If you use Google Reader, you’re probably familiar with “Canvas View,” a way to read the full text of all your new feeds from multiple sources on one Web page. Today, that view is coming to iGoogle, allowing you to view Google Reader and dozens of other applications and websites in full within the iGoogle interface. This is a big change versus the widgets (or gadgets in Google terms) that most start pages employ, which simply provide a snippet of content and link out to an external site.

In addition to Google Reader, you can now access canvas view gadgets for applications such as iLike and Flixster, as well as Google products including Docs, Maps, and Google Talk. A number of content partners like The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times are also offering canvas view gadgets, allowing you to read those publications in-full from within the iGoogle interface.

Essentially, the canvas view gadgets are like iFrames on steroids, allowing you to access a whole bunch of services without ever leaving iGoogle. Compared to links that pop open stories in new windows, the user experience is certainly more enjoyable, and for companies that are able to become highlighted partners, it should be a way to gain more traffic.

Technically, I still use My Yahoo as my start page, primarily because of its integration with Yahoo Finance that allows me to track dozens of different stocks, industries, and model portfolios. But, considering all of the Google services I keep open all day (Gmail, Google Reader, Google Docs, GTalk), iGoogle suddenly looks like something that could save me a lot of time. It’s a simple change, but one that currently makes iGoogle a bit more attractive than many of its competitors.

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:iGoogle Gadgets Get Social with New Developer SandboxiGoogle Tests Chat, Open Social, and Activity FeedsiGoogle Themes Directory is LiveiGoogle Gets Five New ThemesiGoogle Gets Optimized for the iPhoneiGoogle Has A Bunch Of New ThemesFacebook Apps: iGoogle, LivePets, Vuvox

Source:Mashable!

Company Name

PikLuk

20-Word Description

The safe way for your kids to use the Internet. Show only websites and emails that you allow on the Parent Dashboard.

CEO’s Pitch

PikLuk helps parents provide their children with a safe and responsible means to use the Internet’s resources for their growth and education. We offer a free downloadable Web browser and email solution designed for small children and pre-teens.

Mashable’s Take

If you’re torn between giving your Web-connected child free license to roam the Web with a browser like Firefox or IE, or you feel it imperative to restrict them to a safer and very select supply of websites, this development might appeal.

PikLuk, launched out of Austin, Texas, is in and of itself a Web browser. The project’s modus operandi: to give parents the ability to locally or remotely control what it is their children can see. This means any websites that parents deem suitable for their kids’ exploration can be designated as safe. Don’t mind your son or daughter signing on to a particular social network? You can specify what is and what isn’t okay to be viewed with your PikLuk installation. Restrictions can also be set for email correspondence. If you only want family members and/or immediate friends to be able to contact your child, you can make sure this is the case.

To start, three sites are active by default. Kerpoof, PBS Kids, and Yahoo Kids. You can add to or remove picks at will, however. Per your convenience, the PikLuk website showcase a roll of sites labeled popular and recommended. Some of these include Disney XD, Club Penguin, LEGO, and Funbrain.

For registrants, there is a free option for very casual users. But if you don’t want to be encumbered by limits as to the number of sites accessible by your children, you can sign up for an annual subscription of $19.99/year, or $29.99 for lifetime membership. Keep in mind that only Windows users can download the PikLuk browser at present. The company states that a Mac-compatible option will soon surface. The same goes for support for Spanish language use.

While PikLuk is a fairly ordinary browser and standalone download, it presents users with a full-screen experience. There’s no URL entry to speak of. Neither is there any tabbed browsing or other common modern accouterments. Strictly safety and simplicity are first and foremost on the menu, which is just fine for the young age bracket that it is geared towards - at least for parents who cannot monitor their child’s Web usage every moment that they are connected.

On the whole, this is really for the youngest of Internet users. And for the price of unlimited use, it seems qualitatively worthwhile. You can of course “try before you totally buy in,” but chances are you’ll think it is worth the cost of admission. Compared to Kidzui, another kid-friendly Internet browser we’ve reviewed, and one which runs users $5.00/month and under, PikLuk may be a bit less graphically refined and entertaining from the get-go. Yet the option to customize your child’s browsing experience from home, work, or elsewhere, is perhaps a more appealing investment.

