INDIA'S 63rd INDEPENDENCE DAY

WHAT THEY SAID ABOUT INDIA

We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made!" --Albert Einstein

If there is one place on the face of earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India!" --French scholar Romaine Rolland

India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. Our most valuable and most astrictive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only!" --Mark Twain

So far as I am able to judge, nothing has been left undone, either by man or nature, to make India the most extraordinary country that the sun visits on his rounds. Nothing seems to have been forgotten, nothing overlooked." --Mark Twain

She (India) has left indelible imprints on one fourth of the human race in the course of a long succession of centuries. She has the right to reclaim ... her place amongst the great nations summarizing and symbolizing the spirit of humanity. From Persia to the Chinese sea, from the icy regions of Siberia to Islands of Java and Borneo, India has propagated her beliefs, her tales, and her civilization!" -- Sylvia Levi

India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border!" -- Hu Shih, former Ambassador of China to USA

Its the 15th August - The Indian Independence Day. A great struggle was raised by the people of India to gain this freedom. Its a day to wish all fellow Indians a very "Happy Independence Day".

I LOVE MY INDIA
15th August 2009 - HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!

INDIA CELEBRATES ITS 63rd INDEPENDENCE DAY Today.

"Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we will redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.... We end today a period of ill fortune, and India discovers herself again." - Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru (Speech on Indian Independence Day, 1947).

On 15 August 1947, India attained freedom from the British Rule. Every year, August 15 is celebrated as the Independence Day in India. This national festival is celebrated with great enthusiasm all over the country.

The Prime Minister's speech at the Red Fort in Delhi is a major highlight. Patriotic presentations by school children add colors to the celebrations.

The preparations begin a month in advance. Roads are decorated with flags and buntings. Buildings of national importance are illuminated.


NATIONAL FLAG OF INDIA

The national flag, a symbol of free India, is a horizontal tri-colour of saffron, white and green.
The wheel in its centre, is a replica of the chakra, which appears on the abacus of Ashoka's pillar.
The flag was adopted on July 22,1947 and presented to the nation on August 15, 1947.
The color saffron, stands for courage, sacrifice and renunciation.
White, symbolizes truth and purity "truth in our speech and purity of thought"
Green represents life, faith and chivalry.

The 24 spokes of the wheel are multiples of 8, representing the noble precepts of the Eight-Fold path, taught by the Buddha. The wheel itself denotes unceasing motion and progress.

THE FIRST CABINET OF MINISTERS

Jawaharlal Nehru - Prime Minister, External and Commonwealth Relations, Scientific Researches.
Sardar Ballavbhai Patel - Home, Information and Broadcasting, States
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad - Education
Dr.Rajendra Prasad - Food and Agriculture
Sardar Baldev Singh - Defence
Jagjivan Ram - Labour
C.H.Bhava - Commerce
R.A.Kidwai - Communication
Rajkumari Amrit Kaur - Health
Dr.B.R.Ambedkar - Law
S.Chetty - Finance
Dr.S.P.Mukherji - Industries and Supplies
N.V.Gadgil - Works, Mines and Power.


NATIONAL ANTHEM OF INDIA

Jaana Gaana Maana Adhinayaka Jayehe
Bharata Bhagya Vidhata
Punjab Sindhu Gujarata Maratha,
Dravida Utkala Banga,
Vindhya, Himachala, Jamuna, Ganga,
Ucchhala Jaladhitaranga;
Taba Shubha Naame Jaage
Taba Shubha Ashish Maage
Gaye Taba Jaya Gaatha.
Jaana Gaana Maana Adhinayaka Jayahe
Bharata Bhagya Vidhata
Jaya He Jaye He Jaye He
Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya He.

VANDE MAATARAM!!!

MAA TUJHE SALAAM.

Web addresses exceed world's population

Web addresses exceed world's population

Melbourne, July 30 (ANI): Internet is growing in dimensions every second, so much so that there are more addresses than there are people on Earth, claims the team behind Microsoft's new search engine Bing.

Bing has put the number of web pages at "over 1 trillion", while Google had earlier indexed more than one trillion discreet web addresses.

The current global population stands at more than 6.7 billion, which means that there are about 150 web addresses per person in the world.

And this could mean that if a person spent just one minute reading every website in existence, then he or she would be kept busy for 31,000 years, without any sleep.

"An average person would need six hundred thousand decades of nonstop reading to read through the information," News.com.au quoted Bing as saying.

Mark Higginson, director of analytics for Nielsen Online, said that the global online population had jumped 16 per cent since last year.

"Approximately 1.46 billion people worldwide now use the internet which represents a solid 16 per cent increase from the previous year's estimate (1.26 billion in 2007)," he said.

The largest Internet population belongs to China, with 338 million users online, which is more than there were people in the US.

However InternetWorldStats.com (IWS), a website that combines multiple data sources, has claimed that China's online population is more like 298 million.

"With the rates of India and China still quite low, there is ample room for growth in the coming decade," said Higginson.

But, measuring the online population could be tricky-there are servers, users, per capita numbers, and penetration percentages to evaluate.

And thus it is difficult to find a single figure to represent the world online population.

IWS combined data from the UN's International Telecommunications Union, Nielsen Online, GfK and US Census Bureau, and its latest global figures puts the number of internet users in the world at 1,596,270,108.

And this is just 23.8 per cent of the estimated 6,0706,993,152 people in the world. But it changes every day.

"In terms of the future, we anticipate mobile to contribute significantly to internet usage," said Higginson.

According to IWS, the top 5 countries with the most internet users are:

1 - China (298,000,000 users, or 22.4 percent of their population)

2 - US (227,190,989, or 74.7 percent)

3 - Japan (94,000,000, or 73.8 percent)

4 - India (81,000,000, or 7.1 percent)

5 - Brazil (67,510,400, or 34.4% percent)

MP3 Players : Apple iPod Touch 16GB

MP3 Players : Apple iPod Touch 16GB


Manufacturer's description

If a picture says a thousand words, think of what all the album art in your collection might say. With Cover Flow on iPod touch, you can flick through your music to find the album you want to hear. And when you do, a quick tap of the cover flips it over to display a track list. Another tap starts the music.

Multi-touch interface

* The revolutionary technology that made iPhone a hit is now on one amazing iPod.

Gorgeous 3.5-inch widescreen display

* Touch your music in Cover Flow and watch video on a stunning, widescreen display.

Wi-Fi web browsing

* Browse the web with Safari and watch YouTube videos on the first-ever Wi-Fi iPod.

