Web Apps — James Poling

Gmail Adds Drag and Drop Attachments

August 4, 2010 By James View Comments

Gmail is starting to love the drag and drop. It was a little more than a year ago when they added drag and drop functionality to their labels. Earlier this year they added the ability to add attachments to an email by dragging them from your hard drive into your email. Now they’ve added the ability to drag attachments you receive in an email and drop them onto your desktop (or anywhere else you’d like).

I’m a huge fan of Gmail and I’ve used it to manage all of my email for the past 6 years, I don’t think I’m alone when I say that I’d like to see Google put some serious time and effort into a major refresh of Gmail, not only with features but with its UI as well. Sure, Gmail raised the bar when it launched back in 2004 but since then it has remained largely stagnant, while Hotmail and Yahoo have been doing major overhauls to their platforms. I’m not holding my breath though.

Filed Under: Tips Tagged With: attachments, email, gmail, Web Apps

Five Chrome Extensions That Will Make Your Life Easier

July 20, 2010 By James View Comments

One of the reasons I was so hesitant to move from Firefox to Chrome was that I had my FF tricked out with so many custom plugins that it really slowed me down to try and surf without them.

Now that Chrome has opened up the floodgates and allowed extensions, the playing field is starting to even out. Here are five quick and easy Chrome Extensions that come in handy and will make your life easier.

Webpage Screenshot – While not as slick as Firefox’s ScreenGrab! it still does the job. This is probably one of my most used extensions.
AdBlock – Basically the same concept as the FF version but since Chrome doesn’t fully support the code it’s not quite as effective as it is on FF but it still gets the job done.
MeasureIt! – I love this extension. This is actually one that I could never find on FF and have always wanted. MeasureIt! is a simple tool that let’s you measure the width of something right on your browser. It’s a lot easier than doing a screencap, firing up Photoshop and measuring it that way. This app will save you lots of time when trying to figure out the dimensions of something you like.
Google Mail Checker – It’s simple, that’s exactly what it does. You don’t have to worry about keeping Gmail open in your browser, Google Mail Checker lets you know how many unread emails you have in your inbox and once you click on it, it opens a new tab and takes you right to your inbox. Pretty handy, especially if you’re waiting on an important email and don’t want to keep hitting refresh all the time.
Eye Dropper – This is another app I use a lot. Again, it’s not quite as good as its FF companion but it still does the job. If you need to find the color on a page this will definitely get the job done for you.

Honorable Mention: Web Developer - This didn’t make the list because I think it still needs a little bit of work. The Web Developer add-on for Firefox is arguably one of the best plugins out there for anyone building websites. This plugin has a lot of potential but still seems a little clunky and harder to use.

There you have it, enjoy. Let me know what some of your favorite Chrome extensions are and maybe I’ll check them out.

Filed Under: Tips Tagged With: browser, chrome, extensions, google, Tips, Web Apps

Microsoft Launches New and Improved Hotmail

May 18, 2010 By James View Comments

Since I signed up for my first Hotmail account in 1997 (which I still have) I’ve been a total sucker for webmail. I’m still a sucker for web apps in general so whenever Microsoft does a complete overhaul of one of the world’s first, and most successful, webmail services it’s probably worth taking a look.

The first thing I noticed when going to login to Hotmail was that, once you’re logged in, it takes you straight to your inbox. They’ve gotten rid of that default news type landing page (which I think Yahoo Mail still uses) and gotten back to the basics. Email. If you’re a Hotmail user, that alone is reason to celebrate, but that’s just the gravy.

Conversation View:

If you like Gmail’s threaded conversations then you’ll be a fan of Hotmail’s conversation view. The new Hotmail gives you the option to turn this on and off which is something Gmail doesn’t do. Personally, I don’t understand why all mail apps don’t offer conversation view, it’s a far better way to keep track of your email history.

Office Web Apps Integration:

Microsoft has integrated Office Web Apps and Skydrive into Hotmail. You can now edit documents and presentations right in Hotmail without even having to download them. Hotmail is also using Skydrive to store photos so you can attach and view large photos right in your email app.

Single Contact List:

This may be the coolest new feature in any webmail app out there. “The new Hotmail brings all your online contacts into one convenient place — even those from services like Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace. Send an email to anyone, and if you want to you can manage your contacts by creating categories such as Friends or Co-workers to easily organize your address book.”

Exchange ActiveSync:

Gmail started offering this late last year and it works great for iPhones and Blackberries. I suspect heavy Hotmail users will be just as happy as I was to start using this with their mobile devices.

