Alternatives to Google webapps?

I find myself using Google products most of the time. These are Google Search, GMail, Reader, Picasa, Groups, Documents, Maps, Translate and so on... They are not bad generally, but I think I might be missing something better just because Google's offer is more popular. Are there some free and better alternatives to them?

From web app Rumen Georgiev

• there's so many alternatives... you can check out the ZOHO suite: http://www.zoho.com/ it's pretty big.

  From Yonatan Karni

• Microsoft offers Office Live Workspace. I haven't tried it myself, but in some comparisons I've read that Google Docs has better collaborative editing whereas Office Live Workspace has some unique features.

  From horsedrowner

• The big new one is Microsoft Office Web Apps, which you can reach here:

  office.microsoft.com/en-us/web-apps/

  You can read a comparison between Office Web Apps and the Google App suite on this Lifehacker article.

  Is there anything specifically that you don't like about the Google Apps? What would you be looking for in new apps? The only ones from your list I would suggest alternatives to are Flickr for Picasa, however I am sure you already know of that, and using any browser extension (what browser do you use?) for translation instead of going to Google's translate page to prevent having to open a separate web page and copy and paste into it.

  In my opinion though, you would be better off sticking with the Google's offerings, I generally find that they are superior to most others.

  From tobeannounced

• This is sort of a loaded question because it really depends on your needs and how you plan to use the various tools. Do you want web only apps? Do you plan to work in a sometimes disconnected state? Will traditional desktop apps that include some collaboration features work for you?

  That being said, here's a rough list of comparable apps:

  • Google search: Bing
  • Gmail: Yahoo Mail!, Windows Live Mail, Thunderbird as a client
  • Reader: Firefox plugin called Sage, Thunderbird's built in reader
  • Picasa: Windows Live Photo Gallery, Flickr or Facebook (For storing images and slight editing)
  • Groups: Yahoo groups, Windows Live Groups
  • Documents: OpenOffice, Office Live
  • Maps: Bing maps, MapQuest
  • Translate: Babelfish, FreeTranslation.com

  Here's an article I found on this subject: http://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/getting-free-of-googles-grip-the-10-top-alternatives.html

  From beaudetious

• As an alternative to Google Reader, I'd encourage you to check out Feedly. It uses Google Reader to store your feeds, so there's no migration required to try it out, but it offers a much better experience, in my opinion, to the standard Google Reader interface.

  From Kenneth LeFebvre

What web applications are available for mindmapping?

Relevant additional information would be features, offline usage, mobile integration and pricing.

From web app Cade Roux

• Prezi is more suitable for presentation rather than creation of mind maps but is definitely worth looking at.

  From Ian Turner

• Mindmeister.

  It's a good one, the best part is that you can use OpenID to sign in, so there is no need to register yet another account.

  Aaron : Nice thing! Are there any export options available?

  Ngu Soon Hui : @Aaron, if I'm not mistaken there is, but I am not sure.
  From Ngu Soon Hui

• There is a new webapp currently in beta called Popplet. They have a preview video if you want to see what the software can do, and they already have an iPad app to play with too.

  Couple of explaining images grabbed from their home page:

  

  From gnarf

• ThoughtMuse

  http://www.thoughtmuse.com/

  I haven't spent a lot of time playing with this one, but it looks interesting.
  If anyone has a look, please leave a comment saying how you get on.

  From AJ01

• I haven't yet been able to try this but I noticed Google Docs has recently added support for drawings. This might prove to be great for mindmapping.

  From horsedrowner

• https://bubbl.us/beta/

  MadMurf : -1 for no text detailing what this link is... not a helpful answer, expand please...

  danixd : @MadMurf feel free to click on it. The link is for bubbl. My god. I used some common sense. Also, guess what, its a Brainstorming app. WHAT A SURPRISE!
  From danixd

• Two nice webapps for mindmapping that haven't been suggested yet are:

  • www.lovelycharts.com/
  • www.mindomo.com/

  Their mobile integration and offline usage doesn't appear to be fantastic - you might be better off with www.mindmeister.com for that, but it is always good to have more options.

  Pricing for Lovely Charts

  http://imgur.com/tvPOc.png

  The pricing converts to ~US$22.60 for Professional, and ~$36.50 for gold.

  Pricing for Mindomo

  www.mindomo.com/pricing.htm

  From tobeannounced

• Mind42.com is a collaborative mindmapping webapp. It appears to be free.

  From moioci

• There's a list here http://www.mind-mapping.org/web-based-mindmappers/ with several pages of details and compatibility info

  Regards

  Vic Gee (@VicGee on Twitter)

  Mind-Mapping.Org

  The master list of mind mapping & information management software

  From Vic

• I use Seavus DropMind™ an excellent web and desktop mind mapping software with a lot of functionalities which can facilitate your everyday thinking process. It is great mind mapping tool for brainstorming, planning, organizing and sharing ideas in real time.

