Big Huge Tools Flickr Picture tools

This website has some fun tools for messing with your pictures. Although designed to work with Flickr, few (if any) seem to require Flickr at all. But some fun, free tools for messing around with pictures.

More fun than useful, but worth checking out.

Big Huge Labs

Google is the worlds #1 Brand...

As a student of brands, the web, free tools, and marketing, I find it amazing and simultaneously not suprising that Google is the worlds #1 Brand, according to Millward Brown. They define the value of the brand as "Brand Value is the financial value of a brand, defined as the sum of all earnings that a brand is expected to generate." Even more remarkable, they are a brand that gives away much of their product. Read the full report - BrandZ-2008-Report.pdf (application/pdf Object)

I started thinking about the Google services I use frequently, and it's an impressive list (listed in rough order that I use them).

Gmail
Free

Blogger
Free (mostly, I pay to have the custom domain)

Bookmarks
Free

Notebook
Free

Calendar
Free

Search
Free

AdWords
Pays me

Google Maps (on the computer and my phone)
Free

Picassa
Free

Picassa Web Albums
Free

Google Talk
Free

Google Groups
Free

Google Documents
Free

Goog-411
Free

SketchUp
Free

YouTube
Free

Groups
Free



Something makes me think I'm missing a few. Impressive.

For a full list of available Google Products, click here.

Craigslist Image Preview in Firefox

This tool combines two tools I really like, and makes them easier to use. I shop and sell and recycle on Craigslist. There is a firefox extension that displays the images from with the ads, without having to click on the links. Looking for a bike or a car? Scroll quickly and see what looks like what you are looking for. Simply, but super effective. I used it recently while shopping for a tandem bike, and it worked super well.

Get it here

Magic Pen - Cool Physics game

Ok, so this is outside of the normal stuff I'd put on this blog, but this is a super addictive little web based physics game. Give it a try.
http://magic.pen.fizzlebot.com/

Google Notebook

Here's another tool I've been using for awhile. As often as I use it, I haven't blogged about it before. Over at Google Operating System they noted that Google has rolled out some new features for google notebook. But first, what is Notebook? It's exactly what it sounds like. As you cruise the web, if you see something interesting, highlight it, right-click (with Firefox or Explorer extenstions installed) and save it to your notebook. You can have as many notebooks as you want, so it's easy to have Notebooks for different subjects. You can also share Notebooks with other users, which is awesome. When I was in school, we used features like this to create a central Notebook that several of us used to work on group projects. When my wife and I were planning our last vacation, we used Notebook while planning. I use it all the time for work. Simple, but very useful.

Some features:

• Publish a notebook online, so anyone can see it. Or not.
  
• Share you notebook for collaborative notetaking.
  
• You can publish an RSS feed of your notebook.
  
• You can clip text, pictures or links. They are saved with a link back to the original page.
  
• Of course, you can search your notebooks.
  
• You can export to Google Documents. From there, you can export to Word. For those of us that still work in Desktop apps part of the time, it'd be very nice to be able to do this in one step instead of 2.
  
• Your notes are available on any net connected computer
  

Give it a try, and let me know if you come up with any really cool uses.
Google Notebook
The FAQ

Bird Identification - WhatBird

We have a bird nesting in our backyard, and I didn't know what it was. (I'm a tiny bit of a bird geek. ) I went online to look it up, and discovered this cool site.

It takes you through a series of questions to identify the bird. Sort of 20 questions. I found it remarkably fast, and the final answer certainly looked just like the bird outside.

Very cool. I'm almost enough of a geek that I want it on my phone for remote identification.

WhatBird.com

Jott - How I love thee....

Jott is one of those super simple tools. It really has one trick, it does it well, and I find myself using it all the time.

Jott is a voice to text transcription service. You call it with your cell phone, and then are asked "Who do you want to Jott?" These have to be set up ahead of time, but you can Jott any email address, your Google Calendar, RememberTheMilk, even Blogger. After you select your Jott, simply speak the message. You're done.

I use it for two things primarily, and it works great. I have an email based ToDo list, and since I drive a lot, I have a lot of time to think. When I have an idea or something I need to do, it's speed-dial 2 on my phone and I speak. When I get home or in front of a computer, there is the reminder, sitting it my ToDo box. I also find it easier to add events to my calendar than using the interface on my smart phone. I find the translations are mostly surprisingly accurate.

Caveat-
I've heard there might be humans involved in checking the translation, so this might not be the place to share your plans for global domination through insider trading and assassination.

Jott is free currently. Not sure how they make money, since I rarely need to go to their web interface and the notes have no ads.

www.Jott.com

Fotoflexer - Better than Photoshop Online

Since we're on the topic, I just discovered another nice online photo editor. It has all the normal editing tools, a fast and intuitive interface, and lots of neat effects, some of which I've not seen elsewhere.
http://fotoflexer.com/

Photoshop online - eh. Not so much.

I use Photoshop all the time, actually own a legal copy of Adobe Creative Suite. It's one of only three pieces of pay software I use regularly. (XP, Office being the others.) It's a great program, and has enough of a market that "Photoshop" has become the generic term for any computer modified photo, from simple adjustments and fixes to creative and artistic modifications.

