One of the things that makes online music services more interesting and useful than your iTunes library is the aspect of a Music Community. Not only can you hear good music, but you can connect with friends and others who share your tastes. This allows you to socialize about your favorite artists and see what others think and listen to. I get a lot of suggestions for new music from the people in my online music communities.

This is the 4th article in a 5 part series on the Best Music Services on the Internet. See the rest of the series:

1. The Most Reliable Online Music Services
2. Online Music Services with the Best Suggestion Quality
3. The Best Music Discovery Service
4. Best Community Driven Online Music Services

Let's take a look at the types of community and social networking that each of these services offeres. (P.S. If you are interested in sharing musical selections with me, there are links at the bottom of the post.)

Community Features Comparison

iLike.com - iLike is allows you to share your music tastes on Facebook, Orkut, Bebo and hi5. Using the iLike application, you can add music to your profiles, be alerted to concerts and new releases by the artists you enjoy, see what music and concerts your friends like, and communicate directly with your favorite artists.

Community Quality  Despite my many disappointments with iLike, the Community features are actually very solid. In fact, they’re probably the only reason to use this service. (4 Stars)

Rating: At least they got something right.

Jango.com – Allows you to share music with friends and tune in to their selections.

Community Quality : The sharing features are decent, but pretty basic. (3 Stars)

Rating: Ok, but nothing special.

Last.FM – This is another area where Last.FM shines. There are numerous ways to connect with other people the site and many popular social networks. They also include forums and groups that you can join. You can pump your listening activity out to places like Facebook, Twitter, or your blog in real-time.

Community Quality : You can connect with anyone, anywhere, on any network from Last.FM. (5 Stars)

Rating: If you’re a social networking addict, this is the service for you.

MyStrands.com – They have a bunch of ordinary stuff here, but nothing special. This is probably the only feature that doesn’t suck on this site.

Community Quality : OK, but still not enough to make me use this craptacular mess. (3 Stars)

Rating:

Pandora.com – You can share playlists with your friends, but that’s about it.

Community Quality : This is the only disappointing feature of an otherwise amazing music experience. Maybe that’s why I like it, it’s simple. (2 Stars)

Rating: If you don’t care about community, this is definitely the best service out there.

Shoutcast.com – Nothing here that I can find.

Community Quality : It’s just radio as far as I can tell. (1 Star)

Rating: Man I have to make the Zero Stars image already.

Slacker.com – Nothing here either. (aside from great music)

Community Quality : Not for the Web2.0 crowd. (1 Star)

Rating: If your boss says that you’re not a team player, give this service a shot.

If I want to hear all of my favorite songs, I can just listen to the “My Top Rated” playlist in iTunes. One of the real values of a good online music service is the ability to turn you on to good new music that you DID NOT know about.

These days I find just about all of my bands from suggestions on my favorite services. Let’s take a look at how our players stack up on the issue of Music Discovery.

Music Discovery Comparison

iLike.com – They give you the option of seeing “New Music from Your Friends”, “New Music from Your Favorite Artists”, or “New Music from People with Similar Taste”.  These are some good ways to find good new music.

Music Discovery While there are many less-than-great things about this service, iLike does a decent job of showing me good music that I have not heard before. (4 Stars)

Rating:

Jango.com – When you build a playlist, they start to suggest other artists that are similar to the ones you have selected. You can leave them alone to hear them occasionally,  add these artists to the mix to hear them often, or delete them so you never hear them. Usually I’ll add artists that I don’t know to give them a listen. If I don’t like the, I just delete them later on.

Music Discovery  Again, I always seem to .

Rating:

Last.FM – I’m not exactly sure how Last.FM determines which new artists to play for me. I’m also not sure that they’re any good at it either. Whenever I select the “My Recommendations” option I never really like what I hear. However, when I select the “My Neighborhood” option, which plays favorites of people with similar taste to me, I usually do like what I hear. Does that mean that the masses are smarter than them? Probably.

Music Discovery  Their suggestions are actually not that good, but the “Neighborhood” ones help me find some decent new music occasionally. (3 Stars)

Rating:

MusicStrands.com – Yet another thing that they suck at. I’m starting to wish I had just left them out of this series all together.

Music Discovery  Pure crap. (1 Star)

Rating: Only because I don’t have a zero stars image.

Pandora.com – Pandora uses some scientific mumbo-jumbo to find music that you’ll like. They constantly mix in “new” music with the songs that you already like using this algorithm. I’m not quite sure how it works, but boy does it ever!

Music Discovery  This is where Pandora leaves everyone else in the dust. They never fail to amaze me with the mix of great songs that I have heard and great songs from artists that I usually like. At least half of the cool new music that I’ve found in the last two years has come directly from Pandora recommendations. (5 Stars)

Rating: I wish I could give them more than 5.

Shoutcast.com – Shoutcast is just a collection of online radio stations. Your odds of finding good new music are only as good as the station that you pick.

Music Discovery  I’m not really that into how Shoutcast works, but I guess you could hunt around and find something worthwhile. (3 Stars)

Rating: Decent, but not for me.

Slacker.com – Slacker gives you plenty of options to adjust your stations music selections. You can stick with more “familiar” music or go for a mix of “newer” artists. This generally helps you find lots of good stuff that I did not know about.

Music Discovery  If I’m in the mood to find a lot of good new music I can make Slacker send me a mix of mostly new music that I tend to like. (4 Stars)

Rating: Nice job!

