Chat and Instant Messenging: A guide to whats out there.

So we all like the chat, who doesn't, but how do you chat?


If you're like a lot of people who have been on the internet for a long time you use the Standard chat Clients, the one's that have been around for years.



These are the following:


Windows Live Messenger:
AKA : MSN

About: MSN as many people still call it is the one of the oldsest and most well known means of Chat on the Internet. Most likely a primative version of this old reliable is pre-installed on your computer if you are a windows user.


There are no specific benefits to MSN. It does what it says on the tin. You chat with people you know, most likely via your account with Hotmail or Windows live. The sort of accounts and email you have had for years, maybe even for over a decade at this stage. Little has changed, and some of the friends may have long gone, but WLM/MSN still stay's similar and in everyone's hearts and minds.

Over the years newer versions have brought, games, Video and voice chat, Nudge's and improved Smiley's / Emoticon's but in essence it has never really changed and that's why it's still popular. And also available on most Smart phones and for Some 3G phone's via a java application that can be downloaded from your network provider's mobile store or via searching for Windows live messenger in your phones browser.

Download here.




AIM, or AOL Instant Messenger.

This old school messenger is one of the most popular Service's for American's, because of it's Link to AOL, a old large scale provider of specific internet service's in the early days of the world wide web.

AIM, the last time i used it, was pretty basic, and it has recently caught up with the times.

AIM now supports Twitter and Facebook integration via a Lifestream. This Lifestream Aggregate's what's happening with your AIM contacts and on your Twitter and Facebook Profile's. A pretty familiar site on modern chat clients but when it's added to such an Old messenger it provides new life and a boost for the messenger.

Download here.


Yahoo Messenger.


The messenger service of Yahoo. Not being a Yahoo user i actually don't have much experiance with Yahoo. But it is a long time classic and competitor to MSN.

The Modern Yahoo Messenger still has a lot of the old features, Chat, Emoticon's, Yahoo Chat rooms. But it also has Video and Voice calling over the internet to Yahoo Messenger and it's Mobile Application for Free. SMS message's over the internet to your contcacts, for free. And Plug-ins for added feature's such as Twitter applications, games and Yahoo related products.

Download here.




 


Skype, is nowadays synonymous with International phone and video calls over the computer, at a low cost, the same way google is with Search. So much so it can even be used as a verb, if you're so inclined.

Skype is so well known that i barely have to talk about it. But if you did want to use it, all you have to do is download it, set up an account and you're free to chat. That is of course only to other people using Skype.

If you want to really open skype up and call people, you have to pay a small fee each time you do. But if you use it frequently as an alternative to a phone to call anyone, or call overseas it can save you a fortune.

It is also available on Smartphones, The INQ line of phone's via 3 Mobile in Ireland, The UK and Australia and there is also Skype specific Products such as Headsets, web cams and even a Skype phone, that only use's skype, funnily enough.

Download here.


There is also new comers on the block when it come's to how people chat online and from their desktops.


GOOGLE Talk/ Chat


Google Talk is everywhere there is a google Product. Embedded in your GMail and available as an added on to your Calendar, To Do list, Documents, Google Wave and as a key part of the Google Android Smart Phone's. Google Talk also feature's as the native chat on Google's Social Networking Site Orkut. It can even be added to Google Desktop, a google search for your Windows computer.

(It is called Google Talk but it's own label within GMail says Chat, so it can be confusing)

Google Talk for a long time was basic, but handy. All your email contacts are automatically in your Chat Contacts. If they have Gmail it's a simple few clicks and they can also be on Google Chat.

Google also provides a Desktop client that you can download and use to check your GMail account at the same time as keeping in touch with all your Email contacts, business or personal.

As Gmail and other google products evolve so does their Chat client and in the past year it has included Video chat and other feature's that are bog standard on other clients.

Google Chat is fast, simple and found almost everywhere google is. If you use google's large school of products, then you have probably have a google account. If you have a google account you have access to Google Chat. So why not give it a try?

Download the Desktop version Here.


And like 350 million other people, if you're on Facebook you have facebook Chat.




Facebook, the super huge Social Networking site is well known at this stage. and If you're not Liking status updates and posts, or posting on a friends wall, or even using the Mail Inbox, you're going to be using the Facebook Native Chat client.

