What was hot in IT world 2008

This is a guest post from Helen Grigorieva. She is a tech writer, an author of Flash’y'mania – blog about everything concerning Flash, an assistant marketing director of international software development company, a person interested in tech and Web news and a very nice girl

The last week of the year is the best time to resume everything that happened in the tech world during the year. So, let’s look at some statistics represented as flash charts to learn what was at the top this year.

Top websites 2008
What are the most popular places of the Web world? The most popular websites according to Alexa ranking and their daily reach (% of global internet users who visit the sites):

Top search engines 2008
Search is an integral part of the Web. Search engines are the integral parts of our life. What search engines were used the most this year?

Top web browsers 2008
Thing which opens the Web for us is a web-browser. Which is the most popular this year?

Top software 2008
Top software of this year is evidently various anti-virus programs. What else was in greatest demand this year?

Top PC games 2008
Of course, computer world can’t be imagined without games. Leaders of this year among the PC games are below:

That’s how computer world lived this year.

Charts are created with Animated Chart software.

Merry Christmas!

Best Software Christmas Sales 2008

It’s only one week left till Christmas, less than two weeks till the New Year. So, it’s time to buy software with Christmas discount until it’s not too late. Hurry up! I’ve composed a list of best offers and Christmas discounts on software for you.

Flarium.com offers 10% discount for all products or up to 50% off on software bundles. There are flash software both for web developers and end users and calendar software.

Till December, 31th.

SothinkMedia.com offers great discounts for software bundles. Here you can find everything you need to work with video – video downloaders, encoders, converters and many more. Save $15-55.

From December, 3rd.

Acoolsoft offers Christmas bundle – PPT2DVD and PPT2Video software with $30 discount.

Till January, 5th.

Moyea Software offers web player software, swf and video converters and PPT to DVD burner. Save $20 on each product or up to $70 on software bundles.

Till December, 31th.

ArcSoft.com gives exactly what you need before the time of presents and greetings. Print Creations – print-projects software for creating cards, calendars, pages, scrapbooks. Save 30%.

Till December, 31th.

Wondershare offers 20% discount for PPT to DVD and PPT to Video converters and free templates for PPT2DVD.

Till January, 5th.

Lingvosoft offers great language tools – dictionaries, phrasebooks and language learning software with 10-15% discount.

Till December, 26th.

Happy Christmas shopping!

Google’s Chrome is out of beta. What’s the hurry?

Today, Google announced that their Chrome leaves beta. This was really fast – about three month to make browser stable and fast enough to take off  ‘beta’ label. It is a little strange for me to see Chrome 1.0 because major release must introduce new features, and Chrome 1.0 doesn’t. Yes, Chrome is rather fast and stable, but it still doesn’t have such important features as add-ons and built-in RSS reader, although everyone expected them to be in a non-beta version. So, what’s the hurry? It’s easy to understand – beta version can’t be preinstalled on a new computers. So, now we can expect that Google will try to conclude contracts with OEM (original equipment manufacturers). Maybe, your next computer will be with preinstalled Chrome .

In spite of all unfinished tasks, let’s congratulate Chrome developers with the 1.0 version and wish them to make Chrome even better. Chrome 1.0 can be downloaded from here.

Desktop calendars feature comparison

Desktop calendar software is the best assistant for everyday time management. Nevertheless, contemporary calendar planners offer not only scheduling features, but also other helpful options such as wallpaper management, contacts management, offline managing web calendar events and many more.

Here are my top 5 calendar planners:

A Better Calendar (SRO Software)

Active Desktop Calendar (XemiComputers)

Desktop Calendar & Planner Software (Eshasoft)

Desktop iCalendar (Desksware)

Screen Calendar (Flarium)

I’ve compared their features so that everyone can choose what best meets his needs. Look, consider and choose calendar program you like the most.

Flock browser – new way of social browsing

Last week, the new 2.0.2 version of Flock web browser was released. If you haven’t try Flock, you have to download the new version and experience the new dimension of web browsing. It’s a perfect browser for everyone who is in social media, blogging, sharing etc.

• All social profiles and web-based applications you use can be integrated into the Flock browser for easier access and managing. Flock automatically connects you with over 20 of your favorite online services including MySpace, Twitter, Digg, Facebook, YouTube, LiveJournal, Flickr, Picasa etc.
• Uploading, saving and sharing pictures becomes as easy as dragging and dropping them.
• Blog post can be created and published immediately from the built-in browser editor.
• All your RSS feeds are aggregated in a handy reader.
• Web Clipboard allows saving text, links and images for later use, emailing or posting them to blog directly from the clipboard.

Flock is powered by Mozilla that means you can enjoy all advantages of Firefox 3 along with the easy and fast access to social communities and media providers, install any Firefox add-on, and enjoy well-known Mozilla browser security. Also, search the web with the most advanced Search toolbar available today.

So, for now