Because I moved to Atlanta, I changed my cell phone number, which I won’t post here. I also decided that now would be a good time to change me email address. I will still check the Yahoo address for the forseeable future, but from now on, please email me at logicbus at gmail dot com.

Have you heard of TinyURL.com? No? What about this — have you ever gotten an email from someone that includes a URL so long that it runs over several lines? Then you click on it and your email program only recognizes the portion of the URL that falls on the first line? So the link doesn’t work? That’s what TinyURL is for. I first came across a TinyURL on Gamespot.com. It’s great for stuff like MapQuest directions. I just used it for the first time.

You may have to hit reload, or even shift-reload. Please note that this is more or less the logo for the planned layout/design/theme overhaul I’ve been telling people about, but have yet to deliver.

I’ve been writing about tabbed browsing for over two years now. Considering that it’s been so long, it’s kind of ridiculous that we’re talking about downloading an add-in for Internet Explorer to enable tabbed browsing.

The add-in in question is the MSN Toolbar. It actually sports a few features that Firefox’s tab implementation doesn’t — a toggle button for opening all links in new tabs, and the ability to bring a new tab to the front or leave it in the back. I’m not particularly excited about the front/back option, but I’ve written about the ability to open all links in new tabs in regard to Firefox.

The problem is that the tabs are sluggish and on my system cause some screen flicker. This is not unexpected with an add-in.

But the real gem of the download is Windows Desktop Search. It is far superior to the Find/Search tool that comes loaded with Windows, and it’s even better than Google Desktop. Yahoo! also has a desktop search tool, and I’ve read that it is comparable to the MSN version, but I have never used it. Google was fine, but I like the way results are presented to me in the MSN offering much better. The kicker is a preview pane.

I had one issue with Windows Desktop Search. When I installed it, I had Norton Antivirus 2004 Professional installed, which gives you an undelete feature one step beyond what the Recycle bin does. I was never crazy about the feature because it was slow, its interface window was small and not resizable, and I never needed the feature. Well NAV Pro keeps its data in cryptically-named files located in C:RecyclerNProtect, and every time one of those files is accessed, a file with a similar name is created.

A heads-up to anyone who’s never used a desktop search program: Before you get functionality, the utility must scan all your hard drives for all files, and then create a table of contents or index which is somehow superior to the file allocation table. The index is what makes Google Desktop, Yahoo Desktop Search, and Windows Desktop Search superior to the search tool that comes with Windows.

So … it doesn’t take much imagination to figure out that the Windows Desktop Search got stuck in an endless cycle. Each time it accessed an NProtect file, Norton created another file, which WDS then decided it had to index …

The saving grace here is that WDS provides a very useful status window that you can bring up at any time. It tells you how many file are left to index, the file currently being indexed, and allows you to start or pause indexing or put it on snooze. When I found that the indexing was still underway even though it had far surpassed my estimated time of completion, I opened up the status window. It showed six files remaining. Then eight. Then seven. Then five. Then eight. Then six … and on and on. So I opened up the C:RecyclerNProtect folder, and I could clearly see what was going on.

To get around this, I added to WDS’s list of file extensions to skip. The extensions that got me out of the endless loop were .001, .002, and .003.

A couple days later, I bought Norton Antivirus 2005 (standard) at Staples because Norton offered a $20 summer rebate and a $20 upgrade rebate, and Staples offered a small rebate to cover everything else, and I got it for free. I lost two features, one of which is the “enhanced” Recycle bin and the other I can’t remember.

Final word, Windows Desktop Search is better than Google Desktop, and that surprises me.

Google’s customized homepage (“portal”) service now offers bookmarks. Two weeks ago I wrote about Google’s Firefox toolbar, and then I wrote another post about features I want added to it. Google’s bookmarks aren’t a part of its toolbar yet, but that is the next logical step.

Once Google does this — and I know they will — I will officially have no more reason to prefer Yahoo! over Google. In fact, what Google is offering today may be enough to make me switch.