This simple chat client sits at the bottom of the page and tell's you who is online. Usually this is some old school friend you want to avoid, or a stalker ex, but if your real friends are online, you can chat to them.

Facebook Chat is not without it's Hiccups. Sometimes message's won't send, sometimes it won't even appear at all. Sometimes it's so infuriatingly absent or awful that you just can't be bothered at all. But it's always there as a means of talking privately on the worlds most popular Social Networking Website.

Facebook






Twitter.

You may not think of this latest craze as a means of talking to someone but it is. Albeit with a limit of 140 characters.


You may find it hard to say something useful in 140 characters but you can have small conversations with fellow Tweeters if you so wish. Just click reply on their tweets, or physically type @TheirScreenName in your tweet and it will show up in their @ replies or in their stream if they follow you.

There is also Direct Message's or DM's if you want to keep it really private. Unfortunately, and for some unknown reason this is also limited by the 140 character limit.

Twitter.com Itself isn't very good at tracking such @ reply conversations, but 3rd party service's such as Tweet Deck, Yoono, Brizzly and Digsby do, in their own unique ways.


www.twitter.com 




Lost Cause:  You may not know about it, but Myspace also has a chat client of it's own.

It works on the website itself and via a Desktop client. It also has Skype intigration. If you use Myspace, then it's for you. But Myspace is increasingly a niche website for teenager's, Peaodophile's and Music lovers. The more it slips away from the mainstream public the less likely people are to use it for Social Networking, or even chatting with friends.

You can find myspace IM, here.


What you may not of heard of....




  


IMVU:

IMVU is a 3D based Instant Messenger where you chat via your on Screen Avatar that you customise yourself. You can do what every you like to the appearance of your avatar and you can buy more advanced feature's and personal items if you want to.

IMVU is a very specific niche chat client that require's a lot more attention than most and is really in a world of it's own, a world not to dissimilar to Second life and other similar websites.

IMVU sort of act's like a chat room as well, in that multiple Avatar's can meet at varrious virtual locations.

It also has a meet a random person feature, if you want to use it.

Download here...


If you chat all the time and want to chat to people from all over the place but don't want the clutter, than you have several options available to you.




Ebuddy is a web based Chat client that connects to almost every service you can think of. It opens in an additional window of your internet browser and is very handy when you are not at your own computer, such as at work, in school/college or in a library with computer access.

 Vist Ebuddy here.





Pidgin is simple enough service that allows you to connect to all the well know chat clients and a few others. It's main aim is only chat so just expect Text and Video calls from this service.

Download the desktop client here.





Digsby.


Digsby aims to be the Multiple client chat application to beat them all. This rather large tool can not only chat on WLM/MSN, Google Chat, Facebook Chat, AIM, Yahoo and others, it also has Email Inbox notifiers, Facebook, Twitter and the ability to Link and organise all your Contact's together under one Icon in your contact list.

So if a friend is on Facebook and Another service at the same time, you can choose where you want to talk to them from. And Digsby will show you where with a little icon within their picture. It will also allow multiple chat's to occur within the same Instant Messenger Window, even between your contacts.

Digsby is a formidable and strong multiple Chat client that is worth checking out for the die hard chat user.

Download here.






Yoono Started out as an Add-on to Firefox.

As an add-on it's pretty good at Following updates on Facebook and Twitter.

In the past year it also introduced a Desktop client and more feature's, inculding Google Chat, Window's live messenger and AIM.


So check it out here, to get either the add-on or the desktop application, Yoono.

The rumoured Apple Tablet and Why it's Print Media's New platform.

The Rumored Apple Tablet, rumored by Apple Enthusiast's and Tech Bloggers, is supposedly the next big thing in gadgetry.


And far from an oversize iPhone, or a touch screen Apple Laptop, the Rumored Tablet is in the fantasy's and rumor mills of those in the know, the saving grace of Print Media.


The same way the iPod changed the face of Music, and the same way the iPhone and iPod Touch change gaming and mobile internet, the rumored Tablet will Change Newspapers, Magazines and Official News source's. This is what a lot of people are dreaming and thinking. And frankly it makes one wonder why?

What does Print Media, and the News industry as a whole gain from Signing up to a new Apple gadget?


When the iPod emerged at the start of this Decade people were still unsure what to do with it.