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How exactly did this happen? For so long, Internet Explorer was the dominant browser, and Firefox was the up and coming alternative; the web browser space seemed so dull just a couple of years ago. Now, suddenly, we have it all: IE is the tired old guy trying to keep up with the times, Chrome is the shy one sitting in a corner, Firefox is the life of the party, talking to everyone at the same time, Opera is trying so hard to be funnier than Firefox, and Flock…well, Flock is Firefox’ brother on amphetamines. And now, it finally reached version 2.0.

The philosophy behind Flock is more: more of everything, and all packed directly into the browser. This design has its upsides and its downsides; and one downside is immediately apparent: it’s a memory hog. Well, maybe you have a fast computer and you won’t notice; that’s fine. But compared to Firefox and Chrome (and it’s only logical, I’m not complaining here) Flock is simply slower and needs more memory to operate.

On the upside, you get more of everything right out of the box. The core of the Flock experience is social networking, and this is where Flock shines. Once you log in into various socnets, its People sidebar holds essential info and lets you use certain features of the site without visiting it. It’s done well; the amount of information may overwhelm you at the beginning, but you’ll get used to it in no time.

With all this comes another potential downside, at least for me. As much as it sounds tempting to have everything you need inside the browser, I actually like to visit the actual websites - Facebook, MySpace, Twitter. Not only because it’s my job and I need to see what’s happening on the actual site, but also because I feel strangely disconnected if I never visit them. Some users probably won’t care, but some, I reckon, will prefer to simply open their favorite socnets in a couple of tabs when they fire up their browser, skipping Flock’s social networking features altogether.

It’s not only about social networking, though. Flock features a media bar that holds “media streams” from sites such as YouTube, Flickr, Digg etc. Want to quickly fire up recent public photos posted to Flickr, or YouTube’s top favorited videos? No problem.

Then there’s the MyWorld feature, which is essentially Flock’s idea of a start page. It brings together your favorite feeds, friend activity, and favorite media in a slick page; I don’t see myself using it (I prefer my Netvibes), but for many users it’ll be better than a simple Google search form or some standard web portal such as MSN.com.

There’s more to Flock under the hood; features such as Photo Uploader (available tfrom the Tools menu) will pleasantly surprise those who think that Flock is just a Firefox with some extra bling; it’s not. It has a rich feature set packed in a slick package, and I’m sure that many users will appreciate it. It will never be bigger than Firefox, but that’s not the idea; it’s a niche browser, and if you like what you’ve read here, give it a spin; it deserves it.

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:Flock Public Beta Now LiveFlock Gets a New Boss, Flock 1.0 ComingHow Can Flock’s Social Browser Play Into the “Open” Movement?Flock Releases Minor Upgrades in Response to UsersFlock’s Social Browser 1.0 Has Finally ArrivedFlock CEO Jumps ShipFlock Version 0.9 Browser Is Now Live

No matter which browser you prefer, there’s a plethora of ways to customize the way you surf the Web. There are countless plugins, extensions, toolbars and more. Some of these are easy to install while others require a little more effort.

We’ve put together a list of some of the best instructional resources for the most popular browsers today, including Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Opera and even the still wet behind the ears rookie, Google Chrome.

Internet Explorer

ie Tips - Shares a ton of quick tips for customizing Internet Explorer.

Official Browser Settings - Overview provides plenty of useful information on all of the settings for IE that most users never touch. Learn what they do and perhaps fix some problems you’ve been experiencing.

Official IE Developers Blog - Shares new tips and tricks all the time on their official blog for Internet Explorer.

Internet Explorer Toolbar - Tutorial covers what you need to know about IE’s toolbar.

Top 11 ie Add-ons - Covers a list of cool tools you can add to the IE experience.

