There are some useful and free tools on the Web for creating, modifying and exchanging documents, and here are a few.
I have two sites For PDFs (Portable Document Format). The first site is KoolWire.com, which automatically converts Word (.doc), Powerpoint (.ppt), Excel (.xls), Jpeg, GIF, Rich Text Format (.rtf),and Text (.txt) files to PDFs. You attach your files, email them to the site, and they are immediately returned to your email as PDFs. Couldn't be easier.
Here is a new name in Web video, Democracy, which is an open-source, free platform for Internet TV.
This site functions as an RSS aggregator, a technology that allows you to subscribe to video blogs or other video feeds. You can create your own TV channel of videos you find, and make it available to the rest of the world.
There is even a channel guide for the more than 1,000 Internet channels and "vlogs" that are available.
Today, I'm not discussing a cool new search tool. Instead, here's an article in the The Financial Times. Google wants more and more information about you.
The company's CEO Eric Schmidt, talking to reporters in London, said, "We cannot even answer the most basic questions because we don’t know enough about you. That is the most important aspect of Google’s expansion."
Historic Government Publications from World War II is a digital library that contains scanned images of actual documents from World War II.
The images can be viewed on the site, or downloaded.
One can browse through the collection, or search by keyword.
Rollyo enables you to build your own search engine.
How it works:
Build a "searchroll."
A searchroll is a list of sites that you trust. Add all of the Websites on a given topic that you want to the roll. You can assign a general category for the roll, and apply "tags" to describe the topic.
Share searchrolls with others
Other people can search your searchrolls, and you can search theirs to discover new Websites about topics that are important to you.
Midomi is a cool music search tool. If you have a microphone hooked up to your computer, you can sing or hum part of a tune in order to find a song. Your recordings become part of the database.
Midomi is also a community of music fans, for any music genre. You can rate other users' recordings, too.
Consumer Searches To Go is an information service of AARP. The site features categories of information with the general consumer in mind.
Categories include:
• Health
• Money
• Long-Term Care
• Retirement
And more.
For more specialized information on aging-related topics, try Ageline Search, which is geared more toward professionals than the general user.
Search engines come in many flavors, and offer different features. Which one is the best for you? The answer depends on your search.
This comparison chart showcases the different search functions of several search engines, definitions of terminology, and provides reviews.
Sometimes a great place to start a search is in a subject directory.
From the Website: "AskScott.com helps you find the most appropriate Internet reference tool for your search."
The site features search tools and databases for several categories of information, including:
