Basic Web Tools

You have a portal? Want to integrate some external data into your portal in a meaningful way? Nothing to worry! Here’s Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007’s Business Data Catalog (BDC) to facilitate this exact scenario. Microsoft’s business data catalog makes it easy to surface external data inside a portal experience. For instance, you can create an XML definition file that defines the mapping between SharePoint and your external data so that it can be rendered in a Web Part, used as a column within a list, and even integrated into search.

Though BDC in MOSS 2007 enabled connectivity to external systems, it was difficult to create solutions due to lack of a designer. Moreover, though BDC made it relatively easy to create read-only solutions that display data in the Business Data List Web Part, it was not so simple to create a solution that enabled users to make changes and write that data back to the external store. Read the rest of this entry »

The Thunderbird 2 e-mail program may not get as much love from its makers at the open-source Mozilla Project as their favored child, the Firefox Web browser, does. Nevertheless, Thunderbird 2.0.0.13 has a very strong feature set, and does its job well; plus, if you are looking for an e-mail client that works and looks exactly the same on most of the different operating systems you may have to deal with, then Thunderbird’s almost the only game in town.

Most Mac OS X users will prefer Apple’s Mail, if only because it’s prettier; unlike Thunderbird, Mail doesn’t have to make aesthetic compromises for the sake of compatibility with Windows and Linux. But if you care more about features than looks, Thunderbird is definitely worth a free download.

Over the last decade and a half, the Internet has evolved from a mere repository of information to an interactive medium for people to share views and work. This transformation was largely possible due to web 2.0 components like Wikis and blogs. But clues to the next phase of Internet’s development seem to lie in its ability to provide rich and compelling visual experience.

Called Rich Internet Applications or RIA, the realm of media-rich Internet has been spurred by tools that enable persons even with basic scripting knowledge to create highly interactive and truly appealing applications. Such applications may be useful to post party videos on YouTube or send animations and banners about products to potential customers.

It’s one main men himself, co-founder Steve Chen, who has recently stated that the popular video site, YouTube will finally offer a live streaming service sometime this year. This big project will have to utilize vast resources including Google (as you remember G acquired YT not so long ago). I think the announcement of Steve Chen is viewable on the site itself.

Now this is something worth expecting. To tell you the truth, with this latest development, I’ve been thinking of the millions of ways people can make use of this particular service to launch their own online careers. Yikes!

SOURCE: Read Write Web

I just love open source!

And now, MTOS (Movable Type Open Source) is an open source project for a GPL-licensed version of Movable Type 4.0. It also serves a resource community for Movable Type developers.

Like the Movable type 4.0, MTOS will contain all its features plus some improvements and other bug fixes.

No worries on the themes, plug-ins, themes, templates, designs and API�s of the MT4 as they will all work with the MTOS.

Like most open source projects, MTOS has a reliable built-in support for an unlimited number of blogs and authors plus a sign-in with OpenID.

Technical support for MTOS is provided by community members.

Paid users of MT will enjoy more benefits added by Six Apart. These will include better technical support and custom add-ons like themes and plug-ins in the future.

MTOS can be downloaded at movabletype.org.

Source: Read/Write Web

Music based social networking site Imeem announced last Monday the acquisition of digital rights and content management company, SNOCAP. Their deal will provide Imeem access to SNOCAP’s content identification technology and digital registry, while expanding the tools available to artist and music labels. And together they would build on that work and would give independent artist’ new ways to promote and sell their music.

If you have a website, whether it be a wiki or a blog, etc., then you better go to the Google Webmaster Tool site and get to know how it will enhance your site. Why is it important? It makes your site more search-engine friendly (actually more Google-friendly).

Get Google’s view of your site and diagnose problems See how Google crawls and indexes your site and learn about specific problems we’re having accessing it.

Discover your link and query traffic View, classify, and download comprehensive data about internal and external links to your site with new link reporting tools. Find out which Google search queries drive traffic to your site, and see exactly how users arrive there.

Share information about your site Tell us about your pages with Sitemaps: which ones are the most important to you and how often they change. You can also let us know how you would like the URLs we index to appear.

If you haven’t been using this free feature, it’s time to head on over there.

Third of a three-part post (doesn’t that sound like a movie?).

This is related to the second post but works mostly for sites that has subscribers such as e-zines and newsletters. In this case, instead of linking articles or posts to a partner, you go directly to advertising. Find another internet marketer with the same influences. If you’re marketing a Web tool site, then look for sites that complement your own. Send the web master an e-mail requesting each other’s solo ad. Once he or she agrees, you both then urge your respective readers and subscribers to subscribe to the other’s e-zine.

Source: MarkFlavinBlog

Part two of three posts on marketing your website.

Consider your site as a business and get a partner. Going on a joint venture can provide double resources for both of your sites. You promote his site by linking to his or he can promote yours via the same thing. Both of you can come up with other ways on how to do this. This ensures that if a user out there visits either of your site, then it is a certainty that the other also gets one. Yes, even the Web is a cut throat business so it is wise to remember to maintain good relations.

Source: MarkFlavinBlog

Yep there is such a thing as a psychology of colors. It mostly practiced in commercial establishments such as supermarkets and restaurants. For example, the reason why those popular fast food chains choose yellow, orange, and red for their color theme is because those colors make you hungry! Hmm, if this is the case, then why not employ the same science to your own Web site?

Here’s the color code which you can mix and match:

White: Easy on the eyes, perfection, peace, purity, sense of professionalism
Red: warmth, hunger, and excitement
Yellow: Happiness, vibrant
Green and blue: Calmness, content
Black, brown, grey: Serious, Somber

Source: Free Webmaster Tools