  From Nina

Good webapp for checking availability of domain names?

Is there an web/AJAX app that enables me to check availability of domain names under all top level domains? It would be a plus if it also could recommend similar domain names or have other innovative features.

From web app grm

• Who.is can do that, just type the keyword in without the TLD.

  From Simon Brown

• I love domai.nr for this sort of thing. Doesn't search all TLD's, but checks availability and recommends similar/abbreviated names across TLD's. Not perfect, but the best I've used.

  From tsondermann

• Namechecklist.com is a tool that is launched last week which even checks the chosen name on social networks and gives feedback on how unique it is via google results.

  From PeterEysermans

• Use "Domain Lookup" on whois.net.

  From Mehper C. Palavuzlar

• I use Domize which is simple and quick, they also have a mobile version i believe.

  They have quite a variety of TLDs to search:

  

  And some interesting search options:

  

  From Marc Roberts

• I've toyed with DomainTyper before. It suggests domain "hacks" based on what you type in. It also seems to support quite a variety of TLDs.

  From Grant Palin

• I like Instant domain search. Instant results! :)

  From thunderror

• If you are looking to check for domain names on all TLDs as you say in your question, don't go past iWantMyName which searches over 80 extensions (as far as I can tell - that figure does include things like .co.uk as well though).

  If you are primarily looking for the innovative features and name suggestions, as you say in your question, then check out all of these - and apologies for the plain text, I can't insert more than one hyperlink at my current rep level :(

  • www.nameboy.com
  • www.bustaname.com
  • www.domaintyper.com (also suggested by @Grant Palin)
  • www.domai.nr (also suggested by @tsondermann, and the site I use the most for lookups)
  • www.nxdom.com
  • www.dotomator.com
  From tobeannounced

• How did no one suggest http://ajaxwhois.com? By far the best/fastest option.

  grm : Looks very good, but only support a very limited subset of domains. Although, for .comish names it's a good option. Upvote from me.

  Book 'em Danno : definitely fastest, even though least option driven. upvote
  From mike the mike

• The web app Wordoid.com is superb for name ideas, as well as checking on the availability of .com and .net domains. It lets you specify a starting word, then builds up prefixes and/or suffices around that word, checking for "naturalness" against up to 5 languages (English, Spanish, French, Italian, German). You can also specify the maximum word length. Finally, it tells you the approximate current search hits for the suggested names; for building a new brand, this can be crucial, as you'll want to zoom in on words that have few or no current search hits.

  From limist

• Have a look at http://gandi.net - their domain lookup is decent, and they don't try to upsell you like so many others.

  For brainstorming domains, http://domai.nr/ are pretty good and their site is pretty slick too.

  From Mr. Matt

Are there any web-apps that are useful offline?

There are many useful web-apps, and some of them have implemented support for offline use. I understand that this is very useful if you lose your connection, and want to keep using the application until it comes back, but most web-apps are designed to be used when connected to the internet, and revolve around network-based features.

Are there any web-apps that are useful offline? (I.E. That you can use without being connected to the internet.)

From web app Jonas

• Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs support offline too. For that I think you may need to enable Labs features.

  fretje : Why the downvotes? GMail has off-line support out of the box (no need to enable a lab feature, you have to enable the offline support through the settings though), and is very useful that way!

  drye : I use Google offline for gmail, reader and docs all the time. I voted up, but don't understand the votes down.

  Antoops : i was confused with down vote without comment........ thanks fretje and drye for support!! :)

  Stefan Lasiewski : Google Docs has [phased out offline support](http://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=176376), and will implement it again sometime in the future (probably with HTML5). It still works offline, sort of, but it nags you every time it tries to save, and you risk losing your changes.
  From Antoops

• If I understand correctly you want an app that runs in the browser, but not online.

  The trouble is where the code is stored. The code running most web apps sits on a server somewhere in the Internet.

  You need to be connected in the beginning, just to get the code downloaded to your computer.

  In theory, with localstorage a simple app could pull down enough JavaScript logic in a single page to provide a useful app (e.g. a whiteboarding application) where there isn't a dependency on searching/retrieving data from a server.

  However most online apps thrive due to being online, and inter-connected with other users and other sites.

  Is there a particular type of site you wish worked offline?

  From scunliffe

• If you are including webapps with native desktop counterparts in this question, then I would argue that Evernote (a powerful note-taking tool) is a webapp that is very useful offline, along with others, such as Dropbox (a file syncing tool that will sync any changes made while offline when you go online).

  If we are excluding these types of apps where the desktop counterpart is the offline component and they are not offline in the browser, then I would nominate Every Time Zone (a great webapp for visualising different timezones), which works offline perfectly in Google Chrome for me, using offline storage (your browser will probably ask you whether you want to allow the site to store data online, so answer yes to this).

  Edit: I came across another app called ThreeTags Online Noteboook, which provides an offline mode using Google Gears, so that might be worth checking out.