Firefox

Customize Firefox themes - Provides a large collection of new themes for changing your Firefox look and feel.

Mozilla’s Official Way to Customize Firefox - shows undocumented features and ways to customize their browser.

How to Use GreaseMonkey - A must-read if you truly want to take your browsing to the next level.

Office Firefox Add-on Library - Contains an amazing amount of add-ons that you can install with a simple click.

Mashable’s List of 30+ Firefox Extensions - Extensions that enhance your browsing experience.

Safari

How to Customize Safari Beyond All Reason - Offers up a bunch of solutions to common annoyances with Safari as well as other cool tips. Funny title too.

How to customize the Safari Toolbar - Covers everything you need to know about the toolbar.

SafariStand - Adds dozens of extra features to the Safari browser.

eHow’s How to Customize Safari covers the basics of Safari preferences here.

YouTube video - Shows you how to customize the Safari Toolbar.

Opera

Opera Mini - How to install and configure Opera Mini for your mobile device

Official Opera Tutorials - Tutorials on how to customize the Opera browser.

Opera Widgets - Shows the best ways to customize Opera Widgets.

Extending Opera - Demonstrates several ways to get the most out of Opera.

Opera Mail Tutorial - A nice visual tutorial on the Opera Mail system.

Chrome

Google Chrome Forums - Has a tremendous amount of ways to trick out your Chrome browser

Digital Streets - Shares some cool tips for customizing your Chrome experience.

Custom Search Engines - Covers how to change the search engines in Chrome

Customized Chrome Themes - Gives you ideas on how to change Chrome’s skin.

GreaseMetal - The Chrome equivalent to Firefox’s popular GreaseMonkey.

Whether it’s just to save time or make your browser more visually appealing, there’s an amazing amount of options for any browser that you choose to use. What are some of your favorite ways to trick out your browser? Are there any unusual things you do that others might like to try? Share your secrets in the comments area.

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:30+ Skins For OperaAOL Is Really, For Real Ending Netscape NavigatorVertagio Launches Social NetworkThe Daily Poll: What Was Your First Web Browser?AllPeers Launches Firefox Bundle PackageNetscape’s Final Resting PlaceGoogle Chrome: The “GBrowser” Comes to Life

Safari for Mac users don’t have to suffer from PC envy any longer when it comes to their browser, thanks to the announcement of Google Gears for Safari, which allows users to browse some of their favorite websites without a connection to the Web.

For example, Safari for Mac (Leopard 10.5.3 or Tiger 10.4.11) will now be able to access all Gears-enabled sites such as Zoho Office, WordPress, the new YouTube uploader, and Google Docs without Internet access. This is ideal when traveling where you might not necessarily have access to a reliable connection, and helps makes Web-based office apps a more viable alternative to desktop apps.

Not only will you be able to do things like work on your Web-based office documents offline, but Google Gears will also improve browser performance because of the background loading of JavaScript. This was a missing component in bridging the gap between the Mac desktop and the Web. Mac users can expect to enjoy many more desktop-enabled Web applications to come as new services begin to support Google Gears for offline access.

To download Gears for Safari, head to the Google Gears website.

—Related Articles at Mashable - All That’s New on the Web:Google Calendar Now Works With GearsGoogle Gears Now Works on MobilesGoogle Code Adds Source Code ViewerSafari 3.1 Is OutGoogle Launches Google Gears, Mashup EditorOffline Google Docs Access DeployedNew Google Docs on Wednesday: What Features Do You Want?

According to the New England Journal of Medicine, and the American Medical Association, using a program like SugarStats will reduce the complications associated with diabetes by as much as 40%.

Volcano, Hawaii - Marston Alfred, founder and chief architect of SugarStats.com, himself a diabetic since he was 9 years old, has developed a web based self-management application in which users can track, manage and monitor the most essential and important of their diabetic information online. Through a user-friendly web interface using the latest in web and information technology, SugarStats.com also enables the Diabetic to selectively provide friends, family, educators and health care professionals ‘read only’ access to their statistics. Primary elements affecting blood sugar levels including medication, food intake and physical activity are addressed in a manner that is not overly complex or too feature rich, enabling the end user to expediently self-manage via the Internet and Internet-enabled mobile devices. The core of this system will be available free to the public.

20.8 million people, approximately 7.0% of the U.S. population, have diabetes. Diabetes was the sixth leading cause of death listed on U.S. death certificates in 2002. The prevalence of diabetes is increasing at an alarming rate, as are the associated personal and societal costs, including long-term complications such as blindness, kidney damage, cardiovascular disease and lower-limb amputations. Further studies show diabetes and its complications cause substantial loss in quality of life, are the fourth most frequent reason for ambulatory physician visits, and incur $132 billion dollars in U.S. health care expenditures, directly and indirectly annually. There is now abundant evidence that complications of diabetes are preventable.

According to Dr. IM Stratton, Al Adler, HA Neil, et al, management of glycemia in diabetes is crucially important to the prevention of both acute and long-term complications. In general, every percentage point drop in A1C blood test results (e.g., from 8.0% to 7.0%) reduces the risk of micro-vascular complications (eye, kidney, and nerve diseases) by 40%. When programs like SugarStats were used regularly by the diabetic, they showed an average of a 1 point drop in the A1C levels.

Web-based tools have been emerging as effective methods for lowering HbA1C levels and several other key health markers in diabetics such as blood pressure however, to date, none have been available to the public. SugarStats.com provides a proven means to substantially lower these important health markers while also supporting the important opportunity to shift the focus of diabetes management toward patient self-management.

Alfred was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes as a child. He always felt dissatisfied and uninspired with the various ways to monitor and track his blood sugar levels and trends, finding them either over complicated and involved, or pedantic and & ‘boring’. Now 24 years old, Alfred’s professional expertise in the field of computers, networking and Internet technology/programming provided the foundation from which he developed for himself an engaging, informative, time saving and means to effectively address his diabetic management needs. From his personal quest, SugarStats.com has now emerged to support Internet-accessible diabetics the world over an alternative means to effectively address, control and ultimately improve their health.

Alternate Contact: Daerick Lanakila at dlanakila [@] sugarstats.com SugarStats POB 909 Volcano, HI 96785

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Journalists, newsletter publishers, bloggers and others: You may reprint anything in this article as long as you include a link to our website and email.

Need a screenshot of what a diabetic would see on their personal SugarStats page along with more info regarding SugarStats is available at http://www.sugarstats.com/tour

CONTACT: Marston Alfred at 619-573-4071
SugarStats
PO Box 909
Volcano, HI 96785
http://www.sugarstats.com

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A security company has reported two new flaws in the Mozilla Firefox browser that may leave locally saved files vulnerable to outside attacks.

Both flaws were announced by SecuriTeam, a division of Beyond Security, this week. The first flaw lies in Firefox’s pop-up blocker feature, according to a SecuriTeam statement on Monday. The browser typically does not allow Web sites to access files that are stored locally, according to the official report, but this URL permission check is superseded when a Firefox user has turned off pop-up windows manually. As a result, an attacker could use this flaw to steal locally stored files and personal information that might be stored in them.

A possible scenario for such an attack would involve the user clicking on a malicious link that would furtively plant a target file equipped with an exploit code on the computer’s hard drive. Then it would display a prompt asking the user to allow a pop-up to appear in order to play a video file or download. The attacker-supplied file would then be loaded thanks to the browser flaw, which could give the attacker local file read privileges.

It appears that this flaw may only apply to older versions of Firefox, prior to the current 2.0 release, but Beyond Security was unavailable for comment on the matter.

The second flaw, announced by SecuriTeam on Wednesday, concerns Firefox’s phishing protection feature. With this vulnerability, an adept phisher could fool the browser into believing that a fraudulent site is actually secure by adding particular characters into the URL of its Web site.

The phishing flaw does appear to apply to the current 2.0.0.1 version of Firefox.

Mozilla was unavailable for comment on Wednesday.