Have Your Say

Well, you know what I think, let’s hear what you think. You can select more than one choice below if you have a tie for your most reliable service.

The best reason to use any of these music services is to have them send you great music. There are many different ways of determining what “you” will like. They all seem to straddle the line between art and science with a touch of voodoo thrown in. I have spent a lot of time trying to get a stream of good music out of all of these services. Let’s take a look at my mixed results. (Don’t forget to give your feedback in the pole and comments below.)

Suggestion Quality Comparison

iLike.com – They base their selections on your iTunes history and favorites of other members with “similar” tastes.

Suggestion Quality  They do a decent job of sending you songs. (3 Stars)

Rating: Good, not great.

Jango.com - Jango stations play the artists you add, along with similar artists favored by other Jango users who share your taste.

Suggestion Quality : I generally like the selections along with the ways that I can modify what it sends me. (4 Stars)

Rating: Very good.

Last.FM – Last.FM allows you to rate songs up or down and favorite songs that you love. You can also tag songs that you listen to. It also pulls your iTunes data to determine what you like.

Suggestion Quality : It does a very good job of selecting music that I like. (4 Stars)

Rating: Very, very good.

MyStrands.com – When you go to the My Recommendations page it shows you a bunch of songs based on your play history in iTunes. The recommendations are not really that great.

Suggestion Quality : This is just another disappointing feature of MyStrands. (2 Stars)

Rating: Not good!

Pandora.com – Pandora lets you rate songs up and down and bookmark (favorite) songs and artists. It is very quick to put together a batch of songs that I just end up liking. They base their picks on the Music Genome project, which uses data entered by music “experts” to indentify what makes music similar.

Suggestion Quality : This is where Pandora really shines. It just keeps picking one great choice after another. (5 Stars)

Rating: It’s not perfect, but it’s the best.

Shoutcast.com – Shoutcast is really just a collection of radio stations. It’s a straight one-way push. They do have a ton of stations to choose from, so you can usually find something you like, but it does not adapt to you in any way that I can see.

Suggestion Quality : There are no suggestions. You just hunt around and hope you like what you find. (1 Star)

Rating: Hit or Miss.

Slacker.com – The web player and iPhone players both allow you to rate and bookmark songs that you like and dislike. After doing this for a while, you get a pretty good flow of songs that you like.

Suggestion Quality : It takes a little while to fine tune, but it does send you a nice mix of songs based on your feedback. (4 Stars)

Rating: Very, very good.

Have Your Say

Well, you know what I think, let’s hear what you think. You can select more than one choice below if you have a tie for your most reliable service.

One of the most important features of a streaming music service is reliability. All of the other stuff doesn’t matter much if the music keeps stuttering and dropping out or the site’s navigation flakes out all the time.

How Am I Rating this Category?

Interface and Navigation – How clean and usable is the interface? Can I quickly get into my playlists and stations? Does everything work; quickly and without hiccups?

Streaming Quality – When I click Play, what happens? 1 or 2 seconds, then music or do I get hypnotized watching a loading graphic? Does one song flow smoothly into the next or am I stuck in the waiting room?

How Did I Test?

I already use some of these services a lot, but I gave each one at least a half hour on my Desktop (Ethernet cable), Laptop (Wi-Fi) and my iPhone (over AT&T’s lousy 3G network). Let the games begin…

Reliability Comparison

iLike.com – I used to use this service a while ago, but I needed to go back and reacquaint myself before I could render judgment. 

Interface and Navigation In a word, iDon’tLike. The interface is just a mess. It takes too much work to figure out how to get a simple song to play. Then, when you click the wrong thing, you get this shuffle mode that only lets you listen to 30 seconds of a song before skipping to the next one. Huh?  (2 Stars)

Streaming Quality: Once you figure out how to work iLike, the music streaming is great and the audio quality is also. Not much to say here other than good job. (5 Stars)

Rating: Could have been better if not for the crappy interface.

Jango.com – I dabbled with Jango a while back and generally liked it. Let’s see how it fares against the rest.

Interface and Navigation : Jango has a decent interface that allows you to figure out things pretty quickly. It does not have all of the features of a Last.Fm, which is exactly how they help keep the interface under control. Very nice! (4 Stars)

Streaming Quality: Songs play quickly and jump from one track to the next very quickly (aside from the occasional commercial). The audio quality is also crisp. (5 Stars)

Rating: Jango has a nice mix of straight forward interface and solid streaming performance.

Last.FM - I use Last.FM just about every day and really enjoy it a lot.

Interface and Navigation : Interface is not Last.FM's strong suit. They have so many powerful playlist, social networking, and music discovery features that it gets a little overwhelming. Still, it's not as bad as iLike or Slacker. (3 Stars)

Streaming Quality: When you finally figure out how to get a song playing, it sounds and works well. At times, I do catch the occasional slow down, probably due to the huge amount of members that could be tuned in at a given time. (4 Stars)

Rating: If they did an interface design they could easily break into the 4 Star group. Still, I really like this service.

MusicStrands.com - About 2 years ago, I loved MyStrands (MusicStrands?). Since then, they seem to be making serious efforts to destroy the service. I think that they are trying to replace it with Strands or something. Whatever!

