Use Search Feeds and Netvibes to Organize Current News on your Company or Brand

If you're like me and subscribe via RSS to Google News and Blogsearch search results to track recent blog posts and news items regarding topics, companies or brands, more than likely you have lots of feeds to aggregate in a reader. And even more likely, you'll never have time to read them all. And even more likely, you're not the only one who wants to read them.

Enter Netvibes. Netvibes has been around for a while. It's a kick-ass start page service that lets you fully customize all things web oriented on one page for your browser home page pleasure. If you don't use it as a start page, you should. You can add content like RSS feeds super fast, and via drag and drop placement, arrange boxes and tabs however you'd like them to be displayed. But Netvibe's start page service is not what this post is about.

Netvibes has a public facing page that is fully customizable, just like their regular start page. This site is a perfect alternative to a paid company start page. For instance, it can be used to aggregate Google News and Blogsearch feeds and organize them by brand, or topic. In addition you can have constant YouTube searches, embed some HTML, or countless other things.

I find organizations tend to hate most feed aggregators out there, so giving them a start page that contains all of this information can be priceless, especially since there's little to no maintenance involved- one time set up and you're good to go.

Check out the video tutorial.

The great thing about this is that it's a one time set-up process and you're done, as it's all just search feeds. In addition, to get branding or customization out of this, use the HTML or Image widgets to pop in your company's logo. Just remember though, that this is all public information that gets indexed by Google, so keep the information you put on it to content that anyone can access.

Here's the one I created for Appify.

How else would you use Netvibes' public pages for your company?

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Ten Free Web Apps to Increase Productivity at the Office

Anyone who has worked in an office environment (especially larger ones) knows that it's a miracle anything gets done on time or even at all. Here's 10 free web apps you can start using immediately to increase productivity, improve collaboration, get things done, and slay the Rancor- all in a day's work.

1. Drop.io - Simple file hosting

Have email file size restrictions? Create "drops" with semi-custom domain names and send them out. Bonus features include password protection, date when the drop will be deleted, unique drop email address, phone numbers for voice mails that get stored on the drop, conference calls, the list goes on. Check out my review of drop.io here.

2. Zenbe Lists - Take Your To-do List to the Web

Create multiple to-do lists with the speed of a mongoose. Add tasks, set dates, get it done. Plus there's a free iPhone app that syncs with your account, direct link to download here.

3. 24im - Enterprise-wide Group Chat

Decent alternative to Campfire. Separates chat rooms out by department, allows for guest chat and includes 1GB of file storage as well.

4. Twiddla - An Online Meeting Playground

If your business does international work, or you have many offices across the country, or even if you can never get anyone in the same meeting room at the same time, Twiddla solves those problems by providing a place to chat, draw, and show web pages to show others. No sign up required. Video walkthrough and review here.

5. Posti.ca - Digitize Your Sticky Notes

If your desk (or desktop) looks like it's been peppered with a Post-it note shotgun, give Posti.ca a try. Review and walkthrough here.

6. Google Presentations - Quit Screwing Around with Decks

Highly under utilized is the presentation capability that Google Docs has. If you're in an organization that has many people who all have to have their say on what to put into a deck or Powerpoint, don't email it around and create a version tracking nightmare- just share it with everyone on Google Docs. When you have the content nailed down, export it as a Powerpoint file and then make it look pretty.

7. Backboard - Get Quick Feedback and Approval

Another thing that can blow a deadline is just simply getting approval from the right people. Backboard allows you to collect and track feedback and get approval on images, web sites and text. Review and walkthrough here.

8. Gliffy - Create and Share Charts

When a bunch of people all need to be able to see the latest version of a flow or org chart, don't bother sending it around to everyone, only having to change it and send it around again. Make your chart in Gliffy. It's not as robust as some offline programs like OmniGraffle, but it's hard to beat free.

