productivity

Working efficiently, whether for professional or personal tasks, can be done using various online (and offline) resources. The following are used daily by Fred Moesker.

• NetVibes - personal homepage / RSS reader; pulls in the constantly updating content - all on one page (or pages, in the case of organizing feeds into multiple tabs); as an RSS reader it forces staying on top of readings as it doesn't store RSS feed posts over long periods of time like a true RSS reader may
• 30 Boxes - online calendar that can send text message alerts for calendar items
• Basecamp - project management collaboration tool; to-do lists, milestones, and more; free version perfect for small businesses and projects
• Twitter - follow contacts and services that are of interest; communicate with these people and services as well; Twellow is a directory of Twitter users
• twhirl - desktop application providing real time updates of Twitter and FriendFeed streams; easily post, re post, and respond to Twitter posts
• bit.ly - URL shortener that provides click through and other statistics
• notify.me - sends RSS feed items to an IM client (and other devices), alerting in real time when new items are posted; not great for replacing an RSS reader but a nice complement for being notified throughout the day of new items; allows for filtering as well
• Diphur - provides notification when content of a Web page changes
• Pidgin - 'all-in-one' IM client; perfect for avoiding the unfriendly interfaces of ICQ and AIM (among others); simple, clean interface
• Tumblr - an easy to use blogging service catered for those posting a lot of non-text posts (audio, video, photos, links, etc.); not great for a text-heavy, SEO-friendly postings; use free subdomain at tumblr.com or any top level domain of choice (while still hosted at tumblr.com)
• WordPress - for bloggers who post large, mostly text based posts that require tagging and categorization; themes and plugins are available free online; great plugins exist to create SEO-friendly posts; can host on own servers if desired
• laterloop - quick bookmarking of Web sites for revisiting a short time later; browser plugin available; can archive items
• Gmail - online email service that organizes email into 'conversations'; can set up for it to pull in POP3 email and likewise can pull from Gmail into your own POP3 email client; incredible spam filter; unlimited storage making for a great online, searchable backup of email
• xobni - plugin for Outlook that makes it easier to find key information and attachments; provides key statistics as well; pulls up LinkedIn profile of contacts based on email address
• Firefox - web browser that allows for installing of user created plugins to enhance browsing experience
• Twitter Search Results on Google for Greasemonkey - displays the five most recent Twitter search results atop Google search results; for Firefox; requires Greasemonkey
• IBackup - paid service for backing up data files; files accessible at any time via the Web
• FileZilla - free, open source, FTP client
• PrimoPDF - free Acrobat/PDF document creator