Yahoo announced the development of Yahoo Messenger 11, the upcoming version of  the popular Instant Messenger for Windows. From the last version 10, Yahoo is making numerous changes to the Messenger features and that made it socially more useful. Yahoo Messenger 11 takes it on step forward. Like in Windows Live Messenger 2011 and Skype 5, Yahoo Messenger 11 has Facebook chat integration, that let you chat with your Facebook friends once the feature has been enabled. Moreover, you can update your status on Facebook, Twitter and Yahoo Pulse at the same time from within the YM11.

(more…)

Digsby is multi-platform instant messaging and social networking application which support Google talk ,MSN messenger ,Yahoo messenger ,Facebook ,MySpace ,Twitter etc on single desktop application . Digsby is also capable of checking email messages ,and to post status messages to above mentioned social networks . The advantage is of such an application is that we don’t need to different softwares and websites for opening and checking multiple accounts .Digsby recently introduced an online installation method like Skype , so the user need to internet connection to download and installation this applications . I appreciate this as this mode generates some revenue for them ,and thus make the application free of advertisements .But of course we need an offline installer for backup and at the non availability of an internet connection .

(more…)

There are lot of online and offline applications for opening and managing Facebook accounts . Here is another addition to this list.A Yahoo Facebook widget that lets you to update ,view post  and other normal Facebook activities from your Desktop .

Features of Facebooker : Facebook desktop client

Update your Facebook status
View all Facebook Friends Status
Adjust the refresh rates to fetch most recent updates
Friends profile pictures and individual updates .
Access Facebook Inbox, Pokes, Requests, Groups, Wall messages and more stats from your  desktop .

Download Facebooker to open Facebook from desktop .

Many of the colleges, schools and offices have blocked access to Orkut, Myspace, Youtube and other related sites from their computer centers and internal Internet network. Actually, the college authorities or company network administrator block these websites to provide a better working environment and to use the Internet for activities related with studies /work. However, those people who are addicted Myspace, Orkut, Facebook Twitter and Youtube, and they are always looking for alternate methods to Access these blocked websites. The network administrator usually uses a software to block sites by either IP or name.

We can access blocked websites by finding out the used method for that.

Access Blocked websites: Case Name

If the sites like Orkut, Myspace and Youtube are blocked by Name, then you can use the site IP address instead of entering the original site URL. For example, instead of entering http://www.orkut.com. Enter the exact IP address http://72.14.209.85/ in the browser URL bar. To find the IP address of a blocked website, press Win+R and enter ” ping blocked website ” without quotes. Replace the required website with Orkut, Myspace, Youtube or whatsoever.

Another method in this case is the use of URL shortening services like bit.ly, tinyurl.com etc. Links provided by these sites spell differently, but direct to the original site on execution. So the site blocking software allow access to these URL s  by considering it as an unblocked website.

Access Blocked websites: Case IP

If the websites are blocked by IP, then you need to use IP changing software or Proxy websites.
Proxy websites bypasses your current ISP’s IP and opens the blocked website with a different one set on their server.

Here is a list of proxies which can be used to access blocked websites like Myspace, Facebook Orkut and Youtube.

http://flyproxy.com, http://proxify.coml, http://www.hidemyass.com, http://surfshield.net, http://kproxy.com/index.jsp, http://www.proxifree.com, http://www.anonproxy.info, http://www.3proxy.com .

Use Google to access blocked websites:

We can use Google’s translator tool as a proxy and access blocked websites. Google cannot be banned from your Internet network. So this is the best method if you want access to the blocked websites in a safe and secure manner.

http://www.google.com/translate?langpair=en|en&u=www.blockedwebsitesite.com

Change the blockedwebsite.com with the URL to be accessed. Here the website is redirected to Google.com( so it is not blocked) for language translation and the site is translated from English to English.

Use software to access blocked websites :
Use software like JAP to change the IP address to a common IP address. JAP provides a static IP address for all its users, thereby making it not possible to determine the visited user or website. But in most cases, you need administrative privileges to install a software to public college or office network.

Last but best method in this regard is using a VPN. I have  collected a set of free VPN services here. They provide a secure connection to the desired website through a server set up in another country.

The Google owned social networking site Orkut is getting much popularity in many countries, with major share of traffic from India and Brazil. Some social  websites have inbuilt tools to customize profiles with icons, graphics, stylish fonts, ASCII characters, colors and many others. Unfortunately, Orkut doesn’t have any such applications. However, you might have seen your friends using stylish fonts and letters in their Orkut profiles. Now you can also enable this feature in your profile using the simple trick given below.

(more…)

Orkut and other social media websites have strict policies regarding the privacy of its users. Users have the ability to block selected friends or non-friends from viewing their photos and videos. So once blocked its will not be possible for others to access private albums. While this may be considered as a privacy or security enhancing option, recently Orkut started implementing a more annoying copy-protection in user albums. Now even friends are not allowed to save Orkut profile and album photos of their friends.

(more…)