About Saikat Basu
Saikat Basu is the Deputy Editor for Internet, Windows, Productivity, and Work & Career. After removing the grime of an MBA and a ten year long marketing career, he dabbled in web development, networking, and SAP. After joining MakeUseOf in 2008, he rose from the ranks and now manages four high-growth sections while stealing time to write. You will also find his contributions in web publications like GuidingTech, GoSkills, OnlineTechTips, and Lifewire.
Bing Video Search Adds Streamlined Navigation & Hi-Res Video Previews
The Bing video search experience gets better this week, with a redesigned interface that brings in high-resolution video previews, more sources, and filters. The changes hopefully will lead to not only a better video searching experience, but also a better watching experience. One of the underlying changes enables you to watch the videos on a lightbox overlay without leaving your collated search.
It’s Not Word Bling: 7 Interesting Ways You Can Play With Word Clouds
We, the denizens of the Web, who live and work here also call them as tag clouds. Call them “word clouds” or “tag clouds” – they are visualization tools that helps your brain process information in a rather unique way. But there’s a method behind the apparent jumble you see and they can be put to lot of uses because they help to jog our brains and make it see the mundane in alternative ways.
Learning Computer Science? Tag Some Video Tutorials On Teaching Tree
Learning with the help of massive open online courses or YouTube videos has one slight problem -- there isn't anyone around to help you take shortcuts to the precise concept. You wade in and flounder around, because there's just so much information out there. If you come up for air, take a look at Teaching Tree. Teaching Tree handles the difficult part of taking you to the right concepts in the shortest time possible.
Thought Maps Were Dull? 7 Creative Google Maps Mashups Prove You Wrong
Truth be told – I don't have to break sweat to prove how Google Maps can show you the world in new fantastic ways. Seafarers used them to find new lands. We use them today to understand information. Oh, maps still do take us from New Delhi to New York, but they are also turning us into virtual tourists or helping us go back in time. That's no magical trickery, because Google Maps gives you a free rein to make something amazing out of a mashup.
Change Your Mind: 8 Really Inspirational Websites For Your Days & Life
Inspiration is not so simple. It is a higher calling. If motivation is the push, inspiration is the pull. On a gloomy day, we need big doses of both. Even little slivers of either go a long way. When we are talking of that vague thing called life, inspiration has to be sought…it has to be mined from any resource that's available at hand…and it has to be made a habit. Personally, the easiest gold mine has been the Internet.
10 Of The Best IFTTT Recipes To Bring Order Into Your Online Social Life
Tell yourself how many minutes of the day you give to the time sink that goes by the name of Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, or any other. The minutes add up. Wouldn't it be wonderful to balance social media and productivity with a bit of automation that can do all the grunt work for us while we can sit back and enjoy its tidbits? We really can because we came to know about IFTTT around 2011…which its creator Linden Tibbets aptly calls a "digital duct tape".
Freshdesk: A Refreshing Take On A Help Desk Application For Your Business [Sponsored]
A well-honed customer support team is just one part of the equation that goes into making a customer-centric company. To keep every smile intact, you also need the help of technology. In CRM, this comes in the form of a help desk solution which is a combination of a business process and a software service to help handle all customer requests, feedback, and complaints. If you run a business, Freshdesk is a cloud based help desk system you should look at.
How To Select The Best Educational Apps As Kids Go Back To School
Edutainment is a multi-billion dollar industry. But how do you as a parent judge if the educational app you downloaded is the right one? It's impossible to tell without drilling down if a particular app is right for the child or not. So, it's time to bring the specialists into play even as your kids prepare to head back to school.
How To Organize Your Research With The Power Of Google Drive
There are certain advantages to using Google Drive for your research work. It's free and available from everywhere of course. Everyone with a Google account has it by default. Tied to your Google account, it gives you a range of collaboration options. It only gets better from here as you can use the Research tool to power all your probes and quests.
Get Inspired: 10 Amazing Nature Photographers To Follow On Instagram
With 130 million users and counting, the world has never seen such a tsunami of photography aficionados. Is it possible to draw out ten amazing nature photographers who are snapping the beautiful world around us with more care and creativity than the rest of the other 130 or so million? Take the trip of a lifetime with these 10 amazing nature photographers you can find on Instagram.
