On-line applications expanded

MANY DESKTOP applications are getting enabled on the Web. In the past this column featured several such applications (like on-line word processors). This edition of NetSpeak brings to light new developments in this front.

On-line data analysis

As observed in the past, worksheet is a popular desktop application, used in many computing tasks such as budget analysis, simple payrolls and data analysis. Some of the tasks mentioned above may sometimes involve the participation of several people. If the participants are geographically distant, we need to exchange data through e-mails or some other means. Naturally, in such instances a web-based worksheet would be a preferred alternative. The on-line social worksheet service, NumSum, discussed in the past (http://www. hindu.com/biz/2005/04/ 11/stories/2005041100161600. htm) is an example of such a product.

However, in terms of features, Numsum pales in comparison with the popular desktop worksheet packages (like MS-Excel). This does not help you do beyond some basic stuff. JotSpot Tracker (http://tracker.jot. com/) is another product in this genre. One notable feature of this application is the facility for copying data from an Excel worksheet stored in your machine.

Though the products mentioned above help in doing simple computations, to solve real life problems we need a better alternative. Such a service should allow us import normal worksheet files, provide different mathematical/financial functions normally seen in the mainstream desktop worksheet packages and support tools for drawing graphs.

The newly launched on-line worksheet service, Irows (http://www.irows.com), has almost all these features.

Irows, a free service, helps you create a worksheet with your browser and store it on-line. The distinct aspect of this on-line application is the numerous features it provides- for manipulating worksheets and analysing data. You can import/copy data from Excel sheets and draw charts.

Also, Irows provides several mathematical/financial functions such as average, log, max, min, sum and so on. Besides all these advantages, Irows lets you share and collaboratively edit/analyse the data with your remote colleagues.

Presentation service

The web based presentation software, Thumbstacks (http://www.thumbstacks.com/), meant for preparing presentations with your browser is yet another on-line application tested by this author. This service lets you create simple presentations and store them on-line to access it anytime from anywhere on the Web. For a demo check out: http://tinyurl.com/ghqfm.

InstaColl: Instant collaboration

In response to an earlier column on `collaboration tools,' Mr. Narain, a reader of this column, pointed out InstaColl (http://instacoll.com), an innovative web based application, developed for collaboratively editing MS-Office documents.

To use this free product just register with the service and download/install the set-up software.

Once the software is installed, you will find a button labelled `Collaborate' on your Word/Excel/PowerPoint menu-bar. Now, if you want to edit a document together with your geographically dispersed clients, click on the `Collaborate' button. The InstaColl client starts a session using your account details and generates a session link, which can be e-mailed to your clients.

Based on the details from this e-mail, your clients can join the session. On their joining the session, you will get the notification.

Anyone connected to the session will be able to view/edit the document in real-time. If a participant wishes to add/edit the document, she should seek the permission to do it.

Once she completes the editing, click on the `Publish' button to make the newly typed matter available to all other participants. A highlight of this service is its `Made-in-India' tag.

Nation Master

There cannot be two opinions on the relevance of statistics in the modern information age. For instance, if you want to gauge the performance of your country on various fronts, you need to know how it compares with other countries.

For this you need country-wise statistics on various parameters such as agriculture, economy, health and the like. If you are one of those interested in statistical data, jump over to the site NationMaster (http://www.nationmaster.com/index.php), which makes available more than 5,700 different statistics across various countries on your fingertips. Using this site, you can easily find Net penetration across countries, country-wise distribution of ISPs, countries with broadband access and so on.

We have come across different types of search engines that include general search services (Google, Yahoo), blog search tools (like Daypop, Technorati), reference services (like Wikipedia, Answers), news sites (like CNN, YahooNews) and so on. Generally, depending on the requirements, we make use of an appropriate service. However, remembering the multitude of search services available on the Net is not that easy.

The search interface Trovando (http://www.trovando.it/) may come handy in dealing with such situations. From its interface you can easily select the appropriate search service, before initiating a search process

A shortening service

Lengthy web addresses are difficult to handle and to shorten them we enlist the service of a URL shortening tool like TinyURL (http://tinyurl.com/).

If you are a Firefox user, you can use the TinyURL service directly from the browser by installing the extension `TinyURL creator' (http://www.roundtwo.com/ product/tinyurl)

Though TinyURL is a good service, the short link produced by TinyURL is very cryptic- from it we get little clue on the page it represents.

If you want to get a short and meaningful URL, try out the service Thnlnk (http://thnlnk. com/), which provides you links like this: http://thnlnk.com/hindu/ netspeak/jf9.