Web Guide One

Five Reasons You Should Switch to Online Shopping

admin — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Online shopping is convenient. There is no need to get into a car, drive to the store, and walk through aisles of shelves to find the right product. With online shopping, all that can be done with the click of a mouse. If one online store doesn’t stock an item, it’s easy to find another one that does.

There is a larger selection online. Brick-and-mortar stores are limited by the amount of space they have to stock all their items. Online stores can offer thousands of items through a single electronic database. Finding that one rare item is much easier online.

Shopping online can be cheaper. Though there will be a shipping charge on most items, some online stores will waive this fee under certain circumstances. Also, larger selections online allow for more price shopping among different retailers.

Online shopping is safe. Most online stores have secure web transactions and are verified by third parties. In addition, many major credit card companies offer insurance towards scam online purchases and stolen information.

Online shopping is anonymous. For that one item that is too embarrassing to buy in public, online shopping allows one to purchase it within the privacy of the home.

Save Space on Your Computer by Storing Files Online

admin — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Online storage provides an alternative solution to buying expensive hardware when the need for a large storage capacity is limited to only a couple of times per year. Working with video or other forms of multimedia on special projects often takes huge amounts of hard drive space. If a company only produces a couple of such major multimedia projects per year, they do not need to invest in the expensive hard drive capacity that just those specific projects require. For a fraction of the cost one can rent space on an online server when this space is only needed for temporary files. Those experienced with multimedia know that creating a quality production is not simple and requires a lot of splicing. In order to preserve the work already completed without accidentally corrupting it, one must create many versions of draft files. Experienced individuals know that one slip can cause several hours of work to be gone in an instant. Online storage also provides an extra layer of protection because if your computer is infected with a virus or has other serious problems during the project the drafts and the data will at least partially be preserved. If a company is only doing a very few high storage projects a year while the rest of the time focusing on text and spreadsheets the option of using online storage on a temporary basis is a valuable resource to consider.

Using Online Banking Saves Time, Money and the Environment

admin — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Online banking is incredibly useful and safe. Take advantage of the services provided to you that will solve many of your problems!Need to check your balances to see if you’ve paid this or that bill? Instead of wasting time calling the bank, ruffling through your papers, or trying to pull some mental math, just go online. A few clicks later, you will have all your numbers before you, neatly organized. Can you afford that new pair of pants? If you just spring for them, you might regret it later if you didn’t have enough money on your debit card to cover the cost. In this economy, banks are squeezing every last dollar out of you– an overdraft fee might add up to hundreds of dollars. If you simply check your accounts online, you will see exactly what you can afford and when.How annoying are those monthly bank statements that pile up on your desk, creating clutter and wasting paper? With online banking, it is so easy and simple to check your statements anytime. Best of all, your online statement is updated regularly so that you don’t have to wait for the next month to see how much money you’ve spent. Switch to online banking and the dwindling supply of trees will thank you.

Television and movie-watching online

www.webguideone.com — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

So you’ve missed your favorite show once again, and have decided that enough is enough? Without purchasing a digital video recorder, there are a number of ways to watch television and movies online-depending on what you’re willing to pay. There can be benefits to watching online, though. With clear wireless internet service, you can connect your computer with a portable modem and watch on your laptop anywhere you want to.For those who only want to pay for internet service, Hulu.com is the best option. Watch the latest episodes of most network television shows the day after they air. Most of the time only a limited number of episodes are available, with the oldest ones being deleted as new ones are added. For 7.99 a month, you can subscribe to Hulu Plus which offers access to all episodes of the current season and (for some series) earlier ones as well. Hulu Plus can also be streamed to a connected TV, Blu-ray player, set-top box, and certain mobile devices. In recent years, the website has also added a selection of older movies to its library.If you’re only interested in seeing certain shows, but want to be able to watch them again and again at your leisure, you may be interested in one of the purchasing models that allows you to buy individual episodes (or full seasons as they air). iTunes and Amazon Video on Demand are the best known examples. These allow you to purchase single episodes or full seasons of both currently running and previously aired shows, saving the videos to your computer. In some cases, you may also be able to “rent” an episode. Both of these services also offer the ability to purchase or rent feature films.For those looking for a mix of everything, Netflix may be your best bet. This service combines online watching with a DVD-by-mail service. You can select from multiple plans, starting with an instant streaming only option for 7.99 a month. This allows you to stream a wide variety of television and movies unavailable on Hulu. For another 2 a month, you can get one DVD mailed to you at a time from the site’s vast library, sending it back and replacing it as many times as you like. There are other plans that allow you to have more DVDs out at a time. Most customers receive their DVDs approximately one business day after shipment.