Interface and Navigation : The site is a mess. Everything is disorganized and a mystery. (1 Star)

Streaming Quality When it works, which is rare the streaming is OK. (3 Stars)

Rating: This service needs to take a long swim in the dead pool.

Pandora.com - I listen to Pandora every single day. On my Desktop, Laptop, and iPhone. I love it!

Interface and Navigation : This is absolutely the service with the fewest features of the group. Somehow, they make that work for them though. This has the cleanest, simplest, slickest interface of the entire gang. (5 Stars) If you're listening Last.FM, please rip off their design approach.

Streaming Quality The streaming quality is excellent. Every now and then there is a pause between songs, but it never seems that bad. (4 Stars)

Rating: Bravo!

Shoutcast.com - This actually stream other online radio stations through it's player or your favorite desktop player. It is owned by WinAmp (AOL), so it integrates best with that player.

Interface and Navigation : The interface is easy enough to get used to. Pick a Genre, then Sub Genre, then a Station. (4 Stars)

Streaming Quality: Fast and Clear, not a whole lot to say there. (4 Stars)

Rating: Pretty good with tons of choices.

Slacker.com - Slacker is also a collection of online stations that you can customize. They sell their own player that you can download your favorite songs to.

Interface and Navigation : Slacker has a simple player that lets you select from a bunch of online stations. Even simpler than Shoutcast; Select a Genre, then a Station and it starts playing right away. (4 Stars)

Streaming Quality: Songs play right away and come in loud and clear on my computer or iPhone. (5 Stars)

Rating: I really like Slacker.com, especially on my iPhone.

Have Your Say

Well, you know what I think, let’s hear what you think. You can select more than one choice below if you have a tie for your most reliable service.

There are a bazillion services out there that will stream music to you over the interwebs.  A few are amazing an then there are well…”the rest”.

Loading up a few hundred thousand songs and streaming them is not really that big of a deal. The “special sauce” is what adds real value to these services.

Let’s to take a look a some of the major players in this space to see how they all stack up.

The Contenders

I will be evaluating the following seven music streaming services.

iLike.com -enables fans to discover and share playlists, new music that matches their personal tastes, and concerts by their favorite artists. iLike offers retail links to iTunes and Amazon to purchase music, Ticketmaster to purchase concert tickets and Thumbplay for ringtones.

Jango.com  - Jango is a social music service that lets you create and share custom radio stations. It's the easy way to play the music you want online, legally and free.

Last.FM - Last.fm is a music service that learns what you love. Every track you play will tell your Last.fm profile something about what you like. It can connect you to other people who like what you like - and recommend songs from their music collections and yours too.

MusicStrands.com - MyStrands' Social Recommender is capable of automatically learning people's tastes and how their preferences evolve over time. It can be used to generate real-time music recommendations.

Pandora.com - Together, ateam of fifty musician-analysts has been listening to music, one song at a time, studying and collecting literally hundreds of musical details on every song. It takes 20-30 minutes per song to capture all of the little details that give each recording its magical sound - melody, harmony, instrumentation, rhythm, vocals, lyrics ... and more - close to 400 attributes! They continue this work every day to keep up with the incredible flow of great new music coming from studios, stadiums and garages around the country.

Shoutcast.com - SHOUTcast Radio offers thousands of free Internet radio stations from DJs and broadcasters around the world.

Slacker.com - Slacker is what radio was meant to be: personal, portable and free. Slacker attempts to deliver free personalized radio that is customized for everyone. Slacker combines the knowledge of the nation's leading music experts from every genre and your own personal tastes to create the perfect radio stations for each and every listener.

If there are any that are missing, add them in the comments and I’ll try to cover them in a subsequent article.

How We’ll Pick a Winner

I want to base my analysis on a combination of science and art. I have broken out five categories on which all of the services will be judged:

1. Reliability – How robust is a service? Does everything work solidly and smoothly or do the songs pause and jerk like a spastic drunken sailor?
2. Suggestion Quality – How good is a service at playing music that you like? Does it send you a non-stop stream of awesome tunes or leave you scratching your head?
3. Music Discovery – How good is a service at finding new music that you like? Is it more of the same old stuff or are you constantly saying, “I have to get more stuff by these guys?”
4. Community – How good is the community around a service. Are your friends all there? Do you find and interact with other people who have a similar interest? Or, is it just a radio station on your computer?
5. Integration – How well does a service play with the outside world? Does a service allow you to: import data from your desktop and MP3 player, send data out to other services like Facebook and Twitter, provide a client for your phone?

Each category will be broken down in a separate article where you will be able to vote. The votes for each category will be displayed in a sortable table so that you can decide which player is best suited to your priorities.

This is the Introductory article in a 5 part series on the Best Music Services on the Internet. See the rest of the series:

1. The Most Reliable Online Music Services
2. Online Music Services with the Best Suggestion Quality
3. The Best Music Discovery Service
4. Best Community Driven Online Music Services
5. BBest Third Party Integration among Online Music Services

Here's how Evernote explains their service:

Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and searchable at any time, from anywhere.

1. You capture the things you want to remember using what you already use—your Windows or Mac computer, the web, and your mobile phone.
2. We run everything through our recognition technology, and then synchronize it across your devices. You can then organize and tag the notes, if you wish.
3. When you want to find something, just search or filter and there it is just like you remember it.

Adding Information to your Notebook

You can install a desktop application on Windows or Mac computers and use their web interface on Linux machines. They also have a browser plug-in for Firefox and Safari that allows you to clip text and images from web pages and save them.

