1. Omnistar Free Web Site Templates

Receive free web site templates to help improve your web site

2. Five Second Test

Identify the most prominent elements of your User Interface using Five Second Test.

3. Piwik
An open source web analytics software that provides real time reports on your website visitors, search engines and keywords they used and much more.

4. Dynamic Drive
An Online Image Optimizer.

5. Silverback
A tool to perform usability testing for designers and developers.

6. Loop11
An online tool that allows individuals to conduct unmoderated user testing on any kind of digital interface.

7. SiteRay
Test, Compare and Improve your websites using SiteRay

8. Google Page Speed
A Firefox/Firebug addon for webmaster and web developers to evaluate the performance of their web pages.

9. Crowd Science
An Online measurement service that builds detailed reports on demographics of your website audience.

10. Camtasia
Record, Edit and Share Onscreen activity.

11. Ethnio
Recruit reasearch participants on your own using Ethnio

12. What’s the Buzz?
Find out who is talking about a certain keyword using this keyword research tool

Recently eBay reached a settlement with Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis. The lawsuit, which claimed damages in the amount of $75million each day, resulted from allegations that eBay’s sale of Skype significantly violated a licensing agreement. The settlement has made possible the sale of Skype to an international consortium comprised of three (originally four) investment companies; Silver Lake Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. Marc Andreessen of Andreessen Horowitz has gone on record stating all issues have been settled and that the company (Skype) is “free and clear to execute to its full potential”.
GigaOM, a business media company linking the world’s leading technology innovators to a global audience of prospective customers, business partners, and investors, had been spreading rumors that a settlement might be reached earlier in the month and the NY Times came on board later, reinforcing those claims.
Mr. Zennstrom and Mr. Friis, through negotiations and a significant layout of their own personal capital have acquired approximately 14% of Skype (up from an original 10% that was reported earlier), giving them the rights to Global Index P2P technology which is controlled by their company Joltid, and which is key to the success of Skype Software. The two also now have representation at the boardroom.
Index Ventures, one of the original four groups in the new investment entity has backed out of the deal. A spokesperson for the long time investor in Skype issued a statement wherein they said they were happy that the litigation surrounding Skype was behind the company and that they wished Josh Silverman, and all other investors great success. Index Ventures cited “changes in the deal terms” as its chief reason for backing out.
56% of Skype now belongs to the internet consortium, with eBay holding on to 30%, and the original owners of Skype taking their 14%. The deal, which values Skype at $2.75 billion, will be finalized at the end of the fourth quarter of 2009.

Post By Lewis Van Tassel
Lewis is an Education Manager for
Omnistar Email Marketing Software

In a world where information flows freely at incalculable rates, iPhone users in Germany may soon find themselves in the position of having to pay to read their favorite newspaper via their iPhone. Axel Springer AG, of BILD-Zeitung, states that user’s of the iPhone who wish to read their newspaper will have to purchase and download a new iPhone app. Those who choose not to will find themselves blocked from the newspaper’s website.
The German newspaper giant chose iPhone users as its first target chiefly because studies have shown that users of the iPhone are more willing to pay for applications for their phone than users of other smart phones. That being said, this new pay-per-use policy will be singling out users of the iPhone only for as long as it takes the company to develop applications for other smart phones on the market.
Today BILD-Zeitung’s website Bild.de is the second most visited news site in Germany with nearly 5.6 million users. It is only narrowly trailing Spiegel Online by 20,000 users per day. Half of all mobile users are accessing content on Bild.de via an iPhone, making the pay-per-use plan far from risk-free. Competing newspapers give their products away for free. There is no charge to access content from BILD.de via a laptop computer, and BILD is repeatedly being censured by the German Press Council.
Even BILD CEO Mathias Dopfner agrees that as long as current conditions persist, and mobile users are able to get their news for free elsewhere, his company (theoretically) will lose.
In addition this new plan makes other European newspapers seem far more iPhone friendly. The Guardian, a UK Newspaper, offers a full featured app for the iPhone and a generic smart phone app. The Financial Times also provides their services free of charge to iPhone users. For users who can not get enough news, there is an iPhone app called World Newspapers, which offers free access to 4000 newspapers across 200 countries.
Given that it seems all to easy for iPhone users, and users of smart phones in general, to get their news for free, one must wonder how Axel Springer’s plan has any chance of success.

Post By Lewis Van Tassel
Lewis is an Education Manager for
Omnistar Email Marketing Software

The FBI has a stockpile of tools that it uses to aid in their search for the nation’s most sought after criminals. Recently, the FBI unveiled a couple of their newest and coolest tools to be used on social networking sites.

The first tool is a self-updating video widget that the FBI uses to broadcast up-to-date content about the criminals they are searching for. Users are able to include this widget on their own web pages, or within their own blogs. The content is updated automatically by the FBI.

Are you destined to be an FBI Agent, or is the analytical approach to national security more your game? Users can find out by taking the FBI’s new Facebook Quiz (located on the FBI’s Facebook Page). This quiz will ask the user a series of questions designed to help them find their best career path within the FBI.

Finally, iPhone users will find cool new updates to the already extremely popular FBI’s Most Wanted iPhone Application, one of which allows the user to geolocate the FBI office nearest their present location. The FBI’s Most Wanted iPhone application keeps users up to date on the Most Wanted list as well as issues to do with missing children and terrorist threats. The FBI stated that since its inception this application has been downloaded over 670,000 times.

Post By Lewis Van Tassel
Lewis is an Education Manager for
Omnistar Email Marketing Software