Google Chrome Review | 11 Mar 09
By Brian LofrumentoBefore this past month, I would have never given up my Mozilla Firefox. Undoubtedly the most powerful browser out there, Firefox suited all of my needs. Web surfing, blogging, and e-commerce were all made possible with Firefox until I experienced constant freezing, slow performance, and just plain frustration.
Yes, I hate to admit it, but I began to have problems with Firefox. Countless times I’d be in the middle of an article for Premiership Talk, and Firefox would just unexpectedly lock up and freeze. Sometimes Firefox’s problems even locked up my whole computer. Extremely frustrating to say the least.
So what did I do about it? I didn’t want to, but I finally gave Google Chrome a try. I had heard bad things about Chrome, but I figured if it’s Google, there’s got to be some cool features. So, after a month of using Chrome, here are my thoughts:
Advantages
Let me start off by saying the advantages to Google Chrome are quite numerous. Right out of the box the speed and simplicity of Chrome becomes apparent.
Speed
It’s fast. Perhaps my favorite thing about Google Chrome. Chrome’s speed is superior to Firefox’s in all aspects. The browser itself loads a lot faster on my machine, and individual web sites also load significantly faster.
Custom search bar
Google has really found a winner with their custom search bar. Unlike Firefox, there are no special toolbars in Google Chrome (that’s right, not even the Google toolbar). Instead, the address bar functions as an all in one customizeable search box. Chrome gives you the ability to define certain search engines or other searches as part of your personal Chrome search bar. By default, any words you enter into the address bar (not a URL, obviously) will be entered into a Google search when you hit enter. However, if you set custom search engines and keywords, you can unleash the full potential of this search bar.
For instance, for Premiership Talk I use Google images a lot. I’ve set my Chrome search bar so that if i type “images keyword” then it will enter that keyword into a Google image search. Alternatively, if I want to search dictionary.com, all I need to do is type “define word” and it will put that word into a dictionary.com search. Any search box on any website can be set with a custom keyword into your Google Chrome address bar.
To set custom searches, all you need to do is go to the site that you want to search, right click your Chrome address bar, and click “Edit Search Engines.” It will automatically recognize the search feature on the website, and you just need to assign it a keyword. It’s that easy!
Simplicity
I never thought I’d be praising the simplicity of a web browser, considering how many add-ons and other tools I had on my Firefox. However, switching to Google Chrome makes life a lot simpler without losing many useful things. While there aren’t any add-ons for Chrome yet, it comes with a few great features right out of the box. My favorite – although it’s quite simple – is that when you open a new tab, Chrome displays your most visited websites. It shows nine thumbnails of the websites that you visit most often – which saves a lot of time. When I open a new tab, chances are I don’t have to enter a URL because it’s right in front of me. Smart stuff by Google.
Displays code nicely
As a web developer, nothing is more frustrating than a browser that doesn’t display code well. Mozilla Firefox has always worked with every bit of code I’ve done, and I’ve never had any problems with other websites on Firefox. After I began using Chrome, I found that it’s not just Firefox that knows how to display code: it appears to be every browser other than Internet Explorer! Chrome displays code very nicely and very quickly. Explorer, on the other hand, often makes sites look awful because it doesn’t display things properly. No such problems with Chrome.
Disadvantages
Not as portable
One of the reasons why I loved Firefox was because I could use Foxmarks with it. Even if I was using another computer temporarily, I could login to Foxmarks and access my bookmarks. This also worked perfectly with Portable Apps. With Chrome, though, there is no such solution. As I recently purchased a new netbook I needed to access my Chrome bookmarks from my other laptop, so I needed to copy and paste the Application Data folder from one computer to another. Not much of a hassle, but certainly not as logical as Foxmarks. And now I can’t synchronize the two using the web…
Adblock Plus
If you haven’t noticed yet, the two disadvantages of Google Chrome is that it doesn’t have some of Firefox’s most useful add-ons. Adblock Plus saved a lot of frustration, as virtually no pop-ups got past it and visible ads were all erased. Google Chrome has a built in pop-up blocker, but it’s nowhere near the quality of Adblock Plus for Firefox.