  From tobeannounced

• Picasa and Google Earth (the online version is a view in Google Maps) are two more with on-line and off-line counterparts in the sense that tobeannounced mentioned.

  ChrisF : I think with Google Earth you have to be connected to get the imagery. There's simply too much of it to be stored locally.

  citadelgrad : You can increase the cache of Google Earth to improve the amount of data offline.
  From Dennis Williamson

Can I set a reminder for Google Tasks based on their due date?

Is it possible to be notified before a task is due, similar to how you can set notifications for events on Google Calendar?

From web app Senseful

• Google Tasks does not provide email alerts.

  As mentioned by @Antoops, you can set alerts for Google Calendar events which may provide the functionality you are looking for.

  It would be nice to see Google add the ability to set alerts for tasks, but I think they have left it out on purpose (since a task list is something you should check regularly by design vs. being pushed alerts/reminders)

  This support thread has further reading on this feature request.

  From 3rdparty

Facebook: tagging things you're not "related" to.

I know I can tag my friends and groups in Facebook status updates using the @-notation. In addition I would like to tag groups I don't belong to or pages I'm not a "fan" of, like

Went to see @"Hot Tub Time Machine". You should too.

I am aware of the alternatives:

• Joining the group to be able to tag it
• Attaching a link to my status update
• Pasting bit.ly-ed link to the page.

I'm trying to keep my facebook profile clean of ephemeral groups and my feed simple and readable, and I like the idiom of @tagging. Is this possible?

From web app fencliff

• As taken from Facebook's Help page, you cannot. I use the same alternatives as you do.

  Tagging allows you to more actively mention your friends and other things you are connected to on Facebook.

  An extra alternative you may want to add to your list is to use the Facebook Like Feature on websites. This way at least users can like your status. For example in this case , The Internet Movie Database.

  fencliff likes Hot Tub Time Machine (2010) on IMDb.

  Maybe movie theaters will grab in on this idea.

  fencliff : Thanks, I anticipated this might not be possible. I like the Facebook Connect idea on via IMDb.
  From phwd

I want a new unique online identity - how to find one?

I want to start a new online identity and use a single common identifier on as many sites as possible. What web apps or other methods are available for me to check if my proposed nickname is already in use? I definitely want to avoid any service that might start cybersquatting on the name, if any are suspected of doing that.

Edit: agreed, this does make my online presence very searchable, and I'll give that some more thought.

From web app William

• namechk.com will check 149 sites (although some don't seem to work). The check is done on the client-side using JavaScript, so name squatting is not easily possible.

  William : Nice one, neo. Thanks for that.
  From neo

• Long time ago I started to use couple of random letters (Fczbkk) as my nickname. So far it was everywhere I tried to register. Even my domain (http://fczbkk.com) was free. Choosing "Fczbkk" was one of the best decisions I have ever made.

  So if you just need an unique identifier for your on-line identity, I'd recommend using any random generator. Or you can smash your forehead against the keyboard or something like that.

  William : This is an interesting idea. I was hoping to use something less random but this method is growing on me. I am going to try bashing my head on the keys shortly :D

  Benjol : IIRC, this was how xkcd was born too.

  Julien N : Good idea, and you can choose random letters and then try to give it any meaning. Could result in something quite fun !

  Andrew : On http://reddit.com it's pretty common to create usernames after CAPTCHAs new users get on registration

  Evan Plaice : @Benjol Here's the reference http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJOS0sV2a24 @ 44:30

  Andreas : +1 for "forhead against the keyboard" - as if 20 times per day isn't enough
  From Fczbkk

• Similar to namechk.com mentioned by @neo, knowem.com will search 150-300 sites for free, and will register them for you if you pay for their premium service.

  William : Thanks, this is a great choice too. I like the way they divide sites into topics.
  From 3rdparty

• There used to be a website that would make pronounceable passwords for you. You could specify the beginning or end, etc. I used part of the street I lived on and had it generated the rest. I've used Postagulous on many forums and sites.

  The downside is that you are terribly searchable. Horribly so.

  ZoFreX : Tell me about it... the amount of trouble I've gotten into :/

  Satanicpuppy : @ZoFrex: The secret is to be secret. I'm horribly searchable, but my most common online identity isn't associated with my actual name.

  ZoFreX : It wasn't super-easy to link my identities, but my friends knew, and that's enough to get you in trouble if they read bash.org.
  From Postagulous

• I made anagrams out of my favourite things until I found one that wasn't taken!

  BarrettJ : Zoloft, Fresca, and Xtacy?

  ZoFreX : FZeroX. But close!
  From ZoFreX

• I like plain old Google. Google your proposed name, and the fewer hits the better. Then trademark it, and SUE SUE SUE! (Heh).

  From Satanicpuppy

• Also, another option is namechecklist.com which will tell you domain availability and search engine rankings as well.

  Its not as comprehensive on the social media part, but it is quite elegant.

  From 3rdparty