We profiled Amara last June in our Nifty Websites Collection. The need for translation of videos on the web continues to accelerate as global sharing increases. Amara fits that need and then some.

How It Works

Using Amara is incredibly simple and now with YouTube availability on all personal channels, creators can enlist the aid of their viewers to translate the videos and spread their knowledge, message or all out hilarity to the world.

Channel owners/creators simply need to visit Amara.org and connect their channel. Moving forward, all videos on that channel will include a link for viewers to offer up translation for videos.  Here’s a direct link to the connection page.

[blockquote align=”center” style=”style1″]The only way to get a video translated into the world’s languages is to invite the world’s viewers to help. No YouTube creator speaks every language and automated transcription and translation is still not high enough quality to understand the content of a video. But viewers watching from around the world are excited to help others watch,” said Nicholas Reville, Executive Director of Amara[/blockquote]

About Amara

[blockquote align=”center” style=”style4″]With customers such as, Netflix, Twitter, PBS, TED Talks, Udacity, and Coursera, Amara gives individuals, communities, and larger organizations the power to overcome accessibility and language barriers for online video. Amara’s revolutionary crowdsourcing approach offers a robust API that allows companies to use the platform for internal collaboration as well as allowing individual customers to translate video content. Backed by a million dollars in funding from the Knight Foundation and Mozilla, Amara has received awards from the Federal Communications Commission, the United Nations and TechAwards. For more information, visit Amara.org and follow @AmaraSubs on Twitter.[/blockquote]

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Yola

Typically our Nifty Website choices focus on the smaller, up and coming websites that are on the verge of success. Yola is a bit different in that they are already well established and for the most part successful. However, their website builder offers something that many don’t in the form of business tools and merchant integration options. Continue..Read more about Yola.

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Follr

One of the more common aggravations about social interaction and networking online is that there is just so much of it. Think about the websites you visit everyday and undoubtedly there are a handful of social websites on the list. Plainly put, our identities are scattered all over the web and with them our connections. In an effort to simplify and organize all those social places into a centralized digital form, Follr has created a business card type presentation for all your personal spaces. Continue..Read more about Follr.

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Flavors.me

A popular topic covered in the Nifty Websites Collection is website creation. We’re on a mission to make sure everyone who wants an easy way to create a website, knows the options. With that in mind, Flavors.me is another outstanding way to take advantage of point and click website creation. Continue..Read more about Flavors.

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The post Nifty Websites Collection [October 29, 2012] first appeared on GeekITDown Computer Services & Technology Solutions.

Typically our Nifty Website choices focus on the smaller, up and coming websites that are on the verge of success. Yola is a bit different in that they are already well established and for the most part successful. However, their website builder offers something that many don’t in the form of business tools and merchant integration options.

The Basics

Basic site building and hosting services are free although users will get the most from Yola by utilizing one of their monthly plans. Features such as custom domains and phone/email support are included in all three packages dubbed Bronze, Silver and Gold.

A Silver plan unlocks more customizable settings such as CSS editing along with Facebook and mobile publishing. The mobile site feature is especially useful because these days you can’t possibly move forward if your website isn’t viewable on mobile devices. The Gold plan adds SEO (search engine optimization) analysis to your site and is definitely worth the step up if you don’t have a clue what SEO is.

Beyond the Basics

Many of those basic features can be found on a number of other site builders. What strikes us as a successful step above many of them are the tools available for integration within the site.

Merchants can incorporate inventory management, payments systems, tracking detail and mobile sales directly into a Yola site. Typically a daunting task, Yola turns selling online into a more reasonable experience for merchants.

Business tools can be utilized as well. With standard features like contact forms and Google Maps, Yola sites are comparable to other expensively built websites. Advanced tools include mailing lists, site stats, appointment scheduling, Facebook commenting and more. Setting up mailing lists alone can be a source of frustration so having the option at your fingertips is a huge plus.

Behind the Scenes

As many already know, a website is merely the front face of a much larger machine. Yola employs cloud hosting with a claim of 99.9% uptime (we have no reason to doubt that figure) as well as DDoS protection. So although you’re paying a monthly fee to Yola, the built-in protection they provide is something you may not get going it alone, which makes the price more of a value point.