Music downloads from iTunes

* Search, preview, and buy songs from the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store on iPod touch.

Games & Gear : Sony PlayStation 3

Specifications

General Platform - PlayStation 3
Wireless Type - Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
Hard Drive - Yes
Hard Drive Size - 40 GB
Installed Memory - 256 MB
Accessories Included - Spider-Man 3 Blu-ray Disc movie
Processor - Cell Broadband Engine
Game Media - BD-ROM, DVD-ROM, CD-ROM
Slot Types Provided - CompactFlash Card, Memory Stick, SD Memory Card
Color - Black
Controller - Game pad
Connector Type(s) - 4 x USB, 1 x network, 1 x HDMI output, 1 x PlayStation 3 AV output, 1 x SPDIF output ( TOSLINK )
Included Cables - A/V cable, Network cable, USB cable
Video Memory - 256 MB
Max Video Resolution - 1920 x 1080


Manufacturer's description

Featuring the world's most powerful processor, PlayStation 3 delivers an experience beyond anything you know today. With a built in Blu-ray Disc drive, PlayStation 3 invites you to a whole new generation in high-definition graphics and media capabilities. Whether it's high-definition gaming, Blu-ray movies, music or online services, PlayStation 3 takes you where you've never dreamed possible - a place where you can play beyond.

Fujifilm launching 3-D consumer camera

Fujifilm launching 3-D consumer camera

While the television world haplessly attempts to figure out how to bring 3-D display technology to the home, Fujifilm is charging forward with the bold goal of bringing the third dimension to still camera photos.

The only thing immediately and obviously curious about the company's prototype point-and-shoot camera (pictured above) is the placement of a second lens on its front. One lens is located roughly on each of the upper corners on the front face of the camera, giving the front of the shooter the vague appearance of a smiling robot.

The technology is pretty simple: Snap the shutter and both lenses capture a slightly different image -- the same trick that all 3-D systems use to get that uncanny 3-D effect. More magic is required in the piecing together of the two shots into a single, 3-D image. You need specific technology in order to view 3-D images, and Fujifilm has two options for observers who want to enter the third dimension, neither of which requires special glasses to work.

The first is a custom photo frame which directs the appropriate image to the appropriate eye of the viewer, presumably if he or she stands in just the right spot. The second is the tantalizing option for 3-D prints, with are treated with a plastic coating that "acts as a kind of 3-D lens" that can show off the image in three dimensions. In addition to selling the hardware to take the shots, the company hopes to offer a service to make the prints, ideally with a price of under $5 a pop. Developing pictures? Talk about old school!

The new camera, which doesn't appear to have a model number yet, arrives in Japan this summer and on our shores in September, at an expected price of about $600. Expect to pay a few hundred bucks for the frame, also.

Are you ready to go 3-D with your vacation snapshots?

Google to enter operating system wars with Chrome OS

Google to enter operating system wars with Chrome OS

In what is certain to be the biggest tech story of the summer, Google is finally making official what has been rumored for years: It will create its own computer operating system, Chrome OS, slated for release in late 2010.

While the news is stunning in its potential impact on the industry, it hardly arrives without warning. Google already makes its own cell phone OS, the fledgling Android, which continues to slowly gain devotees. And well before the company unleashed its own web browser, Chrome, many had long since assumed that Google had been preparing to release an operating system. When the Chrome browser was released instead, many observers actually saw it as a bit of a letdown in the news department.

Now it's clear what Google has been up to all along: Chrome is simply the centerpiece of a larger table setting, a full-blown operating system that will run without Windows or the MacOS beneath it.

Google is keeping many details close to the vest -- and, with at least a year before the OS comes out, it really has no choice since the OS has miles to go before it's ready -- but the company has made a few details public. Chrome OS will be open source, like Linux operating systems, upon which Chrome will be based; it will be designed to be "fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds;" and it will be designed with security in mind (though, seriously, everybody says that). The OS will run on both ARM and x86 CPUs, the latter being the most common PC chip architecture on the planet, used on virtually every PC produced today.

Despite the hints about Chrome OS, many, many questions remain. Obviously Chrome is designed with the web in mind, and it will undoubtedly be closely tied into Google's extensive suite of services. But what will its offline components look like, if any? With Linux as a base, it will obviously be able to run Linux-based applications, though it won't be compatible with Windows... or will it? Emulator systems exist that could let Chrome run Windows apps, but they're complex and at odds with the goal of creating a streamlined, super-simple operating system. I am immediately curious as to how big of a hard drive a Chrome OS laptop would have, if it will have one at all.

Another big question involves the hardware this operating system will run on. Google obviously has inexpensive, low-power netbooks in mind for Chrome OS, but will tinkerers be able to install it on computers they already own? Driver issues become a major obstacle at that point, as a "simple" OS can't possibly account for the thousands of hardware variations present in modern PCs (printing alone is going to be a headache as it is). My hunch is that a downloadable version will eventually be available, but that it won't be supported by Google at all should you decide to install it on a non-approved PC.

That leads to the question of whether Google is ignoring a key part of the market. Netbooks are great little toys, but they're hardly the tools of choice for those looking to get real work done. By embracing the web and largely ignoring offline applications, Chrome-based netbooks will by necessity remain tools for the low end of the market, playthings for when you're not really being productive. Like the Linux-based netbooks before them, they just won't do enough for many users.

And that's an ominous issue hanging out there for Chrome OS's future. Linux-based netbooks haven't been a rousing success, as Windows fought back with a vengeance after they hit the market, offering buyers a more familiar working environment and compatibility with their other computers while keeping prices down. Consumers have so far warmed up to the idea of having more features on their netbooks, not fewer, relegating Linux on netbooks to the background. Will a spiffy, Googleized version of Linux change consumer opinion? Maybe, but probably not dramatically.

Contrary to public opinion, everything that Google touches does not turn to gold, and to be frank, Google has a serious uphill battle ahead for its OS ambitions. I'm cautiously optimistic that Google will put something brilliant together here, and can't wait to get my eyes on the software, but the challenges it faces are extreme. Put together something too unique and different and consumers may be put off and confused. Or you could make an OS that clings closely to the Windows interface, but what would be the point of that?

As the technology fades, plasma TVs see huge discounts

As the technology fades, plasma TVs see huge discounts

The exodus toward flat-screen TVs continues, and that's been driving prices down across the board.

But if you're looking for the real deals, plasma is where it's at for now, according to a story in the Wall Street Journal.

