Check out this group of some of the best web tools and best posts about cool online tools so far in 2008.
Convert Archives Into Different Compression Formats (RAR to ZIP and etc) by Raymond.cc
Although ZIP is the most commonly used format for file compression on Windows PCs, several other compression formats actually do a better job of producing more compact files. If you ever receive archives in these formats (such as RAR, 7z or KGB) and can't open them, or you'd like to be able to use alternative formats, this handy utility converts archives between numerous compression formats.
Testing the Quintura Site Search Widget by Pandia Search Engine News
Quintura is an alternative search engine developed in Russia, based on semantic technology. What sets it apart from the crowd of other alternative search engines is the way it presents search results in Web 2.0-style clouds of related search terms that help you narrow or expand your search simply by clicking your mouse. The folks at Pandia explain here how you can now use the same technology to spider and search your own site or blogâ€"for free.
social bookmarking services and community websites submitter by Social Poster
Here's a list of 79 social submission bookmarklets you can simply drag to your Firefox toolbar to install. The list includes direct links to register for each service, login and submit a new item, as well as each site's Pagerank and Alexa rank. This is social posting for the lazy (or extremely busy).
Top 10 Obscure Google Search Tricks by Lifehacker
This isn't actually a new tool but rather a collection of neat tricks for using Google to accomplish a range of tasks, from simple things like tracking flight status and calculating currency conversion to more advanced activities like finding free music, filtering image search results and evading your company's site blocking software (ahem, not so sure that last one is a good idea, but it's an interesting trick). These have been compiled by Gina Trapani, best-selling author of Upgrade Your Life: The Lifehacker Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, Better and Lifehacker: 88 Tech Tricks to Turbocharge Your Day.
SpaceTime
A search tool that provides "unlimited space," enabling you to search Google, YouTube, RSS, eBay, Amazon, Yahoo!, Flickr and Images all in one 3D space. SpaceTime's™ 3D Web Search lets you choose a search engine from the drop down menu, type in your search term and view all your search results at once in a slick 3D interface. It's not quite something you can't live without, but it is a fascinating and cool new way to search the web, find videos and shop online.
Online Alarm Clock
This is about as simple and elegant as web tools get. Hey, why waste twelve bucks on an alarm clock when you can make your $900 PC perform the same function?
Gmail Hacks, Tips & Tricks by Best of the Web
As with the Lifehacker post above, this isn't a tool but rather an exceptionally useful collection of tips and tricks, in this case for Gmail users. Learn how to master Gmail's keyboard shortcuts, streamline the process of adding attachments, quickly switch between multiple Google accounts, read your Google Reader RSS feeds from within Gmail, use Gmail as an external hard drive, back up your email account and more.
4Q - The Best Online Survey For A Website, Yours Free! by Occam's Razor
Google Analytics evangelist Avinash Kaushik offers a free on-exit web survey tool featuring three simple questions to help site owners determine why certain pages get visited much more frequently than others, why certain pages have higher exit or bounce rates, and other critical information, using real data rather than idle speculation.
Pageflakes Acquisition Confirmed by TechCrunch
Erick Schonfeld reported a few months ago that custom web startup page provider Pageflakes had been acquired by LiveUniverse. Pageflakes is a cool tool for making the web your own, similar to Netvibes or TopNetPix, and has been covered in this blog before, most recently in January of this year when several new features were added to the tool. Under its new ownership, the tool so far keeps getting better.
DomainTools
A collection of a dozen cool webmaster tools including Mark Alert (provides an alert anytime a domain uses your trademark), detailed uptime reports on web hosting providers, DNS Tools (whois, traceroute, and ping), Domain Monitor (a free tool to monitor all your domains) and more.
Previous posts in this series:
Best of 2008 (So Far) - SEO Guidance, Part 1
Best of 2008 (So Far) - SEO Guidance, Part 2
Best of 2008 (So Far) - Search Engine Marketing, Part 1
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del.icio.us tags: cool online tools, Raymond.cc, alternative compression formats, Quintura, Pandia Search Engine News, Social Poster, Lifehacker, Gina Trapani, SpaceTime, Best of the Web, Occam's Razor, Avinash Kaushik, TechCrunch, Erick Schonfeld, Pageflakes, LiveUniverse, DomainTools
icerocket tags: cool online tools, Raymond.cc, alternative compression formats, Quintura, Pandia Search Engine News, Social Poster, Lifehacker, Gina Trapani, SpaceTime, Best of the Web, Occam's Razor, Avinash Kaushik, TechCrunch, Erick Schonfeld, Pageflakes, LiveUniverse, DomainTools
Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom
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