URL shortening services all seem to do the same thing by just converting those lengthy URLs into something shorter, and more manageable. When we first covered BurnURL upon its launch last month, we noted how it was bringing a more social aspect to the URL shortening space, and they are improving on that even more with this release.
The first thing you notice is that the up and down voting arrows have been replaced with five emoticons. This is an effort to better reflect how you felt about the article, and you can choose from Boring, Sad, Useful, Funny and Exciting. While more interesting than the old system, I’m not sure why anyone would bother with a Boring rating, but we’ll see how much it gets used.
Next to the emoticons, you’ll see a button for “Tweets” which will show you how many people have Tweeted this particular URL on Twitter.
The sharing button is the next in the line, and while the sharing on services such as Twitter, Facebook, Digg, FriendFeed, Mixx, Reddit, Delicious or StumbleUpon was there in the previous release, they have now been moved to this pop out tab so that the bar is friendlier to those with smaller screen resolutions.
Also inside of the Share tab is now the ability to email the article to other people. As someone who has many “non-techie” friends who don’t spend much time surfing the Web, I am a big user of emailing links, so this is a very welcome inclusion for me.
The last thing is probably more interesting to site owners, but the stats area now shows you the number of unique views for the link as well as the total views.
All in all, some very nice upgrades to an already very useful service, and our favorite choice for URL shortening.
(Disclosure: BurnURL is partially owned by Adam Ostrow with whom I work with at Mashable. This post however was in no way influenced by our working relationship, it’s just a great service)
Finally coming out of its Beta status, Internet Explorer 8, the purportedly most secure version of the browser yet, has made its official debut today. While it has been available for some time in its Beta form, this is the “Gold” release of the Microsoft browser.
Some of the new features include:
Accelerators – Highlight text in a page, click on the Accelerator icon and choose from popular services such as maps, blogging, translating and more without ever leaving the page.
Web Slices – Choose frequently updated pages, such as an eBay auction, and get notifications when there has been an update to the page.
Suggested Sites – Get suggestions of other Web pages you might like that are similar to the one you are currently on.
There are many more new features, but that is a taste of what you can expect.
As with every release, Microsoft is claiming there is more security on this iteration of the browser, but only time will tell how it truly fares. Internet Explorer has always been a popular target for hackers due to the proliferation of the browser, and there is no reason to believe this one will be any different.
If you’re feeling the urge, go download the new version and let us know what you think of it in the comments!
BurnURL is a new URL shortening service that brings a very exciting and new aspect to the field int he form of easy social sharing.
There has been a glut of URL shortening services in the market for some time, but the vast majority of them just did the following where they turned something like this:
While it still may not roll off of your tongue, it’s still a lot simpler to share with someone else. The problem is that these services have all been a dime a dozen, doing the exact same thing, and adding nothing new to the space.
Well, last week BurnURL launched and it brings several new features with it that are welcome additions that add greatly to the utility of such a service. The first change you’ll notice is the addition of handy coding for pasting the new URL into both HTML coded pages and forums that use BBcode.
Once a person clicks on the link you make for them, not only will they be taken to the page you linked, they will also be presented with a toolbar at the top of the page that provides them with social sharing tools.
With this tool bar in place, you can share the page you are reading on Twitter, Facebook, Digg, FriendFeed, Mixx, Reddit, Delicious or StumbleUpon as well as rating with the BurnUrl site. The bar will also tell you how many pepople have liked the page, how many people have clicked on the link and also what the actual URL of the page is.
Go aheadand give one a try by visiting http://burnurl.com/JZ24lZ that will take you back to this very site.
(Disclosure: BurnURL is partially owned by Adam Ostrow with whom I work with at Mashable. This post however was in no way influenced by our working relationship, it’s just a great service)
Once you have installed the new version (older versions of Foxmarks will continue to work if you have no desire to upgrade), you will be able to see recommendations in search results on search engines such as Google based on the number of times Xmarks users have saved that particular site. You will also be presented with an information icon as you surf the web that will allow you to click on it and get more information from Xmarks about the site. If you find either of these new features obtrusive, but still want the latest version, you can turn them off in the Xmarks option settings.
The new version is ready to go for Firefox, but Internet Explorer and Safari users will have to wait a bit longer.
The name change is not surprising seeing as the extension is no longer just a Firefox tool, but it is nice to see they brought some new features along for the ride.
ShareThis has launched version 2 of its popular social sharing widget.
As we described it in What Is ShareThis, this widget has become a popular way for web sites to ease the shaing of their content around the web on their users. Well, the redesigned widget seems to have eased it even more, and streamlined the process. Now you can import your contacts which will allow you to have more ease in emailing the item to other users, a scrolling window for al of the different social networks, will remember the last three email address you used and a whole lot more.
For right now the new version is only rolling out slowly to select site, but will be out to all partner sites within weeks, and webmasters need to do nothing. The changes will take place automatically, and then you can go back and customize it in any way that you would like.
Google, the leading search engine in the marketplace, has come up with a new tool that gives you more control over what you see in your results.
According to Google Operating System, the search giant has launched a new service called “Preferred Sites”. The new service is currently in early testing, so it is not yet avaialble to every one, but you can read more about it on a help page Google created.
Essentially what the service does is allow you to dictate sites that you would like to have priority anytime you conduct a search. Say you would like to include your local newspaper any time you went to search on a news story, it would now be given priority to show up on your first page of results with a marker underneath of it that says “My preferred site”.
If this feature ever goes live to all users, which seems likely, you would be able to make a list of sites that you find authoritative and trustworthy, and this could possibly be used to influence their regular rankings in the search results based on the number of people who choose each site.