What's going on? Put simply, plasma is a technology on its way out. Pioneer and Vizio have already announced this year that they're exiting the market, as manufacturers continue to pour their resources into LCD technology. LCD, used widely across the consumer electronics industry in not just televisions but also computer monitors, laptops, and even cameras and cell phones, has boundless momentum. Plasma, with its higher power requirements, larger size and weight, and finicky reliability, has remained TV-centric since its invention, despite some key benefits that have given the technology something of a cult following.

Meanwhile, there are still plenty of plasmas on the market, and not just close-out models. And diligent shoppers can find exceptional deals on plasma sets: Roughly 20 percent cheaper vs. LCD sets of the same size.

The WSJ story linked above note that a 50-inch LCD will run you $1,500 on average, while a 50-inch plasma runs about $1,200. Although prices vary widely from brand to brand and depend a lot on the features you select, in general the trend follows across the industry. Drop into any big-box electronics store and you're sure to see big discounts on all the plasma sets for sale.

Naturally there's a catch: As plasma vanishes from the market, you'll have an increasing amount of trouble finding someone who can service the set if it breaks. You'll also be stuck buying a very large set if you want a plasma: The technology starts at 42 inches diagonally, and you'll probably need a friend to help you move the thing, too.

Not everyone's giving up on plasma, though: Panasonic, which has long been the extreme market share leader in the plasma category, continues to invest in the technology and just constructed a new $3 billion plant to build the screens. What, didn't they get the memo?

"Invisible flash" could eliminate bright camera bulb pops

"Invisible flash" could eliminate bright camera bulb pops

Smile, you're on not-so-candid camera.

The bright and sudden pop of a flash bulb means photos are being snapped, and while it's (arguably) fun to have your picture taken, the harsh glare of a flash bulb often leaves subjects squinting and annoyed.

But what else can you do if natural light isn't an option?

Enter the so-called "invisible flash" or "dark flash," which utilizes light waves outside the visible spectrum to illuminate your subject. Infrared and ultraviolet light is pulsed, with visible light frequencies filtered out, and a special camera sensor captures the invisible-to-the-naked-eye frequencies to create a finished image.

The resulting image isn't perfect -- the pictures are described as having the character of night-vision shots --so the new system, developed by two researchers at New York University, grabs color information from a flash-free picture which is snapped after the UV-illuminated shot is taken. Detail from the first shot and color data from the second are then combined in software, with what is called a "remarkably natural end result."

The system isn't perfect. Not all objects reflect UV or IR light, so the camera can't pick them up properly. The New Scientist story linked above notes that freckles present a particular challenge for the system. (I guess that's one way to clear up your skin in photographs, without resorting to Photoshop.)

Still, the prospect of taking shots in low light without the harsh glare and distraction of a flash bulb pop is a tantalizing one, even if the results are imperfect. The paparazzi, renowned for sneaky night-time shots, must be positively drooling over the possibility.

August 7, 2009 - Interesting Fact

August 7, 2009 - Interesting Fact

At 12hr 34 minutes and 56 seconds on the 7th of August this year, the time and date will be

12:34:56 07/08/09

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

This will never happen in your life again... ;)

Longest Solar Eclipse a Once in a Lifetime Occurrence

The longest solar eclipse of this century will occur on Wednesday, July 22, 2009.

Large areas of India and China are expected to go dark for a period of about five minutes.

Scores of visitors are expected to travel into the area to witness and study the rare event.

On Wednesday, July 22, 2009, some parts of the world will be witnessing one of the most spectacular celestial phenomenon of total solar eclipse of the 21st century. This total solar eclipse which will occur due to the hiding of the Sun behind the Moon will turn the day into dark for about 6 minutes and 58 seconds.

This total solar eclipse will be visible in India, especially in the following cities-Surat, Baroda, Indore, Bhopal, Varanasi, Patna, Danapur and Guwahati. A partial eclipse can be seen in Southeast Asia including over entire India and China.

People of the Udupi district can also see nearly 75 per cent of the solar eclipse. According to a report the greatest phase of partial eclipse will be at 6 hours 20 minutes and will last till 7 hours 16 minutes.

The Taregna village near Danapur in the district of Patna in Bihar has become the focus of the astronomers as they believe that the total solar eclipse can be seen in its full glory. It is said that the ancient astronomer, Aryabhatta, who was born in Pataliputra (modern Patna) in 476 AD used to observe the heavenly bodies from this village.

The total solar eclipse of July 22 2009 will be visible across south-east Asia and the western Pacific. This will be a spectacular total eclipse, lasting over 6½ minutes at maximum and visible to millions of people over a path up to 258 km wide.

The total eclipse begins just off the coast of India at 00:51:17 UT on July 22, and ends in Polynesia at 04:19:26 UT on July 22. The maximum eclipse is at 02:35:21 UT on July 22, when the total phase will last a stunning 6 minutes and 39 seconds. The partial eclipse will be visible over south-east Asia, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Pacific between 23:58:19 UT on July 21 and 05:12:25 UT on July 22.

Top 10 Underrated Wordpress Plugins

There are several lists of “Top 10” Wordpress plugins around the Internet. Most of them, however, refer to the best or most popular plugins. Guess what, I’ve had enough of Akismet, Adsense Deluxe, Related Entries and company!

Jokes apart, those plugins are certainly awesome, but there are many others out there that can be life savers, and people often neglect them. Below you will the Top 10 Underrated Wordpress plugins; if you think there is a plugin missing on the list just post a comment.

1. Custom Querry String

Wordpress is a very flexible platform, but regulating the number of posts that are supposed to be displayed on the different pages is quite difficult. Most of the times you will want to display a limited number of posts on the Homepage while displaying a larger list for the categories, archives or search results pages, and this is not possible through the control panel. The solution for this problem is the Custom Querry String plugin, which allows you to configure this number individually for each page type.

2. Head Meta Description

While the Meta Keywords Tag is no longer used by most search engines, the Meta Description Tag still has some influence. Having the same Description Tag on all your pages, however, might be inneficient and send part of your website to the supplemental hell. This plugin is extremely easy to install and it will create a dynamic Meta Description Tag for every page on your blog, based on post excerpts or on the first words of the page.

3. Clean Archives

Most blogs have a “Monthly Archives” section on their sidebar, displaying a huge list of months and wasting some precious space. A more efficient structure for your archives would be a single page where all the posts are displayed, month by month. That is exactly what this plugin will do (you can see an example here). Notice that you might need the plugin below to install this one successfully.

4. Exec-PHP

Many plugins or Wordpress features require that you run some PHP code. When you need to use those features or plugins inside static pages or posts, however, Wordpress will not recognize the code. The solution for this problem is the Exec-PHP plugin. Once installed the plugin will enable PHP code on virtually all the pages of your blog. There are similar plugins available, but this one is the most reliable.