I can’t Stumble anymore!?
That’s right – Google Chrome isn’t supported by StumbleUpon. It’s a shame, because with the speed of Chrome Stumbling would be so much faster. It’s not a big enough reason to avoid Chrome, as no more Stumbling could mean increased productivity. Now where’s that graph that correlates productivity to the amount of Stumbles?
Conclusion
Overall, I am extremely happy with Google Chrome. I’ve already adjusted to life post-Firefox and don’t think I’ll be going back anytime soon. Chrome is faster, more efficient, and more organized. Google Chrome’s innovative search bar is a big enough reason alone for me to switch browsers. Go Chrome!
To download Google Chrome head on over to http://www.google.com/chrome.
10 Free Software Applications You Need | 10 Jan 09
By Brian LofrumentoIf you’re like me, you spend a whole lot of time on your computer. Whether you are on it for work, school, or just surfing the net, here are ten free applications that you would probably enjoy:
- Objectdock. Whenever someone uses my laptop, they always ask me how I added the Mac-style dock to a Windows machine. With Objectdock, it’s simple. After installing the application, you just choose the theme that you want, and from there it’s as easy as dragging and dropping. Want to add your My Documents folder to the dock? Simple, just drag it up to the dock. It’s a nice program to have, because once you’ve fully customized it you don’t need any icons on your desktop. Too many icons on a desktop is the PC equivalent of a messy office desk, and no one likes that.
- Mozilla Firefox. It amazes me how many people still aren’t using Firefox. About one-third of Premiership Talk’s visitors still use Internet Explorer, which tells me that they just haven’t been introduced to Firefox yet. If you haven’t made the switch yet, do it. Today. I used to be extremely stubborn about using Explorer; it was what I was familiar with and I never had any problems with it. When I finally switched to Firefox, I saw how much faster, secure, and customizable it was. I rarely get an error message, and every website works with Firefox (on Explorer I used to get script error messages). Firefox’s plugins also separate it from Explorer, as you can get Firefox to do more than just browse the web.
- P2P Streaming. Unless you’re a huge soccer (football) fan, you probably won’t be needing many peer-to-peer applications, but if you want to watch the best soccer matches live then you need these programs. Using applications such as Sopcast, PPMate, and TVAnts you can watch all of the live sports that you’d ever dream of, whether it’s the English Premier League or the Sri Lankan league. Just by going to myp2p.eu you can view all of the latest streams, and these programs can play them.
- Skype. While AOL Instant Messenger used to be the best way to communicate instantly online, Skype has quickly taken that top spot over. Businesses and individuals alike use Skype now, and for very good reasons. Skype has a text based instant messaging system, but what separates it the most is its calling features. Using just a PC microphone and your speakers/headphones, you can communicate instantly with anyone in the world – whether they use Skype or not. Calling to Skype users is free, which is awesome considering you can talk to someone a continent away for free. If they don’t use Skype, you can still call any number worldwide for an extremely low price (as low as $0.02 a minute). One of my favorite features is that if both callers agree to it, you can record calls using Pamela, an add-on for Skype. This is great for phone interviews and such.
- Crossloop. Have you ever been at home on your computer when you realized you needed help from that know-it-all friend? All too often this happens to too many of us, but Crossloop is the new solution. Crossloop is a small application that allows you to grant temporary remote access to a friend or specialist to your computer in order to help. As long as both of you have the application open, you just give the helper your access code (which changes every few minutes for privacy protection) and you both hit connect within two minutes of each other (once again for protection). The person can take control of your computer, and you can see them moving the mouse right on your screen, so you can see exactly what they are doing. Once you’re done, you or the helper can just hit disconnect. More and more companies are beginning to use Crossloop for technical service, and there’s no reason not to have it.
- AdBlock Plus. Alright, so maybe this isn’t an application, but nonetheless it makes this list because it’s that good. AdBlock Plus is an add-on for Firefox that will make you forget how littered the internet is with advertisements. Hate those Google ads you always see on websites? AdBlock Plus does, too. The addon automatically blocks advertisements from displaying on websites, so all you’ll see is the true content of the site. When you visit sites like ESPN, you’ll become so used to the clean, ad-free version that when you go on someone else’s computer you’ll be shocked at how distracting all the ads are. AdBlock Plus also blocks all popups, so you’ll forget they ever annoyed you.