After all we were all still getting used to Napster, let alone thousands of song on one Portable digital Mp3 player. And by Apple at that. A specialist and geeky company that made some of the most powerful and Sleek Computers on the Market. Consumers en-mass weren't buying Apple's for everyday use, no it was a specialist thing. For business and for Apple-geeks.

But the iPod was on to something. Apple had bought out a smart little Music player, Renamed it iTunes and shipped it with their new Shiny toy.

Around the same time the iTunes Store grew and evolved, and podcast's came to life.

By the 2nd Generation iPod (now renamed/sub-titled classic)people started buying them more and more. The iPod Exploded.

The Music industry, terrified of Digital Piracy, and still only interested in CD's was unsure what to do, but they followed. And soon enough Digital downloads were counting for Millions in profit.

The iPod killed other ventures like the Mini-Disc and brought Apple on top of a Market that didn't even have a clear winner or front runner.


Sony and Microsoft tried to catch up but never really fared well.

Smaller companies offered similar device's but could never compete.

Apple had preemptively won a war and created the cultural and economically important must have item of the Decade.


It then turned around and re-invented the Mobile phone.

The iPhone was not only an iPod, it was also a phone, and a web browser. But what they didn't initially foresee was that it was a bloody great game's console.


The App Store led to creativity for thousands of developers, who years ago would never have been able to make money on their own, with Apple cutting a slice. But the App Store provided a new world that no one ever dreamed of. And it's profitable, and it's unstoppable.

Every other smart phone has a similar system. Blackberry, Android (Google), Windows Mobile and Nokia (with their Acquisition of Ovi)all try and do the same thing, but it's just not as popular as Apple and the App Store.


One's they hooked everyone with iPods the iPhone and the iPod Touch were an easy selling point and springboard to a new platform, and that was Applications, Games, Web-based Software, and useful tools such as to-do lists and more.



Meanwhile the World wide web, blogging, feed's and modern web "2.0" media are slowly chocking Print Media and official News Sources. They just aren't as profitable as they used to be. And the Big names are worried.


The Newspaper first boomed in the 19th Century. When it was truly king. Extra's were rushed out if news broke too quickly. Broadsheets and Sunday super issue's kept the public in the know. Tabloids also got in on the game and diluted the news to a lower level. Then Magazines also got in on the game and toned things down further or heavily specialised.

The Early 20th Century was a boom time for Daily, Weekly, Fortnightly, Monthly and Annual publications. The Print Media penetrated every aspect of daily life and was a must have item.

The Radio didn't phase this, although the newspapers were worried.

Pre-Movie Mini-News segments didn't scare the Newspapers Either. It was a Public service almost, and drew in the Illiterate and so on, or even used as propaganda. The Newspaper was always Bias or divided but some pretended they had a high standard of Professionalism, for their target audience anyway.

Television was laughed at, the feared, then it started to take over. Network news, and Local Station news was slowly but surely the new way the Public heard about the world. If it wasn't on the radio, it was in moving Picture, sometimes live and unedited. It was supposed to be the Truth spoon fed to you in your house by a real person.

But the Newspaper never went away, the Print Media never went away, hell it continued to grow. There are more Magazine's now than there ever were.

While the Web was in it's infancy the Magazine world exploded in the 90s.


From Gossip glossy's, to gossip rags, to geek specialist magazines to Lads mags, the Magazine was HUGE.

But come the 21st Century and everything started to slip away.


As the internet became part of every day life, so did new ways of getting the news.


On 9/11 everyone was either Living the Horror or watching on their TV.

Many saved the Newspapers the next day, for posterity and to seek more answers, but the news was already a day old.


By the time of the London Bombings on 7/7/05 things changed again.

This time people not only flocked to The TV, the radio and their fellow Human's and authorities but also to the Web. They Live streamed the News off websites, they listened to the Radio via their computer, and the watched as Article's updated on the news websites almost on the hour. They flocked to blogs and eye witness reports.

The news coverage was also different. Within hours of the events, texts, picture messages, phone calls, and low quality video were all being hastily edited and included in the news. Times had changed.

The next Day newspapers didn't know what to say. There was news from millions of angles. What to cover, what to verify and source. When it had all been presented in real-time on Tv, the Radio and the Web, what next?