See the Many Possibilities for Using Evernote in this Video Tutorial

Download the Capture Anything with Evernote video.

Ways I Use Evernote

1. Capturing blog post ideas while I'm at work
2. Saving ideas for work projects while I'm home
3. I pull up my supply lists when I'm at Home Depot
4. Pulling together research for new articles
5. Remembering what to pack when I travel
6. Taking pictures and voice recordings from my phone

More Helpful Tips on Using Evernote

• Evernote has some very helpful tutorials and videos on their site.
• The New Web Clipper Take 2 + Firefox Add-on Update
• Evernote Has Been Busy!
• 6 Ways To Add Your Information To Evernote

Conclusion:

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Every so often I read about the Web OS or the Cloud OS, "When are we going to see the Web OS arrive?" In my mind, it's pretty much here (with a few caveats).

 
A Web Desktop or webtop is a desktop environment embedded in a web browser or similar client application. A webtop integrates web applications, web services,  and applications on the local computer into a "desktop-like" environment. Web Desktops provide an environment similar to that of Windows, Mac, or Linux systems. It is a virtual desktop running in a web browser where data, files, configuration, settings, and access privileges reside remotely over the network. Much of the computing takes place remotely and the browser is primarily used for display and input purposes.

I've tried a bunch of the so called "Web OS" projects out there (list here) and find them all to be pretty worthless. (Albeit impressive displays of AJAX eye candy.)

All of this disappointing research raised the following question:

Can you create a portable desktop environment using a collection of entirely web-based applications and services that can do (just about) anything from anywhere in the world?

Let's Set Some Expectations

That question is loaded with conditions that require some clarification.
Desktop environment = A reasonably integrated window that will allow you to access all of your applications, information, and files.
Collection of applications = Applications that will do document creation, communication, media management and creation, Finances and more.
Everything you need = This is an OS for an AVERAGE computer user; not a graphic designer, hardcore gamer, or video producer.
Anywhere in the world = any computer made in the last few years that is hooked up to a high-speed internet connection.

I’m going to outline all of the steps necessary to build a viable Web Operating system in this article.

1. Build a collection of useful web based applications
2. Integrate these applications together into a series of suites
3. Create a Web Desktop that will tie all of these applications and suites together into a true Web Operating System.
4. Give some extra credit assignments to extend your new Web Operating System.

Building a Collection of Useful Applications

We'll start by gathering up a collection of applications that will allow us to do all of our typical desktop computing. I've selected these apps based on a combination of quality, features, and integration with other parts of the Web OS. Please feel free to substitute parts with ones that you prefer or currently use. I'll cover all of the parts we'll need, grouped into the following categories:

• Communication
• Office/Productivity
• Multimedia
• Finances
• Utilities
• Web Desktop

Let’s get started.

Communication

This is probably one area that most people have at least partially moved from their desktop to the web already. Let's see if we can't go the rest of the way.
Email - Gmail the best webmail out there. You can use the following Greasemonkey scripts to integrate Gmail further into your web services. Google Calendar, Google Talk, RememberTheMilk (task management), Google Reader, and more. http://www.shankrila.com/tech-stuff/top-greasemonkey-scripts-for-new-gmail-20/
Instant Messenger - Meebo allows you to IM your contacts on any network right from your browser.
Phone Calls – GizmoCall allows you to make VOIP calls right from your browser. 
Microblogging - Twitter or Ping.FM will allow you to tell the world what you’re up to.

Office/Productivity

Just two years ago the thought of abandoning your desktop for web-based office applications would have sounded absurd. However, there are at least two great options for getting a nicely integrated, feature rich, alternative to MS Office or Open Office.
You have a choice between Google Documents and Zoho Applications. Google Docs is very tightly integrated with other Google services, while Zoho Applications has a more complete collection of applications. I've been a fan of Google Docs (mostly for the integration factor) until I started researching this article. I think that Zoho apps are so well integrated and allow you to plug in third party services that I'm ready to switch. I'm going to use Zoho apps for this project, but you could easily substitute Google Documents and get some impressive results.

I'm going to build this as an alternative to the full-blow MS Office suite (including widely used bolt-on applications like Visio and Project). First I'll start with the native Zoho applications.

Word Processor, Spreadsheet, and Presentation work exactly as you would expect. Unless you're a spreadsheet genius, you'll have everything you need here. If you don't like one or more of these, we'll see how to plug in any of the Google Apps as a replacement.
Database - Zoho Creator allows you to create databases online. It's simple and works well. You may also want to try Blist for creating online databases. If you need to track and share data, this is a godsend.
Document Management - They allow you to create, upload, store, and organize documents using a "My Documents" style folder system. You can even upload Zip files that will allow you to maximize your storage. They have many options for making your files public or private.

Zoho Services that I Replaced with Alternatives

Mail - It's really nice, and well integrated, but it ain't Gmail. (or even Yahoo.)
Notebook - I love Evernote because it gives me some great information caputring options. Evernote does a great job of allowing you capture and organize all of your notes (text, photos, video, dictation, files). Not only does it capture notes from the browser, you can have a desktop and phone applications for data entry and access. All your notes, everywhere, all the time. FYI: Zoho and Evernote will both import all of your soon-to-be-extinct Google Notebook data.
Chat - Do I really need another chat option? I love Meebo for this project.
Task Management - RememberTheMilk is the best dead simple way of creating and managing to-do's and tasks.
Project Management - Zoho allows you to manage one projectd for free.  I don’t really need online project management, but if you do, give it a shot. 
Flow Chart Creation - Everyone loves a nice Visio diagram. Gliffy  allows you to create and share beautiful diagrams and flow charts.

