for you to specify whether your file is for general view-
ers or adult viewers only. Once this is done, you can click on the
upload button and your files are uploaded to the site. The next
page gives you the download and delete links.
As before, to download the file enter the download link in the
browser’s address bar and to delete the file from the server, just
enter the delete link. Since there’s no membership option, you
need to store these links carefully. Of course, this site is totally
free, so we can’t really fault them for “not charging” us.
If you’re planning on sharing files for official use, you might
want to steer clear of YourFileHost, because it’s mostly a video site,
and most of those videos are adult oriented. You would probably
look a little unprofessional telling colleagues or clients to down-
load a file from here. If it’s just your friends that you’re sharing
files with, especially videos, this site is fun—especially the general
section, where you’ll find a whole range of really funny videos.

9.1.4 Xdrive (www.xdrive.com)

Xdrive is another site that offers 5 GB of free online storage with
an unlimited number of file uploads. The catch here is that you
need an AOL account to access the site. Needless to say, this site has
been developed by AOL. It also has a paid option which offers up to
50 GB of storage at $9.95 a month and $99.50 a year.
Once you get an
AOL account, which
is pretty simple, you
get access to an
online storage with
what we think is the
best GUI among the
sites we have spoken
about here. When
you sign in, you are
shown your Xdrive
folders visually. Click Does the XDrive hold the Xfiles?

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on the link, and you will find a snazzy toolbar to help you upload
all your files. Click on the upload button on the toolbar, select
your files and click OK to upload. You can download multiple files
at once using the GUI, by selecting files the way you select e-mails,
and then click Download.
This site also doubles up as a miniature Web album (more on
Web albums later in this chapter). Simply move the pictures you
upload to the My Photos folder, click on the photos tab on the GUI,
and voila the toolbar changes. You can view the pictures as a
slideshow or even share them if you wish. Xdrive also offers the
amazing facility to upload all your e-mail attachments coming in
to your AOL e-mail account to your Xdrive account directly.
It offers utility software which helps a user to combine music
and picture files to create rich multimedia experiences. Also, it
offers another utility with a GUI that features drag and drop
functionality.

9.1.5 Cyn
Cyn is the last online storage site we cover here. This site from
Cynapse offers up to 25 MB of storage as it’s free option and gives
two users access to an account. There is a paid option, which offers
up to 5 GB of storage. In this case, the cost of the paid membership
depends on the number of users accessing the account. It varies
from $30 per user, per month for 2-9 users to $20 per user, per
month for 500 and above users. It also offers a 3-month option
with 10% savings, a 6-month option with 15% savings and a 1-year
option with 20% savings on total cost of membership.
This site doesn’t have a non-members account, but does offer
free membership. Sign up using your e-mail address and personal
details and you are sent a link to your e-mail address for verification.
Once you click on the link you are asked to enter the number of
users who will use your site. The next bit is really interesting. Cyn
asks you for a site name. That’s right; a site name for you. The
advantage that Cyn gives you is to purchase a site. This means that
it gives you a site with your own domain name for your account. For
instance, if Digit would purchase an account with Cyn, the domain
name of the site could be http://www.digit.cyn.in. This is a cool feature

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for people who are brand-conscious when it comes to the Web.

Next comes up a page saying that resources and space are
being allocated for your site. Once this is done you are through.
You get your own space on Cyn to which you can upload files. The
process is once again the same, which is to select, upload, and
store. To download the files, simply select them and download.

9.1.6 Where To Store

We would suggest that if you have many files of a large size, sign
up with MegaUpload. Its 50 GB space would cover the require-
ments for most people. If you are a traveling businessman, or if
you want to share files with people across the globe, try
RapidShare—its mirroring facilities make for faster downloads
across the world. For just fun with friends, and sharing videos or
files while you surf, the YourFileHost service should suffice.
We recommend Xdrive for its ease of use and look and feel.
The downside is that it offers only 5 GB of storage free.
However, it’s much less ominous a site than the first three
when it comes to official work—MegaUpload, RapidShare, and
YourFileHost have become notorious for warez and porn… Cyn
works for businesses that are brand conscious, and those who
come across as more serious about online-storage. It’s way too
expensive though.