Browse safely with antivirus software

www.webguideone.com — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 18:21:09 +0000

Looking closely at the internet is like looking through a microscope at a petri dish sample: you see all the creepy-crawly things that are hanging around just out of sight. The problem is that these bugs have the potential to cause a lot of damage to your computer. Let’s take a look, shall we?

Adware automatically displays advertisements on your computer. These can provide access to spyware and keyloggers that come bundled with adware programs.
Spam is the junk e-mail (or other message types) that your inbox gets flooded with, which can be used to spread viruses or steal identities.
Spyware collects information about users without consent. This can range from internet history to actual keystrokes (keyloggers).
Trojan horses present themselves as helpful software programs, but instead either collect information or spread viruses and other malware.
Computer worms are self-replicating programs that exist without attaching itself to an existing program.
Computer viruses are self-replicating programs that corrupt files on a computer system.

If you don’t want these programs doing harm to your network, you should have a high-quality anti-virus system installed, and always use firewalls. You can find many free anti-virus programs online, such as AVG Free and avast!.

Share your thoughts on a blog

www.webguideone.com — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:45:32 +0000

If you’re tired of being shushed by friends every time you try to review a new movie or lay down some political commentary, it might be time to start a blog. It’s quick, easy, and fun, and provides a free and uncensored arena for you to share your opinions. The upside is it’s much easier to find people interested in what you want to say online. The hard part is that you will have to differentiate your blog from everybody else’s.If you’re a neophyte to the blogosphere, a site like WordPress is a great choice. Starting an account is literally a matter of minutes. You can select a basic theme and customize it with your own images and logos, or find a user-created theme in their library. Once you get more familiar with the interface, you can add templates and “widgets,” or chunks of HTML code that can be installed anywhere without additional modification.There are other things to consider in this initial stage. The first is to have a stable and recognizable URL. You will be able to choose this at the very beginning, and though you have the option to change it later, it’ll make it hard for any consistent readers to continue following your site. Another decision to make is what your blog’s main subject will be. While a broad blog about all the minutiae of your life may be appealing to you, only parts of it will be appealing to any particular reader. Decide what sort of reader you want to attract, and then focus on making the site interesting to them.Once you have gotten some posts out (which can take some time), you can market your blog across social networking sites like StumbleUpon, Twitter, and Facebook. Once you have gotten your name out there, continue to produce high-quality posts by researching and thinking carefully, and with any luck, your personal thoughts and feelings will soon be the talk of the town. Take that, shushers!

Running out of storage space on your PC? Move it online

www.webguideone.com — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:42:57 +0000

Computers are becoming larger and larger repositories of data. With ever-growing libraries of music, spreadsheets, and more, consumers are looking to computers with more RAM, and sometimes even relying on external hard drives. While these are useful in their own way, they all suffer from the same concern: what happens to all that data if the drive is damaged or malfunctions?There is an ever-increasing amount of sites on the internet where you can store and back-up your data in case of this eventuality. Another benefit these sites have over hardware is that access to the sites is often free. It’s important to understand the difference in terminology between storage and back-up, though. Backup programs keep the data offsite and are accessed by a desktop client.Online storage sites, on the other hand, store the data on their own websites. These are most useful for those with a broadband connection, since uploading and downloading data can be tedious otherwise.Of the backup sites, some of the best are Mozy and iBackup. Of these two, only Mozy is free up to 2 GB. However, iBackup has plans starting from 9.95/month, and offers to ship a temporary storage device if you need to backup data quickly.For storage, some of the best options are the GoDaddy Online File Folder, FlipDrive, and Box.net. Box.net has a free option for up to 1 GB of storage with a limit of 25 MB on the sizes of files you can upload. FlipDrive also has a free 1 GB option, and offers 15-day free trials for their Premium (20 GB), Enhanced (50 GB), and Platinum (100 GB) options. GoDaddy does not have a free option, but they have one of the simplest sites to use. The 10 GB Economy storage site starts at 19.99/yrthere are no monthly options.

