Using today’s web browsers, there is really just one big switch controlling JavaScript: it’s either on, or it’s disabled for your entire web experience. Pop-ups are usually blocked, but otherwise, that’s a pretty blunt control. I may not want some random site to potentially exploit some issue via JavaScript, but I can’t check my webmail without it. Disabling JavaScript completely isn’t a good option.

White-listing to the rescue! By explicitly saying which websites can run JavaScript in your browser, you can reduce your risk quite a bit. Unfortunately, in researching this post, I could only find one tool for this job: the NoScript add-on for Mozilla Firefox. I use it, but I expected to find similar offerings for the other web browsers.

So, here’s a new twist here at HTH. We’d like to know what our readers use for JavaScript control, if anything. Lots of folks also just block pop-ups (which is the default behavior in most recent browsers), or Flash, or plugins in general.

What do you use for JavaScript control, if anything?

The most important note, in my opinion, is that parents must be aware of what their children are doing online. No software package can be a fool-proof child safety-net. This could be a useful tool, but it doesn’t allow a parent to be uninvolved.

• Ars Technica: Hands-on: Microsoft launches child-friendly IE8

It is important to note that if you are using FireFox, this doesn’t apply as Google is only dropping support for FireFox versions 3.0 or lower.  Since Firefox prompts the user to upgrade, most Firefox users are up-to-date.  Google is also planning to stop support forr Chrome 4.0 or lower and Safari 3.0 or lower.  For more information on the different web browsers and where to download newer versions, see our primer on web browsers.

The Social Bookmarking Sites

Delicious: Delicious (formerly del.icio.us) was the first of the social networking sites.  It simply allows people to link to interesting stories, and the more times a story is linked to, the higher it ranks.  Delicious was bought by Yahoo! recently, and has undergone a face lift.  While still very popular, it goes simply by number of links and doesn’t have the voting features of the others.

Digg: Digg touts itself as a social news aggregator, where its users find and link to news stories.  Digg added the concept of voting to allow the wider Digg community to vote the story up or down.  As stories gain in popularity, they become more visible on Digg, with the most popular stories making it to Digg’s front page.  Digg also acts as a social networking site, allowing users to friend or follow those whose links they generally find interesting.  Some have criticized Digg for becoming too cliq-driven and too slanted in its views, but it remains one of the popular bookmarking sites.

Yahoo! Buzz: Yahoo! Buzz was Yahoo’s answer to Digg,  Yahoo had the advantage of being the first major search engine/aggregation to add social bookmarking functions to its offering.  While featuring many of the features of Digg, Yahoo! Buzz offers the publishers of web content the ability to go in and modify entries linking to their content.

Reddit: Reddit is an open-source social bookmarking site that performs many of the same functions of Digg.  Where Reddit differs, however, is the way that it responds to user’s criticism and feedback of its features, and has a robust discussion community that debates and talks about the stories posted.

Stumbleupon: StumbleUpon is a different kind of social bookmarking site.  The idea of stumble upon is that, when browsing the web and funding an interesting article/page/etc., you mark it.  Then, users go to the StumbleUpon site (or use the StumbleUpon toolbar), and browse sites that others have stumbled on.  StumbleUpon is different in that it is not limited to news/content sites but can be any interesting Internet site or page.

Technorati: Technorati is a social bookmarking site specifically focused on the blogging community.  Blogs create their own feeds, where their blogs latest stories are automatically posted in Technorati.  Users can also flag blogs or stories that they follow, or find interesting.  Technorati is more of a blog search engine, which popularizes entries based on tags and user voting.

Whatever site you choose to try, Social Bookmarking gives you an option to explore the wider Internet, and find content that one would not have found otherwise.  Some have compared Social Bookmarking to an online Reader’s Digest, but with the users/readers as the editors.

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a communication service in which users send short, 140-character messages called “Tweets”.  The service was originally intended to be integrated with cell phone SMS text messages, hence the 140 character limit.  When a tweet is posted, it goes on the general timeline, which is a reverse-chronological list of all tweets worldwide.  Obviously, with millions of users, following the general timeline is a virtual impossibility.  Luckily, over the years, Twitter has come up with a variety of ways to filter these tweets.  This includes following and hashtags.

Following: Much like friending someone on Facebook, when you follow someone, they show up in your personal friends timeline.  This allows you to follow the tweets of people you are interested in rather than the general timeline.  This is much more manageable, but can get unruly once you follow a lot of people.  People can also follow you as well, which means that they see your tweets on their personal timeline.  You do not have to follow everyone who follows you.  It is good to be selective to match the type of tweets that you are interested in seeing.

Hashtags: Hashtags are topical tags placed in twitter that are easily searchable.  A hashtag is a topical keyword or phrase preceeded by a # sign.  For example, if one wanted to view all tweets surrounding Windows 7, one could search (at search.twitter.com) for #Windows7.  Additionally, if I wanted to tweet on the topic of Windows 7, I would include #Windows7 in the text of my tweet.  Multiple hashtags can be included in a tweet, and groups have also formed that have their own hashtags.  Most twitter tools out there allow you to create and store hashtag search results as virtual timelines (more on twitter tools in a bit). So if I wanted to tweet about the Windows 7 launch because I want to set up my home theater PC (htpc for short), as well as have it show up in the technology category on twitter, I could tweet “Looking forward to picking up #Windows7 and setting up my #htpc.  #technology”.  This would show up under three Twitter searches:  #Windows7, #htpc, and #technology.  Notice that I included hashtags in both the body of my tweet and after the main content of my tweet.  Twitter is also very useful for asking questions:  “Anyone know about what features are in the latest release of #firefox?”  Hashtags are a great way to get targeted information and sort through the banal “I am walking the dog right now” type tweets.

Communicating with Others

Twitter allows you to send both public messages, known as mentions, and private messages, known as direct messages, to other users.  There is also the option to forward a tweet that you find interesting to your followers (known as “re-tweet”).

Mentions: A mention is a public message or reply to another Twitter user.  To send a message directly to another user, you simply type the user’s twitter name preceded by an @ symbol.  For example, if you wanted to send a tweet to us at High Tech Household, you’d simply take our twitter account, “HTHTweets” and use it in the message.  For example: “@HTHTweets, I really enjoyed your post on #Windows7.”  That tweet would both show up directly in our mentions timeline and in the #Windows7 hashtag search.  When browsing the timelines, if you hit the reply button that twitter uses, it simply places the @twittername in the tweet entry area.

Direct Messages: To send a private message to another user, you simply type a D followed by the username.  For example, “D HTHTweets Thanks for the tip on how to use twitter.”  This message would only be viewable by the HTHTweets accound and no one else.  It is important to know that in order to send a Direct message, that user must be one of your followers.

Retweet: Retweet is not an official Twitter function, but has become very commonplace.  It is a way of taking a tweet you find interesting, and forwarding it onto others.  A retweet is almost the same as a mention, except that it is preceded by the letters RT.  So if I wanted to retweet to my followers that someone liked our Windows 7 post, I would tweet “RT @JoeUser @HTHTweets, I really enjoyed your post on #Windows7.”

Twitter Tools

Truth be told, the Twitter web user interface is not very intuitive or practical.  Because of that, and because Twitter has an open API, a variety of twitter tools have surfaced to allow for aggregating tweets in a way that makes sense.  Most have the ability to show multiple timelines in columns, and the ability to add, show, and hide columns.  Columns can include your own followers, the general timeline, your mentions and direct messages, and any number of hashtag searches that you decide to add.  So these tools can allow you to view and communicate with multiple timelines at once.  The most popular (and best, in my opinion) tool for this purpose is TweetDeck (pictured below).  Other popular tools include TweetGrid and Twhirl.  Numerous tools also exist for mobile smartphones such as UberTwitter and Twitterberry for the Blackberry, Tweetie and Twitterlator for the iPhone, and AndTweet and TwiDroid for Google Android phones. There are also other auxilliary tools such as Twitpic for sharing photos, Twitterfeed which posts tweets on a user’s blog.  An extensive list of the top 21 twitter tools is available at TechRepublic.  If you are serious about using Twitter, using these tools is essential.

Tweetdeck

Conclusion

Twitter is one of the more complicated and hard to explain of the social networking tools, but is useful for communications on various topics.  It is probably one of the more conversational social networking sites (limited to 140 characters, of course), and has taken the tech world by storm.  This article barely scratches the surface on how to use Twitter or its many uses (including Microblogging, news, networking, and general  conversation around various topics and events).  In the next post in this series, we will review sharing of information on the web through social bookmarking.  In the meantime, happy tweeting!

What is VoIP?

Voice over IP (or VoIP) is a technology that essentially uses the Internet to place phone calls, rather than traditional phone lines.  When you make a call, the call is routed to the recipient or to a central server farm that eventually reaches the recipient’s local calling area, and connects out to traditional phone lines in that area to eventually reach the recipient, as if it were a local call.  VoIP has been around for some time in different forms.  When I was in graduate school living in New York, I had a VoIP calling card which allowed me to call my then-girlfriend and now wife for reasonable rates that fit a poor graduate student’s income stream.  The quality was poor and there were often dropped calls, but it got the job done.  VoIP has come a long way since then, and is now a fairly reliable means of communications.  There are several different flavors of VoIP that provide different options, and the choices can be somewhat confusing.  Here, we will look at three different providers that represent a fair cross-section of what is out there on the market.

VoIP Providers

Skype: Skype is the most common of the VoIP providers.  Skype offers the ability to use a computer headset and microphone to make phone calls anywhere in the world.  Skype involves downloading an application that acts as the desktop phone system, and allows users to talk to each other for free if both are using Skype, or for very low rates to call actual phone numbers either domestically or internationally.  Skype also allows users to video conference, and to have an inbound number to receive calls to the desktop.  Skype is a good application for free and low-cost phone calls, but it is not a replacement for a land-line or mobile phone.  For one thing, you have to be on your computer to use Skype, and it does not support any kind of emergency-911 service.  If you’re looking for a cheap way to supplement your traditional phone line to make cheap long-distance calls, Skype provides a good option.

Vonage: Vonage is a VoIP service that acts as a traditional phone service.  Vonage takes the place of your local phone carrier, but sends all of its calls over IP.  Vonage is a subscription-based service that connects to your cable or FiOS broadband connection through a specific Vonage router provided as part of the service.  Vonage allows you to choose your router, and unlike Skype, supports emergency-911 by configuring your locality when setting up your account.  However, Vonage is subject to power failures and your broadband connection, which can have a tendency to experience problems more frequently than traditional or mobile phone networks.  Still, Vonage is a good option for people who want a low-cost long distance carrier that mimics a traditional land-line setup.

Google Voice: Google Voice is a virtual PBX system that allows users to connect a VoIP number to their other existing mobile and land-line phones.  When a caller dials a Google Voice number, it will forward the call and ring to all other numbers defined as linked to the Google Voice number.  Google Voice also acts as a calling-card type system to make outbound long distance calls.  Google voice also has advanced features such as voicemail transcripts, ability to route calls to different numbers based on who the call is coming from, and the ability to record calls and listen to them online.  Google Voice allows users to make use of more advanced features that VoIP and the internet allows that isn’t easily available on traditional phone lines, as well as offering a low-cost option for placing calls.

There are many other VoIP services, but most of them have similar characteristics to the three mentioned here.  With the news about Google Voice now being available as an app for the iPhone, VoIP has the potential to revolutionize not only the way we make traditional phone calls, but also the mobile phone market as well.

In the last few years, social networking has exploded with sites such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and LinkedIn.  Social Networking also includes blogs and social bookmarking sites such as Digg, del.icio.us, Reddit, and StumbleUpon.  Social Media sites such as YouTube and Flickr round out the social networking platform.  This series will look briefly at all of these types of sites.  Further information and tutorials will be provided in future posts beyond the scope of this series.  Part I of this series will focus on Social Networking Sites in particular.

The Major Social Networks

Social Networks are sites that typically allow users to create a profile page for themselves, and then find other people that they know (“friends”) and interact with them.  Social Networks allow people to interact by posting updates on what they are doing, and often provide apps to allow for expandability.  The major social networking sites are Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and Bing.

