Anyway, here are all the new webapps and firefox extensions i picked up (and “stuck” with me) over the course of the year:

Web-based Tools:

• Twitter – Just started using it (less than 3 months ago), but obviously it’s a keeper.
• Brizzly – Best web-based Twitter app i could find.
• ReadItLater – One click bookmarks, online sync between browsers, delicious integration.
• Su.pr – URL shortener of choice with Twitter and StumbleUpon intergration
• Feedly – Next generation feed reader with Google Reader and Twitter inegration
• Shareaholic – Social networking tool that integrates with tons of popular services including Su.pr, Del.icio.us, and Twitter.

Here’s some stuff i’ve been using for a while now and will continue to use – although technically all of these were restored from my older backup and i won’t be linking to or describing each of them at this time.

Web Apps:

• Del.icio.us – Still my online bookmarking tool of choice.
• Google Products – Gmail / Docs / Reader (and more but i don’t feel like going into detail here).

FireFox Extensions:

• All-in-One Sidebar
• Download Sort
• Download Statusbar
• Firebug
• Link Evaluator
• Live HTTP Headers
• BookmarkDD
• SEO for Firefox
• Tab Kit
• text/plain
• Web Developer Toolbar
• YSlow

Also, I was impressed by the decreasing number of desktop softwares i needed to reinstall.

Desktop Apps:

• VMware player (win/linux)
• Firefox (win)
• 7zip (win)
• unrar (linux)
• Inkscape (linux)
• gftp (linux)

That’s all i could think of at the moment. If i missed any important ones, i’ll probably just add them to the list. I’m sure there are many other great web-based tools out there. These are just the few i’ve been using. I wonder what new and cool webapps will be added to my arsenal in the coming year? In the meantime, feel free to use the comments below to let me know if you’re using a great webapp not mentioned here.

As far as i can tell, these 4 new features where just added to Gmail:

1. favorite RSS (Web Clips) [ update: this was still pretty broken as of dec.14/05 ]
2. View as HTML (for Microsoft Office, OpenOffice or .pdf attachments)
3. shortcuts on the right (maps, UPS tracking and other info)
4. Virus scanning (ingoing and outgoing emails and attachments)
5. update: Gmail Mobile (visit http://m.gmail.com)
6. update: Vacation auto-responder
7. update: Contact groups (send messages to a group)

All of which are cool but it is the 4th one: Virus scanning that is the main reason i haven’t completely moved away from Yahoo!Mail yet. That is not to say that i haven’t opened a Gmail account and set up forwarding to point to both accounts. i obviously had to see what all the fuss was about. but, i wasn’t prepared to just cancel my old email address.

i like what Yahoo has been doing over the last year or so and i would hate to abandon the trusty web-based email service that have served me so well for over 6 years now, but..

since i don’t have access to a Yahoo!Mail beta account and therefore cannot see what is going on behind the scenes with regards to the potentially awesome “new” version of their email service, i would not be surprised to find myself using Gmail exclusively at some point in the near future.

My impression is that there are just too many good applications out there (Web2.0 or otherwise), and so nobody really has time to keep two, redundant, parallel services in use on a day-to-day basis. A feature like virus scanning is important enough in today’s market to cause people to switch from one service to the next. As such, many who were holding off on using Gmail, hoping to get to use the new Yahoo!Mail already, will ultimately cave in and sign up with google.

Moreover, i’ve noticed that Gmail has more options for importing and exporting things like contacts, etc. – something that will likely encourage new-comers and make existing users feel more comfortable (export features are important to users who are concerned about getting “locked” into a specific software). Also, i think that Gmail does a better job at filtering emails with no apparent limit to the number of filter you can set up. Yahoo!Mail lets you set up a maximum of 15 filters. Two more things that have been annoying with the current Yahoo!Mail service.

You can read more about the new features that Gmail just launched by heading over to: About Gmail.

So i’m on a new mission: find a web hosting provider that meets my current requirements, test a couple out and slowly move over some of my current domains to said provider. i figured that i’d document my research and post it for any who might be in a similar situation. i’ll begin with a brief list of my requirements, followed by a summary of the hosting services being considered and compared. Lastly, i am going to try and sort out various features and determine which service would likely be the best match for my needs.

Key web hosting features (required):

1. multiple domain add-ons (at least 15)
2. unlimited mysql databases (or minimum 50)
3. 1 Gb disk space or more
4. no restrictions on email addresses, forwarding, autoresponders, mailing lists, etc.
5. cpanel, with file manager, disk usage viewer, directory protection, etc.
6. some type of backup (full site backups as well as individual mysql db backups)
7. general domain management (including unlimited subdomains)
8. lots of stats (site-wide stats, subdomain stats, overall bandwidth usage, etc.)
9. other features: phpmyAdmin, ftp access, ssh shell

Many of the features mentioned above come standard with a mid-range web hosting plan priced at approximately $15.00US per month. Other features such as multiple domain add-ons will likely be harder to find in a plan of this price range. i’ll probably have to make some compromises here and there. The objective is to match as many of these features with one of the following provider’s hosting plans.

Here are the web hosting providers being considered for this comparison:

• IX Web Hosting
• StartLogic
• Globat Web Hosting
• Clear-Data Internet Services
• Yahoo Small Business Web Hosting
• Site5.com
• PagesGarden
• HostGator [ update: added Dec.10/05 ]
• A Small Orange [ update: added Dec.10/05 ]

Final Notes -

Some obvious things to look out for when deciding on a web hosting provider:

• don’t go with a provider who’s own company website appears to be slow. chances are, if their site runs slow, yours will too.
• don’t go with a provider who’s own company website is sometimes unavailable. if you go to their homepage twice in two days and one of the times you get: “The page cannot be displayed”, check that you typed the URL correctly in the address bar. if you did, then it might be time to move on. that’s 50% uptime, since your users are likely not interested in calculating averages over time.
• don’t go with a provider that doesn’t display the prices for their hosting plans until well into the signup process. ask yourself, why would they be trying to hide something that every other company is trying to put directly in your face?