Cheerio Web 2.0

Its hard to believe how far the web has come in the past few months, or maybe just how far I’ve come in the web.

I recently heard a couple of my class mates talking about podcasting, one asked, “What is podcasting?” and the other responded, “Its this thing that like radio stations are stuff are doing to put their stuff on iTunes.” I felt disappointed, since podcasting is a huge part of my web experience.

I really feel like I am using the net to its full capabilities, at least for now, and its because of many bloggers that I am using the tools I use today.

So I figured, in the spirit of Web 2.0, I’d share with you the tools I’ve learned to use and ones you should try out.

Wordpress – Its hard to believe that I’ve only been blogging since January, but it is the truth. When I wanted to set up my blog I had no idea what I was doing and had little to no experience with CSS and PHP. Thanks to some Wordpressers I was able to set up the blog, and customize it quite a bit. Since that time I’ve learned that K2 is the best thing to ever happen to Wordpress, and taught my self a lot about web design and development.

Podcasting – I remember reading about Podcasting back in the day, before it hit iTunes. I tried listening to a few on some of the programs offered but didn’t really like the content provided. Podcasting has really changed how I get my news and what I listen to and watch. I subscribe to 25 podcasts and have my own. I learned a lot about podcasting because of my CWE job at school working for DoDDS, I got to research a lot about MP3 compressions and the creation and distribution of podcasts.

RSS – I never read anything that isn’t from an RSS feed…mostly. I have a lot of RSS feeds, that use in Firefox and NetNewsWire. I love the fact that I don’t have to do the searching that everytime something new hits, I am right there reading it. It is also the foundation for podcasts.

NetNewsWire – I mentioned it in RSS, I’ve tested a few feed readers, but had the most success with NetNewsWire, it has a great feel and its easy to add new feeds too. I highly recommend it for any RSS user.

Protopage – Now that I am using all this technology, it is kind of a pain to go to all the pages with the content, so I decided to set up a start page with my feeds, links, calender and to-do list. Its a great way to start my day, and Protopage is one of the best start pages I’ve been able to find.

Digg – Digg…I love Digg, its really news with a community feel to it, Digg is my one stop spot for breaking and cutting edge tech news, as soon as it happens, count on it being on Digg. I love it!

Del.icio.us – When I first heard about Del.icio.us I thought the idea was dumb, its just bookmarks right? But when I signed up I realized that there a lot of times I am on a different computer and want to bookmark a site for me to check at home, Del.icio.us is great for that! Its also cool to see what others are bookmarking as well, and keeps your bookmarks folder nice and clean.

Flickr – Without a doubt I am addicted to Flickr. I signed up for a Flickr Pro account because I upload so many photos and want to see them all. I store just about every picture I take on Flickr, and love the tagging and flash slide shows of photos. If you store your pictures anywhere else on the net move them to Flickr, you’ll live it.

TechCrunch – There is a lot going on in the Web, so many new sites launching great services, and beta testing. TechCrunch is the only place you have to go to check out what is happening in Web 2.0 today, if its Web 2.0, you can count on TechCrunch’s coverage.

YouTube – By now everyone knows YouTube, but as a video maker its really a great site to store you videos in a nice flash encoded format, you can easily share the videos with your friends, but can’t upload anything over 10 minutes…= /

Trillian – I used to hate having three message clients open at once, used to…until I started using Trillian. With Trillian you can have numerous message clients, with the same capabilities they offer, open at the same time, in one window. And the tabbed messages are great! If you use PC check out Trillian, or if you are a Mac user check out Adium.

37Signals - Web 2.0 has some amazing web apps for anyone. While 37 signals offers them mostly for business use, they come in handy for average Joe too. Currently I am only using the Ta-da list, which I sync with my Protopage via RSS, but I am exploring backpack a bit too. If you are looking for some sweetness inside your browser 37 signals has got you covered.

Google Calender – Last but not the least, the best online calender known to man, Google Calender. I’m sure you’ve heard of it in tech news, but Google’s calender is great, I sync it with protopage and iCal, and have a friendly email every morning with my agenda on it. It syncs great with Gmail and everything else Google has to offer!

Well the web is changing and I want to be there, I hope you enjoyed my list of useful web apps and check them out if you don’t already use them.