Top ten web applications I use daily
Posted on April 7th, 2008 by Carel
Filed under Technology
More and more I’m migrating desktop (offline) work to the Internet or the Cloud. I’m still not there, but I hope to be using only web apps in a few years. Technologies like Google Gears and Adobe’s AIR will make it possible to take your online (Internet-based) applications offline. Micro Persuasion wrote a great (but technical) article on how to create your own PPNC (Portable Personal Nerve Center). TechCrunch has two interesting articles on bridging Desktop and Web Applications — see part 1 and part 2. In these articles the author also refers to site-specific browser products like Mozilla’s Prism, Bubbles and Fluid for the Mac. These products allow one to encapsulate a web application into a self contained desktop application. Now for my list of most used web applications.The following is a list of the top ten web applications I use on a daily basis:
- Gmail: I use Apple’s Mail app as my primary email application, however I read all my email into Gmail as a backup and also in case I don’t have my trusty MacBook Pro with me. I use labels and filters to tag each email with the name of the email account.
- Google Reader: I use Google Reader as my primary RSS feed reader. If I use FireFox on the Mac I can also view blog posts offline using Google Gears.
- Wordpress: My blogging platform. I think it’s the best.
- Mint.com: I use Mint for my personal finances. After the initial setup it will categorize your transactions while you sleep — cool! Well, actually you still have to do some re-categorization and renaming, however it gets pretty smart after a month or two.
- Del.icio.us: I use this funny-name-that-I-always-misspell site to save and manage my bookmarks.
- Zoho: I started with Zoho CRM, and now use Zoho Creator and Zoho Meeting. Zoho Creator is a great app to quickly develop a simple web application for data capture — EXCEL on steroids. Zoho Meeting is a FREE version of Webex.
- SiteKreator.com: SiteKreator is one of many online website creation tools. I like SiteKreator because of the low monthly fees, professional themes and great support. I hope you’ll agree that my Beyond438 site looks very professional.
- Google Docs: Google Docs is not going to replace MS Office or Apple’s iWork anytime some, however it’s very useful to quickly create and share documents.
- GrandCentral: Google acquired GrandCentral in 2007. Your GrandCentral phone number is positioned as your one phone number for life. It also has very powerful voicemail features.
- DotMac: I use Apple’s .Mac service to host and manage my personal website. Very easy to use and manage your digital life online.
April 9, 2008 update:
This is my list. Do you agree? What do you use?
Arvind on 15 Apr 2008 at 9:22 am #
Carel : Nice knowing that you use Zoho and thanks for making Zoho a part of your Top 10 list! Continue using Zoho
Carel on 23 Apr 2008 at 10:19 pm #
Arvind, thank you for developing great products. Zoho Creator is definitely not perfect. I encountered a number of bugs, however it got the job done and made me very productive.
I still cannot figure out how to use Deluge scripting.
Thanks for a great set of products,
Carel.
Yashvin on 21 May 2008 at 2:30 am #
gmail, wordpress, google reader, facebook are my mostly used web apps.
have a look at my blog, am from Mauritius…