Monday, December 15, 2008

Google Docs | meebo | 2 free web apps that I always use

"Dawn of the web are coming upon us...". Hehe, that just a dramatic sentence for this post. That sentence aside, I'm sure that the lot of you have internet connection which either use broadband or WiFi. Well...(my trademark word~) if you can go online, why not fully use what the connection have offered you? That's why I don't install things that I use sparingly, such as word processor or presentation, or even less, spreadsheet.

The first web apps I introduce is Google Docs. You might ask why don't I use the Zoho office suite, they have more apps to use. Hell...did you even read my words above? I hardly use those programs, giving me more apps that I hardly touch is useless.

Google Docs supports format such as .doc, .xls, .pdf and all openoffice formats. Problem is, to edit your documents, you have to upload the file, which might take awhile if your file is big. You can download the file you edited to your computer or just leave it on the Google server so you retrieve it anywhere.

However, there are limitations. Quote from Wikipedia, "There is a limit on how much a user can store on his/her account. Each document must be under 500k plus 2MB for each embedded image. Each spreadsheet must be under 10,000 rows, 256 columns, 100,000 cells and under 40 sheets. A user can have a total of 5,000 documents and presentations, 5,000 images, 1,000 spreadsheets, and 100 PDFs. The maximum number of spreadsheets that one can open at one time is 11. Only presentations under 10MB can be imported."

Next, the instant web messenger, meebo. It supports many protocols, which include : Yahoo! Messenger, .NET Messenger Service, Google Talk, AIM, ICQ, and Jabber. You can also register for meebo account so that it remember you settings whenever your sign in. The interface is simple, and you can edit the background or the color of the interface.

I tried the webcam chatting service, but the service seems to have some problem (on my side). My can view and hear the other people, but the other people could hear me but not see me. I will seek the root of the problem once I got time.

Still, this app is sufficient for daily uses. 1 more thing, this apps doesn't have the ability to display your pic, which is a bad thing if you like to show yourself~