12.27.2007

My Top 10 Web Tools

This will be one of my final posts for 2007 so in keeping with the top 10 lists from the year, here is my own top 10 list. These are the top 10 web tools I have found make my online life and work much better. If you aren't familiar with some of these I wholeheartedly recommend you check them out...and in case you were wondering, each one is free for use.

  1. Gmail - Without a doubt this is my number one web tool. It's the hub of my online existence.
  2. Del.icio.us - I love this site. It's my primary source for bookmarking websites. My page is at Del.icio.us/fourthbill.
  3. Twitter - This is becoming a new favorite. Twitter is a microblogging tool that's one part messaging system, one part social network, and one part addictive. I'm finding it a great additional outlet to this blog and a new way to discover emerging ideas and connect with new people of similar interests. You can find me at Twitter.com/billseaver.
  4. TinyURL - Once I got hooked on Twitter I found this to be an invaluable tool for referencing links and keeping my character count below the maximum.
  5. Google Docs - If I ever have to collaborate with people on docs or spreadsheets this is my go-to resource.
  6. Google Reader - I've only switched over to Google Reader in the last few months. I used to read my feeds with Sage but I'm really liking Google Reader and have made the full conversion.
  7. Ping-o-Matic - Every time I write a blog post I ping a number of different services just to let them know it's out there. Ping-o-Matic makes that possible in mere seconds and that's why I like it.
  8. Feedburner - Feedburner continues to emerge as a necessary tool for me. I use it to track both my feed stats and site visitors but it had me at hello with the blog post email feature that lets readers get these posts via email rather than coming to the blog or subscribing with an RSS feed reader. I think I can personally account for fifteen bloggers using Feedburner for that feature alone.
  9. Facebook - Facebook has been my social network of choice most of this year and it's allowed me to connect with people that MySpace never did. Not sure why, but it did.
  10. Picnik - Picnik is still one of my favorite websites. It's photo editing made easy and was actually integrated with Flickr recently as well. That's a double dose of goodness.
BONUS: Firefox - None of the above sites would be nearly as enjoyable and useful to me without my browser, Firefox. If you don't use it, quit using Explorer or Safari and get on the Firefox bus. It really is as good as everyone says. Now go download it.

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