In 2009, the playing field was different again. A strange new thing called Twitter had emerged. The public was speaking in drove's about the worlds problems. Protest's were organised, eyewitness's were tweeting and photo-blogging everything they saw and sharing it with the world. And Even TV news didn't know what to do.

When the Iranian Elections caused Riots in the Summer, CNN had little to say. Western Media was banned and the Iranian News source's were Censored and Biased.

But the public was talking on Twitter. And CNN and others had to adapt on their feet and turn around and try and filter through the mass of tweets and other information and present the news. A tall order.


So what hope is left for Official news source's when it all happens in real time.




Evolve.



And to do this they need a new Platform. This new platform could very well be, The Apple Tablet.


With Interactive App's and website's News Media can provide balanced, referenced and sourced Information straight to the Palm of the Consumer.

With this new Platform they can ignore the RSS feeds of the web, and get around other service's and competitors and bring the news right to the people who want to hear it.

Article's and digital media all at the user's finger tips and all targeted at them.


For instance with sports you can see replays of the match, statistics, commentary, both Official and public all on one display and all targeted at the user.

Official Media could in theory, Use the Apple Tablet as a new form of Magazine. An informative and interactive news source targeted at it's devote readers and anyone else who happens to buy their app or visit their site.

On a larger more intuitive device, more advanced than an iPhone interactive news, from official source's can find a home.


The large screen is far more friendly and conducive to what the News providers want to sell. That is advertising for them and their affiliates and Products that pay big money to be featured on their publications, on Paper or in 1's and 0's.

With all of this The internet, the news, media and information in general can be targeted at the consumer and personalised to inform them about just about anything, and all for a tidy little profit.

Soon as well as music, games, the internet, and communication, the worlds Current affairs and Knowledge will all be a few hand movements away on an Apple Device. Whether an Apple Tablet, or the next line of App's for improved iPhone's and iPod Touch's, all of human endeavor will be fed to you, with ad's and a price on the most anticipated and possibly best Gadget of the new Decade.


The iSlate/iZine/iPad/iSlab will be the next big platform, and that platform is Knowledge.

I Liked the Pie: "Why Twitter and Facebook Should Never Be Microsoft or Google"

This is just a personal opinion of how the Internet and the Tech World Should be.



Google if anything will always be an exception in the computing world but Facebook and Twitter Shouldn't follow suit. There are 3 distinct area's that i think exist on the internet.


1: Socialising and Social Networking


2: Real time News/Gossip/Trivial-Information/ Real-time Public Opinion


3:And Cold hard Facts and how you search for them.




1: Social Networking is Facebooks Forte and Modus Operande. They Live and breath it and so do the basic internet users and the constantly Jacked in Geeks. 350 Million of them.


Humans in essance are Social Animals and we want to communicate in Various Means. Facebook is just another way of doing so. Friendster, Hi5, Bebo and Myspace were the first true Social Networking Website's but socialising on the Internet, let alone the World wide web far out date's any of them or Facebook.


Ever since Universities, Armies, Banks and Intelegence Agencies wanted to share information and computing power the Internet started to exist in some way or form, and soon after so did email.


Email's and Pinging server's for information led to socialising and the Nerds and workers on either end talked with one another. The machines may have cost Millions of dollars and be equivilant to billions in today's money but people Socialised on them.

Facebook is just another evoloution of this method of keeping the human community in touch with each other. Via Region's, networks, friends and in its origional instance Colleges.


Facebook is WHERE we all go to talk to each other when not face to face, on the Phone, Texting, Writting Emails, or sitting with a Pen and Paper. It's what we have open in a spare tab on our Web Browser, and it's what we run to to soak up what everyone we may or may not know is up to in the world, whether in Real time(status updates), their actions (actions in the news stream), their opinions(comments) or Direct Chat (facebook chat, wall posts, Emails).


And Facebook Should Stay that way.


Why Tech Geeks talk about the Power of facebook or it's potential is beyond me. It does what it says on the tin, sort of. Tech Bloggers and Geeks all talk about the potential of the Information Facebook has to offer to the Big wigs of Search such as Google, Bing and Yahoo. Well i think it shouldn't offer up such information THAT IS OUR LIVE's!


For real time search and opinion of what the world thinks go to Twitter, Jaiku, Message Boards, Chat Rooms etc etc.