LinkedIn provides social networking for professionals

www.webguideone.com — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:40:08 +0000

Facebook has gotten a lot of flak in its time for the damaging effect it can have on a job application. While it’s true that that picture of you with no shirt on pushing your friend into a vat of pickle juice might not win you any awards with potential employers, networking can still be an important part of getting (and then keeping) a job. Luckily, you don’t have to change your Facebook entirely (although you should never have pictures showing illegal or less than proper behavior). LinkedIn provides a professional alternative which has caught on around the world.Around the end of June, LinkedIn had more than 70 million users across 200 countries. The site is translated into English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. Founded by people with backgrounds in social networking and PayPal, the company’s current CEO is Jeff Weiner, who previously worked at Yahoo! Inc.Getting an account doesn’t take much longer than signing up for Facebook. However, rather than focusing on photos and status updates, the core of LinkedIn is based around your resume and work experience. It can take a while to get everything the way you want it, but features like uploading your resume to fill in fields and asking colleagues on the site to provide recommendations are quick ways to build up your profile.LinkedIn has been building on its original premise by adding new features like LinkedIn Answers (a community-based Q&A forum) and LinkedIn Groups, where users can join alumni, industry, and other professional groups. Currently, the site is working on instituting LinkedIn Polls.If you have other networking sites like Twitter or a blog, don’t forget about them. You can add them to your LinkedIn profile to let employers and colleagues know what you’re doing when you’re off the job. But seriouslyjust remember to take that pickle vat picture down.

Explore the world of webcomics

www.webguideone.com — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:36:25 +0000

If you remember reading newspaper strips like Dilbert or Peanuts when you were a kid, but haven’t found any modern strips or comics that give you the same pleasure, you might be looking in the wrong place. Many modern comic artists are moving online and creating what are called webcomics. Although many are similar to the three- or four-panel gag strips of newspaper strips, they also have the potential to move in many other interesting directions.Scott McCloud, a well-known comic artist and theorist, has discussed the fact that as opposed to a regular newspaper or comic book page, the digital page is infinite, and can be portrayed in many ways. Swiss artist demian5′s When I Am King is a perfect example, since it not only scrolls continuously across the page, but also occasionally features animationanother benefit of webcomics. The strip has garnered praise from Wired, The Independent, and Salon. Be warned that some webcomics may occasionally feature content you wouldn’t see in a newspaper comic, since the web is relatively uncensored.However, many deal with familiar themes of workplace ennui and modern romantic concernssuch as the science-geek-based xkcd and Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet, the latter of which has been syndicated in national newspapers. It’s also easy to find webcomics in any genre you like by checking sites like Webcomics Nation, which reviews comics and will let you know what you can expect before clicking the link.Another benefit of webcomics is that you don’t need to have a contract to produce them. You can post comics on your blog, or you can look into free hosting on sites like Webcomics Nation or Comic Dish. Let your creativity flywho knows, people might like your comics enough to actually pay to see more!

5 tips for guilt- and risk-free online shopping

www.webguideone.com — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:22:52 +0000

There’s no end to the benefits that can come with online shopping. Being able to search for exactly what you want, pay in whatever manner you want, and have it delivered directly to your doorstep is definitely attractive. However, the list of risks is also extensive. Identity theft, fraud, and privacy concerns have all been issues in previous years. Luckily, online shopping has gotten more secure, and also more knowledgeable about some of the easier-to-avoid risks. These tips can only help you in keeping your online shopping excursions secret.

Research the company to ensure they’re secure. Big-name companies like Amazon.com have their security notices easily accessible on their home pages. If you’re dealing with a company you’ve never dealt with before, investigate them to make sure they have phone numbers and contact information. Start with an inexpensive order.
Have one credit card for only online transactions. The Fair Credit Billing Act protects you against unauthorized transactions, but you have to notice them first. Having a card you only use online will make it easier to see if anyone else has been using it.
Never give out your Social Security number. This one is self-explanatory, but crucial. This data is never needed for an online transaction.
Keep copies of your order confirmations. When shopping at a reputable site, you will receive confirmation of your order. Make sure to print or save that data (if it is sent via e-mail) so you can take advantage of the return and warranty policy once the product arrives, or initiate legal action if it doesn’t.
Consider using a single-use card number. Companies like Citibank, Bank of America, and Discover are now offering services where they create a random card number for a one-time purchase. This makes it very easy to shop securely and ensure your online transaction can never be tied back to your main bank account.