When I saw that Adobe had released an online version of Photoshop, I rushed to test it and have spent quite a bit of time playing with it this morning. I can't say I'm impressed. It lacks the serious tools that have made Photoshop the standard for professionals, and for casual users, the interface is not nearly as nice as some of the other online editors. It also lacks any really interesting or fun tools. Comparing it to Picnik or others, I can see no reason to recommend it over those.
(See my post about online editors here)

All that said, it will probably do well. When people go online for a photo editor, many will Google "Photoshop" rather than "online photo editor" and will perhaps never discover what I consider to be a better product.

Is Free really the future of business?

Wired Magazine had a recent article titled: Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business

It's a good article, but misses the mark on several points.
My first quibble is with the headline. When you read the article, it's clear it's really referring to businesses like the web, software, and music. It's businesses where there is very little or no physical product being sold. Without a physical element to the product, marginal costs can be very low, and you can afford to give away much of the product. The author mentions a web model, "freemium" where a small percentage of users pay for a premium version of the product, and in doing so, support the majority who do not. Makes sense when you are talking about email, but I can not imagine a scenario where one person buying a premium car pays for 99 other people to get a car free.

Most of the points the author makes are very valid, but apply to a very limited scope of businesses. The reality of the world is that it is very complex, and there are many, many complexities. As energy costs rise, the majority items will become considerably more expensive, not free. More expensive to produce, more expensive to ship, and more expensive to buy. This hardly points to a future where "Free" rules.

Advertising makes sense, but at some point, the model begins to fall apart. As more and more businesses move to a free, advertising supported model, eventually the number of outlets selling advertising will outstrip the number of businesses willing to pay. When supply exceeds demand, prices will drop. As the revenue drops, the cost of providing the service may no longer be covered by advertising, and companies will be forced to look for other revenue streams.

These are just a few of the issues I have with article. Most of it stems not from any blatant falsehoods or logical mistakes, but merely the failure to address the serious limitations to the "free" model.

(And yes, I do realize I'm posting on a free blog service, with Google Ads on it.)

Seek - Thunderbird Email Plug-In for faceted search.

I'm a big fan of Thunderbird as an alternative to Outlook. It's not
perfect, but it works very well on both my Windows laptop and Linux
PC. It also has the advantage of (like Firefox) being open to plug-in
and add ons. That means, if there is a functionality you need, there
is a pretty good chance someone else has needed the same.
I get a lot of emails, and sometimes need to find old emails. The Seek
plug-in adds a level of functionality to Thunderbird that is a hybrid
between filtering and search, they call faceted browsing. I installed it
a few days ago, and have been using it daily. There is an excellent
video and download instructions on this site:
My only complaints - It takes up a lot of screen space. Not a big deal since you can toggle it on and off, but if you do, it re-indexes the folder each time, which is slow. It'd be nice if it indexed in the background, but the interface toggled on and off.

http://simile.mit.edu/seek/

Free online photo editors

I'm pretty much a Photoshop and Picassa user. I work mostly on large files, so working online is a hassle with photos, though I use it for many other doc types.

That said, there are times when I'm on a machine without editing software, and there are some pretty good online editors. They can prove useful, and are great for folks not prepared to invest in software, they work well.

• Picnik - Probably my favorite of the bunch. Seems to work pretty fast. Has all the expected basic editing tools. Also has a bunch of really cool effects that you can apply. I want to find some of these for Photoshop. Integrates very easily with Flickr, Picassa, and other online photo services.
  
• Splashup - Splashup will look immediately familiar to users of Photoshop. The interface is very similar, and it provides tools like layers. Useful if you are attempting to follow instructions intended for Photoshop. Pretty slick, and also interfaces well with most of the online photo sites.
  
• There are others. Check out this Techcrunch page. But having looked at them all, I can't see any reason I wouldn't use one of the two listed.
  

Pingg - Invitations

http://www.pingg.com - Evite may be the most commonly used, but Pingg is a new invitation company with some interesting features.

• Much better looking images than Evite, and the ability to upload your own pictures.
  
• Can purchase other stock images for a truly custom look.
  
• Invites can be sent via Email, SMS, Web, Facebook or even Snail Mail. For a surely classy twist, for a $1.50, you can send printed invites via postal service.
  
• You can import Contacts from Plaxo, Gmail, and more.
  

I haven't had an event to try this on, but I built some trial invites, and they look very nice.

Photoshop Tutorials

Photoshop is an amazing photo editor. I've been using it casually for years, and have barely scratched the surface of what it is capable of. When I have something I want to do, even if I think I know how, I will frequently search online for a tutorial, More often than not, I find a better way of doing it, easier and with better results, explained clearly in a tutorial. Here is a list of Tutorial Sites worth checking out:

• http://www.graphic-design.com/Photoshop/ - This Site has a simple listing of techniques, nicely listed by what the goal is. (Remove a back ground, fix color, etc. )

http://www.tutorio.com/photoshop-tutorials.html - Another good collection of Photoshop Tutorials - The site also has tutorials on other subject, like Flash, Web Design, Etc.

• http://www.photoshopcafe.com/tut_fx.htm - Some of these are a tad out of date, written for PS 7, but cover some solid effects and the principles still apply.


• http://www.good-tutorials.com/tutorials/photoshop - A huge collection of great tutorials.


• http://www.tutorialized.com/tutorials/Photoshop/1 - 8,000+ PS Tutorials


• http://www.photoshoproadmap.com/Photoshop-tutorials/Most-popular/1/ - What to say? More great PS tutorials.


• http://www.sketchpad.net/photoshp.htm - A good collection of basic tutorials. Learn about Layers, Clipping, etc.


• http://pslover.com/ - 11,000+ Tutorials