It would be great if the bookmarks in Yahoo’s toolbar included web icons. Also, it would be great if the rollover tooltip showed the description, rather than the name, which can be seen quite clearly without the tooltip.

That’s right. I’m sick and tired of the most popular, most successful browser plug-in ever. Why? Two reasons.

First, it can be a bandwidth hog. I know, I know … dial-up, blah blah blah. But seriously. Sometimes I wait for one page to finish loading before I click on a link to get another page loading, and I scroll around the page to find out what I’m waiting for, and it turns out to be some Flash advertisement that has an embedded video file. I don’t want the video file. And as it turns out, I don’t want Flash.

Second, it can be a processor hog. Typically the same media that occupies the internet connection also occupies the processor — video files and long, complex animations. My computer has a 1.8 GHz processor and only (only) 256 MB of RAM. I assume that the RAM is what’s killing me, but come on — scrolling down a web page shouldn’t give me an epileptic seizure just because it’s got a couple Flash ads.

So I formatted a couple days ago and I have not installed Flash since then. It’s great. I get the little white box instead of an ad that brings my computer to its knees. Before the format I had resorted to using a Firefox extension called, appropriately enough, Flashblock. It is just slightly clunky. But I’m afraid that I will once again be installing it, because of one Flash animation:

Behold: Girl in black bikini, falling. Just click on it.

PS – When she gets stuck, you can drag her around, through tight squeezes, etc.

I installed it mostly for kicks and curiosity, and I suppose actually using it makes me more qualified to talk about it. Major features in it that I like:

You can drag to resize the search text box. Yahoo should definitely steal this. Wait a month.

It’s got the Pagerank thing. Curiously, it is a vertical bar on Firefox, but a horizontal bar in IE.

Spellcheck for any form you come across on the Internet. This feature is enough for me to leave it permanently installed/visible. WordPress has no built-in spellcheck, but now I’ve got one, thanks to Google.

I can configure the search box so that it opens searches in new tabs. This seems like a no-brainer for a tab-enabled browser.

The Google logo is no longer ugly. It’s been anti-aliased. It almost seems too soft now, but it’s definitely an improvement.

With that said, here’s what I’d like to see in the next version:

Networked bookmarks.

Custom link buttons (DanPremo.com).

All the functionality present in the Google mail notifier. To me this also seems like a no-brainer.

Five word review? It’s good; I’ll keep it.

Google put out a toolbar for Firefox. I’m sticking with the Yahoo! toolbar for Firefox. For now.

The kicker is that the Yahoo! toolbar includes my Yahoo! bookmarks. It’s also very nice that the Yahoo! toolbar also tells me if I have new mail in my Yahoo! mail account, and it allows me to put in two custom links right on the bar itself (although I’d like more).

Google doesn’t have any bookmark system. However, Google does have the notification icon, which is better than the mail button on the Yahoo! toolbar in some ways, but why not have both?

I think that users who run Firefox are probably more aware of features and in turn more picky about them. Therefore, because both Yahoo! and Google have put out toolbars for Firefox, I’m hoping that they will put more thought into features. Basically what I want is that first, both companies will steal the best features from the other, and then they will come up with some stuff that no one has ever thought of but once they use it they want it all the time.

Additionally, the Yahoo! toolbar is what is keeping me from switching over to Gmail. I love the bookmarks feature.

Google’s homepage feature allows you to put a privew of your Gmail inbox right on your Google page. I have to admit, that’s pretty nice. Still, I’m on dial-up, and I use Google as my start page because it loads so quickly. The new homepage features eschews images (except for in the weather box), but when it comes to loading speed, less is always more. I can’t help but compliment the drag-and-drop rearranging feature on Google’s homepage. Never seen anything like it on a website.

So … if Google adds an online bookmarks system, and integrates it into their toolbar … I’ll probably switch.

Did Google Desktop Search auto-update recently? The systray icon looks different to me.