Integrating Third Party Applications into the Zoho Interface

Zoho has one feature that really blew me away: integration. Not only do they do a great job of creating a unified inerface for their own apps, they allow you to stick just about anything into their interface. Let's take some of the applications that I just listed above (Evernote, RememberTheMilk, Gliffy, or Meebo). It takes four button clicks to tie them right into the interface as if they were there from scratch.

1. Click the Add Apps icon at the bottom of the left Taskbar.
2. Type the name and URL of the application into the fields (ie. Evernote - http://www.evernote.com).
3. Click the OK button.
4. Now, click the More link from the left Taskbar and click your new application.
   

The application opens in the "work area" of the screen and you can do your thing. It's that easy to extend the system. So, like I said, if you still prefer Google Spreadsheets over Zoho Sheet, just plug it in.

VIDEO HERE

Multimedia

Multimedia applications are more like the people who create the media - beautiful, just not quite perfectly organized. There is no "office-like" online media suite that I'm aware of, so we'll have to be a little more creative. For now, let's just grab a collection of apps and services that let us enjoy our Music, Photos, and Videos. Don't worry, I'll tie it together later on.

Music
Music Discovery - I love Pandora and Last.FM for different reasons. If I just want to listen to a bunch of music that I like and get some new suggestions I use Pandora. If I want to see what my friends are listening to or hear what they're liking I use Last.FM. They're both great kind of like a sports car and a luxury car.

Photos
Photo Sharing and Organization - Flickr- There are a million other good photo sharing services, but Flickr has so many great options and the list of services that integrate with it is constantly growing. If you want to edit your pictures right from Flickr, you should try Picnik as your online photo editing tool. Alternatives: Picasa Albums, Photobucket,
Photo Editing - I selected Picnik, because it integrates right into Flickr, but there are some other applications that are a little more feature-rich or powerful. Find other great online photo editing services here and here.

Video
Professional Video Viewing - Hulu, Joost and Netflix (requires Internet Explorer and costs money)
Video Sharing - Youtube. Enough said.
Video Editing - Jumpcut (Cuts, Eyespot, JumpCut, Motionbox, and One True Media) allows you to edit and share your videos online. Here are several other good online video editing services.

Finances

Raise your hand if you or someone you know uses Quicken or MS Money to track their finances and expenses. Yeah, me too. This is another area that we would have shuddered about throwing into the cloud a few years ago. The fact is, you can get your bank on from anywhere these days. My grandmother does it, so what's stopping you?

Mint - Who needs quicken when you can securely store it all in the cloud and get to it from anywhere?
Online Banking - Most banks have online banking that is very useful.

Utilities

Bringing your Local Files with you on the Web - There are a number of services that let you carry your files anywhere on the web. Most of them only let you take a small amount of data for free, but one will allow you to make your entire hard drive available from anywhere in the world. Orb.com is a service that

Virus Scan - If you are on some strange computer that you are worried about, try running a virus scan with one of these great online virus scanning services. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
http://www.bestsecuritytips.com/xfsection+article.articleid+59.htm
Data Storage and Syncronization - There are a number of ways that you can have your files anywhere on the web. Not many provide a lot of free storage, but you can use a few to cobble together a decent amount of storage. My favorite service is Dropbox. It allows you to create a folder on multiple computers and place files (2gigs) inside. These files are automatically synced and update on all of your other computers. (Think Work, Home Desktop, and Laptop.) You can also get at your files from any internet connected machine through their web interface. Box.net is another great online storage service that is accessible from anywhere (1 gig for free). Here is a list of other free online file storage options. If you're willing to spend a little money, your options get really interesting. http://aws.amazon.com/s3/#pricing

Pull it all Together with a Web Desktop

This is where we tie the whole thing together. We need to create a desktop that pulls all of our disparate pieces together into one easy to find place. This will function as our Desktop, Today Screen, Application Launcher, and Information Hub. There are a few good options for creating the web desktop, but the two candidates that rise to the top for me are iGoogle and Netvibes.
I chose to use iGoogle as my Web Desktop because I like the options and flexibility that are easily available. You could do very well with Netvibes too, so if you're already a user, stick with what you know.

Once you have a Google account, you can begin using iGoogle to create your Web Desktop. Click the iGoogle link in the top right section of the screen to begin. You'll start off with a "Home" tab that has a number of common gadgets (content containers) already configured and a Wizard that will allow you to make customizations. Enter your zip code and click the See your page button to close the Wizard.

You use gadgets to add applications and content to a tab. You can add all kinds of content to iGoogle and it can become a real mess, quickly. You can use tabs to organize your content and applications. I started by creating a tab for each category of applications: Communication, Office Applications, Multimedia, Finances, Utilities, and one for Social Networking. Then, I added the applications I needed to each tab. For instance, I added the Gmail, Meebo IM, Twitter, and Yellow Pages gadgets to my Communication tab. On my Office Applications tab I added the Google Docs, Zoho Office, and RememberTheMilk gadgets.