5. Enforce www. Preference

If your site can be accessed through http://www.domain.com and http://domain.com you might have some problems over the long run. Most search engines treat those addresses as two different domains, spliting your backlink count. In order to solve this issue you need to setup a 301 Permanent Redirect. The are several ways to setup this redirect, but if you are not familiar with PHP or if your host is not Linux based (for the .htaccess file) this plugin represents the simplest one. You just need to activate it and all the visitors and search bots will get redirected to the address that is specified on the Wordpress control panel.

6. Chunk URLs

Ever experienced someone posting a huge URL on your comment section? Those long strings are not only ugly, but they might also break the design of your website on certain browsers. This plugin will trunk those long URLs into smaller ones, and you can even specify the amount of characters that the output should contain.

7. Sig2feed

Sploggers are feed stealers are spreading out like fire. The first measure to protect your content is to add a copyright notice to your feed, possibly with a link pointing to your site. Sig2feed is a very light plugin that will do just that.

8. FeedSmith

This plugin used to be called Feedburner Feed Replacement. It was so popular and efficient that Feedburner itself decided to buy it from the developer. Basically it will forward all the requests for your Wordpress feed to Feedburner. It is very useful if you started using Feedburner after having some subscribers, or if you want to make sure that your feed statistics are completely accurate.

9. Jerome’s Keywords

This plugin is very similar to the Ultimate Tag Warrior, but it is much more user friendly. Once the plugin is installed you will be able to tag individual posts and to create an internal tag system and tag clouds. Secondly you can also use it to generate a dynamic Meta Keywords Tag.

10. WP-Cache

WP-Cache is a very robust plugin that will increase the responsiveness of your website and reduce the server load. It is also very useful to handle sudden burts in traffic coming from social bookmarking sites. The plugin basically creates static versions of your pages and serves them without querrying the MySQL database.

Use These 10 Tips to Write Your Most Popular Post Ever

One popular post can bring your more traffic and links than a month’s worth of your usual content.

In this post, I want to set you a challenge with the potential to launch your blog into the stratosphere.

Make the next post you write your most popular post ever.

The following ten tips form my key advice for tackling this task. I used all of them when hitting the Digg front page for the first time. There’s no blueprint you can follow to write an incredibly popular post, but you won’t have a chance unless you try. I’m confident these tips will give you a good shot at success.

1. Time is more important than talent. Work on something for eight hours and you can bet it will be good. You don’t need to spend that long, however (though that’s how long it took me to craft the first post I wrote that hit the Digg front page). More time means you can refine, format and fill your post with plenty of value. Take the time to really craft your content. It will show in the finished product.

2. Use your best idea. A post will never become wildly popular unless it fulfills a need, and does so emphatically. What’s something your niche wants but hasn’t got yet? Can you assemble a whole lot of really awesome (targeted) resources in one place? The more your posts helps people, the better it will do.

3. Use formatting to your advantage. These days, social media is key when it comes to launching your posts into the stratosphere. Social media users are notoriously spoiled for choice, however. Use formatting to emphasize the best aspects of your post. Hone in on your funniest lines, your most profound bits of advice, your best resources. Make them stand out.

4. Brainstorm headlines. There are probably one or two bloggers who’ve completely mastered the art of writing headlines for social media (you’ll know who they are). The rest of us haven’t been blessed with such skills. When you see a great headline, chances are it’s option #12 of a dozen choices. Few of us can think of a great headline straight away. Spend ten minutes brainstorming and you’re bound to stumble across something that works. A weak headline will cripple your post’s chances of success. It’s essential that you put a lot of work into getting it right.

5. Invest plenty of value in your post. Ever bookmarked or voted for something without completely reading it? We’ve all done it. It’s because of the ‘Wow’ factor — the presence of enough promised value in one place gets the reader enthusiastic about the post straight away. Instead of 5 tips, why not share 50? Instead of 9 resources, why not 40 or more?

7. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If your post looks good, it will draw readers in. Take the time to add images, thumbnails and formatting to what you create. Make your post a visual feast. With so much web content presented in a bland way, your post is guaranteed to stand out.

8. Tell them what you’re going to tell them. Readers will skip your waffly introduction. You can say the same in less words, particularly when you’re writing for an impatient reader: someone who wants to get straight into your tips/resources/opinions. Use your introduction to highlight why the reader should stick with your post. There’s a reason my post introductions mainly consist of: “In this post, I’m going to do this, this and that.” It’s what people really want to know: what am I getting in exchange for my attention?

9. Send messages with links. The best way to get a blogger to investigate your blog is by linking to them. We’ve got a natural desire to know what’s being said about us. If your post becomes really popular, each link inside it should send enough traffic outwards to be worth investigating. Be generous with your outbound links when writing your most popular post. It gives other bloggers an incentive to link to you, because it’s ultimately more promotion for them.

10. Utilize your network. If you want people to Digg, Stumble or Reddit your post, there’s no reason why you need to sit back with fingers crossed and hope it happens. Ask them. Your loyal readers like you. You entertain them, or teach them, or help them. If voting is a simple matter of clicking a link they’ll be more than happy to do so. Ask for votes in your post and email readers and social media influencers. In most cases you will need to get the snowball rolling. After that, others will do most of the work for you.

Bonus tip:

11. Examine what worked before. Study your most popular posts so far. What’s common about them? Why did they work? What needs did they address? In creating your most popular post, it’s important to learn by example and build on what has worked for your blog in the past. Another good idea is to analyze the most popular posts on other blogs in your niche. Why did they work? What’s remarkable about them? You can transfer those qualities over into what you write.

The Best Website Taglines Around the Internet

A tagline can make or break a website (well, maybe not, but it is cool to be dramatic). Below you will find a collection of the best taglines around the Internet. Some of them are funny, some are clever; but all of them deliver the message! Hopefully it will serve as inspiration.