- Filezilla. If you own a website or blog, chances are you do a lot of file transfers from your computer to your server. There are a lot of free services out there to do this, but none better than Filezilla. Filezilla is fast, lightweight, and simply gets the job done.
- Portable Apps. If you’re a laptop user, then Portable Apps should be your best friend. Install Portable Apps to a USB stick, and anytime you leave your laptop it’s like you have your entire PC on your USB. Portable Apps has a start menu, so anytime you plug your USB into a different computer it will load your most important applications (like Firefox, a mail client, and more). So when you are using a different computer, you can still browse the internet on your own version of Firefox, and when you walk away you take all your personal information, browsing history, and cookies with you. Using Foxmarks you can synchronize your Portable Apps Firefox with your home one.
- Foxmarks. Like AdBlock Plus, Foxmarks is an add-on to Firefox, but it’s so useful that it made its way on this list. As mentioned above, Foxmarks can synchronize your home Firefox bookmarks with your Portable Apps version or a different computer. You can have the same bookmarks at home as you do at work, or from two different computers at home. When I need to use a public computer, it’s nice to be able to use Portable Apps with Foxmarks, so it’s just like I’m at my own computer. It can even remember saved passwords for you, which are fully encrypted for security.
- Ad-Aware. Lavasoft’s free version of Ad-Aware is probably the best in the industry. If you’re computer is running slow, chances are its being bogged down by adware and spyware. Adware and spyware infect computers everyday just by browsing the internet. There’s no real way to avoid being infected, so it’s important that you take care of it. Running an Ad-Aware scan once a week pretty much solves the problem, as the free software is thorough and quick.
I hope you enjoyed this list. It is made up of ten free applications that I personally find extremely useful, and I’m sure there’s something here for everyone. Give them a try, and let me know if you come across any other useful free applications. Just use the comment field below.
Wordpress vs. Blogger | 10 Jan 09
By Brian LofrumentoLast summer I decided to delve into a whole new world: the “blogosphere.” Most people still haven’t dipped into the blogosphere yet, but it is spreading through the media like wildfire. It’s a rare place where anyone can say anything; no bosses need to preview it, no professors need to grade it, and no friends need to proofread it (well, unless you are a friend of mine and just so happen to write for Premiership Talk).
So if you’ve decided that it’s time to get a blog, the first question is how you should start it. The two biggest blogging platforms on the internet, and in my mind the two best (by far) are Wordpress and Blogger. I’ll highlight the differences between the two:
Blogger
Blogger.com is now a site owned by Google, which means it ranks well in search engines and is updated frequently. It’s quick, easy, and free.
Blogger is where I actually started Premiership Talk. If you’re a novice, which almost all beginners are, then Blogger is definitely the place to start. From the time you land on the Blogger homepage, you can have a blog up and running in about five minutes. Registration is quick and simple, and the short wizard takes you through the start-up process.
Templates are available, and can be implemented with just one click. As you learn more about blogging, there are a ton of templates available to download for Blogger (I recommend eblogtemplates.com).
The ease of use of Blogger can largely be attributed to the widgets that the site uses. You can add features to your site simply by clicking a few buttons, and Google makes it easy to do so as there is well over a thousand widgets you can use. Want to display local weather? No problem. Latest sports scores? At your service. Everything in Blogger is only a few clicks away.
So, when Premiership Talk was on Blogger it allowed me to grow the site faster than I might have with Wordpress. Instead of having to learn about CSS and XHTML, Blogger handled all the technicalities for me and allowed me to publish high quality content. At the beginning of your blog’s life it’s important to just write, write, and write, and Blogger lets you do just that.
For me personally, it got to a point where Blogger was so easy that it left me needing and wanting more. Prem Talk sort of out-grew Blogger, as I needed to add more features, display my own ads, and set up multiple user accounts for other writers.
