Ron K.

TinEye is a "reverse image" search engine. Simply, this means you can upload an image to TinyEye.com, and it will find "all instances" of that image, in various sizes, resolutions, etc.

You can submit an image to TinEye to find out where it came from, how it is being used, if modified versions of the image exist, or to find higher resolution versions.

TinEye is the first image search engine on the web to use image identification technology rather than keywords, metadata or watermarks. It is free to use for non-commercial searching.

TinEye regularly crawls the web for new images, and we also accept contributions of complete online image collections. To date, TinEye has indexed 1,432,495,997 images from the web to help you find what you're looking for. It has an easy-to-use UI, and comes in remarkably handy when you need a better/different version of that pic you found!
Ron.

I'm very sensitive to 'words'. People often get a "gut-hunch" of who we are based on what we say, and how. Business correspondence is an obvious application, but I feel it spills over to how we affect friends, colleagues, and even lovers.

With that in mind, I found "After The Deadline", a great, free, site that can help you correct your grammatical errors, but syntactical issues, and more.

Here's what the site says in "about":
"We use artificial intelligence and natural language processing technology to find your writing errors and offer smart suggestions". Even when I think I've created the flawless document, a cut&paste into "After The Deadline", reveals more 'over-talk' than I realised.

A highly recommended tool for finishing/sharpening important writing!

One thing I've noticed about most "hate" websites is they try hard to present a scholarly 'feel', educated, professional and savvy. It's rather that they believe sounded erudite about hate will make you buy-in and join-up.

I think most, regardless of religion or ethnicity, are offended by sites like this one.

It's not just any particular group either. Some people just love to hate. Take
"www.hatebook.org". These folks simply have a good deal of fun hating. In a world as tossed with paranoia, fear, and misunderstanding as we have, the last thing we need to do is preach hate.

There is something YOU CAN DO! One excellent place to report HATE SITES would be to: "www.ic3.gov/default.aspx". This connects to a JOINT INITIATIVE between the FBI, and The Bureau Of Justice Assistance (BJA).

At the bottom of the above sight, there is in bright, red letters a banner saying, "FILE A COMPLAINT". You can do so and it does not take long. The point the FBI makes, quite simply the more a particular site gets reported, the more likely they are to "investigate", likely close them up. The squeaky wheel get's greased.

So there IS something we can all do. The next time you spot a site like:
www.88tube.net, a notorious white supremacy gang, if you are revolted, you now have a place to report your ire. The more we do, the less we potentially will see of them.

Thanks to "Ryan Dube" at "MakeUseOf.com" for use of his thoughts!

Fine place to load your system up with trojans & garbage. Great place to avoid completely.

E-mail attachments up to 2 GB, FREE. If you find yourself needing to send large files, beyond what your e-mail provider allows, by all means check this tool out!

Docstoc is an out-of-the-way where one would search for Documents, Academic papers, Templates, photographs for websites, and generally all sorts of written material that could just fill a need you have. Certainly worth a browse one day.

Print Only The Parts Of A Web Page That You Wish
This is a "bread&butter" tool. I love it. I can now move stuff around, eliminate what's unneeded, and re-size to print exactly what I need

Most web sites now carrying loads of ads, pictures, banners, and other assorted content in addition to the actual text. Printing a web page can be difficult. Photos and banners wastes ink.

Some sites, of course, offer a "print this page" option which strips out much of the unnecessary content. But still, there are often adverts left in the printout.

What I've become accustomed to is a copy/paste of text into Word, or into my Gmail (or any other E-mail client), and print from there. No longer necessary, a MUCH more sophisticated option.

Browse to www.printwhatyoulike.com and, on the home page, enter the address of the page that you want to print. The service is completely free, and you DON'T have to register or log in. Once you've entered the URL, your chosen web page will appear on screen, with the PWYL menu to the left. You can now click around the loaded web page and highlight, or delete individual components on the page. If you know HTML, refers to any "div" area.

Once you've got exactly what you want to print, just hit the Print button and you're done.

PrintWhatYouLike is a great idea and can save you time and ink. It's free, and there's nothing to download or install either. A winner, I believe.

As always, share thoughts and opinions. If this comes in handy... rate it high!
Best/Ron

TFree Browser Add-In Hides Ads And Page Clutter!
[www.readability.com/addons]

Have you noticed how modern web pages have become horribly cluttered. Banner headlines, adverts, snippets of other content that the page author wants you to read, and so on? **Readability** is a browser add-on that makes a stunning difference. Once installed (I run Firefox), it appears as an icon atop your browser. With one click, the web page will seem to implode on itself and reappear with adverts and "junk" removed. This is one of the most startlingly effective tools I've seen lately in managing webpages, and how you experience them.