9.2 Online Messenger Services

Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, AOL, ICQ, etc. You’ve obvious-

ly heard of these services, because we all seem to use one or the
other to keep in touch with friends and colleagues from across
the globe. They became so popular, that companies had to get
their firewalls to block these services to get any work done. As
usual, technology always finds a way, and online messenger serv-
ices were born.
Apart from allowing you to chat from places you shouldn’t,
these services are platform independent, and so, you can even sit
on a Linux-based PC and use MSN messenger. Also, with so many

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versions of Windows being used right now, it takes away the has-
sle of upgrading or finding the right messenger version for your
OS. All you need is a browser and a connection to the Internet, and
you can chat away to glory.

9.2.1 Meebo (www.meebo.com)

Meebo is the first
messenger service we
cover here. Go to the
site and enter your e-
mail ID and password
in the appropriate
place and sign in.
This site offers a one
stop point on the
WWW from where
you can access mes-
senger services such Meebo, a multi-messenger
as Yahoo!, MSN, AIM and Google, and also offers its own Meebo
messenger service.
This site offers multiplexed messenger services as its service—
when you sign in, a smaller window appears which has a GUI sim-
ilar to the respective messenger software. Once signed in to
Meebo, you can add and delete contacts, IM an individual or
groups, and do basically anything you normally do with your mes-
senger software.
Your contact lists are sorted just as they are in the messaging
software. Chatting is also just as simple as selecting a contact, typ-
ing something to them and pressing [Enter]. We found no prob-
lems with any of Meebo’s services.

9.2.2ILoveIM (www.iloveim.com)
ILoveIM (ILIM) is a similar service which also offers a multiplex of
the same services, along with its own chat service. There’s very lit-
tle to differentiate the two actually, except that ILIM offers a few
extra features than Meebo in chat windows. For example, if you
sign in to MSN, you can choose whether to display or hide offline

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contacts, see contact pictures, etc.

Like Meebo, ILoveIM also has a different window for Yahoo!
users. The option to personalise your profile, however, does not
exist on the Yahoo! service GUI. Also, similar to Meebo, the con-
tacts are divided only into friends and others, while the MSN serv-
ice GUI allows you to specify family, friends and other contacts.

9.2.3eBuddy (www.eBuddy.com)
eBuddy (until recently, called eMessenger) is another multiplexed
online messenger service. Using this service is pretty much similar
to using the Meebo and ILoveIM services, but this site offers a few
extra gimmicks. For instance sign in to the MSN service and you
will see a link to access your e-mail. When you click this link, a
browser window opens up and you are logged in to your Hotmail
account.
On the Yahoo! service one has the option of sending IMs and
inviting people to a conference. This service does not specify con-
tacts as family or friends on its MSN service. It has contacts as
offline and online on its MSN service and as friends and others on
its Yahoo! service.
eBuddy also has a mobile version of their messenger service, so
you can use pretty much any GPRS/EDGE capable phone and stay
available on IM no matter where you are. Point your mobile brows-
er to http://get.ebuddy.com to download it to your phone.

9.2.4 MSN (webmessenger.msn.com)

MSN messenger has
its own online serv-
ice, which is obvious-
ly not multiplexed.
You can sign-in to
MSN Messenger, and
have access to all of
your MSN account
settings by visiting
h t t p : / / we b m e s s e n -
ger.msn.com. This is MSN’s Web messenging service

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the most feature-rich MSN Web messenger service though, and

we’re not surprised. Microsoft would obviously be the most quali-
fied to build and integrate its own services into a Web browser
interface Apart from chatting (obviously), you can also access your
e-mail, add contacts, search the Web, etc. Overall, if you use only
MSN messenger to keep in touch with family, friends and col-
leagues, look no further than MSN’s Web Messenger service.

