Web Applications: Review

I enjoyed going through web applications. The Go2Web2.0 website was a wonderful list of possibilities. Several of the applications that I found are listed below.

Professional Sites
Reminder Service
http://iwantsandy.com/
I Want Sandy is a reminder program. You start the program by adding this as an email contact. If you send an email to this address with a short message about an upcoming event and a date, the Sandy Program will send you a reminder in the future. It can contact you in several different formats - email, mobile phone, or calendar system (Yahoo Calendar, Google Calendar, Windows calendar etc.). What is nice about this is that it also works with groups. It will send an entire group a reminder at a future date. The other people are just 'CC'd". This program is free and easy to use. It was designed to work with Twitter, but works independently. This is useful at work when you have several people to contact. You can set it up in advance and not worry about it.


Journal Writer
http://penzu.com/pad
This is a very simple word processor. Registration is simple. The interface is very attractive. It looks like a piece of notebook paper. The typeface is inviting. There is a good introductory section about the types of journals that you can keep and the value of keeping a journal. This program offers you a place to journal that is very secure (double locks), very easy to use, very portable. You don't need to be at your computer when you want to journal. It is web-based and available anywhere. You don't have to worry about leaving your journal on your computer or having it read in your email by your IT department. If you want to print your journal or share it with others, those options are available. It is a very simple word processor that can be used anywhere.


Simple Charts
http://chartgizmo.com/internal/ChartsList
This is a simple graphing program that even children can use. It uses the most common types of graphs (pie charts, bar, ring, 3-D, and line graphs) and sets them up for you. You can add them your your website or application. You can import excel data.

Poll Writer
http://www.99polls.com/signup.php
Many times you just want a quick poll to add to your program or website. This was simple and concise. It gives you the code to add to your website or you can link to the poll site directly and use their webspace.

Personal Sites

Funny Photo Maker
http://www.faceinhole.com/home.asp
This is just a fun photo site. You are given a wide selection of scenarios with the face missing. You can then add your own face or the face of someone you know quickly. You can save it or use it in an email or website. It is a very easy photoshop tool. You can be Luke Skywalker or a Teletubbie. When we were in Las Vegas, one of the hotels did this for a fee. Now you can do this online yourself. If you want you can use your own backdrop and place your own faces into the scene. This is just a lighthearted site - but a lot of fun.


Travel Planner
http://www.kayak.com/
I had heard of Kayak before but had never visited the site before now. I have used all of the major planning site for travel and was interested in how this one compared.
This site was developed by Orbitz, Expedia and Travelocity together. It is not a travel booking site or a travel agent as the other sites are. Kayak is a comparison site. It does an excellent job. It sorts ALL of the airlines or hotel chains and presents the data to you in an easy to understand format. I really liked it. I booked several trips that I am familiar with to see how it worked. I loved it. It is the first site I will go to in the future to work on travel plans. You still have to go to the airlines directly to book, but you have the right data and have the comfort of knowing that you did not miss anything. The only airline that was not accessed by Kayak was Southwest Airlines. But that's OK. Southwest is such a miserable airline - I wouldn't fly with them anyway!