Top Webapps - Browsing

By Benjamin | May 1, 2008

I would venture to say that most everyone understands that you can “view” things on the internet using a web browser. Most people also know about Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Apple’s Safari. But I wanted to point out a few other ways to “view” things on the internet that will save you time and effort.

Google Reader - Google Reader is a Web-based RSS feed reader. Users can subscribe to as many RSS feeds as they want, then browse them in a lean and simplistic two-pane story browser that feels a little bit like Gmail. RSS feeds give users a visually simplified version of Web content. In addition to photos and text, Google Reader will also display embedded video clips from several popular services.

In addition to reading stories yourself, you can share them with others. Google Reader gives users the option to create sharable feeds of subscribed stories, including the ones they mark as being interesting. In 2007, Google expanded the sharing feature by integrating your list of shared stories with buddies on Google’s IM network Google Talk.

Google Reader works on any browser; there are also versions for mobile phones, the iPhone, and the Nintendo Wii.

iGoogle - iGoogle is Google’s customizable start page. Users can add any number of gadgets to their page that can be custom-tailored to link up with all sorts of Web services and serve as mini applications or newsfeeds. One of the features that makes iGoogle especially neat is it can be customized with different themes that change by what time of day you’re looking at the page. Users can create their own themes that go into the same directory that houses the thousands of developer-created gadgets.

Last year, Google also launched the capability to create your own gadgets with no coding knowledge required. Users simply plug in the datafeed and customize the shape, size, and coloring–the service does the rest. There are seven gadget presets to choose from, and using the same technology, you’re able to customize many preexisting gadgets created by others to fit the look and feel of your iGoogle page.

Maxathon - Maxthon has been downloaded more than 140 million times and is one of the few browsers to have mouse gestures as a standard feature. Users can hold the right mouse button and use a variety of motions to emulate clicking navigation buttons. It’s also got a built-in RSS reader and a screen-capture utility. Its development started when the creator, fed up with the lack of customization in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, decided to make his own browser.

While Maxthon doesn’t show up as a major contender in most market share reports, it’s worth noting it’s the second-most popular browser in China and holds 30 percent of the market there as of late April 2008.