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Some of my Favorite Sites and Tools, 2009
By RR | December 20, 2009
It’s the end of the year, and, depending on how you count, the end of a decade. That means it’s time for a little reflection on things gone by. Cue Auld Lang Syne, and take a look at some of my favorite sites and services. Not all were created in 2009, but all were new to me this year, and all are important to me on a daily basis.
- One big phenomenon in 2009 has been the emergence of online backup/sync services. My favorite of these is Dropbox. Dropbox does two things very, very well: first, it stores your files on the web automatically. Just install the minimal software, designate a Dropbox folder, and Dropbox will keep a backup on the web–up to 2 GB for free, and reasonable rates after that. The second really cool thing Dropbox does is sync files between computers, so that my files on my home laptop match those of my work desktop, provided Dropbox is installed on each. No more confusion over versions, and no more fear of crashing.
- Twitter has been everywhere this year, and while I think it is a flash in the pan (just like the Beatles or the Internet!), I do like Tweetdeck, a nice little app for keeping all of your tweets in a row. You can search tweets more readily, keep posted on search results, respond to other tweets, and more, all from a single window.
- By far my favorite desktop search is a tool called Everything by Voidtools. I have tried desktop search tools before, including the one made by Google, but they all hog a ton of processing power by continuously running in the background. Everything, miraculously, does not, and it is fast, fast, fast on search results. I have found countless lost files this year, thanks to this handy little tool.
- The best customized portal out there, in my opinion, is iGoogle. iGoogle actually hearkens back to the days when America Online and Yahoo! dominated the web–the idea was that everytime you accessed the web, the company would give you its content too, though you could customize the content as you saw fit. Google has the same idea, but it is much better in its execution. iGoogle is truly customizable–third party developers have created a ton of applications that draw in content from the web. My iGoogle page provides Google Reader feeds, NY Times headlines, an iframe with Grooveshark inside, my Gmail inbox, a sticky note reminder, and a Facebook feed. Lots of stuff I really want. Not so much I don’t want, like stories about Hillary Duff.
- Another fairly new phenomenon on the web is the streaming media library. Again, there are options galore for this sort of thing, but my favorite is Grooveshark, a streaming music library that will play just about any music you can think of. If you are familiar with Pandora, another excellent service, Grooveshark is very similar, but unlike Pandora, it does not limit you to listening to a set sequence of music that sounds like the stuff you like. In other words, search for it, find it, play it. You are free to upload your own music to add to the library if you choose, but it is not required. I listen to Grooveshark at work, and at home, and I’m guessing there is an iPod app coming.
- The best online presentation tool, in my opinion, is the newcomer Prezi, which reinvents tired PowerPoint presentations. Essentially, PowerPoint runs on the notion that information is linear in nature, proceeding from point A to point B. Prezi, on the other hand, allows you to organize content in a spatial nature, connecting ideas in far more realistic and dynamic ways. And, it’s free. I’m eager to see how Prezi develops in the future, but even in its early state, it is impressive.
- Design matters, but many of us are amateurs. Enter Color Scheme Designer, an amazing design tool that helps you create color palletes for all matters of digital design. I use this tool to find complimentary colors for this site and three or four others. My favorite feature is the way I can lift color codes directly from this site to Photoshop or whatever I’m using for design.
- This goes against everything I believe in, but I have to give some props to Microsoft Word 2007. This program is so much improved over previous incarnations that it is hard to describe in an abbreviated post. Best of all is the new ribbon feature, which lets users access the tools they want to use without pulling down menus and submenus. Adding formatting tools to the right-click menus is another huge plus. And the templates for designing documents are sharp and easy to use. Everything about it, so far, is impressive. By the way, GVSU students and faculty, did you know you can get a cheap version of Microsoft Office 2007 at the GVSU software hub? I got my copy of Office 2007 for about ten bucks.
- There are other honorable mentions (Aviary audio suite, Google Lit Trips, Viddler) that I use less frequently, and there are certainly razzies (Blackboard NG, the Michigan Department of Education site), but not enough time to mention them here.
Categories: Cloud Computing, News, Web 2.0 | Tags: favorites | 1 Comment »
Rob, Thanks for the heads up on these tools. I wasn’t aware of Dropbox, but as someone who uses both a Mac and a PC it is a solution I’ve been searching for. I’m going to try some of the other tools soon, but Dropbox has already been downloaded and set up.
Posted by: Blaine S on December 21st, 2009 at 9:11 pm