New Web 2.0 Services to Try Out Now

Yardena Arar, PC World

Thursday, April 24, 2008 10:00 PM PDT

The Web 2.0 Expo at San Francisco's Moscone Center West, which wraps up today, doesn't take up a huge amount of space: Startups predominate, and most don't have money for big flashy booths. But there's more cool new technology per square foot here than at many big trade shows.

The quality and usefulness of the Web-based services presented here vary widely, and many will never see a real commercial launch. But if you have the patience and curiosity to try some intriguing free beta software, consider the ones described below. They are available now or will be available shortly.

Content Creation and Publishing

Oosah slide-show customization tool; click for enlarged image.

Oosah lets you create customized multimedia slide shows (Oosahs) using Web videos and still images from your own hard drive, or from major social networking and sharing sites such as Facebook and YouTube. Once you've collected the images you want to use, you can drag and drop them onto a workspace and then add transitions and music. You can publish the finished product on your Web site or on removable media (such as a DVD), or export it to PDF for printing out.

Sprout app for Flash Web pages; click for enlarged image.

Sprout makes creating Flash Web pages drag-and-drop simple, even for newbies. Not only can you fiddle with media and text, but you can insert preset widgets--a calendar or a button, for example--or services such as Twitter feeds or a PollDaddy survey. When you're done, you can post your creation to any of 20 popular sites (MySpace, Facebook, Blogger, and so on) at the click of a button--or cut and paste the HTML on your own Web site.

Springnote notebook site; click for enlarged image.

Springnote is a simple notebook application that comes with a collection of templates--calendars for to-do lists, an event planner, a reading list, a recipe, and so on. It's easy to set up and might appeal to people who want a little more than they get from the free-form Zoho Notebook or Google Docs.

HyLighter document collaboration tool; click for enlarged image.

HyLighter is a collaboration service that focuses strictly on documents. Users can annotate a document (each user's highlighting appears in a different color) and then invite other users to help with the writing and editing. The basic selling point here is a versioning tool that lets participants add comments before or while changes are made.

Sponsored Resource:Are you ready for virtualization? Try the sever assessment tool.
Sponsored Resource:Stay at home servers. Learn more about a home server for your family.
Sponsored Resource:Get the communications, data, and security a business needs in one neat package. Learn more.
Sponsored Resource:Learn more about ultra light notebooks from Asus and the best warranty in the industry.
Sponsored Resource:Thinking about a new Laptop? Lenovo has models to meet everyone's needs.
Sponsored Resource:Get the truth about remanufactured ink. Learn more from HP.
Sponsored Resource:Six smart ways to grow small business IT

Recommend this story?
Vote Yes
Vote No
0 Yes
0 No
Email
Comment

Community Comments

News For Your Business

More News

PC World's Marketplace

PC World's Free Whitepapers

Web News

Web-based Applications - July 18, 2008
SAP User Group Launches Database to Help Companies An interview with Steve Strout, the CEO of the American SAP Users' Group.
Web-based Applications - July 18, 2008
Microsoft Adds Workflow to Cloud-Based SOA Platform BizTalk Services project still is in development as the R12 Community Technology Preview is unveiled.
Data Protection - July 18, 2008
More Fixes Needed, Says Finder of DNS Flaw Current patch options merely stopgaps; worst attacks likely on the way.
Software / Services - July 17, 2008
IT Outsourcing Challenges and Solutions Effectively perform an IT application outsourcing without getting trapped into standard headcount replacement from a cheap labor pool.

Latest Expert Blogs

Glenn Fleishman on Hardware - July 17, 2008 11:23 AM
Solid State Drives Accelerate into Market Solid state drives are about to make solid improvements in price, performance, and power usage.
Neil McAllister on Software - July 18, 2008 8:54 PM
Going Mobile with Windows Live Mesh Microsoft's new, networked file synchronization service can keep your files in order across multiple devices.
Erik Larkin on the Web - July 17, 2008 11:58 AM
Have You Fixed Your Company's DNS Servers? Here's a quick test to see if your company's DNS servers, which guide all Internet traffic, are at risk from a major flaw disclosed last week.

All Blogs

Featured Resources

Premier Content From Our Sponsors

Cisco Small Business Center Does your network give your business an advantage? Click here to find out...
Microsoft Servers Center Work from home? Find out how the Windows Home Server can help you.