Facebook:  Facebook is currently the largest of the social networking sites.  It began its life as a way for college students and professors to interact (in fact, you used to have to have a .edu email address from a university to join).  Since it has opened up to the rest of the world, it has become the de facto social network.  Facebook offers good control of who can see what on your profile, and allows you to maintain a large friend list with limited profiles, and have an expanded profile for your closer friends.  Facebook also provides the ability to create and join networks, which allow for users to interact around a group, a company, or an event.  If you are new to social networking, Facebook is the place to start.  Facebook has become the site of choice for keeping up with old friends, posting photos online, and just catching up.

MySpace: Before FaceBook, MySpace was the most popular of the social networking sites.  MySpace offered greater flexibility in the creation of pages, but it was harder to set up a profile/page than it was on FaceBook.  MySpace has become very popular in the music industry from aspiring musicians to major headliners to post news to their fans and provide samples of their work.  Originally not as secure as FaceBook, MySpace has made strides in recent years in providing some of the same security control and featuresets as FaceBook.  MySpace is still very popular, and allows users to easily post multimedia, something that is not as common on FaceBook.

LinkedIn: LinkedIn is the social networking site for business professionals.  It allows professionals to post their resume, info about their company, and network with each other for business purposes.  I have personally witnessed the importance and effectiveness of LinkedIn.  My company was looking to partner with another company because they provided a service that would be beneficial to our product.  We had tried to contact someone at the office via traditional means, but always reached dead ends.  Finally, our CEO decided to find and contact their CEO via LinkedIn, and we had a meeting set up for the following week.  LinkedIn is a great source for professionals to discover new opportunities.

Ning: Ning is one social networking site you probably have not heard of, but is the most popular of the Social Networking Sites beyond the “big three” mentioned above.  It is important because Ning is a platform that allows users to create their own social networking sites.  Ning has been used to create social networking sites for educational institutions, political activism, corporate branding, artists, churches, computer programmers, etc.  The possibilities are limitless.  Ning allows extendability through its OpenSocial API, which allows any developer to extend the functionality of Ning.

Other Social Networks

There are many other smaller social networking sites that aren’t as big as the four above, but they deserve mention:

• Bebo: Bebo is a smaller Social Network, which recently created hooks into other social networks to allow users to view their profiles across networks in one place.
• Orkut: Owned and operated by Google, Orkut is a popular social networking site in countries other than the U.S., particularly Brazil and India.
• Hi5: Never been able to compete with the top 3, Hi5 is similar to FaceBook but popular in Central America.
• Frendster: Frendster was actually the first of the modern social networking sites.  Competitive with FaceBook and MySpace in regards to features, it just doesn’t have the same marketing presence as the other two.
• Xanga: A niche social networking site, Xanga is focused on video, photos, and blogging.

What About Twitter?

Ah yes, Twitter.  Twitter is in and of itself its own animal in the Social Networking world.  It is also the most complicated to explain and describe.  For this reason, I have decided that it deserves its own post in part 2 of this series.

Wrapping It Up

Social Networking has overtaken the web, and has changed the way people interact using the Internet, and it has proven itself to be beyond just a fad.  While newer technologies and sites may eventually overtake the sites mentioned in this article, social networking is here to stay as a medium.

Since the battle between Netscape and Internet Explorer ended, different web browsers have come and gone, with varying levels of success.  The Browser debate also garners a lot of passion as people get very attached to their personal choice of web browser.  While there are countless minor web browsers out there (which we will examine at some point in the future), we focus on the five major web browsers currently in use:  Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla FireFox, Apple Safari, Google Chrome, and Opera.

Internet Explorer: Internet Explorer (IE) is the default web browser as well as the browser with the most market share, because it is made by Microsoft and is automatically installed on every single instance of Microsoft’s Windows operating system.  Since IE beat out Netscape in the original browser wars a decade ago, it has had the majority of the market share.  That market share, however, has eroded in the past few years as people have become more Internet-savvy, the availability of more powerful and faster browsers has become commonplace, and the stagnation of the IE browser in terms of a development roadmap has frustrated users.  With the latest release (8.0), Internet Explorer adds many more features  and improves performance, but still lags behind compared to other browsers.

