The right tools for web 2.0
Usually, I restrict myself to to write about subjects such as economics, business and finance but I also reserve the right to tap into web 2.0 (see also my post on web 2.0's downsides) and the general nature of the blogossphere whenever I stumble something interesting; after all ... that is ultimately the community of which all bloggers are a part of. This time I am trying to characterize the general blogger and consumer of web 2.0 ... what tools does he/she use and why?
As in so many posts before the idea is not my own; I stumbled on two posts by Jordon Cooper and Nick Denton using my watchlists at Technorati in which they describe their view of the best web 2.0 tools out there; go check out Jordon's post here as well as Nick's post here.
Now, lets get down to it ... Here are my favourite web 2.0 tools and as you will see there are a lot of repetitions from those of Jordon Cooper and Nick Denton.
Squarespace - Every blogger needs a place where he or she can get their blogs published. It has to be easily managed and cheap yet powerful and good looking. The first thing you need to understand is that in order to reconcile these objectives you will have to pay for the service, not necessarily much but payment cannot be avoided. Squarespace is the perfect tool in offering a good, cheap and powerful service but I know that Typepad is also a favourite amongst many bloggers.
Gmail - My own mail is Hotmail but this is only because the switching costs are too high for me - Gmail is the service out there and it is free.
Skype - This tool is revolutionary in the sense that it offers free voice communication with anyone in the world. I have no problems seeing the potential here yet I have still not gotten a mic so my account is for the time being useless; I know ... stupid!
Del.icio.us - Creating you own database on the web! If you learn to use this tool and embrace as your reference on structuring information on the web you won't potentially have to visit a library ever again ... ! Ok, perhaps a bit over the top but it is wonderful.
Flickr - I don't yet have an accout myself but in terms of picture sharing and as a proponent of the open source internet environment it represents the quintessence of web 2.0 in my opinion. Remeber to use it as an alternative to google images.
Bloglines - Don't know what RSS, Atom, and XML feeds are ? Well it all has to do with web syndication obviously. Still lost? Well, Bloglines can answer all your questions and also help you organize your preferred blogs and news sites on the web. In your effort to keep taps on your favourite blogs you will find that it is the best there is. It is the most important point of reference for me when I go hunting in the blogoshere for interesting topics.
Technorati - The best things always come at the end. Technorati is like google for weblogs ... plain and simple. No other blog search engine exists that can hold a candle to this one.
I have shown you mine; now, show me yours.