The internet is constantly changing. It could almost be considered a living, breathing entity. We can blame it on the fact that as humans discover what technology is capable of, they explore and expand on their ideas to build some amazing things. In this post, we’ll introduce you to some of the major modern players who are developing some great web applications. This shift of moving away from a computer-anchored programs to online accessible web app has been occurring for the past few years - you might hear it referred to as “the cloud”. We’ve put together a quick and dirty guide to some of the most popular apps. In this part, we’ll be discussing music and news!
Enjoy your music, done your way, how you want it
If there’s one thing that the internet has evolved over the past few years, its multimedia - pictures, music, and videos. We’ll touch base on pictures and videos a little later. For now, lets talk about what’s new in the music world…. ok, maybe the fact that you can play whatever song you like, whenever you like, for free? Yeah, sounds awesome because it IS awesome. Music streaming sites are fantastic. Quite possibly the most popular online music apps are Last.fm and Pandora. These sites let you create custom “stations” based on an artist or song that you like. They will then take that music and use some crazy algorithms to see what else exists in the musical world that you might enjoy. This allows you to explore your musical tastes and discover artists that you would have never found through conventional methods.
Sure, there’s always iTunes, but iTunes can’t be accessed from any computer - nor can you stream it live from your mobile devices. Last.fm and Pandora both have apps for major mobile devices that allow live streaming. What iTunes DOES offer is a fantastic store / music search if you know what you want. But is there something else out there? Of course, check out Grooveshark, the online music search engine that allows you to listen to the songs and make your own playlists online!
Examples of music webapps you should check out: Pandora, Last.fm, Grooveshark
The latest news, brought to you by social media
Traditional television news programs are out. It’s just much simpler to get your news online these days, even from the modern counterparts to traditional media. Sites such as the New York Times, CNN, and BBC have done a significant amount of work to make sure their sites deliver content to modern viewers. But even these traditional-gone-digital outlets suffer from lack of relevance - filtering and finding stories you are interested in is too difficult. Enter social media sites. Most of these sites are unique in that they allow any user to submit any piece of content. Other users then vote on the news submission. A good article that is well written, relevant, and comes from a reliable source will be voted up. Breaking news items, popular trends, and random goofiness from ALL AROUND THE WORLD get voted on by people, like you, so quality control is practically guaranteed. One of the best features of social media (despite having a voting system or not) is the commenting ability. I usually learn more by reading the comments on certain articles than I do from the actual news piece. This is great because people discuss the news item, describing their perspectives. It’s definitely mind-opening and highly recommended.
Examples of Social Media sites include: Digg.com, Reddit.com, Gawker.com (and other Gawker networks such as Lifehacker, Gizmodo, Kotaku, etc.)
Stay tuned for Part 2: Online Video and Photos, and Part 3: Online Productivity/Collaboration and Social Networking!
- leon m