1. The Straight Dope: Fighting Ignorance since 1973 (It’s taking longer than we thought).
2. Maxim Philippines: The best thing that ever happened to men … after women!
3. The Consumerist: Shoppers bite back.
4. Random Acts of Reality: Trying to kill as few people as possible…
5. Joshuaink: Same old shit, different day.
6. The Superficial: Because you’re ugly.
7. Smashing Magazine: We smash you with information that will make your life easier. Really.
8. The Best Page in the Universe: This page is about me and why everything I like is great. If you disagree with anything you find on this page, you are wrong.
9. Scaryduck: Not scary. Not a duck.
10. The Art of Rhysisms: Chronologically inept since 2060.
11. Needcoffee.com: We are the Internet equivalent of a triple espresso with whipped cream. Mmmm…whipped cream.
12. Ample Sanity: Life is short. Make fun of it.
13. Rathergood.com: The Lair of the Crab of Ineffable Wisdom - a load of stuff by Joel Veitch that will probably crush your will to live.
14. The Breakfast Blog: In search of the best eggs in town.
15. Dooce: Not even remotely funny.
16. Pink is the new blog: Everybody’s business is my business.
17. Shoemoney: Skills to pay the bills.
18. Oh No They Didnt’t!: The celebrities are disposable, the content is priceless.
19. YouTube: Broadcast Yourself.
20. Waiter Rant: Do you want Pommes Frite with that?
21. Newshounds: We watch FOX so you don’t have to.
22. Sabrina Faire: All the fun of a saucy wench, none of the overpriced beer.
23. Defective Yeti: A maze of twisty passages, all alike.
24. All About George: All about George Kelly… you know, if you go in for that sort of thing.
25. Go Fug Yourself: Fugly is the new pretty.
26. kottke.org: Home of fine hypertext products.
27. Slashdot: News for nerds. Stuff that matters.
28. Gawker: Daily Manhattan media news and gossip. Reporting live from the center of the universe.
29. Get Rich Slowly: Personal finance that makes cents.
30. hi5: Who’s in?
31. Fotolog: Share your world with the world.
32. Jezebel: Celebrity, Sex, Fashion for Women, Without Aribrushing.
33. Autoblog: We obssessibely cover the auto industry.
34. Boing Boing: A directory of wonderful things.
35. Perez Hilton: Celebrity Juice. Not from concentrate.
36. DumbLittleMan: So what do we do here? Well, it’s simple. 15 to 20 times per week we provide tips that will save you money, increase your productivity, or simply keep you sane.
37. Lifehacker: Don’t live to geek, geek to live!
38. Gizmodo: The gadget guide. So much in love with shiny new toys, it’s unnatural.
39. John Cow Dot Com: Make Moooney Online with John Cow Dot Com
40. WebWorkerDaily: Rebooting the workforce.
41. The Simple Dollar: Financial talk for the rest of us.
42. TrafficBunnies: Making your hits multiply like rabbits.
43. Mighty Girl: Famous among dozens.
44. The Sneeze: Half zine. Half blog. Half not good with fractions.
45. Buzz Marketing: Because everyone is entitled to my opinion.

Interface Design Trends for 2009

As time goes by, designers keep on improving interfaces for better user-experience. In this article, we try to single out some interface design trends going on in 2009.

Multi-touch everywhere

The rise of the iPhone made the multi-touch technology very popular. Now many devices are using it: MP3 players, GPS devices, laptops,… This brings much more intuitive interfaces, making it so easy that even one year old children can use it. In 2009 we will for sure see new multi-touch devices appear.

Web applications get out of the browser

Mac OS X or Yahoo Widgets have already gotten the internet out of the browser for quite a while, but the trend is getting bigger. Think of Twitter and Twhirl, and you’ll get a good example of how a website’s usability can be improved by taking it to an independent interface. Many external apps now support web services like Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed or Seesmic, will we see smaller websites getting out of the browser in 2009?

New controllers for improved usability

The Wiimote and the Logitech MX Air mouse are good examples of the way our interaction with interfaces will be changed through new intuitive navigational controllers. Removing the wires to the mouse was a first step towards more freedom of movement, being able to handle it in the air is a second step. The gaming industry has already been revolutionized by it, professional usage should be next.

Buttons go away for minimalist designs

The new iPod Shuffle recently stirred up controversy because it was considered too minimalist. The product is really easy to use, but some would argue that it loses functionality by over-simplifying the design. Another great example of simple minimalist interface would be Mino, the coolest video camcorder.

The trend of minimalist designs doesn’t only apply to products design, but also to web design with grid-based designs getting popular. In every aspect of design, the ease-of-use becomes the ultimate goal.

The mobile Web gets bigger, interfaces get smaller

The mobile Web has been trying to develop for a few years without being able to extend its reach. The first iPhone came out in 2007, it was a huge success from the start with its revolutionary multi-touch interface. However, the iPhone’s potential really expands with the release of the iPhone 3G and the App store. Over 20′000 apps are now available in the store, and this number keeps growing, giving mobile design more importance everyday.

With Safari for the iPhone, Apple’s mobile device has also popularized mobile browsing. Many major websites have created a mobile version just because of the iPhone. Other mobile phones constructors have also been forced to improve the usability of their phones and to make their devices more attractive.

Blog engines and CMS are also starting to release plugins to make it easier to publish for the mobile web. For Wordpress, you can try the iWPhone WordPress plugin and theme or the WordPress PDA & iPhone plugin.

7 Totally Unique Flickr Search Tools

Sometimes it’s simply overwhelming how many gorgeous photos there are on Flickr () - sifting through them to find a picture to use on your blog or to just admire can be a chore. Luckily for us however, Flickr has an API, meaning that some creative developers have built alternative Flickr search engines.

Whether you’re just looking for a more feature-rich version of Flickr search or want to perform search in a completely different way, these seven Flickr search tools will serve you in finding that perfect photo.

Do you have a favorite Flickr search tool? Be sure to share it with us in the comments.

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1. Compfight

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Compfight is a visual Flickr search tool that displays searched photos based on tags or text. Beyond showing you pictures that match your search, the other cool thing about compfight is that it makes it dead simple to search for creative commons pictures that you can use for your blog. It’s a simple and fast-loading interface for Flickr searches.

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2. Flickr Color Selector

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Are you looking for cool pictures, but you really need them to match your website’s color scheme? Flickr Color Selectr searches through images on the popular photos site by differentiating by color. Just pick your color on the RGB chart.

Note: this search engine is partially in Japanese, but it doesn’t impede you from using this particular tool.

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3. FlickrBabel

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FlickrBabel is a mash-up of Flickr search and Google Translate. If you find a cool image but can’t understand the underlying text, FlickrBabel uses Google () translate to interpret the message. It also supports location-based searches. Heck, FlickrBabel even has its own Twitter account

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4. FlickrStorm

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The Flickr search engine is smart, but it isn’t perfect when you’re looking for photos related to a topic? FlickrStorm comes to the rescue. FlickrStorm divides search into multiple columns and suggests search refinements with additional related keywords.

