The Best Web Tools

Friday, August 4th, 2006
at 7:09pm

I could not imagine surviving the internet with out a few tools that I use to get around the net. Well maybe I could, but they sure do help me along the way.

Social Bookmarking

I do not know what I would do without
Social Bookmarking sites, some I love a lot more than others, but they really help out and change the way the web functions.

Digg

What would this list be without a sweet ol’ reference to Digg. If you do not know what digg is you obviously don’t read this site. Digg is a site that allows users to submit news stories and enables them to vote on the most popular stories, which then go on the front page of Digg. Simply put, Digg is a democratic form of recieving various kinds of news.

Del.icio.us

Before Del.icio.us my bookmarks were insane, they were out of control. Del.icio.ussigning up for an account. Once you have signed up you can bookmark sites, add notes, tag sites (my favorite feature, and even see what other users are bookmarking. One of the best parts of Del.icio.us is their popular page, to see the most popular bookmarked pages on the net. It is a site that allows users to bookmark their favorite sites online.

Myspace

Despite how much I slam on Myspace, it seems to be the best way to keep in touch with my friends, some of which are 4000 miles away. Myspace allows users to create a profile [if their site is not down] and tell people about themselves, upload photos, comment on other people’s pages and connect to other people.

Facebook

Facebook for a few weeks now, but I can say that it is a great tool for connected people via their schools. I signed up for Facebook through Towson and have connected to a few people at my school. It is similar to Myspace, though a lot more stable.

Blogs

Though this is a very broad subject, blogs are a great Social Networking tool, allowing people to share their thoughts on a certain subject [what I am doing right now]. I read lots of blogs on various subjects, I am informed by many topics because of blogs and I am able to ask questions or comment on these topics.

YouTube

Everyone loves YouTube, I find some of my favorite videos there. YouTube allows people to join their network and add favorite videos, upload videos (under 10 minutes), subscribe to users videos and tag videos. It is the ultimate place to track down any video on the web. I spend hours on YouTube watching anything from The Screen Savers, which I talked about here, to hilarious clips of the Daily Show and Colbert Report. Everything, and I mean everything is uploaded, or will be uploaded, to YouTube.

Web Tools

There are so many great tools that help me manage my data and just make my life easier through the web. Though the list below is only a few I feel that they are the best of the numerous available.

Flickr

I figured I would start this section with my favorite web tool, Flickr. I have used photo managing sites before, but Flickr is unlike any other. Users can upload their photos on their profile, connect to other users, join groups and of course tag photos. After using Flickr for a few months I knew I wanted to support them, as well as be able to upload everything, so I became a Flickr Pro.

Snipshot

I remember reading about this website a while back and never using it until recently. Often times when I upload a picture to Flickr I wish it could have been resized or cropped, Snipshot does just that. It is a very basic tool that allows you to upload a photo, edit it and then upload to Flickr or save it back again. Its quick and easy, just like a web tool should be!

Wordpress

In my opinion the best blogging platform has to be Wordpress, I use it daily, for this webpage. You can sign up for a free hosted Wordpress account, or use their tools to host your own. It has numerous options, themes, schemes, and can be edited in so many ways. about. Wordpress is a fully customizable platform, and is the backend for this blog.

eBay

There was a time when I was obsessed with eBay, I lived on it, bought everything and sold even more. I use it a little more calmly now, it is a great way to buy sell anything for a lot cheaper than at retail, and you can something for a lot more than at a yard sale.

Craigslist

I will on occasion glance over at the Baltimore section of Craigslist to see what is for sale, or the events going on in my area. Craigslist is a great way to look for jobs, advertise you item, and find out what is happening in your city.

Additional Tools

I really could write all day about the tools I use on the web, but I encourage all my readers to check out my Del.icio.us bookmarks, which I have added to my right sidebar, because I am bookmarking new tools everyday. Below are a few more that I use from time to time:

G-E-mail

I remember when GMail came out and I would go to their homepage and just wishGMail account by begging someone who was offering them on their webpage and joined about a month and half after their debut. It is sad to see that everyone has GMail now, not as many people appreciate it. With over two gigs of space, searchable e-mail and relevant ads G-Mail is everything mail should be. so badly to have a login, now everyone does. I obtained a G-Mail account nearly a month after G-Mail was launched and now everyone has one.

Dodgeit

Ever been to a site that requires an e-mail address for registration and you just know you are going to get spammed? Well I have far too many times, so I use Dodgeit to recieve that, it allows you to create a read only email address, that has no password. All you do is enter the address and you are in. It is simple and keeps me spam-free.

Firefox Extensions

Let us start with the basics. USE FIREFOX! Seriously, without Firefox web browsing is not the same, it will seriously change the way you surf the web and the extensions make the browser even more useful.

Stumble Upon

By far my favorite Firefox extension is Stumble Upon. It has been acclaimed by many as a wonderful web tool for discovering web pages that you wish to find and it allows you to rank the pages found to find similar items. Within Stumble Upon you can add friends, tag pages, maintain a profile and search catagories. Stumble Upon has helped me find pages to blog about as well as other pages that I never would have been able to find. Download.

Del.icio.us Extension

As I mentioned in the Social Networking section of this article, Del.icio.us is a great way to keep track of my bookmarks. In fact, I do not keep any bookmarks saved on my browser or on my machine, just within my Del.icio.us account. The Del.icio.us extension allows me to bookmark and tag websites while browsing, which means I do not have to log in to a seperate del.icio.us page and manually enter all the data. Though it sounds like a small tool it really comes in handy and I have found that I bookmark a lot more with the extension. Download.

Measure It

Measure It is a very basic tool, but I use it a lot when I do redesign on my web pages. The tool simply allows the user to draw a rectangle around an area on a website to see how big the image or selected area is in pixels. I have found it perfect for designing headers on my blog, but it is great for spacing padding or sizing up anything on a site. Download.

Torrent Search Toolbar

I usually am not a big fan of over-crowding the browser with useless toolbars, so I was skeptical when I added this on to Firefox, but I have found the Torrent Search Toolbar to be very useful. If you find yourself often looking through many torrent sites to find something than the Torrent Search Toolbar is for you. It searches NewTorrents.info, MiniNova, BiteNova, Torrent Portal, Torrent Reactor, The Pirate Bay, Demonoid, and Fulldls. It also tracks the RSS feeds of these Torrent sites to see what is up-and-coming. Download.

FoxyProxy

ABC’s video site, FoxyProxy is a perfect proxy tool. The proxy tool allows you to use multiple proxies or the infamous Tor proxy. It is relatively fast and easy to use. Download.

Livelines

Even though I know that Firefox 2.0 has this option, I am still using Firefox 1.5 because not all of my extensions transfer over to 2.0. Livelines allows users to choose an RSS reader to recieve RSS feeds on sites, rather than the built in reader in Firefox. This is a great tool, especially since I love NetNewsWire! Download.

Und das ist alles

My web tools are greatly cherished, I use them all to make my experience on the net a lot smoother (except for Myspace). I hope you enjoy my list and use the items to make your web experience for enjoyable.