Leave our social Live's and netorks out of information collection. What can be gained from it? Users will just scream that it is in some way nefarious and all Profile's will change to Friend's Only. Far less public information will ever come out of Facebook if it's 350 Million users, and it's far less active users think it is being collected, spied upon or used against them.




2: Twitter is where we can voice our Real time opinion on the world. Much the same way as message boards have been, but less Flame wars and all the other Web Jargan related to Public Idiocy on the Sinks of Thought that are our other means of expressing ourselves on the World Wide Web.


Twiter is a thought exchange system.


I'm Doing this here, or i'm going to do that, or i think this, or this is where i am. It's all simple expression, Narcisism and mastabatory sludge that in real life means nothing.


But we are social animals. We want to interact with the world so we tell Twitter what we're up to and don't neccissarly want or get a response. And we feel slightly good about sharing this, we think this matters in some way.

Message boards NEVER recieved this recognition and yet Twitter does.


And tech bloggers and geeks think Twitter SHOULD be a good investment, it should make the loads of money, it is Web 2.0, it is the future it is all about where it's all at right now.

Poppycock. Where it's at is the people that have Latched onto what twitter provide's and used that to their own advantage. The Startup's, the people who make nice gizzmo's or website's that connect to twitters information and capabilities and give you another thing you never thought you'd need but now can't do without.


Twitter shouldn't become Microsoft or Google because it will be making money out of you're very thoughts and actions. It will be a large influence on us that is actually using us in the process. Let the small Companies do that, let them offer something unique. Don't let the Big Website and it's possibilities be the overlord of everthing it has to offer. Spread it out and give us varriety and options. This is whats good for us. Multible forums of expression, whether SOCIALLY important, for the Self or just to share with everyone else something you did or thought, or your opinion or personal reaction to any given Stimulus.



3 Google and Bing Try to be the Reaction to our Stimuli. They provide the so called Information and Answers we seek about the world around us. THEY ARE THE SEARCH ENGINE's.


And what is a Search Engine. Well a search engine is the means by which Information is Targeted at us to best meet the terms of our Questions and in the mean time make money for those providing the answer.


Google is Asked a question and it tell's you what it tell's everyone else in your area and what is the most clicked on answer and the answer that make's them the most ammount of money.

Google Doesn't tell you what you want to know, it tells you what everyone else wants to know and has clicked on to know about.

When it connects with Real time search and what Twitter and Facebook have to offer it taps into the social conciousness and know what we think about certain topics right now and in general.

Some think this is in some way important. And it can be, but depending on your side of the fence.


If you want to know how to make money, or what people think of you and so on, Public Opinion, you will be happy with this. However those Providing the Opinion, the Tweets etc are in Actuality wanting to Socilise with the world. They are tapping thier fingers away looking for a conversation and information to share with others. Instead what they get is something being Sold to them As the ANSWER or the Truth. Well in essance it is nothing but a farce.


Here is the real way the Web Will work in the Near By future.

You ask Google About Pie.

It won't tell you the the value of PIE or all the numbers after 3.14, or who invented the Delicious school of Pastries called PIE.

No Google want's to sell you a PIE and make money when it does that.

So you Get told where the nearest Bakery is and you buy a PIE.

You Tweet that you are eating a PIE.

You're followers and Friends ask you was the Pie good, and where they can get some.

You socialise with them. And you provide information for others so that they too may enjoy the PIE.

Instead of Getting answer to PIE, all you are left with is the cold hard truth.


I Liked the PIE.

Not i was sold a PIE, not I was given the wrong answer, NOT i would rather a long number or a different kind of Pie, My friends may like this PIE, we Talk about the PIE, We All LIKE THE PIE.




And this is what Connecting all 3 parts of the Internet will do. We will be sold things by the source's of information. We will Gossip about the information we have recieved and we will Socialise with those we can and talk about that information.

If the information stays the way it is, it will create a larger discussion and be slower, it will be the way it has always been.

If the information is shared easily, quickly and with a profit attached, it is Apparently going to be better. It is apparently good for us all. It will Appernently Change the way we live and make the Global Village More connected.


