FairShare – A Tool To Track Content Theft

FairShare is a new tool to monitor the spread of your published content. It tracks the web for similar content, plagiarism and content theft. If you are a blogger or web publisher then FairShare could be a very useful tool for you.

Some cool features of FairShare are :

• Monitors everything and anything which is published via RSS; e.g. – Blog posts, poems, articles, tweets, recipes, songs, essays etc.
• Contents can be attributed with Creative Commons license.
• Supports and optimized for English, French, German,  Italian, Norwegian, Russian and few more languages.
• Just provide the URL of RSS feed and your e-mail and Fairshare does the rest.
• The results (i.e. the list of URLs re-using  using contents etc.) can be retrieved via RSS. Subscribe to it in any feedreader. You can also opt for weekly summary only.

• The reports contain various parameters like details about the similar article, source article, number of words copied, percentage analysis etc.
• You can see the details of the websites using your contents (or similar contents).

Hence, FairShare is a powerful tool for tracking the re-use of your published contents. It does not support images and other formats yet. The service is totally FREE and provides accurate data.

FairShare is strongly recommended for all web publishers. Sign-up for FairShare.

PDFtoWord – Convert Your PDF Files to Word Online

PDFtoWord is an online tool for converting your PDF files to Word (.doc) files. Upload your PDF files to PDFtoWord and you will get the resultant word document via e-mail. It is a free service which requires a simple registration. It’s not the only service which does this online but it certainly is one of the better ones which converts pdf files to word files without popping weird errors.

Some cool features of this service are :

• It is totally FREE. No premium or trail account.
• The conversion is most accurate. I have tried several other services for the same task, but found it to be most accurate.
• You can also opt for Rich Text Format (.rtf).
• The converted word document retains same text formatting. You get the similar text size, font attributes etc.
• Supports all unicode-based characters.
• Retains tables and convert them into editable tables.
• Active hyperlinks are also supported. All the links in the original PDF file are retained as such.
• Converts images, screenshots and graphics without causing any overlap.
• Manages alignments, ordering of objects, background, transparency etc.
• Conversion process is FASTER than other similar services.

Hence, PDFtoWord is a perfect online solution for PDF to Word conversion. It is a much advanced tool and gives most accurate output.

Check out PDFtoWord.

Doomi – To Do Manager

Doomi is an Adobe AIR based To-Do list manager. It is one of the simplest task schedulers and reminders available. You will love this app because of its sleeker look and easy to use interface. Using Doomi (do me), you can list down all your pending tasks. Just enter them in the text box, hit the enter key and you are done! You can also setup custom time interval for the tasks and therefore it also allows you to get a reminder at a certain time.

The Doomi panel can be moved anywhere on desktop and can be minimized or set to “Always In Front”. The to-do’s can be reorganized via drag and drop. Once checked as completed, the tasks go hidden as old and can be accessed later just by a simple mouse click on the “Show Old” at bottom. Hence, Doomi keeps archives of your old tasks as well.

You may miss some essential features like online synchronization and custom color scheme, which one can expect to be added in the upcoming release.

It is definitely one of the best to-do managers as it is lighter and user friendly.  Doomi requires Adobe AIR, so install it first. Install Doomi

Dabbleboard – Free Online Whiteboard

Dabbleboard is a free online whiteboard which helps you in sharing and visualizing your thoughts with others on the web. It is virtual real-time whiteboard and provides many advanced features to communicate your ideas.

Features of Dabbleboard are :

• Registration is not required to use this tool. But, if you wish to save your drawings online you need to sign-up. Drawings can be saved to your computer as well in .PNG format
• You can insert images to your board from your computer or from the web.
• PDF files can also be inserted.
• To enter normal text just click anywhere on the board and start typing. Font color can also be decided.
• All objects on the board are movable. Place them anywhere.
• Objects can be resized, deleted, and replicated easily.
• Dabbleboard supports shape recognition. It guesses common shapes from draw strokes. Moreover, you can draw freehand as well.
• Sharing is very easy with Dabbleboard. You can share your whiteboard with others by sharing its unique URL with them. At the same time, you can chat with them without using any other tool.
• Though, the basic service is free and offers the above features, you can always consider upgrading to the pro version which offers some other advanced features, like secured SSL access.

Dabbleboard, in my opinion, is the best online whiteboard, which offers real-time and advanced sharing. A very useful webapp for team collaboration.  Check out Dabbleboard .

Twe2 – Get Your Twitter Replies and DMs Free on SMS

Twitter offers its SMS alert service only in the US, India and Canada. But, using Twe2 you can get free Twitter SMS alerts on your mobile phone in other countries as well. Now if you are thinking that Twe2 is just like using the mobile version of twitter then you are wrong. Because unlike Twitter which sends updates of the people you follow, Twe2 would send you an SMS alert only when you get a @reply or a direct message (in fact there is one more type of alert which you can get, which you will read later in this post ).

So twe2 alerts you when someone is trying to have a conversation with you.

Features of Twe2 are :

• It is free.
• You need to send any SMS to them in order to verify your account. The verification code will be send to your number.
• You can control the SMS frequency. The maximum number of SMSes you can receive is 100 per hour. (Twitter offers just 250 per week!)
• Set the specific time to get updates during the day or on specific days of the week.
• Select to get only replies or DMs or both.
• You can view all the sent SMSes online by moving to “Sent Tweet” tab.

