I just downloaded and installed Google Gears, the new ”open source browser extension that enables web applications to provide offline functionality. Google Gears allows developers to enhance their AJAX applications to be able to run even when their users are offline.”

After restarting the Firefox browser, it quickly became apparent that Google Gears is true to it’s BETA status. To see all the scary details, click here to see my post on the Google Gears discussion group.

Anybody else encountering any problems? Drop your comments here and let us know your experience with this new technology.

We are working on a series of posts that involves getting a product halal certified. Sneak previews will be available via Twitter. Each tweet will be preceded with ‘Getting Halal:’ To view and subscribe to these tweets, click here:

http://twitter.com/islamcrunchIf you have not been touched by Twitter mania, here is a short description: Twitter is a social networking site based around text messaging, also known as tweets. Tweets are short messages (140 characters or less) that were originally based on answering the question: “What are you doing?” Tweets have now evolved to track an event, update followers on a political campaign, market a service and update blog readers on new posts. Messages are sent via the web, SMS text messaging, browser plugins, desktop applications or instant messengering software. Read the official FAQ here.Here are some interesting articles about Twitter:

• The Several Habits of Wildly Successful Twitter Users
• From Many Tweets, One Loud Voice on the Internet
• Microtrends: Twitter.com

Jaiku is a similar service and you can see the ‘Getting Halal’ series on our Presence Stream.

Please join us on Twitter, Jaiku and here on IslamCrunch as we journey towards halal certification. If you have any advice, tips, comments and/or feedback, please contact us or drop us a comment.

Technorati tags: twitter, jaiku, halal, certification, presence stream, tweet, social networking

Particls helps you track your favorite sites and apps by displaying desktop alerts for important changes.

The web is just too big. No one has time to keep track of all the sites, conversations and interesting bits and pieces that interest them. We all have real work to do and lives to live! So what if you could subscribe to the sites you like best and be notified when they change. Particls even works out how important the new information is to you and displays a proportional alert. For example, general information can be displayed on a news ticker, important stuff might appear on a popup alert and urgent information could be SMS’d to your phone. Think of it like a highly advanced widget or filtered feed reader. Best of all - it’s free.

However, it’s currently only available if you are invited. To earn an invite, simply post IslamCrunch on your Facebook profile, MySpace page, on a forum, on your blog, on your website or any place you can think of that will prominently feature IslamCrunch. You can put our widget on your site as well (http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/technology-web-20-muslim-ideas-). After you have done so, contact us here to inform us.

We have 5 invites available. Invites will be delivered after review of where you posted IslamCrunch. You can grab the logo here: http://www.islamcrunch.com/islamcrunch_logo.jpg

Benefits of Particls:

Receive breaking news from your favorite blogs, websites and news agencies. We use Particls to read news stories that showcase and/or affect Muslims. Do you have a hobby or certain interest that excites you? Are you a sports fan? Looking for deen intensives to attend? Which Islamic event is taking place in your neighborhood? Particls helps you receive timely information.

Focus your attention on relevant topics that interest you.

Particls (formerly Touchstone) is the leader in setting forth the new attention profiling mark-up language (APML) format.

Technorati tags: particls, attention, apml, invite, logo

Sphere’d? Yes, the Sphere blog has listed us as a new partner site.

You can see IslamCrunch here: http://sphere.wordpress.com/2007/04/18/new-partner-sites/

It is an honor to be listed with other great sites, especially the SEO Feed, which we bookmarked and subscribed to via Particls (sneak preview, we will be offering Particls invites soon, drop a comment here if you want one).

Wondering what Sphere does? Click onthe ‘Sphere: Related Content’ link below this post to find out. (While you are at it, click on the ‘Share This’ link to … share this).

Tony Conrad, CEO and Founder of Sphere, has been in contact with us and has informed us that there is a new Sphere widget in the works. In the meantime, grab the current widget by clicking the image above. Fun fact: Besides being a fellow San Francisco Bay Area resident, Tony has also lived in Indonesia, the country with the largest Muslim population.

After being contacted by Owen Mead-Robins from Oprius Software, we started investigating their networking tool, Oprius Foundations. We really enjoyed the different features that are offered. These include the CRM tool, calendar, tasks and a lead capture widget. This widget has been added to our sidebar and is a wonderful addition to our site. This widget allows readers to send a message and get added to our contact list while browsing IslamCrunch.

Foundations is a free product that is essential for network marketers and entrepreneurs who are growing their business.

So, are Muslims involved with this project? No. So, why is IslamCrunch covering Oprius? It’s a great product, it can be very useful for Muslims (and people of other faiths) as they grow their business and IslamCrunch is about diversity. Plus, Owen was so helpful, especially after we introduced the staff of IslamCrunch as Muslims, we wanted IslamCrunch to be an example of diverse groups working together.

Read more about Oprius’ diversity in their interview here: http://islamcrunch.com/archives/islam-crunch-interviews-oprius-software

To find out more about Oprius Software’s updates: (more…)