Useful web sites: File-sharing FireFox add-on and Internet search with a guide

Posted on June 30, 2007 at 1:53 pm

I just played around with one of the best FireFox add-ons that’s I’ve seen in a while called AllPeers.net that allows you to to share files, photos, and web pages with your own private network directly in your browser securely. It’s a combination of instant messaging, bit torrent, and email all in one! Once you install the plugin, you create an account with your email address and have the option of listing other email addresses of friends and family that you would want to start sharing files with.

The site makes it very easy to import an initial list of contacts from GMail, Outlook, Yahoo, or Hotmail, so you don’t have to waste a lot of time setting the service up.

Once installed, you’ll see a new toolbar in your FireFox browser. Click on the Share button to begin sharing files with someone. You can send files to someone by providing their email address even if they do not have the extension installed. However, the recipient will need to install the extension in order to download your files.

The cool thing about the extension is that you can drag just about anything into the Share window including files, folders, web pages, images, videos, etc. Type in a subject and message and click Share. You can also keep track of all your uploads and downloads by clicking on the Transfers tab. On the main Navigator pane, you can even chat with the people in your contact list if they are also online.

The service’s big selling point is the fact that it works like BitTorrent, except you share and download files within your trusted group of friends and family. For example, if you send a file to 10 people, you would have to be online until the first person downloads the file. Now the third person who downloads it will get it faster because it will download from your computer and the second person. As more and more people download the file, the faster it will become for others. Overall, a pretty neat service that might take off very soon.

Another web site that some people might find useful is ChaCha, a combination of the best search engines with human assistance. The web site calls it “human intelligence” from a large number of skilled experts. Basically, you perform a search on whatever and you’ll get a normal set of results as you would in Google like below:

However, with ChaCha you’ll see below the search box an option to chat live with a guide if you need any assistance. Once you click on this you’ll get a window on the left whereby you can chat with the guide and he or she will ask you a few questions and then provide you with links to the most relevant search results.

Of course, the type of experience you have will depend on the guide you get. I tested out the service by searching for WordPress and asked which service was better, WordPress or Blogger. He gave me two or three good links and then I ended the session. This could be a good service to use once in a while if you’re not able to find something or you’re not finding very good results.

Try the out and see how they work!