You can add the same gadget to more than one tab. For instance, if you want to see Email and Instant Messaging on Communication and Office Applications you can. You can't always find a Google gadget for every application or service, so I use a simple link launcher to add any miscellaneous services to a tab. When you click the links, the application opens in a new tab.

There is one really annoying thing about iGoogle; the huge header. It just chews up so much valuable screen real estate and forces you to scroll past it all of the time. Well, if you're using Firefox with Greasemonkey, just install this script to automatically hide that stupid header. Believe me, you'll be glad you did. http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/24339

The following video will walk you through the entire process of building your Web Desktop using iGoogle tabs and gadgets.

VIDEO HERE

Wrapping it All Up

We tackled the idea of creating a usable Web Operating System out of readily available parts. First we gathered up a collection of applications to handle our computing needs. Then we organized them into categories. Next we integrated them as well as possible. Finally, we pulled them all into a Web Desktop where they could be organized and launched. With a little bit of creativity and elbow grease, you can create a pretty serviceable, go-anywhere, Web Operating System. The best part is, it's all free to use. Now I know that this is no fully set up Windows or Mac pc, but it will let you get most of your common computing tasks done from any computer. By the time you read this, there will probably be some new applications and/or services announced that make this an even more practical computing option. So the next time you hear someone ask, "When will the Web Operating System arrive?" just tell them, "Yesterday".

Spending a couple dollars to extend the System

Box.net or Dropbox offer file storage that is amazingly convenient, but the file size is limiting. Spending a few dollars on either of their pay services can really extend your Web Operating System.

Using your USB Drive Enhance the Web OS

Just because you use other people's computers (work, friends, family, vacation) to access your Web OS, doesn't mean that you have to be crippled by their personalized setup. You can load portable applications onto a USB drive and carry your favorite browser with you, complete with all of your settings, bookmarks, and passwords. Just pop in your USB drive and use your Firefox, Opera, or Flock browser, as if you were at home.

If you're worried about security on other systems, or the tracks that you'll leave behind, increase your safety by using the Tor Network Plugin and Portable Firefox.

See How You Can Bring the Web Operating System to Life

Every so often I read about the Web OS or the Cloud OS, "When are we going to see the Web OS arrive?" In my mind, it's pretty much here (with a few caveats).

 
A Web Desktop or webtop is a desktop environment embedded in a web browser or similar client application. A webtop integrates web applications, web services,  and applications on the local computer into a "desktop-like" environment. Web Desktops provide an environment similar to that of Windows, Mac, or Linux systems. It is a virtual desktop running in a web browser where data, files, configuration, settings, and access privileges reside remotely over the network. Much of the computing takes place remotely and the browser is primarily used for display and input purposes.

I've tried a bunch of the so called "Web OS" projects out there (list here) and find them all to be pretty worthless. (Albeit impressive displays of AJAX eye candy.)

All of this disappointing research raised the following question:

Can you create a portable desktop environment using a collection of entirely web-based applications and services that can do (just about) anything from anywhere in the world?

Let's Set Some Expectations

That question is loaded with conditions that require some clarification.
Desktop environment = A reasonably integrated window that will allow you to access all of your applications, information, and files.
Collection of applications = Applications that will do document creation, communication, media management and creation, Finances and more.
Everything you need = This is an OS for an AVERAGE computer user; not a graphic designer, hardcore gamer, or video producer.
Anywhere in the world = any computer made in the last few years that is hooked up to a high-speed internet connection.

I’m going to outline all of the steps necessary to build a viable Web Operating system in this article.

1. Build a collection of useful web based applications
2. Integrate these applications together into a series of suites
3. Create a Web Desktop that will tie all of these applications and suites together into a true Web Operating System.
4. Give some extra credit assignments to extend your new Web Operating System.

Building a Collection of Useful Applications

We'll start by gathering up a collection of applications that will allow us to do all of our typical desktop computing. I've selected these apps based on a combination of quality, features, and integration with other parts of the Web OS. Please feel free to substitute parts with ones that you prefer or currently use. I'll cover all of the parts we'll need, grouped into the following categories:

• Communication
• Office/Productivity
• Multimedia
• Finances
• Utilities
• Web Desktop

Let’s get started.

Communication

This is probably one area that most people have at least partially moved from their desktop to the web already. Let's see if we can't go the rest of the way.
Email - Gmail the best webmail out there. You can use the following Greasemonkey scripts to integrate Gmail further into your web services. Google Calendar, Google Talk, RememberTheMilk (task management), Google Reader, and more. http://www.shankrila.com/tech-stuff/top-greasemonkey-scripts-for-new-gmail-20/
Instant Messenger - Meebo allows you to IM your contacts on any network right from your browser.
Phone Calls – GizmoCall allows you to make VOIP calls right from your browser. 
Microblogging - Twitter or Ping.FM will allow you to tell the world what you’re up to.

Office/Productivity

Just two years ago the thought of abandoning your desktop for web-based office applications would have sounded absurd. However, there are at least two great options for getting a nicely integrated, feature rich, alternative to MS Office or Open Office.
You have a choice between Google Documents and Zoho Applications. Google Docs is very tightly integrated with other Google services, while Zoho Applications has a more complete collection of applications. I've been a fan of Google Docs (mostly for the integration factor) until I started researching this article. I think that Zoho apps are so well integrated and allow you to plug in third party services that I'm ready to switch. I'm going to use Zoho apps for this project, but you could easily substitute Google Documents and get some impressive results.