9. HitMeLater - A Snooze Button for your Email

There's no way you're going to remember every damn email that gets sent to you during the day, especially if you don't even have time to check your emails. Just forward an email to "10min@hitmelater.com" or even "wednesday@hitmelater.com" and you'll get that same email resent to you at your designated time. Review and walkthrough here.

10. Privnote - When You Don't Want A Papertrail

Let's face it, sometimes things need to get communicated, but you can't have them being read more than once, or by the wrong person. Privnote allows you to send private notes that self-destruct after reading. Review and walkthrough here.

Got any others apps that are useful at the office?

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Twiddla: Get Your Virtual Meeting On

With companies and personnel being dispersed across the globe, it's a miracle anything gets done...ever. In order to communicate certain points, often one needs to be able to physically show someone with a pen and paper what an idea looks like. However, it can often be horrifically difficult to get the right people in the right room at the same time. Twiddla provides a space for detailed meetings and brainstorms to happen regardless of location.

Twiddla is a virtual whiteboard and meeting room that allows you to draw, load web pages for others to view, and voice chat- all asynchronously and in real-time. If used right, you can almost accomplish everything you normally would in a meeting that's face-to-face.

Check out the walkthrough (direct link to video):

How functional is the app?	8
How intuitive is it to use?	8
How simple is the design?	8
How innovative is the app?	8
Overall	8

I feel like this app is only three-quarters of the way there. Excellent idea, however, the execution is somewhat half-baked. The chat system could be more robust, the drawing portion should be vastly improved and be easier to illustrate points, they should have a large number of stock images on hand, and a user should be able to download the full whiteboard that you have spent time creating to your own machine, not just to your Twiddla dashboard.

I think they've added some nice functionality since launch, but haven't cleaned up and debugged fully. I had some problems just adding in a simple text box. Also, as popular as AJAX and DHTML is, support should be provided for this while viewing a loaded website.

But, I don't know of many other sites out there that supply this sort of functionality, so for what it's worth, this app is damn good.

Do you think this would be a viable replacement for a face-to-face meeting?

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HitMeLater: A Head-Smackingly Great Idea for Reminders

Ever forgotten something that you had to do, even though you had every reminder in the world set up so you wouldn't forget? Or how about forgetting to set up reminders in the first place? If you have trouble finding time to urinate during the days you work, odds are, both of these things has happened to you.

HitMeLater is a "snooze button for your email". This is an app with absolutely no web-based functionality: it's entirely email based. Simply forward your email that you know you're going to forget about, or need a reminder set for, to 10@hitmelater.com, where "10" is the number of hours later you would like the email resent to you at the email address that you send it from. To go one step further, you can send an email to friday@hitmelater.com and you'll get the email resent to you "first thing" Friday morning.

Like most terrific apps that I admire, this has no sign-up feature, so you can try it out right now if you'd like.

Check out the fabulous walkthrough (direct link to video):

Does the app fulfill its intended purpose?	10
How clean and simplistic is the UI?	10
Is the app forward thinking and innovative?	9
How re-usable is the app?	9
Overall	9.5

My only critisism with HitMeLater is that I think they could add more functionality to it. For instance, if they added a unit of time to the email address it would allow users to get more precise reminders. So if I wanted to be reminded in 10 minutes, I should be able to email 10min@hitmelater.com. A specific time would be great as well, such as 8pm@hitmelater.com.

But the big picture is that an app like this should have been made a long time ago. Its simplistic and highly useful functionality is so wonderful, I can tell you I will certainly be using this at work tomorrow.

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UPDATE // 8.20.08 @ 5:29pm: HitMeLater creator Philip "Pud" Kaplan commented stating that certain features such as including units like minutes, weeks, and months is accepted in the email address, so 10min@hitmelater.com works, thus upping the awesome level of this app to "ninja". Hm, I think I just got my idea for a new ranking system. Thanks Pud!

Backboard: A feedback management system

For anyone whose ever worked a day in their life, you know that getting the right feedback and approval from the right people can be an enourmous pain. This pain is then worsened when revision after revision has to be made by multiple people, and often revisions are revisions of someone elses revisions and so forth.