While there are certainly some uses for such a service, we at StarterTech find it a bit worrisome that it might someday influence search results. While it could be bad enough that individuals use it and just continually go to the same sites over and over again, never discovering new sites, this becomes really bothersome when you think of everyone on Google being influenced by this. Say that PopularSiteX.com gets listed by thousands of people, and their ranking in search results goes up because of it, what happens when WannaBePopularSiteX.com starts up in the same niche topic and can’t get a toehold on their area of expertise because the other site has been pushed up so far in the results?
This certainly may be useful to some individuals, it could also possibly unbalance the way the Web works today, making it even harder for new blogs to ever be discovered.
It is said that one in five Internet users are still using Internet Explorer 6, and one has to ask “why?”
According to TG Daily, Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) users are starting to see a message in Gmail that tells them they should switch to Google Chrome or Firefox 3. Seeing as one in five Internet users are still using this outdated browser, we have to agree with Google on this.
IE6 is the browser that came with most people’s computers, and they just never saw any reason to seek out another one, but there are a multitude of reasons why a person should.
IE continues to have numerous security issues, even having major ones as recent as the last month.
The browser uses outdated web coding standards. When we launched the new StarterTech design, it looked great in every browser except for the various versions of IE.
Faster JavaScript handling which will make your browsing experience speedier.
We have stated before why you should use Firefox, and we still stand by that, but even an upgrade to Internet Explorer 7 would be a better idea than continuing to use IE6. With Firefox and Flock you get a large collection of extensions that allow you to do a lot more with your browser than just surf the web. Opera also has a loyal following and numerous extensions. Google Chrome is built for speed, and is pretty straight forward thus far without a lot of clutter. And Apple’s Safari gets forgotten a lot of the time as people think it is only for Macs, but it can also be used on PCs and will give you a pretty slick browsing experience.
So what are you waiting for? We’ve provided direct links to all of the browsers we’ve mentioned, why not download one and give them a test drive? You may never look back at IE6 again.
Mozilla, the people behind Firefox, have launched Fashion Your Firefox to help make it easier for people to understand the add-ons available for the browser.
While Firefox is a great browser to begin with, one of its biggest perks is the ability to make it do even more for you that simply browsing the Web. Because the browser is open source, anyone can look at the source code and build things to work with it, known as add-ons.
Due to the popular nature of the browser, and the fact that it is so easy to build these add-ons, the number of available options has swelled into the thousands, making it difficult for beginners to know which add-ons will do the things they would like to do. This is where Fashion Your Firefox comes into play.
Mozilla has chosen what they feel are the best add-ons in a handful of categories, and put them together in an easy to use page, divided into categories that people can understand and relate to. These categories include:
Finder and Seeker “I want to make finding information on the Web simpler and more relevant to me.”
Social Butterfly “I love social networks! I keep track of friends and family, share photos, organize events, and am always looking for ways to stay connected.”
Shutterbug “I love to view and share pictures and videos online.”
Digital Pack Rat “I want a hassle-free way to keep track of my favorite sites, bookmarks, blogs and, well, everything!”
Rock Star “Music and the Web go together like rock stars and leather — I love to listen while I surf, work, email or research online.”
Decorator “I decorate my room, my office, even myself! So why not decorate my browser?”
Shopaholic “I love to shop online and am always looking for ways to take advantage of great online deals.”
News Junkie “I want to know what’s happening in the world as it happens. And the weather helps me plan my week — temperature, please!”
Executive Assistant “I need a better way to make lists and organize myself (no more sticky notes!).”
You can read more about this project, and what exactly these add-ons will do for you on their FAQ page.
One thing people should know before they go wild adding these to their browser is that the more add-ons you have in your browser, the slower it can go. While these are all useful applications, do exercise some restraint in how many of them you add.
It seems the German government has some problems with Google Chrome, and they are suggesting that their citizens do not use it.
The Federal Office for Information Security in Germany is warning the citizens of the country that between Chrome, GMail, the Google search engine and so on, by using their browser you are putting too much data in one company’s hands. Google Blogoscoped has a translation of a news report on the announcement.
The Federal Office for Information Security warned internet users of the new browser Chrome. The application by the company Google should not be used for surfing the internet, as a spokesperson for the office told the Berliner Zeitung. It was said to be problematic that Chrome was distributed as an unfinished advance version. Furthermore it was said to be risky that user data is hoarded with a single vendor. With its search engine, email program and the new browser, Google now covers all important areas on the internet.
While they do have some valid points about trusting all of your information to one company, they are being a little overzealous in saying that it was “problematic that Chrome was distributed as an unfinished advance version.” This is a common practice in software development and hence why the browser carries the label of being in “beta”. One would have to ask what excuse Internet Explorer offers for all of its problems as it is coming up on its eigth iteration.
It is up to each individual how they choose to handle their online lives, but we do not see a real problem with this. Is it any worse to trust everything to Microsoft?
Having played with Google Chrome for another day, I have some more thoughts on it.
With the exception of the fact I am missing having the capabilities of shooting screenshots inside of it, I could easily see myself switching to this browser full time, but for now it will have to be my secondary browser. However, I will say if you are still using Internet Explorer only, give Google Chrome a try and you will be amazed at the world of difference. If you are already using Firefox, I would recommend staying there for now.
BurnURL has updated its popular ShareBar tool with a few new features and an updated appearance.
Microsoft has released the final version of 
The popular Firefox add-on Foxmarks is getting a name change, a facelift and some new features.
It is said that one in five Internet users are still using Internet Explorer 6, and one has to ask “why?”
Mozilla, the people behind Firefox, have launched 
It seems the German government has some problems with 