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5. Picishare

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If you’re just looking for a straight-up alternative to Flickr search, then PiciShare may be one to look at. It has all of the meat - tag search, relevance, whether it’s “interesting”, and more. It also allows you to limit the number of photos that appear if you’re on a slow web connection.

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6. Flickrriver

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Flickrriver is a search tool that focuses on recent and interesting pictures - specifically ones uploaded in the last day or two.

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7. Tag Galaxy

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I can’t even explain to you how “out there” Tag Galaxy is as a Flickr search engine. It represents Flickr tags as the solar system. The keyword you use is the sun, related keywords are planets, clicking on any shows you a planet full of pictures. It is, by far, the most dynamic way to search Flickr.

10 ways to Supercharge Internet Explorer 8

Internet Explorer has been designed to make real-world web browsing easier, and it's packed with useful features such as easy web searching, one-click access to Windows Live services and Web Slices to keep on top of your favourite sites. But it's capable of even more.

There's a huge range of accelerators, add-ons and toolbars that make Internet Explorer 8 even more useful. From social networking to shopping, document handling to downloading, these ten add-ons mean much better browsing. They're all free, and you'll find all ten - and many more - at www.ieaddons.com.

1. Research and shop for products

You know that shopping online can save you a packet, but how do you find the best deals - and make sure the product you're looking at is worth the cash? The Research and Shop For Products accelerator enables you to highlight a product name and look it up on the shopping engine Ciao!, which features unbiased user reviews and a constantly updated list of the best online prices.

2. Access your bookmarks anywhere

Foxmarks was about to change its name to Xmarks as we went to press, but no matter what it's called it's still very handy. The add-on stores your Favorites on the Internet, which means you can access them from any internet-enabled computer that you install Foxmarks on. It's particularly useful if you tend to use shared computers, if you have multiple PCs at home or if you'd like to use the same Favorites at home and at work.

3. Login quicker

One of the more annoying things on the Internet is when sites demand you register just so you can read an article or forum post. If you'd rather not hand over your details, BugMeNot can provide usernames and passwords that should let you in.

4. Get Facebook on your toolbar

You can use Web Slices to stay up to date with your Facebook friends' status updates, but the OneRiot toolbar takes things a step further by adding notification buttons below the Address Bar. These enable you to visit the various bits of Facebook (Home, Profile, Friends and so on) but more usefully they also let you see when somebody's sent you a friend request, whether you've any new messages in your inbox or whether anybody's tagged you in a photo. A version for MySpace is also available.

5. Get connetced

If like us you're on loads of different social networks, Yoono can save you a great deal of time and effort. In much the same way that multi-chat software enables you to connect to different instant messaging services simultaneously, Yoono can connect you to Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Flickr and FriendFeed, as well as AOL Instant Messenger, Google Talk, MSN Messenger and Yahoo. You can also share content with other Yoono users, for example by tagging web pages with "like" or "hate".

6. Book a holiday

Booking a holiday? Save yourself a lot of time, money and heartbreak by using this accelerator to look up resort or hotel names on TripAdvisor, where holidaymakers and travellers tell the truth about the places they've stayed - good and bad.

7. Define anything

If you've ever encountered an acronym and wondered what on Earth it meant, the Define Acronym accelerator will make your online life much more comprehensible. Simply highlight the acronym, select the accelerator and see definitions from the fields of IT, government, science, business and even slang.

8. Make the web sexy

Ever wished the Internet looked more like it does in Hollywood movies? With Cooliris, it does. Once you've installed the browser add-on it's just a matter of carrying out a web search at www.cooliris.com - but instead of text links, you'll see a wall of images that you can sweep through, zoom in and generally muck about with. It's fascinating, gorgeous and makes us feel that we're living in the future.

9. Go Pro

Don't let the number seven fool you: most of IE7Pro's features already work in Internet Explorer 8, and the program's next incarnation will be called IEPro to reflect that. As we went to press you needed to manually Enable IE7Pro from Internet Explorer's Manage Add-ons screen, but that should be fixed by the time you read this. So is it worth it? Oh yes. IE7Pro blocks adverts, enables you to navigate the Web by waggling your mouse and provides handy features such as closing tabs by double-clicking on them.

10. Search visually

If you're a shopping addict on a tight budget, ASOS.com's search plugin will be right up your street. Simply use the arrow in the Search box to select ASOS, type in the kind of item you're looking for, and you'll see stacks of results including pictures and prices. It's a simple and very useful tool, so expect lots of other retailers to offer similar search tools for their own shops.

10 things to put on your web design to-do list

Web design is a competitive business and a good designer needs to stay on top of current trends.

So what do you need to be doing to stay ahead of the game over the next few months?

We asked designers from some of the top agencies what they reckon should be on every designer's to-do list.

Here are the 10 things you need to work on...

1. Understand the smaller screen
Tom Dougherty of Delete says: "Industry professionals must be aware of mobile technology and the integration capabilities offered. iPhone represents the future of mobile tech. The quicker we get to grips with designing for the smaller screen, the better."

2. Teach yourself new skills
Cennydd Bowles of Clearleft says: "If you can't already, learn to code – this is your last chance to avoid obsolescence!" Eric Meyer adds: "Continue to learn and diversify skills. Diversity doesn't assure your survival, but it's a safer bet than narrow specialisation."

3. Practice good typography
Simon Crab of Lateral says: "Type is one of the fundamentals of design, yet it's a factor that's often overlooked or marginalised in the online environment. Starting from a typographic point of view helps define a clear structure and purpose in a design."

4. Focus on what's important
Jeffrey Zeldman of Happy Cog says: "Standards will cause designers and agencies to focus on content, usability, user experience and design excellence. Those already focusing on these will work harder and rise to the top. Those who haven't will need to get in gear."

5. Investigate frameworks
Danny McClelland of DannyWeb says: "With the use of ready-made coding libraries, more time can be spent on other things and keeping your clients happy. For example, there's absolutely no sense in making a similar application to WordPress from scratch."

6. Continue innovating
Eric Jordan of 2Advanced says: "Stagnancy breeds mediocrity, and no one wants mediocrity. Re-invention enables designers to stay relevant, on the cutting-edge and fresh in the minds of the industry. Those who don't will fall behind."

7. Diversify your client base
Marcus Greenwood of Webjam.com says: "In the current climate, a company's web budget may be reduced or cut, leaving you in a spot of bother if this happens to your main client." Diversifying your capabilities means you can appeal to a wider client base.

8. Think 'refurb', not 'relaunch'
Marc Peter of on-IDLE says: "Support clients in their time of need with ideas for revamping existing designs rather than full-scale new designs that affect everything from corporate literature to signage. Keeping costs low could help you to grow."