NOTE: When Readability is clicked, and the page is "cleaned" the data will be changed a bit. The text might be a touch larger, or have all been condensed into one font, or colour. Despite these SUBTLE changes, the page, to me, is a better read. Likely some pages won't require the 'shift' Readability creates. Others will go from nearly unusable (for all the clutter and crap), to wide-open and ad free.

You can get Readability for Safari, Firefox and Chrome. It's a free download from *www.readability.com/addons*. NOTE: The browser add-ons are free to download and use. For a fee of $5 a month you can also get additional features, such as saving pages to read later. You'll even be able to send pages to your Kindle. I have use for neither, so FREE should be good for the many.

While installing, in Firefox for instance, a safety window will pop and point-out Firefox is asking for permission to install. Select "YES", or "ALLOW", and move on. Readability will NOT hurt your system and can be easily uninstalled as any other add-on would be.

I find this fascinating. It may cause some controversy. Web pages LIKE those ads and marketing links in place for you to purposefully, or accidentally click-on, How will the "business side" feels about Readability remains to be seen.

Like to hear thoughts, and comments,
Ron

Here's the description from the site that nicely sums up what it does:

"The main purpose of Simplehelp.net is to help beginner-to-intermediate computer users learn how to do various things with their computers. Simplehelp.net teaches a wide variety of topics to all levels, such as troubleshooting email, preventing spam and removing spyware."

Using tips, tutorials and articles the site answers questions in an easy to understand format. Beginning computer users will feel comfortable here since the site is geared towards folks who are starting out and have questions but don't know where to go to get answers that are compatible with their level of knowledge.

That said, I often find interesting and useful information here, and the format of the site rates high on my usable and looks great scale. Advanced users might want to read the "About" section for some interesting tips on how the site can be useful to you.

Hope this helps someone,
Ron

Here's what site says: "A simple tool to save web pages for reading later. How it works - Instapaper gives you a Read Later bookmark. When you find something you want to read, but you don't have time, click Read Later. Come back when you have time, or read your articles on the go. Create a free account to get started.

Really handy to keep track of all the wonderful sites spotted while working, otherwise lost, InstaPaper creates library for you.
Ron

If you intend to share a bunch of links you've discovered lately, then sending those via email looks like the easiest thing to do. But it isn't convenient to click on them one by one and open in browser tabs, especially if there are a lot of them.

BridgeURL solves this problem by helping you create a website slide-show and combining all those sites into a single URL.

The "web-based" service doesn't require registration and you can quickly add URLs and share the new URL that's generated. Simple but has been incredibly handy!
Have a great 2011,
Ron

Buying a car can no doubt be a stressful experience. There are just plenty of things to worry about, from whether or not you've picked the right car, what the reviews are saying, if it's going to be reliable, and if you're paying too much, (avoid a good deal of hassle, and walk-in asking for the "new" or "used-car" manager. This person can squabble price directly with you, rather than having the sales person run back & forth with middle-man. And, if you want to be assured of a courtesy car... with 24 hours advance service call, ask for that with pen-in-hand, JUST BEFORE you sign the contract. Get it in writing as well!)ond what your trade-in is worth.

Buying a new car can be a bit overwhelming sometimes, but it doesn't have to be. With the Web, it's easy to simplify everything to avoid some of the hassle and frustration altogether.

CarZen.com

First, perhaps the most important thing to do is to research a new car and figure out what kind of car is right for you. With so many makes and models out there to choose from, how do you make that process easier? That's where CarZen comes into play.

The site allows you to quickly select a vehicle that fits your specific needs. All it takes is just a few simple steps. First, just pick any of the body styles you are interesting in along with your price range.

A list of possible cars for you is shown below and from there, you can go on and select your personal preferences, including your specific needs, wants, and style, to narrow down the list further. Once completed, just review your results to check out the cars that are perfect for you.

Displayed for every match in your results is the percent match based on your needs, along with basic information about the car, including MSRP, invoice, and MPG. Below that, you can review the report card of how the vehicle was scored followed by a helpful overview of the model, basic stats, styles, and features.

Great place to begin when you really arent certain what "style" car you have in mind.
Ron

This seems simply smart. When shopping for a particular item, see what BestCovery suggests as best of lot. When shopping online, there is an opportunity to cross-reference pricing/quality (equals "VALUE" incidentally) one can just wear-out before being certain he/she has done all the homework possible. This website gets you started... if not facilitating your purchase decision. It uses TWO savvy criteria to "decide" best choice.

Simply start searching for the product by entering a few keywords in the search box or browse using the categories. For each category, BestCovery will show you the best available product in the market.