Yola does provide some basic tutorials to guide new users along and actually displays a phone number on the main page for anyone that needs assistance. Two things that a less established site builder might not offer.

Summary

Yola is well established with over 7 million users and counting. They have a simple system in place to get new users up and running with a basic template from which they can make the site their own.

Yola stands apart from some others with business tools and merchant features that normally require some additional coding or plug-ins. The features can help build a truly complete business website or organizational online presence.

Overall, users will need to invest in one of the premium packages to benefit from Yola, though we think it’s a wise investment if it’s a serious project. If you’ve been looking for an easy way to get a website off the ground and want a source that’s trusted and reliable, then Yola is a great place to get started.

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The post Personal, Merchant Or Business Website Creation With Yola first appeared on GeekITDown Computer Services & Technology Solutions.

A popular topic covered in the Nifty Websites Collection is website creation. We’re on a mission to make sure everyone who wants an easy way to create a website, knows the options. With that in mind, Flavors.me is another outstanding way to take advantage of point and click website creation.

Why Flavors?

For starters, creating a gorgeous web presence or personal space shouldn’t take less than 10 minutes, with Flavors it does. Combine that with zero coding, personalized domain, content inclusion from 35 services, mobile view, statistics tracking and an unbelievably low cost and you’ve got a remarkably full featured aggregator.

Flavors offers two packages, Free and Premium. A free account delivers access to 5 services, 222 fonts and 7 layout options. The free plan offers users a simple effective way to create their own personal space. A premium account provides 10 more layout options, access to all services, mobile site view, statistics, contact forms, custom URL and content. The premium account is $20/year. In our opinion, $20 is a fantastic value.

Why Not Flavors?

Experienced webmasters and those familiar with coding and/or those comfortable with servers and databases might see Flavors as a bit limiting. Flavors isn’t a likely choice if you’re designing a business website or merchant outlet. Instead, Flavors is targeted towards individual web spaces or perhaps those looking to promote a cause.

Flavors is a personal portal designed to be simple and concise while at the same time elegant and beautiful. They succeed, but because of that nature users shouldn’t expect a robust selection of interface manipulations.

Final Thoughts

After reviewing sites like Flavors, we’re always left wondering what the web would have been like a dozen years ago if these types of site creators had been around. Not everyone can be a coder and even webmasters can’t be every kind of coder necessary to create wonderful websites. Flavors removes all that trouble and provides a point and click way to design a personal web space for even the most green of novices.

Flavors is an incredible value at $20 a year and although the free account is limited in terms of content possibilities, it’s more than adequate for those just getting started.

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The post Point, Click And Create Websites From Flavors.me first appeared on GeekITDown Computer Services & Technology Solutions.

Make Your Website Part Of The Nifty Collection

Wunderlist

One thing humans can never seem to get enough of is lists. We make them for just about anything and there are a lot of ways to create them. The current drive is towards mobile integration with list and note-taking apps in high demand. Wunderlist is a way to organize tasks through lists and works everywhere. Continue..Read more about Wunderlist.

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Burn Note

This message will self destruct in 3..2..1.! At least that’s the premise of Burn Note, a cloud based message service that sends messages between parties and deletes them after they’re read. Continue..Read more about Burn Note.

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GraphicSprings

When I started out as a small business owner, one of the most unexpected difficult items to nail down was a logo for my company. The services were in place, the company name was set, even the catchphrase was picked, but that logo drove me nuts. Eventually everything worked out, but coming up with ideas was incredibly difficult. GraphicSprings free logo design maker would have been a huge help to me and is a great resource for others struggling to get their logo right. Continue..Read more about GraphicSprings.

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The post Nifty Websites Collection [October 22, 2012] first appeared on GeekITDown Computer Services & Technology Solutions.

One thing humans can never seem to get enough of is lists. We make them for just about anything and there are a lot of ways to create them. The current drive is towards mobile integration with list and note-taking apps in high demand. Wunderlist is a way to organize tasks through lists and works everywhere.

