Netcraft: Web Reaches 100M Sites

According to Netcraft (www.netcraft.com), which has conducted surveys of the total number of web sites on the Internet:

"There are now more than 100 million web sites on the Internet, which gained 3.5 million sites last month to continue the dynamic growth seen throughout 2006. In the November 2006 survey we received responses from 101,435,253 sites, up from 97.9 million sites last month.

The 100 million site milestone caps an extraordinary year in which the Internet has already added 27.4 million sites, easily topping the previous full-year growth record of 17 million from 2005. The Internet has doubled in size since May 2004, when the survey hit 50 million.

Blogs and small business web sites have driven the explosive growth this year, with huge increases at free blogging services at Google and Microsoft. Domain industry juggernauts Go Daddy (U.S.) and 1&1 Internet (Germany) have also seen strong demand for low-priced domain names and shared hosting accounts.

The first Netcraft survey in August 1995 found 18,957 hosts, with the NCSA web server dominating with 57 percent market share, leading CERN (19%) and a newcomer named Apache (3.5%). Microsoft's Internet Information Server launched in February 1996, and by the survey's fifth birthday the server market was largely divided up between Apache and IIS. This month Apache leads with 60.3% market share, with Microsoft at 31.0% and Sun at 1.7%.

Previous milestones in the survey were reached in April 1997 (1 million sites), February 2000 (10 million), September 2000 (20 million), July 2001 (30 million), April 2003 (40 million), May 2004 (50 million), March 2005 (60 million), August 2005 (70 million). April 2006 (80 million ) and August 2006 (90 million). "

Netcraft: Web Server Survey Archives

Amazing growth. Makes me wonder what the curve will look like in the next 10 years....

Create a searchable Google map

An excellent article on how to create searchable Google maps:

Vitamin Features » Create a searchable Google map

Using Amazon S3 for PC backup

A gentleman by the name of Jeremy Zawodny has published a couple of excellent blog articles outlining his plans to replace a home backup server with a service provided by Amazon known as S3 (stands for Simple Storage Service).

S3 is a hosted storage system that Amazon has released in the form of Web services that allow virtually anyone to use their storage on a "pay by the drink" basis. Their pricing is very reasonable-- US $0.15/GB per month for the storage, and US $0.20/GB to transfer the data to and from S3.

Jeremy's first posting outlines a cost justification for using S3 over maintaining a home backup server, and he does a great job of analyzing the costs (including electric use and the cost of the server)--in a nutshell, he shows that 5 years of backups on a home server is $2,275 assuming that no hardware maintenance is required, vs. $1,688 using S3 (assuming pretty hefty storage growth rates, from 125GB to 200GB).

Jeremy's second posting contains a list of utilities that backup local data using S3, most of which are free. I will definitely check them out, and kudos to Mr. Zawodny for some very useful and interesting thinking!

Replacing my home backup server with Amazon's S3
A List of Amazon S3 Backup Tools

iTunes 7.01 Released for Download

Apple releases iTunes 7.01


Apple released iTunes 7.01 today--reputed to solve many of the bugs that iTunes 7.0 introduced, including crackling noises, iPod sync problems, etc.

Apple - iPod + iTunes - Download iTunes

Bezos gives a look at 'hidden Amazon'

The 'Hidden Amazon'

Interesting column in InfoWorld outlining some new Web services that Amazon have released that allow them to sell excess storage and compute capacity to third-parties. Amazon has always been regarded a Web services pioneer, beginning with their early work in publishing their products and shopping cart code as Web services, making it easier for Amazon partners to incorporate Amazon into their own Web sites. The new set of Web services, known as "Simple Storage Service" (S3) and Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are "pay by drink" services. Amazon also released a third Web service, known as "Mechanical Turk", which allows developers to easily post questions to a large group of people.

Bezos gives a look at 'hidden Amazon' | InfoWorld

Makes me wonder what's next for Amazon--grid computing and on demand????

How BitTorrent Works

Howstuffworks "How BitTorrent Works"

An excellent article that explains just how BitTorrent works, along with some of the more esoteric terms, like "seeders" and "leechers". Highly recommended reading for those who desire a deeper understanding of BitTorrent. The article also has an excellent primer on peer-to-peer networking in general.

Zoho - An Impressive Suite of Web 2.0 Apps

Zoho - Affordable software for individuals, small & medium business

I just came across Zoho today, and they have assembled an impressive list of Web 2.0 apps, most of which appear to be free or low-cost. The first application that I have used is Zoho Projects, which is a free project management tool that seems pretty decent (you sure can't beat the price). I was able to create a project plan for a demo platform that I'm working on in less than five minutes--try *that* in MS Project! Curiously, Zoho Projects does not appear in the list of Zoho apps--perhaps it's in beta and they're limiting access to people who come across it (like me).