9. Master JavaScript
Eric Meyer of Complex Spiral Consulting says: "JavaScript performance and capabilities, coupled with support, will be key to nearly everything, including pushing web standards' adoption rates forward. Everything else is just secondary."

10. Bring about catharsis
Paul Annett of Clearleft says: "Campaign for Adobe to align prices globally and stop ripping off customers. Prices outside the US are often doubled, even on downloads, an issue that's drawn fierce criticism on the Adobe forum at http://tr.im/adobe."

How to Manage Writing for Multiple Blogs

Many people who are attempting to either make a living online or simply just trying to enhance or add to their income online have turned to blogging. There is a lot of information out there on how to make money blogging. It is difficult to make significant money from running one blog, especially right after starting up. Whether the money that comes in is from paid blog posts, link sales, or any other source, one of the ways to make money online faster is to run multiple blogs. The problem with operating multiple blogs is, no matter how many you wish to run, coming up with quality content for each of them at a fast enough rate that they will also continue to be frequently updated.

A great writing strategy when you are writing for multiple blogs is to write ahead of time. While some people find it time consuming and difficult to switch from one topic to the next while writing for multiple blogs, a successful strategy might be to concentrate on just one blog each day. For example, start writing for blog number one on Monday. During the course of the day you can explore different aspects of the niche or subject you are writing about and hopefully come up with four or five good posts. When Tuesday comes, start writing for blog number two in virtually the same way. When Wednesday comes, follow the same process and do the same for Thursday and Friday depending on how many blogs you have.

While you are doing this, you are accumulating blog posts that can be published at future dates. Yours might be the type of blog that gets updated daily or maybe three or four days a week, if that is the case then you have your posts already written. Now you can either keep them saved in a file on your computer and copy and paste them in each day, or if you are using Wordpress there is another option. When using Wordpress, you can save the posts as you write them and change the post date and time so that it will just appear on the day and time you want it to. Using this method, you could write a months worth of posts, changing the posts dates so that they will come out naturally over the course of the next thirty days. You could essentially take a vacation and no one reading your blog would be any wiser.

Writing for multiple blogs is a sometimes daunting task. But using time delayed posts and pre-written content can make it a lot easier as well as more efficient. In doing so you can multiply the amount of money you make with each new blog you start and monetize. In the end whatever method works best for you will work best for your blogs.

e-Text Editor Useful Keyboard Shortcuts

Here is a list of e-text editor shortcuts. Hope it helps.

File Operations

Ctrl+N : New file
Double-Click tab bar : New file
Ctrl+O : Open file
Ctrl+S : Save file
Ctrl+Shift+S : Save as
Ctrl+W: Close file
Ctrl+Shift+T : Go To File dialog

Editing

Ctrl+K : Delete to end of line; if the caret already is at end-of-line it deletes the newline.
Ctrl+Shift+K : Delete the entire line
Ctrl+Backspace : Delete to start of word (same as Ctrl+H)
Ctrl+Delete : Delete to end of word
Ctrl+(Shift)+U : Change case on word/selection
Alt+G : Inverse case on word/selection
Ctrl+Alt+U : Title case
Ctrl+T : Transpose, for swapping words or chars.
Ctrl+Alt+R : Run current line/selection
Ctrl+C : Copy (or: Ctrl+Insert)
Ctrl+V : Paste (or: Shift+Insert)
Ctrl+X : Cut
Ctrl+Z : Undo
Ctrl+Y : Redo. If there aremultiple branches to choose fromundo history will be displayed.

Selection

Ctrl+A : Select all
Ctrl+Shift+arrow : Select entire word
Alt+Left-mouse : column selection
Ctrl+Left-mouse : Multi selection
Shift+Home : Selects to the first non-whitespace char on the line, second time the white spaces will be selected as well
Shift+Ctrl+Home : Selects to the beginning of the document
Shift+Ctrl+End : Selects to the end of the document
Shift+Ctrl+L : Selects current line
Shift+Ctrl+W: Selects current word
Shift+Ctrl+Space : Selects current scope. If you keep hitting it, it will cycle through the available scopes.

Folding

F1 : Toggle current fold
Alt+F1 : Open current fold and closes all others
Ctrl+F1 : Fold all
Ctrl+Alt+F1 : Unfold all
Shift+F1 : Select current fold
Left-mouse : Fold end or fold indicator: Select fold, twice to fold
Mouseover : Fold end: Show fold preview Fold indicator: Highlight fold (useful for nested folds)
Navigation
Ctrl-Tab : Go to last active tab (or next tab if used repeatedly)
Ctrl-Shift-Tab : Go to previous tab
Alt+Ctrl+R/L-arrow : Next/previous tab
Alt+Ctrl+Up-arrow : Go to header/source
Ctrl+L : Go to Symbol
Ctrl+G : Go to line
Ctrl+F : Find
Ctrl+G : Find next
Ctrl+R : Replace
Home : Move cursor to the beginning of the line
End : Move cursor to the end of the line
Ctrl+Home : Move cursor to the beginning of the document
Ctrl+End : Move cursor to the end of the document
Ctrl+Up/Down-arrow : Scroll up/down, withoutmoving the caret
Ctrl+1-8 : Go to tab
Ctrl+9 : Go to last tab
Ctrl+0 : List open tabs

View

F3 : Show/hide revision history
F4 : Show/hide visual undo
Ctrl+Alt+P : Show/hide web preview
Alt+Shift+T : Show TODO list

Document

Ctrl+M:Makemilestone
Bundle
Ctrl+Shift+B : Show bundle editor
Ctrl+Alt+T : Select bundle
Esc : Kill current running bundle command

Projects

Ctrl+P : Show/hide project pane
Ctrl+Shift+P : Switch focus between editor and project pane (opening it if needed).
Arrow keys : Up/down and expand/close folder
Enter : Open file in editor
F2 : Rename
F5 : Refresh project view
Shift-F10 : Show contextmenu

Mouse Shortcuts

Double-click : Select word
Triple-click : Select line
Alt-doubleclick : Select scope

Top 10 Reasons to Join a Startup

Joining a startup company is a no-brainer. The pros far outweigh the cons. Whether you’re just graduating, or you’ve done your time “working for the man” now is the perfect time to make the jump.

Go work for a startup company.