I'm going to build this as an alternative to the full-blow MS Office suite (including widely used bolt-on applications like Visio and Project). First I'll start with the native Zoho applications.

Word Processor, Spreadsheet, and Presentation work exactly as you would expect. Unless you're a spreadsheet genius, you'll have everything you need here. If you don't like one or more of these, we'll see how to plug in any of the Google Apps as a replacement.
Database - Zoho Creator allows you to create databases online. It's simple and works well. You may also want to try Blist for creating online databases. If you need to track and share data, this is a godsend.
Document Management - They allow you to create, upload, store, and organize documents using a "My Documents" style folder system. You can even upload Zip files that will allow you to maximize your storage. They have many options for making your files public or private.

Zoho Services that I Replaced with Alternatives

Mail - It's really nice, and well integrated, but it ain't Gmail. (or even Yahoo.)
Notebook - I love Evernote because it gives me some great information caputring options. Evernote does a great job of allowing you capture and organize all of your notes (text, photos, video, dictation, files). Not only does it capture notes from the browser, you can have a desktop and phone applications for data entry and access. All your notes, everywhere, all the time. FYI: Zoho and Evernote will both import all of your soon-to-be-extinct Google Notebook data.
Chat - Do I really need another chat option? I love Meebo for this project.
Task Management - RememberTheMilk is the best dead simple way of creating and managing to-do's and tasks.
Project Management - Zoho allows you to manage one projectd for free.  I don’t really need online project management, but if you do, give it a shot. 
Flow Chart Creation - Everyone loves a nice Visio diagram. Gliffy  allows you to create and share beautiful diagrams and flow charts.

Integrating Third Party Applications into the Zoho Interface

Zoho has one feature that really blew me away: integration. Not only do they do a great job of creating a unified inerface for their own apps, they allow you to stick just about anything into their interface. Let's take some of the applications that I just listed above (Evernote, RememberTheMilk, Gliffy, or Meebo). It takes four button clicks to tie them right into the interface as if they were there from scratch.

1. Click the Add Apps icon at the bottom of the left Taskbar.
2. Type the name and URL of the application into the fields (ie. Evernote - http://www.evernote.com).
3. Click the OK button.
4. Now, click the More link from the left Taskbar and click your new application.
   

The application opens in the "work area" of the screen and you can do your thing. It's that easy to extend the system. So, like I said, if you still prefer Google Spreadsheets over Zoho Sheet, just plug it in.

Multimedia

Multimedia applications are more like the people who create the media - beautiful, just not quite perfectly organized. There is no "office-like" online media suite that I'm aware of, so we'll have to be a little more creative. For now, let's just grab a collection of apps and services that let us enjoy our Music, Photos, and Videos. Don't worry, I'll tie it together later on.

Music
Music Discovery - I love Pandora and Last.FM for different reasons. If I just want to listen to a bunch of music that I like and get some new suggestions I use Pandora. If I want to see what my friends are listening to or hear what they're liking I use Last.FM. They're both great kind of like a sports car and a luxury car.

Photos
Photo Sharing and Organization - Flickr- There are a million other good photo sharing services, but Flickr has so many great options and the list of services that integrate with it is constantly growing. If you want to edit your pictures right from Flickr, you should try Picnik as your online photo editing tool. Alternatives: Picasa Albums, Photobucket,
Photo Editing - I selected Picnik, because it integrates right into Flickr, but there are some other applications that are a little more feature-rich or powerful. Find other great online photo editing services here and here.

Video
Professional Video Viewing - Hulu, Joost and Netflix (requires Internet Explorer and costs money)
Video Sharing - Youtube. Enough said.
Video Editing - Jumpcut (Cuts, Eyespot, JumpCut, Motionbox, and One True Media) allows you to edit and share your videos online. Here are several other good online video editing services.

Finances

Raise your hand if you or someone you know uses Quicken or MS Money to track their finances and expenses. Yeah, me too. This is another area that we would have shuddered about throwing into the cloud a few years ago. The fact is, you can get your bank on from anywhere these days. My grandmother does it, so what's stopping you?

Mint - Who needs quicken when you can securely store it all in the cloud and get to it from anywhere?
Online Banking - Most banks have online banking that is very useful.

Utilities

Bringing your Local Files with you on the Web - There are a number of services that let you carry your files anywhere on the web. Most of them only let you take a small amount of data for free, but one will allow you to make your entire hard drive available from anywhere in the world. Orb.com is a service that

Virus Scan - If you are on some strange computer that you are worried about, try running a virus scan with one of these great online virus scanning services. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
http://www.bestsecuritytips.com/xfsection+article.articleid+59.htm
Data Storage and Syncronization - There are a number of ways that you can have your files anywhere on the web. Not many provide a lot of free storage, but you can use a few to cobble together a decent amount of storage. My favorite service is Dropbox. It allows you to create a folder on multiple computers and place files (2gigs) inside. These files are automatically synced and update on all of your other computers. (Think Work, Home Desktop, and Laptop.) You can also get at your files from any internet connected machine through their web interface. Box.net is another great online storage service that is accessible from anywhere (1 gig for free). Here is a list of other free online file storage options. If you're willing to spend a little money, your options get really interesting. http://aws.amazon.com/s3/#pricing

Pull it all Together with a Web Desktop

This is where we tie the whole thing together. We need to create a desktop that pulls all of our disparate pieces together into one easy to find place. This will function as our Desktop, Today Screen, Application Launcher, and Information Hub. There are a few good options for creating the web desktop, but the two candidates that rise to the top for me are iGoogle and Netvibes.
I chose to use iGoogle as my Web Desktop because I like the options and flexibility that are easily available. You could do very well with Netvibes too, so if you're already a user, stick with what you know.

