Thoughts

Online services that I recommend - update

In June 2009, I wrote a post about the online services that I use: (Online services that I recommend).

Some of those are/were services under consideration and evaluation. Which of those am I still using more than a year later?

Update - service by service

Highly recommended: Google Reader - still my RSS feed reader of choice. I have no major complaints or feature requests. 

Highly recommended: Tumblr - you may notice that checking this blog isn’t a task you’d have to do very often - I haven’t been very productive in my blogging for a long time now. Tumblr is still on this list because I follow a number of other Tumblr blogs and I still feel the urge to write a few sentences every now and then.

Highly recommended: Remember the Milk - with the addition of the iPhone app, this service is frequently used for keeping track of my to do list items. The tasks are mostly work related but I add the odd personal reminder occasionally. Eagerly waiting for an iPad app (said to come). 

Flickr - I haven’t taken an awful lot of photos lately and few of those were uploaded to Flickr. I am considering what to do with the recent development with Yahoo planning to sell or cancel web services. 

Highly recommended: LinkedIn - let’s me keep track of my work network. Using this service frequently - check updates daily. 

Highly recommended: Twitter - not tweeting much but I frequently (at least a few times per day) keep an eye on my stream to get information. 

Delicious - not using this service actively any more; I have changed to Pinboard (see below) instead. 

Plaxo - not using actively, Plaxo used to have a free address book sync software letting me sync my Exchange address book with Gmail’s address book. Still hesitant to go for the Premium account even though it only costs $59,95/year. I guess address book syncing isn’t a high priority any more. 

DandyID - It’s there but there seems to be little or no activity in developing the service. Since I signed up for DandyID, there have been new web services that were added to DandyID but since 2009 updates have been scarce.

What happened to the 2009 Rising stars?

Doodle - I haven’t been conducting very many surveys, nor have I scheduled events outside the companies I’ve worked for. Still think the service has potential but I haven’t been exploring this service very far. 

Livemocha - cancelled my account, no or little activity for the language course I tried (German which should be a language attracting enough students to spawn some activity).

Ping.fm - not using this although I’ve left my account active. Service development doesn’t seem that active here - maybe things are being steered towards Seeismic?

bubbl.us - not using this - haven’t adapted mindmapping as a common tool of trade. Still using pen and notebook for much of my idea crunching (and Onenote to give Microsoft some recognition for an excellent tool).

Goplan - looks promising but I’m mostly managing my projects in a one or two company environment which means that the collaboration tools are already there and not something I’m expected to provide. 

Zoho - still using Microsoft Office, now in the 2010 flavour. 

The contenders for the 2011 Rising Star awards

Highly recommended: Pinboard - a fast alternative to Delicious and other bookmark services. I opted for the $25/year service with archiving, not too expensive and I remember looking for old pages that went offline where an archived page could have saved the day.

Gist - Still being evaluated, this a tool for keeping track of people in your email/Twitter flow. Could be useful. 

Highly recommended: The iPad - this clearly isn’t a web service but I’m making an exception. The iPad is a gadget I bought without an idea of what to use it for. It managed to make room for itself among my other gadgetry almost instantly. Using the iPad for all those occasions where you need a computer but haven’t brought one along or won’t bother starting one. The iPad is a main channel for checking my email, casual web surfing, keeping an eye on the Twitter flow. 

about.me - looks like a good service for a personal contact page. You can link your other services (e.g. Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook) and you can change the design of the page to your liking. 

Posterous - this is another blog service (similar to Tumblr) - it says something that I’m posting this text on Tumblr but I’m also using Posterous for another blog. 

The 37signals apps (Basecamp, Campfire, Backpack) - I’m aware that there are more services from 37signals but these are the ones I’ve tried. As I mentioned for Goplan, I currently have no need for a project management web service but the 37signals suite is a serious contender when that changes.

Tripit - another service I’ve recently added to the evaluation list. It manages your travel plans. All you have to do is forward the confirmation email you get from the travel agency and it appears with an itinerary as if by magic.  

Highly recommended: Dropbox - the free account gives you 2 Gb storage which can be expanded up to 8 Gb from referrals - both you and the person you’ve convinced to use the service get the extra storage. I also particularly like the client you install which synchronises the folders over multiple computers. Paid accounts seem to be good value for money. 

Highly recommended: Instapaper - an excellent service for all those pages you want to read but not now. iPhone/iPad apps exist - reasonably priced.

The “Check-in pack” (Gowalla, foursquare et al) - cannot determine the usefulness of these but they are potentially useful to get tips for venues when you travel. 

Keepass - another “not a web service, why don’t you stick to the subject”. Manage your passwords, in my case helped me develop a sound password policy (i.e. not use the same password for multiple sites). Has clients for many operating systems, could use a good iPhone/iPad client as the development for the one available (MyKeepass) seems to have stopped. 

Amazon S3 - using this service for off site backups. With the free plan, I haven’t paid more than $0.02 at the most for one month. 

Microsoft BPOS - I’m considering this as my email hosting option

Highly recommended: Binero - yes, this is not a web service, it’s an ISP - and the one I’ve been using since 2009. Excellent support and value for money, comes with a control panel that is easy to use. Highly recommended