Image Searches Made Easy

Posted by on Feb 11, 2009 in Internet Mastery | 0 comments

Image Searches Made Easy

As a Web Developer and Virtual Assistant I am constantly on the lookout for images that can be used for a multitude of projects.  Frankly, I don’t want to devote a lot of time digging around the internet looking for images. Ginipic takes image search to a whole new and rather exciting level meaning that you can now search image search engines, photo sharing websites, or even your own local picture collections simultaneously.

Ginipic is a free desktop-based application that eliminates the need to search for an image, download it to your local machine and then copy and paste the image to whatever document or application you are working in.  The application returns thumbnails as you can see below.  Simply click on the thumbnail and see the result in a large preview window. Ginipic allows you to enter a search query and then drag and drop the image to anywhere you want. You can also post it to a blog, save it locally in a folder on your computer, share it on social networks, or even set it as a desktop wallpaper.

One of the things that I greatly appreciate about this application is that they are very cognizant of copyright issues and they make sure that you see the appropriate owner details and copyright level for any given search result.

Currently, Ginipic only supports the Windows Operating System so if you are a Mac user, you will not be able to use this application just yet.  It also requires that you install Microsoft .Net Framework in order to run the sofware. Overall, I think this is a great application and would like to hear from other users.

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Google Toolbar Blocks Popups

Posted by on Jan 24, 2009 in Internet Mastery | 1 comment

Table of contents for Google Applications

  1. Google Notebook – Collect and Organize Information
  2. Optimize Your Google Adsense Earnings With This Free Tool
  3. Stay On Top Of Google
  4. Google’s New Web Browser – Google Chrome
  5. Google Toolbar Blocks Popups
  6. Google Flags Entire Internet as “Malware”
  7. Have You Built Your Google Profile Yet?
  8. Google As a Social Network?
Dozens of pop-up ads covering a desktop.

Are you tired of those never ending and intrusive popups that assault you when visiting websites? They never seem to go away do they? You can close and re-close and close and re-close again, yet you are back to where you began. They are annoying, time consuming and potentially dangerous.
If you use Google as your search engine of choice, you can automatically block those popups, ads, and spyware by utilizing the popup blocker on the Google Toolbar. You can also instantly see a websites page rank with this toolbar.

Once installed, the Google Toolbar is an extremely effective tool for stopping and virtually eliminating all pop-ups. The toolbar even includes a counter so you are aware at all times just how many pop-ups were blocked from your system.

In addition to the pop-up blocker included with the Google Toolbar, there are many other tools included:

  • Search the web with Google from any site
  • Fill in forms with one click
  • Highlight search terms on a page
  • Blog This (a free account with Blogger.com is required)
  • View all Google Toolbar features here

System Requirements:

  • Windows 95/98/98SE/ME/NT/2000/XP
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 or later
  • The pop-up blocker feature requires Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 or later

We realize that sites sometimes communicate useful information with popups. The Google Pop-up blocker can remember these sites so that popups are allowed to launch. This information is stored on your computer in what’s known as a “whitelist.” The Pop-up blocker uses the whitelist to turn itself off when you visit sites with popups you want to see. Be sure to visit the Google Toolbar’s FAQ’s page before you install this toolbar.

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Google’s New Web Browser – Google Chrome

Posted by on Sep 6, 2008 in Internet Mastery | 0 comments

Google’s New Web Browser – Google Chrome

Table of contents for Google Applications

  1. Google Notebook – Collect and Organize Information
  2. Optimize Your Google Adsense Earnings With This Free Tool
  3. Stay On Top Of Google
  4. Google’s New Web Browser – Google Chrome
  5. Google Toolbar Blocks Popups
  6. Google Flags Entire Internet as “Malware”
  7. Have You Built Your Google Profile Yet?
  8. Google As a Social Network?

You probably already know that Google has launched it’s new open source web browser – Google Chrome.  Why is this important?  As Google so rightly points out, in online industries such as mine (web development and virtual assistance) we spend an inordinate amount of our time working inside a browser.  We search, chat, email and collaborate in a browser.  And in our spare time we shop, bank, pay bills, read news and keep in touch with family and friends - again, using a browser.

The new browser is streamlined and simple, clean and fast. I have divided up my web development team and half of us are using our browser of choice and half of us are testing Google Chrome.   One of my developers loved the fact that the Google Chrome features were introduced in comic book form, and another was quite irritated with that format.

I found the most impressive features to be the ability to run each tab as a separate process, so if a site or action crashes one tab, the entire browser won’t crash.  That is an answer to a prayer for me.  It also delivers Opera-like “speed dial” with thumbnails of your most visited 9 websites.

Unfortunately at this time this browser is only available for Windows, but Mac and Linux versions will be offered soon.

To give Google Chrome beta a try you can visit the Google Chrome website at http://www.google.com/chrome/.

Let us know your thoughts!

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