More Than An App

Wunderlist isn’t just a mobile app it’s also a fully accessible web based app and software title. Cloud access is available through a web interface and Wunderlist software is available for use on Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems.

In order to be truly cloud, a service has to be accessible everywhere at any time. Wunderlist seems to have every angle covered with a multitude of apps and software for various platforms. The best part is they actually work!

Wunderlist Goods

Making a list doesn’t have to be complicated and Wunderlist understands that. The interface is designed to illicit task injection without jumping through category hoops or other unnecessary hurdles. Here’s a rundown of Wunderlist’s features:

[list style=”square” color=”cobult”]

• Group tasks into lists.
• Share tasks with other Wunderlist users and/or through email with others.
• Reminders, to ensure tasks are attended to.
• Prioritize important tasks.
• Cloud syncing for access on all devices.
• Note addition for added detail on a task.
• Personalize your Wunderlist theme for individual comfort.
• It’s free!

While we expect the web interface to be responsive, we were surprised at how responsive the mobile app (Android tested) was as well. The menus were complete, touch controls functioned properly and accurately and overall we experienced zero problems with the app.

Summary

Wunderlist is nearly perfect. The melding of concise task management with an attractive interface combines to deliver a solution users will enjoy. Task and list creation are smooth and precise with plenty of extras to make a task more than a simple note.

With all that Wunderlist offers, we’d like to see two things in particular addressed. The first deals with functionality. The back button on mobile devices exits the app from any main area so we’d like to see an exit option or exit menu that’s triggered by the back button instead of an immediate exit. The second is more of a feature, Tags. A tag library would be an outstanding way to quickly access tasks and maintain organization.

Regardless of your task managing needs, Wunderlist is a viable, quality option that should be one of your cloud and mobile resources.

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The post Task Management From Wunderlist Syncs Everywhere first appeared on GeekITDown Computer Services & Technology Solutions.

This message will self destruct in 3..2..1.! At least that’s the premise of Burn Note, a cloud based message service that sends messages between parties and deletes them after they’re read.

Burner Messages

Each message sent through Burn Note can be read only once. After which the message is deleted and essentially burned out of existence. Similar to burner phones where they can be discarded after single use, Burn Note messages are definitely deleted after a single read.

Notes are deleted either manually by the recipient or immediately upon navigation away from the message page. Senders have the option to set a timer on messages to further control the burn time. Burn Notes which go unread are automatically discarded after 72 hours.

Features

Burn Note is clearly meant as a security tool for sending sensitive and secure information between parties. To that end, other features are in place to ensure Burn Note remains as secret and secure as possible.

Short Phrases for example, makes copying and pasting of message contents impossible and makes taking screenshots of the message unbelievably troublesome, especially if the message has a short timer. Messages are broken down into snippets which appear individually on screen and rotate in order, every couple seconds.

The Spyglass feature hides the message entirely. Recipients can view the note by clicking and dragging a simulated flashlight across the screen to reveal the contents of the message.

Senders also have the option of placing their own password on the message for added security. Pending messages are stored encrypted on Burn Note servers and communication with Burn Note is done through 256 bit SSL encryption.

For the exceptionally security conscious, Burn Note provides detailed technical information about their storage and encryption methods on their website. Burn Note seems to have every angle covered aside from screen recording which is somewhat out of their control.

Summary

While not everyone will need Burn Note services, there is certainly a need for it. The internet is a wild west environment with unknowns around every corner. Sending information can be a somewhat unnerving process, but through Burn Note users can feel confident every precaution is being taken to protect their message data.

Aside from the obvious sharing of information between parties, we found this cloud tool to be somewhat fun which is hard to accomplish when utilizing security measures. Burn Note is great for spies or friends who just want to have a private undocumented conversation.

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Make Your Website Part Of The Nifty Collection

Mobile Statistics

The battle for mobile supremacy is no secret. Mobile communication and computing is absolutely dominating the computing market right now and in the process decimating personal computer sales. How do we keep up with trends and overall popularity? In steps Mobile Statistics with curated data, news and statistics about the mobile market. Continue..Read more about Mobile Statistics.