Upon further investigation, I discovered that Zoho is actually a product of AdventNet, whom I worked with quite a bit as an industry analyst. AdventNet has quite a collection of enterprise management, security, database, software testing, and now collaboration/CRM (Zoho suite) products--they have been very busy! AdventNet got their start years ago by creating an SNMP toolkit that is embedded in many systems management products today.

I plan to try out the other online Zoho tools, which include an office suite (replete with a word processor, spreadsheet, collaboration software (email client, calendar, etc), chat client, presenter, planner, and even a CRM tool--quite an impressive list. Virtually all of them are 100% free with the exception of Zoho Virtual Office (the Outlook-like app), which is free for up to 10 users, and Zoho CRM, which is free for up to 3 users. I have not been able to find pricing for Zoho Project, but my guess is that it is free for up to a certain number of users.

In addition to the office tools, Zoho also includes a set of management tools, including a Website monitoring service (100% free!), a survey tool, and a tool for evaluating candidates--the latter is free for up to 25 candidates. Incredible.

This is by far the most complete set of apps that I've found in one place--rivaling what Google is trying to assemble with Writely, et al. Kudos to the AdventNet team for creating all of these apps, and for making most of them completely free!

WikiCharts � Top 100 � 08/2006

WikiCharts � Top 100 � 08/2006

Cool new tool that shows which Wikipedia pages are accessed the most.

WikiMapia - Cool Web 2.0 Mashup

Today I discovered a very cool Web 2.0 mashup that combines Google Maps with Wiki functionality, allowing people to tag places all over the world, adding their own comments and information. I heard about them as they recently announced that the millionth place had been tagged, indicating (to me, anyway) that they are "for real".

To try them out, I tagged the two fishing camps that I visit every year: Davin Lake Lodge and Wathaman Outpost (their commercial website is at http://www.davinlake.com) . To view the tags I created, click on the boxes, and if you've visited their camps, feel free to add to my entries (anyone can edit any of the listings--the beauty of Wiki!).

I also recently added a WikiMapia entry for my company, Proxima Technology, which is about to relocate its UK headquarters to an awesome office, called the New Lodge, near Windsor.

Cool stuff!

Google Cheat Sheets (Version 1.02)

Google Cheat Sheets (Version 1.02): "This two page Google Cheat Sheet lists all Google services and tools as well as background information. The Cheat Sheet offers a great reference to grasp of basic to advance Google query building concepts and ideas."

Cool!

Web 2.0 Technologies: Rails, Geocoding, and Google Maps

Web 2.0 Technologies: Rails, Geocoding, and Google Maps

Cool article on how to use Google maps with Rails. I've decided to embark upon a spare time project to learn Rails, and this is probably as good of a place to start as any!

While I'm on the subject, I came across a very entertaining intro to Ruby at http://poignantguide.net/ruby/ ; I don't know how good it is at actually teaching you how to program in Ruby, but it's a fun read nonetheless.

Fifty Ways to Take Notes » Solution Watch

Fifty Ways to Take Notes » Solution Watch

Sung to "Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover", this site shows 50 ways to take online notes, including Writely (which was recently acquired by Google). Nice compendium.

Instiki-Instant Wiki

Instiki

This is a Ruby-based instant Wiki application that allows you to run a Wiki server on your PC with very little installation and minor overhead on your PC.

All that is required is Ruby (which is free), and Instiki (which is also free).

That said, I tried to install it last night, and while the install went without a hitch, when I tried to access the Wiki page, it would only come up with a blank page. I even tried changing the port and shutting down my firewall-no dice. When I have time I'll spend more time playing with it, as I think the idea is a really great one for keeping track of personal notes, and such--think of Wikipedia, only it has just your stuff in it!

Free "secure" anonymous e-mail

FREE secure anonymous E-mail to a friend, client or colleague: WillSelfDestruct

This is an interesting service--you type in a message, specify who to send it to and a time limit (e.g. 30 seconds), and if they leave the page, refresh, or if time runs out, the message is automatically destroyed.

There is only one problem that I can see--the web page isn't encrypted (e.g. the supposed "secure" message is being sent over the Internet in clear text! Perhaps that's in version 2...."Now featuring REALLY, TRULY SECURE messages!"

Hmmm.....OK, so again--where is the business model?