Here are 10 reasons why:

1. More influence. With a smaller team, each person at a startup has more say. You should have more opportunity to voice your opinion and influence key decisions. And you want that, right?
2. More ownership. You might not be the founder, but you’re darn close. You should have some equity (or stock options.) Both a sense of ownership, and actual ownership are wonderful things; they’ll give you one more reason to work better and harder.
3. More meaning. The best startups are built on top of a strong purpose and vision; a raison d’etre that truly resonates. It’s a startup’s rallying cry and it provides other likeminded people with true meaning in their work.
4. More comraderie. Startup teams have to gel beautifully to succeed. Doesn’t mean you’ll always get along, but a little Saving Private Ryan never hurt anyone.
5. More diversity. There shouldn’t be much pigeonholing at a startup; you’re going to do and see a lot of different things. You will be thrown out of your comfort zone. You will get a chance to expand your horizons.
6. More learning. Startup environments are crash courses in business and life. You’ll learn more in 6 months at a startup than you will in 4 years at university.
7. More connectivity. With less (or zero) levels of bureaucracy, everyone is closer to one another. You should be well connected to your CEO as well as the network of customers, vendors, VCs, friends, etc. that surround the startup.
8. More emotion. Working at a startup isn’t a constant high. Far from it. But it is intense, and the emotional charge you’ll get on a regular basis is a worthwhile learning experience.
9. More future success. I don’t have any statistics to prove this, but I bet you that startup employees go on to bigger and better things. Whether it’s higher paying / more interesting jobs or starting their own companies, your resume and personal story benefit considerably from living the startup experience.
10. More fun. Startup employees have more fun. It’s just the way it is…

The job market for startup and early-stage companies is very strong. There’s no shortage of opportunity. Top talent can pick and choose amongst a slew of startups eager to hire. The risk is low.

Granted, not all startups are created equally. Not all startups may give you the benefits described above. You can’t dive in eyes closed and expect to find the perfect fit. Make sure you ask the right questions before joining a startup. Plenty of smart people have suggestions on the questions you should ask before joining a startup, so you shouldn’t have a problem being prepared.

But make the leap. Join a startup. It’s worth it.

Firefox Recommended Add-ons

Thriving ecosystem

Since its inception, Firefox has been a great platform on which web developers can build on top of. Recognizing that the core browser must be lean, the Mozilla team put together the infrastructure for creating add-ons. In this single decision, Mozilla created not just a fine browser - but a thriving community and a free marketplace, which links add-on developers directly to browser users. The developers are free to be creative and the users are free to choose the add-ons that they like. Such an ecosystem gives rise to innovation.

Add-ons point to the future of the web browser

Looking at the add-ons that were selected for the Firefox 2 showcase, in some ways they show us what the browser of the future may look like. Indeed that is something that Chris Beard himself alluded to - they view add-ons as a kind of test bed, pulling ideas from the best of them into the core product over time.

The majority of add-ons are focused on integrating web services into the browser, to boost user productivity. In a nutshell, add-ons are about shaving off clicks - but to be fair they do so much more. They create an enhanced, smarter, better browsing experience and ultimately save users' time.

Music, Weather and Maps

The FoxyTunes add-on integrates with your favorite music player and allows you to control the music you are listening to, right from within the Firefox status bar. There are a lot of handy features, my favorite being the ability to change the language and encoding - so that if you are listening to music in a language other than English, the title and the artist are displayed correctly.

Forecastfox brings the weather channel right into Firefox. On the install you select the zip code or city and the add-on does the rest. It relies on AccuWeather.com to bring you the latest current weather conditions, as well as a forecast of the upcoming weather. It is highly customizable and just perfect for the status bar.

Maps+ uses the Yahoo! Maps API to help the user look up addresses. To see it working, highlight any address - we tried a restaurant on this page - then right click and select View map from the context menu. The layered popup with the map appears right next to the address. You can control the zoom level of the map and customize the add-on in various ways.

Bookmarks 2.0

Storing and sharing web content is one of the most fundamental online activities. del.icio.us started the web 2.0 revolution by introducing tagging and social bookmarking. Since then del.icio.us itself and many other companies have enhanced bookmarks in many different ways. Let's look at the latest add-on advancements featured in the top twenty add-ons - and note there are a lot of bookmarking services amongst the add-ons.

Yahoo! released an updated version of the del.icio.us plugin, which replaces browser bookmarks with a view of del.icio.us posts. The StumbleUpon add-on is essential for fans of this service - it features a handy toolbar that lets the users rate and discover web sites. The Clipmarks add-on lets you clip pieces of the page, instead of bookmarking them. This is useful when you are not interested in the entire page but just want to store a paragraph or an image.

The Foxmarks add-on is seemingly simple - it synchronizes your bookmarks between all your Firefox browsers. What's great is that it works in the backround and does not require any input from the user, beyond creating an account. The JetEye addon in some ways is similar to Clipmarks, because it allows the user to collect clips. But it also enables arranging these clips by topic. Yoono is a social recommendation engine for discovering interesting or related sites. The BlueOrganizer add-on, developed by my company AdaptiveBlue, helps users to interact with books, music, movies, restaurants and other everyday things.

The developer add-ons

The showcase also contains three add-ons that help Firefox developers.

GreaseMonkey is an add-on that lets technically savvy users customize the look and feel of web pages. It has been very popular with the community, as it brings impressive possibilities for creativity.

FireBug is an essential debugger which supports JavaScript, CSS, HTML and much more. The Web Developer add-on contains an entire toolset, which is a must have for anyone who is doing web and add-on development for Firefox.

Blogging and RSS

Performancing add-on is a fully fledged blog editor built right into Firefox, which integrates with TypePad, Blogger, WordPress and LiveJournal (amongst others). Sage is a powerful feed reader - with the ability to subscribe to feeds, manage them and import/export via OPML.

Utilities

There are some very nifty utilities that can be integrated into Firefox:

• FireFTP integrates FTP into Firefox
• ChatZilla integrates IRC into Firefox
• Download Statusbar helps you manage downloads right in the status bar
• FlashGot is another download productivity add-on
• Adblock Plus lets you do away with advertisements

Other add-ons in the showcase

• Pronto is comparison shopping add-on which alerts you to potential price savings
• Jaja wires telephony right into the browser
• LinkedIn integrates the popular professional social network into the browser
• Cooliris lets the user preview a page by hovering over links
• Answers is a time saver add-on that lets you lookup information on Answers.com

Fun, useful and exciting

This Firefox showcase is full of interesting and useful add-ons that focus on helping users save time, by integrating web services into the browser. These add-ons point to a future of smarter, better browsers - that will be more aware of the patterns and use cases of interacting with information online.

So that's our take - let us know which of these and other add-ons you use and recommend!