And, now the best part of Twe2. Twe2 may not be able to deliver you your entire twitter stream, which in fact is quite unrealistic considering it is an SMS alert service, you can still get updates related to any keyword. Twe2 supports Twitter’s advanced search syntax and operators. Pretty cool, isn’t it ?

Hence, you can track tweets from any tweeter user or get updates about any #hashtag. This feature makes Twe2 very unique and useful, especially for those who can’t get internet on their cellphones.

Join Twe2 and enjoy this twapp.

Open IT Online – Open Your Files Online

Open IT Online is a Firefox add-on to open your files online, without using any special service. It can open documents, images, presentations and spreadsheets online using online tools like : Google Docs, Zoho, ThinkFree, Vuzit, Picnik, Pixlr etc.

Open IT Online supports following file formats -

• Documents (*.doc, *.rtf, *.odt, *.sxw)
• Spreadsheets (*.xls, *.csv, *.ods, *.sxc)
• Presentations (*.ppt, *.pps, *.odp, *.sxi)
• Images (*.jpg, *.gif, *.png)

By using this cool add-on, you don’t need to have any offline software for opening above file formats online. After installing this add-on, whenever you try to open any supported file, Firefox will ask you to choose the way to open it. In the options, you can see Open IT Online and the services registered with it.

Hence, you can choose the service (Google Docs, Zoho etc.) and open the file with that. This add-on simply redirects the opening process to the online tools.

Some more features of this add-on are :

• No need to register for using it.
• See the file size before opening it.
• Set different defaults for each file type.
• Decide to open the file in same / different tab or window.
• Easy interface to modify your settings.
• Also supports Flock. (browser based on Firefox)
• No support for PDF files yet
• Unable to open attachments of emails.

Though, there are some similar add-ons available for the same purpose, we would recommend Open IT Online as it is very easy to use and works really well.

Check out it : Open IT Online (Firefox Add-on)

Scoop – Desktop Based RSS Reader Sync with Greader

Scoop is a cross-platform desktop based RSS reader which offers a very cool feature – synchronization with Google Reader. It supports Windows, Mac and Linux environments and uses the Adobe AIR platform.

Scoop offers a very sleek user interface with easier navigation. You can add your favorite RSS feeds to scoop easily. Scoop offers great customization for refreshing time and desktop notifications.

Another very unique feature offered by Scoop is its ability to create different profiles. Hence, you can manage different accounts without any problem.

While creating a profile, you can enter details of your Google Reader account and set the refresh time interval.

Some cool features of Scoop include :

• Supports tags feature of Google Reader. You can add tags even offline which will be automatically synchronized as you go online.
• It stores your read items for offline reading.
• Supports two way synchronization. Items you marked read in Scoop will be marked read in GReader as well.
• Enable or Disable Desktop notifications, when you are working in other windows.
• You can set the time duration between consecutive syncs.
• Your starred items are also synchronized with Scoop.

Hence, Scoop serves as a stand alone RSS client for your desktop as well as an offline tool to access Google Reader.

Scoop is in beta now, so we can expect more features in future. As, it is powered by Adobe AIR, so you need to install it first. (Get Adobe AIR)

Download Scoop.

Friendbar : Firefox Toolbar For Twitter and Facebook

Facebook and Twitter are the best way to connect with friends, colleagues and professionals. Friendbar is a firefox addon which helps in managing your conversations in these two social networking sites better.

Friendbar serves as a toolbar for Firefox, which helps you to get and post updates to Facebook and Twitter easily without the need of visiting these sites. You can also search Twitter and Google using its search-box.

Some cool features of Friendbar are :

• You don’t need to visit Facebook or Twitter page to check updates.
• Navigate to new and old messages easily.
• Set display of Text or Images.
• Search Twitter and Google with the  search box.
• Get stream of Shared Images from your Facebook Friends.
• Post, Reply, Message and Retweet Buttons.
• Create a short URL of current page just by a mouse click and Friendbar will automatically insert it into post box.
• Play sounds for new incoming massages.
• Set custom massage cycle (i.e. the time difference between two updates)
• Click to open the links in the updates in a new tab.

Hence, Friendbar is an ideal tool to use facebook and twitter. Some similar add-ons like TwitterFox etc., fail to integrate both of them so effectively. The best feature of Friendbar is the Photo Display.

Check it out : Friendbar (Firefox addon)

LibriVox – Get Downloadable Audiobooks For Free

Audiobooks are  simply the books in digital media form. Audiobooks are very  helpful, especially if you are quite busy and have no time for reading books. You could just get them in your cellphone, iPod, iPhone or an mp3 player and listen to them while traveling or driving. LibriVox is the online depository of downloadable audiobooks. The objective of LibriVox project is to make all books in the public domain available, for free, in audio format on the internet.

LibriVox is a non-commercial, non-profit and volunteers powered project. Volunteers records (i.e. read aloud) those books which have been out of copyrights. These audiobooks are available in popular formats like mp3, ogg etc.

Here are some features of this free tool.

• Wide range of public domain books available.
• Offers RSS feeds for new releases of audiobooks.
• Lets you volunteer by helping you record and publish your own audiobook easily.
• Active forum of members available if you need any help.

As I mentioned earlier downloadable audiobooks can be carried anywhere with a portable device and can be read, rather listened to whenever you are free for listening. Hence Audiobooks can save your time, help you in managing your life better and generate your interest in the topic. You can opt for various types of books which includes religious books as well.

Take a look: LibriVox Homepage