One option that many people use is Lightbox – or one of the many variants that have cropped up. This is a Javascript overlay technique that allows you to display thumbnails of your photographs and then when the visitor clicks on the thumbnail, causes it to pop-up in the centre of the screen (without a new window though) and darkens the background.

Look at this for an example:

I haven’t yet decided which Lightbox variant is best for my needs – I’m currently going through this list which is a very useful summary review of the options: Which Lightbox is Right for You?

Edit: Looks like Slimbox may have won the competition.

Last week, the BBC News added an AJAX section to dynamically load news and weather from your local area. Example screenshot below.

It’s still tagged with ‘beta’, but seems reliable enough. An interesting new feature - and the way that the BBC web sites are to be developed from now on so I’ve heard – with more customisation and personalisation. Also, from what I can tell, the first major use of AJAX on the BBC’s site.

When I did work experience at the Beeb several years back, a set of web development guidelines I read discouraged the use of JavaScript – but new technologies seem to be being embraced now.

Try it out at http://news.bbc.co.uk/

I’ve converted my personal email account to GMail to take advatage of the web based and POP3 interface, 2Gb storage, conversation feature – and above all, excellent spam filtering.

I’m also using Google Calendar to manage my work in-out schedule and use it to view my collegues schedules using shared calendars. Once I can get an Outlook-to-Google-Calendar sync going I’ll also be using it for my personal calendar. The requirement to keep Outlook in the loop is due to my mobile phone and PDA both syncronising to the same source.

Google Notebook is keeping track of all sorts of information for me, with it’s Web 2.0 interface and Internet Explorer add-in and the Google Toolbar (along with ‘hosted’ bookmarks) is allowing me to search a wide range of sources and keep track of my favourite sites extremely easily. Scarily easy.

Google Desktop is indexing all my emails and data files and the search interface is very handy. Almost forgot to mention Google Talk for the occasional text chat with various friends and colleagues. An uncluttered and simple interface is quite refreshing.

I suggest if you haven’t made use of these tools, you take a look. Everything is accessed via a single ‘Google account’ which can either be linked to GMail or if you already have an email address, it can use that.

YouOS is a web operating system that lets you run diverse applications within a web browser. Small applications like sticky notes or clocks. Large applications like word processing, mp3 players, and instant messaging. Even better, it’s very easy to tweak an existing application or write your own.

You can apparently try a demo here: https://www.youos.com/, however everytime I’ve tried it’s come up with Too Many Users Online – I guess that’s due to it being digged!

It looks very interesting and as soon as I can get a try I’ll post what it’s like.

Update: I’ve just had my login details and had a quick look:

It appears to work well, though a bit slow and jerky. Basically you get an operating system-like environment within your web browser (which is saved if you exit and login again later). There’s a few applications and I imagine more to come with development.