All in all, for someone starting a blog, Blogger is definitely the way to go. It’s quick, free, and easy.
Wordpress
To avoid confusion, there are two versions of Wordpress: there’s Wordpress.com and Wordpress.org. Wordpress.com is basically like Blogger; it’s set up to be a free service, which means you lose some of the customization that you get with a more advanced system. In this I will review Wordpress.org, which is the service that I use, and is the much better version of Wordpress.
Wordpress is, for me, the best blogging platform out there. Before I go further, I will say that Wordpress isn’t entirely free. It’s free to use the software, but unlike Blogger you need to find your own host. There are plenty hosts out there, but I recommend Bluehost, which offers Free Domain With $6.95 Hosting Package
. Hosts typically run anywhere from $3 a month to $9 a month. You upload the Wordpress software to your host and install it from there.
Like Blogger, Wordpress comes with a few default templates, although it pales in comparison to Blogger. Wordpress typically comes with just two templates to choose from, and to get anything more than that you’d have to find your own, download it, and upload it to your server. If you aren’t familiar with FTP file transfers then this could be a little complicated, but most people familiar with IT would have no problems with it.
Once your design is set up, you’ll probably need to alter it to suit your needs. This will most certainly mean you’ll have to play around with CSS sheets, and you’ll be working extensively with HTML. Once that is finalized, Wordpress has a ton of options to customize. This is what separates Wordpress from Blogger, and the extra customization makes the site that much better.
The main reason I switched to Wordpress in the first place was because of the extra user roles you can create. Premiership Talk is a multi-writer site, so I needed a way for all writers to login and write their articles. Wordpress lets you do just that, and each user can have his/her own login name and password.
The user roles are well set up, as well. There are a plethora of different roles, but the main ones that I use are contributors, authors, editors, and administrators. Without getting into too much detail, here are the general capabilities of each user:
- Contributors can write articles, but when finished they can only “submit for review” as opposed to publish the article. What this means is that the finished article goes into a queue that must be reviewed by an editor or administrator before it gets published.
- Authors, like contributors, can login to the system and write articles. Unlike contributors, though, when authors complete their article they can publish it right away. Authors’ articles don’t need to go through the review process, so this user role is usually for technically astute writers.
- Editors can go into the system and edit all of the articles that are in the pending bin. They can fix these articles, add images, and then publish the article to the site.
- Administrators have full control over everything on the site. Generally this role is assigned for the site owner, and I use this role to write articles, edit articles, and edit the site details and settings.
The last huge feature that separates Wordpress from Blogger is that you can create static pages. On Blogger if you want to have an “About” page, you need to actually publish a post and link to it. On Wordpress, you can create “pages” (not “posts”) that will sit atop the site on the navigation bar. On this site, you can see I have a link to my “About” page. On Premiership Talk, I use these pages for a lot of different things, especially for things such as a list of my Partner pages.
As you can see, I’m definitely a huge fan of Wordpress. Anytime I want to do something, Wordpress allows me to do it. Since the entire coding of the site is visible and under my control, I can manipulate the system to do anything. If I don’t know how to program it, Wordpress’s community of programmers have a plugin for it (plugins are just added to your server and will do anything you ask them to).
Wordpress vs. Blogger: The Winner
To conclude, it really depends on what you plan on doing with your blog. For my purposes, I had to go with Wordpress to grow my site and really monetize it. It’s possible to monetize with Blogger, and a lot of successful bloggers do just that, but Wordpress gives you that extra dimension of customization. If you are looking for a blog that you can write on just for fun, then Blogger is definitely for you. It’s free, easy, and quick. If you’re looking to turn your blog into something bigger, then Wordpress is probably your answer. It can be customized in any way, and you can have more people help you along the way.
Whatever platform you choose to go with, you’ll find yourself immersed in the blogosphere. Before long you’ll get to know other bloggers within your niche (believe me, it’ll happen, even if you don’t think it will) and you’ll start to have a whole new network of contacts. If you don’t have a blog yet, get one today!
If you have any questions, or have opinions on these platforms or others, feel free to email me or comment below.