Backboard essentially solves this problem, or at least, will cause a few less headaches. A "backboard" is a landing page, a unique URL (with optional password protection), that displays a graphic, website, or block of text, and allows for people to leave and track comments as well as "approve" of whatever the backboard is centered around.

It's as simple as that really. The only thing you get for having a paid account is the ability to have a backboard be "invite only", using email as a way of verifying whether or not a user can leave feedback. Feature comparison here.

Have a look at the walkthrough:

Does the app fulfill its intended purpose?	9
How clean and simplistic is the UI?	10
Is the app forward thinking and innovative?	9
How re-usable is the app?	10
Overall	9.5

I think Backboard does a good job of solving a big problem that many teams have, and this app almost makes the Perfect 10 cut. However, I just feel like the commenting system could have been a little more feature rich. Perhaps throw in a tagging system similar to Flickr that allows for specific areas of an image/site to be mapped out and commented.

But I think repeat use is very high for this app, and I myself will be back to use this again for sure. Check out the backboards I created here, and leave a comment to try it out if you'd like.

Posti.ca: Online sticky notes

Posti.ca is an online sticky note app that allows for minimal collaboration, and enables all around organization. I am a gigantic fan of Post-its, and I firmly believe they are the best invention in over 100 years- screw the CPU or the Internet. Furthermore, sticky notes have been in the digital world ever since computers could display colors...and people use them. I've used them, I know many people who rely on them to keep themselves organized.

But the essence of a sticky note is one of mobility, easy accessibility and rapid organization. For some, this idea translates quite nicely onto a PC, and it is for those people that I would recommend the use of Posti.ca- a place to create and house online sticky notes.

Sign-up is quick, no verification required. When you login, you're presented with the opportunity to create your first sticky. There's a 140 character max to any note, which makes me smile, because personally I believe that notes and tasks, should be short and concise. There's also a standard color selector, and a bonus of uploading a little file. Then the collaborative aspects are brought into view by typing in a person's email address to share the note with.

After creation, you see a visual representation of the note, which you can -in proper Web 2.0 AJAX fashion- move and place anywhere within the massive amount of whitespace on the Posti.ca homepage.

A nifty little feature for those who tweet is the ability to send messages to "Postica" on twitter and have it post as a new note directly onto your dashboard of notes in Posti.ca. It's really easy to set up- just enter in your Twitter username in the Posti.ca settings and then find the Twitter user "Postica" and send them a message and presto- the note appears on your Posti.ca dashboard with all of your other glorious stickies.

Now, how useful is that? Unless you have the message page book marked, or have the clip set up as a dashboard widget in Leopard, I think this feature is an extra step that tries too hard (and kind of fails) at getting added functionality.

Does the app fulfill its intended purpose?	7
How clean and simplistic is the UI?	8
Is the app forward thinking and innovative?	5
How re-usable is the app?	6
Overall	6.5

I see room to improve in this app. There's lots of semi-great functionality that allows Twitterers to update from virtually anywhere, but in order for Posti.ca to meet the same functionality of a pad of Post-its, they need to expand the number of ways that you can post stickies even more. I don't see myself using this in the near future, as I have explained before in previous posts that I am rather analog when it comes to to-do lists and task maintenance. But for people who use the Mac program Stickies or whatever the Windows equivalent is, seriously consider converting those to Posti.ca, it'll make you're life just a tad bit easier.

Remember The Milk: An Online To-Do List

RememberTheMilk.com is an online based task management utility. Sign up, create different to-do lists, and mark them as complete when you're done. More or less, it's that simple. However, you've probably seen (or heard) of apps like Basecamp that are simple project management utilities, but Remember The Milk is a bit different. It's not so much project oriented as it's just task oriented. But, the team who developed RTM truly did push the limits of what it means to manage a to-do list.