Podbop-great new mashup

This is a web mashup that won first place at Mashup Camp a couple of weeks ago. It is a service that generates a Podcast that contains the bands that are playing in a given city (as an RSS feed), along with an MP3 file of the band playing, if available.

Podbop uses Eventful as its base source for local event data, and they use a variety of other sources to provide the mp3 files. The URL is www.podbop.org, and I just subscribed to the service--it seems to be working as advertised. Hopefully I'll find new cool new bands that we'll want to go see this weekend!

The Next Net 25: 25 startups that are reinventing the web - Mar. 1, 2006

The Next Net 25: 25 startups that are reinventing the web - Mar. 1, 2006

Could one of these be the next Google?

Windows Live Local - Virtual Earth Technology Preview

Windows Live Local - Virtual Earth Technology Preview

Now THIS is cool--a Microsoft technology preview that lets you drive through a city (virtually, of course), including all of the views you would get in a normal car (front, back, left/right, etc). It will be really interesting to see where they take this technology.

Live Thumbnails: Watch 'em Grow

Live Thumbnails: Watch 'em Grow

A really cool bit of Javascript wizardry that allows you to create image thumbnails that magically grow to full size when you click on them.

Google releases Desktop 3.0 Beta

Google Desktop 3.0 Beta


Google has released the beta of Desktop 3.0, which includes the following new features;

- Search for files across all your computers
- Google can upload search information for multiple computers to their servers; this allows them to consolidate the information so that you can search the contents of multiple computers. Note: search information is tranferred securely using SSL.
- Share information with your friends right from the Sidebar
- New feature

I've just installed it on my machine; I'll post an update after I've had a chance to use it for a few days.

Mega Mashup: integrating Gmail, Gtalk with Flickr, YouTube

Google and Flickr integration with Gtalkr:

"Gtalkr is a Flash-based web app designed to bring your Google apps (Gmail and Google Talk) together with Flickr, YouTube, and newsfeeds for an all-in-one media and communications mega-package."

A very cool mega-mashup!

30 Boxes | it's your life

30 Boxes | free shared online calendar

This must be the day for free Web 2.0 apps! 30 boxes is a free shared calendar app (Ajax based, of course)--looks pretty decent although it's very lean on the synchronization options at present (seems to have some export functionality but very little import options, much less sync). I'm sure that will come--and if they're smart, at a price!

LoanBack: Online Promissory Notes

LoanBack: Web 2.0 app with a real business model

I read about LoanBack on Tim O'Reilly's blog; these guys found a business need first, and then used Web 2.0 technology (Ruby on Rails, I believe) to "instantiate" it.

Their service creates custom, legal, promissory notes designed for loans between people that know each other. Great idea--hopefully they'll be able to turn it into a business success.

Speaking of mashups--how about LoanBack mashedup with PayPal? After the agreement has been made, LoanBack could integrate with PayPal to make the payment. You could also mash LoanBack with Blinksale (a Web 2.0 invoicing app) to make sure that the person who is borrowing the money doesn't forget to make regular payments!

Num Sum - web spreadsheet

Num Sum - web spreadsheet

This is the perfect companion to Writely--a Web-based spreadsheet. I found out about this during a conversation with a journalist that is covering Writely for Inc Magazine. Like Writely, NumSum is free. Seems like numsum and Writely ought to combine forces...add web-based database and presentation software, interface them (can you say "mashup?"), and you've got a very interesting alternative to Office--particularly so when paired with OpenOffice or StarOffice, which gives you the "offline" side of the equation, also at low cost.

At first glance, I thought this was another app by the 37signals guys (the same group that brought us Basecamp, Backpack, Writeboard and Ta-da List), but upon further inspection it appears to be a totally new group called TrimPath. It seems that the perceived similarities between all of these new SAAS (software-as-a-service) offerings is that they're all based on Ajax, which tends to give them a similar look-and-feel.

Regardless of who is behind it, Num Sum seems to work well, especially for Beta software (although to be fair, I haven't done anything really difficult with it yet). The biggest ding so far is that NumSum doesn't currently support a direct import from Excel, but you can copy directly from an Excel spreadsheet and paste it into Trimpath's 'import' function (which, as you might guess, copies the contents of the cells but not the underlying formulae). That's OK for simple sheets, but let's hope they add a direct Excel import function soon!

I'm still wondering about the business model here...but perhaps that's it--build a product on the cheap, get some free publicity, and sell the company to Microsoft for a few million. Not a bad idea.....

Mashups

I'm seeing an increasing number of "mashups," aka web application hybrids, hit the Web 2.0 scene, and it's really exciting stuff IMHO.