Once you have a Google account, you can begin using iGoogle to create your Web Desktop. Click the iGoogle link in the top right section of the screen to begin. You'll start off with a "Home" tab that has a number of common gadgets (content containers) already configured and a Wizard that will allow you to make customizations. Enter your zip code and click the See your page button to close the Wizard.

You use gadgets to add applications and content to a tab. You can add all kinds of content to iGoogle and it can become a real mess, quickly. You can use tabs to organize your content and applications. I started by creating a tab for each category of applications: Communication, Office Applications, Multimedia, Finances, Utilities, and one for Social Networking. Then, I added the applications I needed to each tab. For instance, I added the Gmail, Meebo IM, Twitter, and Yellow Pages gadgets to my Communication tab. On my Office Applications tab I added the Google Docs, Zoho Office, and RememberTheMilk gadgets.

You can add the same gadget to more than one tab. For instance, if you want to see Email and Instant Messaging on Communication and Office Applications you can. You can't always find a Google gadget for every application or service, so I use a simple link launcher to add any miscellaneous services to a tab. When you click the links, the application opens in a new tab.

There is one really annoying thing about iGoogle; the huge header. It just chews up so much valuable screen real estate and forces you to scroll past it all of the time. Well, if you're using Firefox with Greasemonkey, just install this script to automatically hide that stupid header. Believe me, you'll be glad you did. http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/24339

The following video will walk you through the entire process of building your Web Desktop using iGoogle tabs and gadgets.

VIDEO HERE

Wrapping it All Up

We tackled the idea of creating a usable Web Operating System out of readily available parts. First we gathered up a collection of applications to handle our computing needs. Then we organized them into categories. Next we integrated them as well as possible. Finally, we pulled them all into a Web Desktop where they could be organized and launched. With a little bit of creativity and elbow grease, you can create a pretty serviceable, go-anywhere, Web Operating System. The best part is, it's all free to use. Now I know that this is no fully set up Windows or Mac pc, but it will let you get most of your common computing tasks done from any computer. By the time you read this, there will probably be some new applications and/or services announced that make this an even more practical computing option. So the next time you hear someone ask, "When will the Web Operating System arrive?" just tell them, "Yesterday".

Spending a couple dollars to extend the System

Box.net or Dropbox offer file storage that is amazingly convenient, but the file size is limiting. Spending a few dollars on either of their pay services can really extend your Web Operating System.

Using your USB Drive Enhance the Web OS

Just because you use other people's computers (work, friends, family, vacation) to access your Web OS, doesn't mean that you have to be crippled by their personalized setup. You can load portable applications onto a USB drive and carry your favorite browser with you, complete with all of your settings, bookmarks, and passwords. Just pop in your USB drive and use your Firefox, Opera, or Flock browser, as if you were at home.

If you're worried about security on other systems, or the tracks that you'll leave behind, increase your safety by using the Tor Network Plugin and Portable Firefox.

When price and performance must share in compromise, few laptops on the market readily answer the call of duty. When it comes to getting high quality at an affordable price, the Dell Vostro A860 Laptop drives a hard bargain.

Dell Vostro A860 Laptop

An affordable option that will fit into any budget, the Dell Vostro A860 Laptop offers great mobility and connectivity for the individual who needs a little more versatility from a work computer. Recently offered at $349 through Dell as part of a late 2008 push, there's arguably no better computer for your buck.

The Vostro A860 offers three upgrade packages for more user customization. However, no unnecessary trial software is in the mix to clutter the hard drive or the desktop. The amply spaced 15.1-inch widescreen LCD display offers enough room to view multiple tasks and projects, with the ability to stream media or DVDs on the standard drive.

Dell Vostro A860 Laptop -- Tech Specs

The Vostro A860 comes with the Intel Celeron M processor and the Vista Home Basic Service Pack 1. The optical drive offers a 24x CD Burner/DVD combo, with the option to upgrade to an 8x DVD+/-RW drive.

The basic package offers users 1GB of memory, a 120GB SATA hard drive and the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100. Out of the box, the laptop is wireless capable, and includes the standard one-year basic limited warranty.

Dell Vostro A860 Laptop User Offerings

Ultimately, the Vostro A860 is perfect for transitioning from a desktop to a capable laptop, catering to those in need of the technological mobility. Aesthetically, the computer offers a low-profile look, without the overly glossy finish found on many black laptops. The full keyboard allows for maximized user efficiency and comfort, and with the four-cell battery, the weight is just over 5 lbs.

The only real drawback, when considering the unbeatable price, is the size and the power-pull of a four-cell Li-Ion battery. Yet, when reviewing the pros and cons, an under $400 price tag far outweighs any potential drawbacks to this entry-level laptop.

About the author: This article was provided by the editors from LaptopLogic.com. At LaptopLogic.com you can read more laptop reviews, check out cheap new laptops or get the latest laptop news.