• Latest Major Release: 8.0
• Pros: Standard with Windows, no installation necessary.  New version has some neat features such as color-coded tabbing and Accelerators to increase productivity, and somewhat catches it up with other browsers in terms of standard features.
• Cons: Still bloated and slower than other browsers, doesn’t support latest HTML5 web-standard.  Only available for Microsoft’s Windows Operating System.  Doesn’t meet web rendering standards.
• More Info: Internet Explorer 8 Home

FireFox: FireFox was created from the Mozilla Open Source project as an alternative to Netscape.  Introduced in 2004 as a lean, fast browser, FireFox has always led IE in both performance and features.  Firefox is a fast, feature-rich, and efficient browser, and is the favored web browser of techies (and also my own personal browser of choice). It is cross-platform, meaning it can work on any of the major operating systems (Windows, Mac, and Linux), and has a rich library of plug-ins that allow anyone to easily extend the browser’s capability.

• Latest Major Release: 3.5
• Pros: Fast and light, recent version speeds up JavaScript.  Plugin capability and best memory utilization.  Perfect balance of performance and features.
• Cons: New version is a bit more bloated than past versions, not as fast as some of the lesser browsers.  Doesn’t have some of the new usability features of IE 8.
• More Info: Mozilla FireFox

Safari: Safari has been the default browser for Macintosh computers since the release of Mac OS X in 2003.  Safari quickly gained a following among Mac fans, and was touted for its speed.  In 2007, the browser was ported over to Windows.  The Safari browser is known for its speed, being among the fastest browsers, but lacks many key features present in other browsers, and suffers from some website compatibility problems.

• Latest Major Release: 4.0
• Pros: Fast, nice graphics and interface.
• Cons: Memory hog, no plugin support, lacks many standard features found in IE and FireFox, no Linux version.
• More Info: Apple Safari
  

Google Chrome: Chrome is Google’s entry into the browser space.  It gives a new, different spin on the web browser concept, giving the browser a minimalistic frame and focusing more on the web pages themselves.  Chrome, being a Google product, also integrates Google’s search expertise right within the browser, allowing users to type in URLs  and search terms (or both at once) directly into the address bar.  Still being a relatively new entry into the browser market, Chrome has a tendency to be buggy, and although it allows plugins (unlike Safari), it has very few of them.

• Latest Major Release: 2.0
• Pros: Fast, light interface.  Different web browsing experience, more about the pages and less about the browser.  Unique address/search bar allows for a more intuitive browsing experience.
• Cons: Few features, buggy, prone to crashes.  Currently only available for Windows.
• More Info: Google Chrome
  

Opera: Opera has the least market share of the major web browsers, but it has its own loyal following.  Known more for their mobile and non-PC based browsers (Opera’s browser powers the Internet Channel on the Nintendo Wii), the Opera Browser has its own unique features that make it a compelling choice for a browser.  Opera has always been known for coming out with new, advanced features that eventually make their way into other browsers.  For example, Opera invented the concept of browser tabs that have become a de-facto standard in any web browser.  With Opera 10, Opera again pushes the envelope and also makes some major inroads in performance, making Opera a compelling alternative to the other browsers.

• Latest Major Release: 10.0
• Pros: Unique, powerful features, and new, fast level of performance.  Cross-browser platform available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
• Cons: Less add-ons than FireFox, no privacy mode.
• More Info: Opera

In the end, the choice of a browser is a personal one.  All of the major browsers have their pros and cons, and the available choices provide the browser world with much-needed competition to keep innovation happening.  What looked to be a Microsoft monopoly a few years ago has now turned into a rich software marketplace that gives end users multiple good options.  So if you’re still on the default Internet Explorer 6 or 7, try a new browser.  Even if it’s just an upgrade to IE 8, you’ll be pleasantly surprised, and the alternative browsers offer features and performance benefits that will make you wonder how you ever lived without them.