9.2.5ICQ
ICQ is an excellent online messaging service that you can sign up
for. ICQ is one of the oldest online messenger services available on
the Web. Apart from the usual chat service, this site offers entry
into chat rooms, communities and hobby groups so that like-
minded people can get together and chat with each other. There
are even games to play at this site, making it much more than a
mere Web messenger service.
When you sign up for this service, you are given a number
which you can use to chat with people. You can chat with other
friends on ICQ or join one of the various communities or groups
mentioned here and spend those leisurely hours. The communi-
ties vary based on religion, nationality, age groups, gender, etc.
You can even start your own community, invite your friends and
form your own online group of like-minded people. To gain brown-
ie points, ICQ also offers you an e-mail account, which is as good
as any of the other services available.

9.3 Web Albums

Are you an amateur or professional shutterbug? All of us have our
fondest memories captured in stills—first steps, weddings, birth-
days, graduation, etc. Now you can either choose to flood your
friends and family members with e-mails and large attachments,
or use Web albums. With the exponential increase in popularity of
digital cameras, people are sharing more photographs than ever
before. Until a few years ago, this was always via e-mail, with us
sending several MBs worth of pictures to anyone who we thought
might want to see them. Today, everyone uses Web albums, and

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let’s the people who are interested, come to the photographs,

instead of making you send the photographs to everyone. Also, if
you consider yourself to be a digital Michelangelo, you can try and
make your work known to the world by hosting your pictures on
Web albums.
The sites offer people the facilities to organise, edit, share,
print, backup pictures and create albums online. With these sites
you can maintain pictures in sets, do things like changing picture
resolution, collating pictures to make albums and printing those
albums or burning them to CDs. Also, similar to the online file
storage services, these sites have rules against objectionable con-
tent being uploaded.

9.3.1 Flickr
Flickr is the Web
album developed by
Yahoo!. Using Flickr is
easy enough—use
your Yahoo! Id, sign
in, and you are ready
to go. The pictures
can be uploaded as
easily as uploading
files as attachments
to emails. When you
Flickr is more than a Web album
are signed in, click in
the upload photos link and you will be taken to the upload page.
Click on choose photos and select the pictures you wish to upload.
Next, click on the upload photos link and the pictures will be
uploaded. Once the pictures have been uploaded, there are sever-
al things you can do with them. You can group the pictures into
sets, add blogs to them and even edit them. Yahoo has tied up with
a site called Picnik to provide photo-editing facilities for its users.
This means rotating, resizing and even adjusting resolution can be
done on Flickr.
Apart from this you can share pictures with friends, family and
even the general public. If you do not want people to see your pic-

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tures, then simply mark them as private. Flickr offers yet another
interesting feature—it lets you specify where your pictures have
been taken using maps and then lets you see other public pictures
that have been taken nearby. If you wish, you can make eCards,
photo-books and collate pictures to make collages as well.
Flickr has an upload limit of 100 MB of pictures per month and
a limit of 5 MB file-size for each picture. However it offers unlim-
ited uploads in its pro account. Priced at $24.95 for a 1-year
account and $47.99 for a 2-year account, it also offers increased
file-size limit of 10 MB, unlimited bandwidth and ad-free browsing
for members.

9.3.2WebAPhoto
WebAPhoto is another online Web album service that offers the
facility to store, organise, and edit pictures online. It offers storage
for an unlimited number of pictures and high quality photo-
prints. Similar to Flickr, you can make eCards and transfer pic-
tures easily to your cell phone as well. Like Flickr this site offers
you the feature of sharing your pictures with others.
Signing up for this service is just as simple. Provide your e-mail
id and personal details and you are a member of this site. Once
signed in, click on the NEW link to create a new album. Once you
have created a new album, click on the upload photos link on the
left of the page. You will be taken to the next page. Click on any of
the browse buttons, select the pictures you wish to upload and
click OK. Thumbnail-sized images appear in the album. You can
even rotate the images if you desire.
To share the pictures click on the ‘share this album’ link to the
left of the page and you will be prompted for e-mail addresses of
the people you wish to send the pictures to. Enter e-mail address-
es separated by semi-colons, enter a subject line and a message and
click on send. The recipients will receive links to your pictures and
can view them at their leisure.

9.3.3 Xdrive
We covered Xdrive earlier as an online storage option, but that’s
not all it does. Xdrive also doubles as an online Web album service.