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Sunlize

Everyone is international these days mostly due to social networking and interaction. Global interaction is ideal when we’re looking to connect and share generic content. However, many users need to share and recommend locally in order to effect their lives. Sunlize is a local headline sharing website. Continue..Read more about Sunlize.

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Websites Like

Web discovery is a bit of a hit and miss activity. Our Nifty Websites Collection is a handy way to discover new websites and resources which are curated into a list. Discovery tools like StumbleUpon make it easy to find websites at random. Those who want a bit more control over the websites they discover have the Websites Like option. Continue..Read more about Websites Like.

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The post Nifty Websites Collection [October 1, 2012] first appeared on GeekITDown Computer Services & Technology Solutions.

Everyone is international these days mostly due to social networking and interaction. Global interaction is ideal when we’re looking to connect and share generic content. However, many users need to share and recommend locally in order to effect their lives. Sunlize is a local headline sharing website.

News and Headlines

Sunlize acts as a gathering place for local headlines and news stories or interest pieces in a local community. Stories and articles are linked from a variety of sources including local newspapers, magazines, bulletins and wherever else users find local information.

Sharing involves comments, Facebook and Google shares, thumbs up and thumbs down on the article postings. If you’re familiar with Headslinger or the new Pulse web app option, then you may grasp the functionality of Sunlize a bit more easily. The aggregation is accomplished by using a visitor’s IP address to approximate their location and deliver relevant articles to the frontpage.

Why Use Sunlize?

Sunlize is great if you want to know what’s happening in your area and filter out all the global news and headlines. Using Sunlize means users can get the information they’re immediately after without having to filter results or sorts stories by entering in location details.

Visitors can also change locations to follow stories happening in other localities, whether they be nearby to their own location or across the country. It’s a convenient way to check on your hometown or potential vacation destination prior to visiting.

Final Thoughts

Sunlize is awkward to get a handle on at first. Without taking a few moments, it’s hard to understand just what they’re offering. Once you do however, it’s easy to see why users keep coming back. The information is current and because it’s local, is very relevant to Sunlize visitors. The interface is a bit annoying with most content pushed below the fold, but some simple scrolling fixes that.

Ideally, Sunlize could benefit from some website tweaks and perhaps a walk-through type instruction page or video to help new users find their way around. Additionally, a source page would be a fantastic way for users to choose which stories they see rather than a summary list from all sources. Sunlize has a bunch of promise and we look forward to seeing how they improve as they come out of beta.

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The post Sunlize Is A Social Local Headline Sharing Website first appeared on GeekITDown Computer Services & Technology Solutions.

Web discovery is a bit of a hit and miss activity. Our Nifty Websites Collection is a handy way to discover new websites and resources which are curated into a list. Discovery tools like StumbleUpon make it easy to find websites at random. Those who want a bit more control over the websites they discover have the Websites Like option.

Web Alternatives

The Websites Like difference is that users determine the outcome of the discovery, be it ever so slightly. Users enter a website URL or keyword to have Websites Like return results which are similar in topic to the original search argument.

The alternatives are surprisingly accurate. With anywhere up to 50 different alternatives, there is quite a bit of content to peruse. The most relevant websites are depicted first and the results get gradually more broad further down the list.

Beyond Alternatives

For some results, Websites Like offers Site Categories which label the user input and offer an additional method of discovering alternative websites. The category links are extremely broad and don’t match very well with the original URL input by the user, but do offer alternatives that may have otherwise gone unnoticed.

Final Thoughts

Websites Like is a neat tool to have available when you really want to find more content similar to what you’ve seen elsewhere on the web. It’s effectiveness is debatable, but we find the results to be fairly accurate. Websites Like is still adding websites to their database and unfortunately that means alternatives are likely to be incomplete until their library is adequately expanded.

A word of caution about using Websites Like. Some results are intended for mature audiences and as of now there is no way to filter the content. Searches which may seem innocent at the time could return some unexpected results.

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The post Find Websites Similar To Those You Already Like first appeared on GeekITDown Computer Services & Technology Solutions.