There’s a lot more new features including the ability to flag, move and manage your emails intuitively based on who they’re from. In the end I have too much invested in gmail to move away now, but I can honestly say that I’m impressed at where Hotmail is headed. This update has been a long time coming and you can really see that Microsoft wanted to make significant, deep changes in hotmail and they have definitely done that. These aren’t minor, cosmetic changes.

But what do I know, all of these changes are live so go login to your old Hotmail account or go sign up for a new one and let me know what you think in the comments section.

Filed Under: Reviews, Uncategorized Tagged With: email, hotmail, microsoft, Web Apps, webmail

What Not to Do if You’re the CEO of a Company Trying to Generate Buzz with Social Media

December 1, 2009 By James View Comments

Almost a month ago I wrote a post about DeadCellZones.com getting it’s server crushed by receiving a link from LifeHacker.

As of today the site is still down. I simultaneously received a comment on my blog and on Twitter from the CEO of DeadCellZones.com telling me that in fact Dead Cell Zones is not down for the count but would be resurrecting in a matter of days. Both comments explicitly asked me if I wanted to check out a preview of the new site.

Below is the very brief and very bizarre email exchange between me and Jeff Cohn, CEO of DeadCellZones.com:

Me: Hi Jeff, I saw your comment on my blog. I would definitely be interested in taking a look at what you guys have coming out.

Jeff: How could we benefit from you seeing it? What is your interest in the space and how could you help / or hurt us?

Me: Hmm, well you asked me if I wanted to see it. I answered you. The way it normally works if I see something I like I share it. I usually don’t waste my time writing about things just because I don’t like them. Your story was interesting because I was able to use it as a lesson on how to be prepared for traffic. If you are comfortable with taking a look at the preview that’s fine, if you’re not that’s also fine. I’m not out to hurt anyone. I’m also not going to promise anything just to see it.

Me: On second thought I’m not really interested. Good luck with the launch.

Jeff: If you are willing to write a corrective post if you like what you see I am happy to send you some screen shot maps of the upper east coast.

Screenshots? I’m supposed to write a corrective post about a site that, as of now, is still down based on screenshots?

Me: No thanks. There’s nothing to correct. When I wrote the post the site was dead. It still is. Frankly your approach is a bit offsetting, I’m actually writing a post about that now. Again, good luck with the new site.

Jeff: Why didn’t you send an email asking why we shut it down? That is good reporting.

Me: I knew why you shut it down. The original image you displayed on your site after the crash said as much. You got linked from a high trafficked site (LifeHacker I think) and you weren’t prepared for the influx of people. It seemed pretty straight forward to me.

Jeff: Not exactly. Have you ever published a map with lots of data?

At that point I just didn’t know what else to say so I just stopped writing back. I was shocked that someone trying to seemingly generate buzz for their site that’s about to re-launch would be so rude. Don’t ask me to preview something and then ask what I can promise you or do for you in order to actually see the preview. It’s tactless.

So, if you’re the CEO of a company try not to engage someone and then be defensive and confrontational when they try and connect with you. By the way, I’ve also posted the original image you had posted on your site after it crashed. Why would I send an email asking you about something you’ve already told the world? Of course you’ve since changed your image, but the message is still the same.

There’s my take on the re-launch. Hope that helps Jeff.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ceo, dead cell zones, jeff cohn, Social Media, Web Apps

Brizzly: What Twitter would be with a Facelift and on some Steroids

November 20, 2009 By James View Comments

For the past year or so I’ve been making a concerted effort to move everything I do into the cloud. I love knowing that I’m not tied down to one machine. It’s very freeing to know that I can log on from any computer in the world and have access to virtually everything I need.

The more I use Twitter, the more I’ve been searching for the perfect web app to handle my Twitter needs. A few days ago I wrote about Seesmic’s Twitter Web App, which has pretty much become my default app of choice. But as I mentioned, Seesmic is still missing some basic functionality that I’d like to see added and until I find an app that can handle everything I need I’m always going to be on the lookout for new innovations.

The other day I got an invite to another Twitter web app called brizzly and I have to say, wow. Not only is the design drop-dead gorgeous, it’s loaded with features. It’s by far the most powerful Twitter web app I’ve seen. Not only does it have many of the features some of the more robust desktop clients have, it even has some unique features that are pretty cool too.

Brizzly not only supports multiple accounts it has facebook integration as well, both of which are big pluses in my book.

Screencaps and more details after the jump.
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: brizzly, twitter, Web Apps

James Poling

Gmail Adds Drag and Drop Attachments

Five Chrome Extensions That Will Make Your Life Easier