It’s Like Mint… For Businesses
As I was surfing through Robert Scoble’s blog, I found an article that only caught my eye because it mentioned my home state of North Carolina. (“There’s tech companies here?”, ha) Any-hoo, a couple of guys that were fed up with Quickbooks, an accounting software suite from Intuit designed to help businesses track their expenses, deciding to create their own. Firelace, the name of their company, created Merchant’s Mirror that most importantly, is cross-browser supported (unlike Quickbook’s requirement of IE 6).
The fundamentals behind Merchant’s Mirror are similar to other traditional accounting systems. It allows you to create customers and vendors, add users, send invoices, enter payments, and much more. The difference comes in two ways. First, Merchant’s Mirror is web-based. That means it is available to you from any Internet-connected computer. It also means that your data is automatically backed up and managed without you having to lift a finger.
The cool thing about Merchant’s Mirror is that it’s 100% web based. Now I don’t have to explain why this is a benefit (access from anywhere and ease of sharing). I have since contact the developers of this interesting software package to see if I can hop on board to do an official review for you guys. Stay posted.
~Cory
Are URL’s Really Becoming Extinct?
I was reading an article earlier this morning on one of my favorite blogs, Wisdump, about how “normal people” don’t tend to use URLs as much as they used too, blaming search engines like Google for the extinction of said technologies. Sure, built-in technologies such as search bars from Google or separate toolbar for your favorite website make things easier and faster, but they don’t always provide the most practical solution. Me? I think URLs aren’t going anywhere, and I’ll tell you why.
Security
The article dips very lightly into the idea that by eliminating the use of the URL as we know it now, web security and the potential for “normal” computer users to be maliciously attacked drop. Yea, if we were still in 1995. Today when you think of people web surfing, you think of what? People going from web page the web page looking at information, hence the name “surfing” right? Who actually does that? People that use the internet are continually being sucked into just a few handfuls of site and services they use.
Think social networking. Users go to websites like Facebook and MySpace, but instead of surfing on to other websites around the net, they stay on that site. It offers more than just text to read and videos to watch, its a network of people to communicate with (social networking). Now I know by now you all are thinking “Cory, why are you explaining how social networking sites work? Its not rocket science!” I’ll tell you why: How many URL’s do you use to go to Facebook or MySpace? One.
Most of the URL spoofing attacks come from internal actions taken by parties during the attack. Think a message directing you to a wrong link or a those tricky seductive images (those get me all the time). So actually, if you were to get rid of URLs, how would you know your still on the same website? Seems like URLs are the only secure thing out there these days. Hmmm….
Attack of the Invading Google
In the article, the other shows a screen shot of your standard Firefox install plus adding the Google toolbar, stressing the idea that every computer user (a)Still has the default firefox/google search page (b)Has their search box set to use Google and (c)Actually installs and uses the Google toolbar. Either these “normal people” have a Google fetish or like searching right?
But Wait…
By “normal people” I mean those who are mere computer users, not literates nor enthusiasts nor experts.
So normal people, who are not computer literate, know to install Firefox because its a better browser and because its safer and easier to use, but can’t figure out how you have to put WWW before and .COM after your URLs.
Conclusion
Don’t get me wrong, I love Wisdump, always have, they have interesting articles on things that interest me plus they allow my brain to wonder, leaving you with blog posts to read. I’m not trying to blow them out of the water and call them out. The article still proves a good point that its easier to tell your friend to search for ________ on YouTube than to be able to remember the completely randomly generated ID.
~Cory
