What is an online
real time service?
An online real time service is a service that provides real
time information that is constantly being updated on the internet. These could
be live webcams, News feeds, train times or Sat navs.
News Feeds
One real time online service are news feeds. These could
range from a twitter feed, to live global news constantly being updated. On
average, there are around 6,000 new tweets tweeted every second, which are
available for everyone to see instantly. This real time online service can be
very valuable as people from around the world can keep up to date with the
latest news no matter where they live.
An advantage of this real time service that it is updated
instantly and everyone around the world can keep up to date with all of the
latest news, however a disadvantage of this when you post something personal, it's
out there on the internet for everyone to see, as well as websites keep
archives of everything that is posted so it will never be deleted.
I have personally used live news feeds a lot as I always
like to know what is going on around the world, as well as liking to know what
some interesting famous people are saying on twitter and sharing their thoughts
on things.
Online Webcams
Advantages of using these real time services are that you
can look at a location you are planning to be travelling to and wish to see the
location live and not through the pictures that the travelling agency might be
providing you or it can also be useful in when you plan to travel, where you
can check certain areas and see if they are packed with cars and you may wish
to pick a different route to save you time in traffic.
Although there are some limitations when using an online
webcam like you cant zoom in on certain spots in the live feed and you also
can't move the camera around and see what is behind the camera which can
sometimes be a problem. Also when the area may be foggy, the camera won't be
able to see through the fog which can make the camera useless.
I have used live webcams plenty of times out of curiosity to
see how different locations around the world look like. A real life situation
where I used an online webcam was when I went skiing in France and wanted to
see a resort that I was planning to go to with my family. I was able to see the
skiing slopes of the resort live to check the snow and see how busy it was.
Time Tables
A very useful real time online service are online time
tables for trains, buses and air lines. With some online services, you can even
plan your own route to any specific location you want and it can tell you the
time of when your transport gets at specific locations which can be very useful
as well as another feature where you can book your tickets online. Online
booking normally tend to be cheaper than buying them on location
Some advantages of these are that you can easily check what
time a train or bus gets to your location, as well as you can also book your
tickets online to save you some time so that you do not have to waste time
buying your tickets on location. One small disadvantage is that that you need a
internet connection to access these features.
I tend to use these timetables very often especially the bus
timetables as bus is currently my main mode of transport and occasionally use
the train timetables when travelling further like London.
No comments:
Post a Comment