If Facebook or Twitter Get this power themselves they will become far larger and far more important. If they let loads of others use such information as they wish then they pass on the Profit, and pass on the Lies we are sold every day when we search for information. Within Facebook and Twitter we dictate what part of the Truth we tell to our friends or the Twitosphere/Blogosphere. If we let Search engine's tell us what everyone is thinking then we get sold an even Larger and more sanatised version of the Truth. We get sold A Lie. And That lie Is that we will like the answer Google Or Bing Give us, we Will Supposidly Like the Pie.

What is a browser?

This is a post i wrote for Culch.ie as a guest post. Enjoy.

So do you know what a browser is?

According to google at least, very few people actually know. So they have made this video to help tell you:

Popout

Now i will describe in detail each of the most popular and mainstream browsers that are out there.

Many would be surprised that there is even more than one!

Internet Explorer :

This is the big blue E that you see on Windows computers. It comes ready packed with Windows, and has been since the browser wars of the 90s.

Windows holds a MASSIVE market share of the internet, and computing in general, with its software.

Internet explorer is what everyone is used to. Its a clunky basic thing that can be added to with toolbars, but not many.

It’s popular because most people are aware there is another choice. IE 6 is even so unpopular there is a web campaign for websites not to support it’s use.

Browsers are growing with the times and IE is a stuborn outdated tool. IE 8 is the latest version and may be stronger than IE 7 and the outdated 6, but has little change’s.

Most IE 8 users only have IE 8 because they actively updated to get it.

IE 8 is also due to be bundled with Windows 7, although in Europe this may not be the case as the EU is afraid it is unfair to other Browsers and doesn’t offer the user choice. This could mean cheaper BROWSER-LESS versions of Windows 7 may be released, creating a catch 22. You need the internet to download a free browser. Without a browser, you DON’T have the Internet….

Google Chrome :

Google Chrome is the new kid on the block.

A very young, and very sleek browser, chrome is all about “simplicity”.

It’s also about “speed”. Google likes to think this is important.

What Chrome really means is a browser that only does one thing, browse. No fancy gimicks, no toys, just browsing.

It also has move-able tabbed viewing that can also be “un-docked” to create a new browser window.

In plain english this means the web-page you’re viewing can be moved around at the top in order of your preferance, or lifted out of the browser alltogether and be on it’s own as a new window at the bottom of your screen. This can be very helpful.

Each “tab” also is it’s own seperate “instance” within your computer’s memory. This means if a website crashe’s it won’t, in theory, affect the other tab’s you’re viewing.

This however means it is more demanding on older computers for those of you with machines older than 5 years, or just not tech savy or interested in all those strange numbers and phrase’s the spotty kid tells you in PC World.

Google is so proud of Chrome that it even use’s it as a basis for the Google Aps program’s that support desktop Gmail, Google Documents and Google Callendar.

Chrome is also soon going to be a “operating system” for Netbooks. Google hopes to make the first Internet based OS for internet focused laptops.

Expect this in your stocking in 2010.

Google Chrome however is not yet on Apple computers.  A”Beta” called Chromium is available, but it’s full of bugs, updates itself and is mainly just used by Web Journalists and nerds eager for google on their pristine white Mac’s.

Google also Hate’s IE, almost. As a massive rival of Microsoft, they are also are proponants of http 5, the next generation of internet code and language, complicated stuff. But basically they think IE is a good browser, but not “fast” enough.

So as an act of kindness they made “Google Chrome Frame ” a “plug-in” that basically turns IE 6-7 and 8 into a version of Chrome. It is all for people who work on Computers where they are not allowed to change their browser, so they can make IE better, faster, almost a Google IE.

Safari :

For Mac users, and iPhone Users Safari is their default web Browser.

It’s not to shabby, and just as normal and understandable as IE.

It is also available to Windows users, with a few asthetic changes, the familiar X and minimize boxes etc.

I don’t use Safari myself, but it’s out there and holds significant market share by virtue of being Apple’s native browser.

The Mozilla Firefox School of Browsers:

Mozilla is a company that make’s its own code’s and base’s for browsers. They aim to spread openness in the use of browsers and web based aps.

Firefox is their main browser currently on version 3.5 and it supports some http 5, the first browser to do so. This means very little now, but in the future it means imbeded image’s and video in websites themselves and not belonging to specific software, such as adobe flash (like youtube).

Firefox is like any other browser, but it’s also very very stable.

