Widgets, tools, and doodads for library webmasters
Darlene FichterData LibrarianUniversity of Saskatchewan
Frank CervoneDirector – Library, Information, and Media Studies
Chicago State University
Photo by: aaardvaark (Creative Commons license)
They have got WAAAAYYYY to much stuff to talk about!
Well, I hear that they’re supposed to be amusing
But I doubt they have our sense of balance!
Firefox tools
• SafeCache• SafeHistory• FoxMarks• FEBE
SafeCache
• Protects your privacy• Defends against cache-based tracking techniques • Embedded content is cached
– Segments the cache according to the domain of the originating page.
• Enable/disable in the Privacy pane of the Options menu.
• Learn more about Protecting Browser State using Same Origin policy (paper)
www.safecache.com
SafeHistory
• Protects your privacy by defending against visited-link-based tracking techniques.
• It allows offsite visited links to be marked only if the browser's history database contains a record of the link being followed from the current site.
• Enable/disable SafeHistory in the Privacy pane of the Options menu
www.safehistory.com
FoxMarks
• Automatically synchronizes bookmarks• Access your bookmarks anytime at
my.foxmarks.com. • Works in the background to keep your
bookmarks up-to-date on all your computers
www.foxmarks.com
mysteryuser
FEBE
• Firefox Environment Backup Extension• Quickly and easily backup your Firefox
extensions• Easily synchronize your office and home
browsers • May specify user defined items
– Backup virtually any data on your computer
customsoftwareconsult.com/extensions/febe/febe.html
Other webtools for collaboration
• Meebo chat widget• LinkBunch• DocSyncer• Twirl• polldaddy
Meebo Chat Widget
www.meebome.com
Let’s stretch it
Add it to your catalog. Add it to your null results page. More info: David Lee King’s Blog Post
LinkBunch
• Lets you put multiple links into one small link• Firefox extension creates a bunch from all
your open tabs• Twitter bot in the works
– Isn’t finished yet
linkbun.ch
DocSyncer
• Automatically finds and syncs your document files to Google Docs – This means everything
• “Users are even reporting that launching a document directly from their desktop using DocSyncer is FASTER than launching the document natively in Microsoft Office!”– Yeah…right
www.docsyncer.com
twirl
• Desktop client for twitter
www.twhirl.org
What is twitter?
polldaddy: Get interactive
polldaddy.com
Webtools for web development
• VisCheck• Feng GUI• Browsershots• Flickr photo badge• Photoshop Express• Addthis• Google countdown• Babelfish/Google translate
VisCheck
• A computer simulation of the entire process of human vision
• Way of showing what things look like to someone who is color blind
• Online service– Image files– Web pages
• Downloadable – Windows and Mac
www.vischeck.com/vischeck
Tritanope
Protanope
Deuteranope
Full color
Full spectrum
Red/green deficiency
Blue/yellow deficiency
Feng GUI
www.feng-gui.com
• Automatic alternative to eye-tracking• Creates heatmaps based on an algorithm that
predicts what a real human would be most likely to look at
www.fenggui.com
© 2006-2008 Feng-GUI - Feng Shui for graphic user interfaces.™
google.com
flickr.com
useit.com
Browsershots
• Creates screenshots in different browsers• Open source, online service • How it works:
– Submit your web address– Added to the job queue– Distributed computers open the website in their
browser– They create screenshots and upload them to the
browsershots server
browsershots.org
Flickr Photo badge
http://flickr.com/badge.gne
This is also a great example of progressive tutorial.
Photoshop Express
Tutorial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LT9Sb-iYFYGeoff Baum – CNET News
www.photoshop.com/express
Forget location: Think web site distribution
http://addthis.com
Pick a button – Grab your code
Bookmark button statistics
• Top Bookmarks (Past Week/Month/Year)
• Top Bookmark Services Used
Google countdown
short url: http://urltea.com/32m0
Altavista Babelfish site translator
www.altavista.com/help/free/free_searchbox_transl
Google translate my page
Short url: http://urltea.com/32lx
Nifty utilities
• Process Tamer• File Hamster• Syncback Freeware• LinkExtractor• reCaptcha• Anonymouse• Prism
ProcessTamer
• Monitors CPU usage of processes• Reduces the priority of apps that hog the CPU• Windows only
www.majorgeeks.com/Process_Tamer_d4651.html
File Hamster
www.mogware.com/FileHamster
• Real-time backup and archiving of your files while you work
• Monitors files or directories– Automatically creates incremental backups – Store notes about the changes that have been
made
Syncback Freeware
• Backup all files anytime with a single click• Scheduler to automate backups• Versioning• Synchronization• Incremental backups • Machine to machine via ftp
– Encryption– Compression
www.2brightsparks.com/downloads.html
LinkExtractor
www.webmaster-toolkit.com/link-extractor.shtml
Moving large files
100 MB, 7 days
500 MB, 7 days100 MB, 7 days
100 MB, no time limit
1 GBPeer to Peer
reCaptcha
recaptcha.net
Anonymouse
• Want to private• Check if resources are accessible outside your IP
range or not
http://anonymouse.org/
Prism
• An application that lets users split web applications out of their browser and run them directly on their desktop
• Web platform integrated into the desktop experience
• Developers don’t have to target it separately • Windows today
– Mac and Linux available soon
labs.mozilla.com/2007/10/prism
More Widgets & Gadgets• Widgetbox
– http://www.widgetbox.com/
• Google Gadgets– http://www.google.com/ig/directory?synd=open
• Previous Cool Tools Presentations– http://library2.usask.ca/~fichter/cool_tools/
All work and no play
lolinator.com
Thanks!
Darlene FichterData LibrarianUniversity of [email protected]
Frank CervoneDirector – Library, Information, and Media Studies
Chicago State University
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