Products are ranked using two different methodologies I mentioned above: Firstly, products are extensively reviewed and ranked by experts belonging to the industry who know the products inside and out. They pick the best product, write their thoughts on it and give it the "Best" stamp.

However, in many other cases where expert ratings are not available or not suitable, BestCovery uses an intelligent crowd-sourcing technology that takes user reviews and ratings from a number of consumer sites like Amazon, and ranks products based on that. In either case, you are able to see which product beats others when it comes to a specific purpose.

The categories and sub-categories are pretty detailed. For example, if you are looking for a GPS, BestCovery tells you what the best GPS is overall, the best GPS with real-time traffic and even the best GPS for golf. You can also view other products, read their reviews and buy any product mentioned on BestCovery through a number of suggested vendors.

Features:

* Identify the best products for each category.
* Search, browse by category or see recent bests.
* Read about the experts who rank products and see their profile.
* Read hundreds of user reviews for any product.
* Buy the product you like using provided vendor links.
* Compare prices between different products.
* No registration required.

This can be a very handy consumer tool when trying to narrow a purchase decision. It seems like an excellent starting point!

Hope this help a bit,
Ron.

Semantic search is concerned with the exact meaning of a search term, its definition and the search context. Search engines based on semantic search algorithms are thus better at eliminating irrelevant results.

Try "Complete Planet" for some tougher searches. See if you don't find your results less confused, more specific.

Everybody loves a good deal. When shopping at websites like Amazon, you simply expect competitive prices, but how do you know if you're scoring an item for a bargain price or actually overpaying?

Enter the world of Amazon price watching and tracking. The prices of a lot of the products available at Amazon do tend to fluctuate over time. They'll go up and down constantly, and that's where these websites can come in handy to keep tabs on all the price changes.

Never overpay again! Shop smarter and save some dough on the way by knowing exactly when it's the right time to buy and when you should probably wait.

Ron.

For this article - point your browser to:
*http://www.androidcentral.com/keeping-your-charge-how-improve-battery-life-your-android-phone* (without asterisks of course). Clicking above won't get you there.

For those who have an Android based phone, keeping your battery through the day can be tricky.

Android Cenrtral has provide the most comprehensive, easy-to-understand article on getting that job done.

If this applies, check it out. Has done great job extending my Droid's battery life per diem.
Ron.

Viewzi, which uses Flash, is the most customizable and multi-faceted visual search engine. For any search term, it offers up to 19 different ways to view the search results, and you can make any one of them your default. The types of views cover everything under the sun – web screenshots, simple text, photos, music, news, celebrity gossip, recipes, weather, etc.

Videos are grabbed from Joost, YouTube, and Viddler, but cannot be played back within the results page. However, the best view is the photo tag view, in which you can explore Flickr photos of related tags just by clicking on them. You can drag the tags around whichever way you want, and the interface is quite remarkable.

Need a photo, Viewzi is the one.
Ron

CAUTION ADULT:

All work and no play, hm?

This is too cool, and I imagine quite a treat for the troops.
Being in the middle of war, fighting so far from home, ANYTHING that could make a soldier smile for a couple of minutes is just fine with me.

You MUST be 18... yada, yada, yada, all explained on the site. Bit it's quite serious and explains how simply it's done.

Gals, guys... do YOUR part to put a smile on a lonely face!
Then, let's bring 'em home!

Prospector is based in the Czech Republic, but the list of free stuff that you can find here knows no borders. FreeStuff finds stuff for the home, free computer software, free educational supplies and tons more.

In all fairness, the site is more of a directory of content, but with over 3300 categorized and reviewed links to freebies – it's a body of information that deserves greater recognition.

Try it out...
Ron

I don't love (web sites) easily <smile>. But I have to tell you this tickles me (I'm pretty ticklish). I think it's the concept and the potential, rather than "buying" into the literal results.

Simply, "What-The-Internet-Thinks" is a search engine based on "sentiment", being able to recognize subtleties such as sarcasm. I've hunted around and no one knows how this thing truly works, just that it's popular.

WhatDoesTheInternetThink.net is like one of those flash Gallup polls that tap into public opinion. The web tool searches the internet for the global opinion on what the world thinks. It takes your search term and returns results as Positive, Negative or Indifferent. The tool searches the web using Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Twitter - or all combined.

What criteria the engine bases its results on is, as mentioned, unclear, so take the results with a pinch of salt.

I can see results being used to attempt marketing trends/evaluations, perceived 'good' & 'bad'. So I'm not sure what else to tell you other than have fun with it, and if you're doing some research be sure to footnote this review.
Ron