It’s favored by a lot of devote computer user’s because of the cool toy’s it offers.

Firefox offers a lot of Add-ons that either improve, add to, or even beautify the browsers functions.

There is a plethora of tools on offer and it can be overwhelming to choose what to add, but if you’re patient you can find the right balance. Whether you want to control your music from your browser, read your twitter feed or have different coloured tabs, you can do it all.

Firefox also exists in a “portable” form that you can put on a usb key and take with you where-ever you go.

Flock:

Flock “the social browser”.

Flock is based on firefox and also supports http 5. It also includes in built feature’s that aim to use social media to their full extent.

An inbuilt feed reader, blog publishing tool, photo up-loader, media stream window, a clip board(for drag and drop photo storage) and bebo/facebook/myspace/twitter and other services integration means you’ll never miss a beat.

Flock is so similar to Firefox that all the same Add-ons work on Flock, an added bonus.

Some of it’s cool toys however are a bit demanding, and people with older computers may have some issues. Also since some websites change it is important that you make sure it is up to date (issue’s with the blog publisher in my case).

Songbird :

Songbird is more of a Music player than a browser, but it’s centered around being you’re entertainment source.

Songbird intigrate itself with iTunes, Last.fm and other service’s to catalogue your music and tell you everything about you’re music while you listen and even give you lyrics and infromation about each track.

It also feature’s normal web browser functions because it is based on Firefox. And it isn’t half bad either.

Opera 10 and Opera Mini:

This quirky little browser is a gem from a Norwegian company.

Opera is like any other browser but it also features some of it’s own special tools and unique features.

Extra tweaks and gizmos, like in-built code inputs for nerds, an inbuilt bit torrent loader for Pirates, an in built mail client and it’s own social network.

It also feature’s extra buttons beside the standard back and forward, “fastforward” and “rewind” buttons that skip page’s and take you back to where you started.

Opera also recently created “Opera Unite”. A means of sharing information across the web via their browser with your friends/colleagues and others. It also can host websites, servers, access file’s and music on far away computers (provided they are on, and using opera unite).

Opera’s browser also feature’s the “turbo” button. The Turbo button makes the internet even faster. It basically make’s the information the browser loads smaller by ignoring big time consuming things like pictures and complicated graphics or plug-ins and make’s them lower quality.

This is helpful for those without broadband or suffering from wi-fi shortage’s and peak time’s. It may make viewing picture’s impossible, but if you need information quick and can’t wait, turbo will get you to the words in a jiffy.

Opera is not a big player, but it’s strong and determined, and its pretty inventive to. But it’s main success is Opera Mini.

Opera mini is a web browser for Mobile Phones. Yep, they have the internet on mobile phones now.

Forget that wap stuff you saw years ago. These day’s it’s much better. A lot of phones have their own in built browsers but they’re pretty weak.

Opera mini is a flash based software, similar to the game’s that can be played on many mobile handsets.

Opera Mini on the other hand is a REAL browser. It’s fast and powerful, and it’s small enough to fit on even the generic memory card’s of mobile phones. It can read real website’s to, and loads them in a reserved way to help save time, and you’re pocket money. It also feature’s an impressive zoom feature that helps you see the whole page before you get closer to actually read the internet.

Opera Mini can also be synced to your computer based Opera Browser so all you’re favorite websites can go with you where ever you go.

Now that you know what a Browser is, Shop around. Find what works for you. Whether it’s simplicity, speed, user friendliness, customisation, gadgets, toy’s, gizmo’s or just plain old surfing, there is a lot of choice. So inform yourself and browse Safely.

Welcome to the world of tomorrow....

This is a new blog, written by moi, for anyone and everyone who has an interest in social media.


Now to be frank, Social media is an all incompossing title. What i hope to do with this blog is talk about the websites, the gadgets, the apps and the trends that are happening on the web and what they mean to us all on a simplistic level.


For now this blog is just that, a web log. It will not be seeking profit from promotion. It will only exist to inform readers and talk about the internet and web 2.0 in hopefully simple and understandable terms.


Anything of interest that i find on the web will be shared and discussed here.


From the next meme, to the news, to the next big website, to the must have smartphone or ordinary mobile, to crazy future gadgets and of course the source of most of the internet's contributions, pure unadulterated narcissism.


Enjoy folks.