Bite The Entrepreneurial Bug By Taking 7 Free Online Courses On How To Start A Business
In any 21st century job, the work is hard and the hours are long. Thankfully, there’s a secret mantra revealed to the truly courageous – if you are not in a perfect job; create one for yourself. That’s where you stop swimming with the current and dare to go against it. Without a life jacket. From the cubicle cave you get to dunk yourself in the choppy waters of entrepreneurship. Here are seven free online entrepreneurial courses to put the building blocks in place.
Nuts About Photography? 6 Tips To Use Google Maps With Your Camera
Google has probably done less for the mass effect of photography than Facebook (the acquisition of Instagram tipped the balance), but the contribution has been nothing short of the word “generous”. Google Maps has been a staple in our phones and on our computers, but are we really using it to give our photography some help with the groundwork? Let’s put Google Maps to some obvious and some not-so-obvious uses when we are lugging around our camera.
Open For All: 6 Computer Science Projects From MIT Media Lab That You Can Try Today
Every great educational institution has one common quality – innovation. MIT Media Labs is one center of excellence which promotes multifaceted thinking, and its “prime directive” is to focus on developments which are at the interface of our daily lives and technology. For 25 years or so the boffins at MIT Media Labs have done just that. These six projects may not make it to the Internet Hall of Fame, but they are fun to try out nonetheless.
10 Inspirational Entrepreneurs To Follow On Twitter
The Internet has peeled away much of the mystery. The personal magic of today’s business leaders remains, but we can easily unravel the strategies and business ideas that make them prosper. In fact, they are the ones showing us how with their wisdom on inspiring business blogs, and even on Q&A sites like Quora. I return to the brevity of 140 characters and give you ten inspirational entrepreneurs to follow and sponge wisdom from.
The Secrets Of Google Advanced Search: 5 Websites With Tips For You To Learn From
The Web is a maze and you need more than a few standard operators to wade through it. To come out successfully on the other end, you need to power search. Your weapon of choice – Google Advanced Search. The homepage itself has a lot of Google Search tools which we don't use much, but if you want to get your hands dirty, you need to know the secrets of Google Advanced Search. Here are a few places where you can learn all about the inner workings of advanced search.
How Writing Amazing Emails Can Further Your Career
Sending professional emails gives an intangible boost to your online (and offline) reputation. The ultimate yardstick of artful emailing is if you can bag a job or land a gig with just an impressive email. Or I would say, even if you can score an interview and get your foot inside the door. If your career progress is at stake, it's time you learnt a few of the basic emailing tips that could even the odds for a career breakthrough.
Open Source Matters: 6 Source Code Search Engines You Can Use For Programming Projects
Open source projects need all the help they can get. If not with funding, then with volunteers contributing to open source programming and free tools they can brandish. Search engines tuned with algorithms to find source code for programming projects are among the tools for the kit bag. While reusing code is a much debated topic in higher circles, they could be of help to beginner programmers and those trying to work their way through a coding logjam by cross-referencing their code.
7 Fun Uses for Twitter You Haven't Figured Out Yet
It isn't difficult to get addicted to Twitter. After all, it hardly takes an effort to type in 140 characters. In those itsy-bitsy lines lies a great power, to either change the world with a tweet or change your own world with a bit of Twitter-aided personal development. There are the obvious uses of Twitter we keep harping on, but isn't it always the uncommon and unnoticed uses of social media that piques our interest?
8 Child-Safe Websites Where Kids Can Catch All The Recent News
There's no news like bad news. I don't think a diet of bad news is quite right for children before they hit the right age. Agreed, you cannot keep the bad winds away but just like using parental controls to limit their exposure to the Internet, you can monitor the news they consume too. Let's look at some child-friendly ways to get your children into the habit of reading the news on the web. Who said good parenting was an easy job!
Can We Contribute To Space Exploration? These 7 Online Tools Say We Can
What about the man on the sidewalk? The high-schooler in the science class? The mother who once dreamt of suiting up for a space flight? Will there dreams remain so, or can they contribute to space exploration in some little ways? Thanks to the interconnectedness of the Web, they can. Let's take a look at seven online (and free) ways a citizen of Earth can contribute to understanding space.