Features like task tagging, which is similar to tagging on del.icio.us or a blog post, enables easy sorting of tasks. Users can also separate out their to-do lists into different lists, such as Work and Personal. In addition, tasks can be assigned due dates, designated as repeating tasks, given time estimates, locations and even be associated with a URL.

What makes the application great though is it's ability to be accessible from the iPhone. At its heart, a to-do list is something that needs to be portable, and go everywhere you go. Granted, some people may work at a laptop all day, but regardless, everyone has to leave their screens and take a break at some point or another and it's often during those hiatuses (bathroom, eating, etc...) that the mind is allowed to wonder and think about all things non-computer related. It's during those moments of mental sauntering that one remembers other things that perhaps they hadn't whilst their hands were glued to their keyboard. But, upon returning to their work, their mind shifts back to what they were doing, leaving that wonderful nugget that they had remembered on the side of the curb, depressed and alone, as you drive off without it.

RTM can link up with your Google Calendar (and iCal as well), providing a much needed tasking function that gCalendar lacks. An additional function I would like to see is the "Quick Add" function that is similar to the one in Google Calendar. So for instance if I typed "Mail letter to Rachel at 10am tomorrow", it should add a task called "Mail Letter to Rachel" and the due date as 10am tomorrow. iPhone functionality is available, but you have to pay. It's only $25 for the year, so that's not too bad. But if you're like me, and even your electronic bank accounts have moth's in them, then it's hard to beat free.

Does the app fulfill its intended purpose?	8
How clean and simplistic is the UI?	8
Is the app forward thinking and innovative?	9
How re-usable is the app?	6
Overall	7.75

Personally, for to-do lists, I use the "Hipster PDA": a stack of 3x5 index cards and a binder clip. I carry it around everywhere and schedule my day based on whatever's on that card. I go through a card a day, and carry over incomplete tasks to the next card. I also designed a snazzy PDF that prints out a template onto the back of the cards. But because I like to hold a physical and portable object that displays my to-do's, the fact that I couldn't have this to-do list on my iPod Touch, but on my computer only, was what made me stop using this app.

However, a stack of index cards is about $4, and I go through a stack a month. So, overtime, I'll end up spending more on cards than I would have on a RTM subscription... so maybe I will buy it. Overall, the verdict on Remember The Milk is this: it's the most in depth to-do list app I've seen to date. But until I pony up the cash for the Pro version, I'm sticking with my index cards.

Guerrilla Mail

So I started out trying to think of which web application I should review first, and then it came to me: Google Apps suite. However, I wanted to show the apps in a state that is untouched by a user. This would 1. show a view of the app that a first time user would normally get and 2. I really didn't want to show everyone my personal documents, user names, and password lengths...

Which lead me to http://mail.google.com to begin an Appify Gmail account. However, I didn't want to use my current Gmail account and I instinctively went to a site that I frequent when I am in need of a temporary email address- GuerrillaMail.com. And it was at that moment that I realized my first review should actually be about this wonderful staple of an app.

Guerrilla Mail provides its users with a temporary email that self-destructs after about an hour. The best thing is that there's no password, no sign up, and if you return to the site after you leave/close your browser and you're still within the one hour time limit, Guerrilla Mail automatically returns you to the inbox you were originally designated.

Check out the walk through.

Does the app fulfill its intended purpose?	10
How clean and simplistic is the UI?	7
Is the app forward thinking and innovative?	9
How re-usable is the app?	10
Overall	9

A 9 out of 10 isn't bad for a simple web app. I'm almost pushed to say that this is a 10, but the only thing holding me back is the User Interface, it's cluttered. Put all of the things that a user doesn't absolutely need to access on a separate page, available within a one click reach. This way, if a user wants to know more, they can choose to get more, as opposed to having it forcefully spoon fed to them.

From a functionality standpoint, this app is king. A temporary email address is literally one click away if needed. And who doesn't love a site where no registration is required to use its features? Overall, GuerrillaMail.com gets the job done with near perfection.