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It not only offers people the facility to store their files, but also the
facility to upload pictures and create photo-albums as well.
Signing in requires an AOL account, which, as mentioned, can be
created with the help of this site. Once you’re signed in, click on
the ‘manage my drives’ image and you will be taken to a GUI sim-
ilar to an e-mail folder display page.
Click on the photos tab and the toolbar changes to facilitate
uploading pictures. Upload pictures using the upload button on
the toolbar. Once the pictures have been uploaded you can even
generate a slideshow of your pictures. Sharing pictures is similar
to WebAPhoto. You are taken to a page where you can enter e-mail
addresses and a subject line. Xdrive then provides the e-mail
recipients with links to the pictures that can be used by them to
view the same.

9.3.4 Picasa
Picasa is owned by
Google, and it’s not real-
ly an online service. You
need to download the
Picasa software, which
offers features similar to
Flickr. With Picasa, you
download the software,
and then register on the
Picasa Web site.
Picasa is both impres- Picasa: both online and offline
sive and fun to use. The
software offers the features to organise and edit your pictures just
like the online Web albums do, but there are other features in
Picasa which are equally impressive. The first thing this software
does when installed is to make a compilation of all the pictures in
your PC. It provides two options—one, to organise all the pictures
in your PC or two, only the images in the My Documents and My
Pictures folders. When you start using Picasa you will want to cre-
ate your own albums. The next thing that strikes you is to e-mail
your albums to people. But it doesn’t stop here. With Picasa you

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can add blogs to your albums, and print and collate as well. You
can use the buttons on the bottom toolbar for this purpose.
Like Xdrive’s Web album, Picasa offers to show you a slideshow
of the pictures in your album. This feature is not extended to
albums alone. When Picasa organises all the pictures on your PC,
depending upon your choice, you can do a slideshow of all the pic-
tures for your viewing pleasure. Picasa offers another interesting
feature—it arranges your pictures into timelines, which means
that you can attach a date and a time to them. You can also import
your pictures directly from a scanner or cell phone and even burn
CDs of your albums and gift them to people. Last, but not the least,
with Picasa you can make your own screensavers out of your
albums and run them on your PC.

9.3.5 WebAlbumMaker
WebAlbumMaker is another great software that enables you to
make photo albums, but isn’t an online service. This software is
pretty lightweight, but doesn’t offer much in terms of features.
Like Picasa it is freeware, and can be easily downloaded from its
Web site. It helps you compose a very professional looking photo-
gallery and publish it on the Web in just a few easy steps and then
share it with your family and friends.
With WebAlbumMaker you can add pictures to and delete
them from your photo-album. There is provision for rotating
images to the left and to the right as well. You can collate pictures
with this software, but not import them from other media such as
scanners and cell phones. There is no facility to print the albums
out as you would do so with Picasa. Neither is there a provision to
burn CDs with it. All-in-all, it gives the basic facilities of making
photo-albums and collating pictures.

9.3.6 Ornj
Ornj is another great site which provides software to develop
photo-albums. Like Picasa and WebAlbumMaker, this isn’t an
online service either. Its software Web Album Generator is capable
of creating a high quality album which you would be proud to
show your family and friends.

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Similar to WebAlbumMaker, you can add pictures to and delete

them from your photo-album. There is also provision for rotating
images to the left and to the right as well. You cannot collate pic-
tures with this software, and unlike Picasa, not import them from
other media such as scanners and cell phones. Similar to
WebAlbumMaker, there is no facility to print the albums out.
Neither is there a provision to burn CDs with it. What you can do
is sort your pictures and make photo-albums.

9.3.7 Summing Up
We found Flickr to be the best online Web album site in terms of
features. WebAPhoto is good, but offers services that seem basic
compared to Flickr. Xdrive has the advantage of doubling as an
online storage service as well, it has a very cool GUI which makes
using this site really fun, but it is even more basic than
WebAPhoto when it comes to features. This site was intended ini-
tially as an online storage service, but with some enhancements in
its features, it could lead the market—let’s hope the company
realises that as well.
Among the software-cum-Web services, Picasa is undoubtedly
the best in terms of the facilities that Web album software should
provide. WebAlbumMaker and WebAlbumGenerator could do
with more enhancements, but are pretty lightweight as compared
to Picasa.

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