gHacks technology news » The Web http://www.ghacks.net A technology blog covering software, mobile phones, gadgets, security, the Internet and other relevant areas. Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:22:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 Make Wikipedia more usable with Vector http://www.ghacks.net/2009/08/05/make-wikipedia-more-usable-with-vector/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/08/05/make-wikipedia-more-usable-with-vector/#comments Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:48:31 +0000 Joe http://www.ghacks.net/?p=15043 Wikimedia recently conducted a study into how to make their projects, like Wikipedia, more usable and user friendly. The study highlighted a number of interesting points, like that many users had never been to Wikipedia’s homepage, instead finding articles through search engines. These points have helped steer development.

One of the first things to come out of the Usability Project was a new skin. Wikipedia currently uses a skin called Monobook and has done so for over five years. Since Monobook was chosen, design trends have changed, as have web browsers and the way in which we surf.

The skin, called Vector, makes a number of changes. Vector gives the searchbar a more prominent location, declutters pages and looks much more modern. Basically, it makes it much easier to browse Wikipedia.

Registered users can choose a variety of skins and ‘gadgets’.

To enable the Vector skin, registered users need only go to the ‘Appearance’ tab in the ‘My Preferences‘ page and select Vector.

The usability project has many other plans, and aims to make editing more accessible. This is just a first step, but in my opinion still a marked difference.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2009/08/05/make-wikipedia-more-usable-with-vector/feed/ 4 Internet on the go http://www.ghacks.net/2007/12/18/internet-on-the-go/ http://www.ghacks.net/2007/12/18/internet-on-the-go/#comments Tue, 18 Dec 2007 17:30:56 +0000 Daniel Pataki http://www.ghacks.net/2007/12/18/internet-on-the-go/ The problem with the net is that there isn’t a sure-fire way to ensure that you will actually have access to it anywhere. If you have Wi-fi you are quite well of, but of course only near cities and towns. Even then, if you find hotspots you’re fine, but otherwise no internet for you.

There are ways to get to the net even in remote places, but these are far from sure and very expensive. If you really want to be able to reach a chunk of the net the best way is to just download the thing on to your hard drive.

My favorite app for this is Webaroo. It simply downloads pages or web packs and you can reach them even when offilne. You can choose to download the pics, videos and all other content. The greatest feature is the web pack and synchronization feature. With web packs, you get access to specific content on the web. There are a few available on the Webaroo home page, just download them and you can surf on the go. When you go online again these pages will be synchronized for your next offline viewing pleasure.
I am using it to write posts for example.

I usually use Google Reader and Gmail together but now, for my European Roadtrip I am throwing Webaroo in the mix. I just go to a page I want to write about and save the page, saving all links 1 link deep. This means I can visit any page the site has linked to.

How’s that for productivity for you? Being productive on the net, without actually having internet access! The only downside is that since it’s an app that launches inside your browser you don’t get the flexibility of desktop apps. You can’t organize into a folder structure, which would be nice, and I’m sure you’ll all notice some shortcomings. Apart from these this is a great and useful tool.

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