Before I go into some of them, I should probably define mashups, as I've found that many people don't know what they are (you can also find the Wikipedia definition in the hotlink above this paragraph). In a nutshell, if you think about web services as being advertised bits of code that deliver useful functionality (a perfect example is Google maps), then a mashup is taking a web service and combining it with one or more ("mashing them up") in order to create new functionality.

A good example of a mashup would be to combine Google maps with mobile telephone "dead zones" (either provided directly by the cell providers but most likely generated by public contributions--e.g. if you get dropped every day on your way to work, you go to a web site and enter the coordinates of the dead zone). You could then combine this database with Google maps and plot out exactly where you could expect to get poor coverage, even if you've never driven the road.

Other intriguing mashups (which may or may not actually be technically possible) would be combining Yahoo's new Web email client with 37 signal's BaseCamp project management software--a project manager could input tasks and then export them to Yahoo -- a poor man's version of Exchange, with no Microsoft software required.

Another mashup might be to interface various sources of public data, like weather, with a securities trading system to enable investors to make even faster buy/sell decisions based on many different variables.

I read about another intriguing mashup, along the lines of the first example: combining WiFi hotspot information in airports with AC outlet locations--and make it accessible from a wireless phone, so you could determine very quickly the best place to "park" yourself while waiting for a flight.

There is a Mashup Camp taking place February 20-21 in Mountain View, CA, for those hard-core mashup types that would like to cross-pollinate their mashup ideas, and for the record, a couple of the ideas above came from their web site.

SimpleTicket - Open Source Trouble Ticket System for Small & Medium Sized Businesses

SimpleTicket - Open Source Trouble Ticket System for Small & Medium Sized Businesses

Awesome. This is the type of solution that Web 2.0 embodies--I haven't tried it, but for SMBs, this could be the perfect alternative to commercial service desk systems--particularly so for those that couldn't afford one any other way.

planiglobe - online map creation

This is cool--online map generation that you can save to postscript and illustrator formats. They appear to have high-res maps for just about anywhere, and so long as you retain their watermarks and don't use the maps for navigation, they're licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License , which basically states that:

You are free:

• to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work
• to make derivative works
• to make commercial use of the work

As with all of these sorts of services, I have to ask the question: where's the business model, other than displaying some Google adsense links on the page? Hmmm...

Regardless of the business model, this is sweeettt!

Data Mining using Google

CyberWyre � Data Mining using Google

Cool article with tips on searching Google in new and innovative ways.

"Complete" List of Web 2.0 Applications

OK, so it's not the complete list, but it's a good one--worthy of a read.

Rollyo: Roll Your Own Search Engine

Create your own search engine, only from sources you trust. Interesting idea!

I haven't tried this yet, but I will....

Mark's Protopage

This is the page that I made using Protopage; I've got it pulling in feeds from all over the place, including my own blogs! It's publicly available if you want to click the link and view it.

JAJAH - Skype Killer?

This is a Skype competitor that is reported to have even better voice quality than Skype, yet uses less bandwidth. I'll try it out and report back on how it works.

OK, I tried it out and was completely unsuccessful at getting the app to run. I'm thinking that it's probably due to Skype 2.0, which was just released; since Jajah is in beta, it's probably not been thoroughly tested with Skype 2.0. Ah, well..a project for some other day.

Google Gmail Loader (GML): Transfer your email to Gmail

Great utility--allows you to import your existing email into Gmail. It supports virtually every mailbox format (IMAP, Netscape, etc) *except* Outlook (grrr), but what do you want for, free! The author is reportedly working on an Outlook version, BTW.

How to add a Google Map to any web page in less than 10 minutes

Cool primer on adding Gmaps to your own web page

Mercury to Acquire Systinet to Capitalize on High-Growth SOA Market

Interesting move--MERQ buys Systinet for $105M. Systinet provides SOA management and governance solutions, and the addition of their products to Mercury's BTO line will help to bolster their offerings in those areas.

Ruby on Rails: Web Development that Doesn't Hurt

This is a cool concept; the company that developed it, 37signals, decided to release their development platform to open source; that's what became Ruby on Rails. They were featured in Episode 5 of the Inside the Net podcast, which I highly recommend.

FreeMind - Free Mind Mapping Software

Main Page - FreeMind - free mind mapping software

This is a free open-source Java mind mapping system; I'll have to try it out.

Mayomi-Web-based Mind Map

This is exactly what needs to happen--a Web-based mind mapping tool that will allow multiple people to collaborate.

Comprehensive list of free file transfer services

CreativeGuy � Blog Archive � Free online file storage/sending