3greeneggs

I love to play with and talk about web applications, especially anything new and exciting (have invites to something? send them here!). A few people have asked me lately which web apps I actually use, and why I stick with them. Here are the apps that I use every day:

• Google Reader - My current RSS reader. I used to be a Bloglines devotee, but Google Reader has some killer features: It keeps articles within a subscription unread, you can easily create a link blog, and it looks great on a mobile phone.
• Delicious - The best social bookmarking service out there! You can tag links, and best of all, your saved links are available on the web at all times. I use the excellent Delicious Firefox Extension, which adds two buttons to the Firefox toolbar: one to tag links, and one to view your tagged links. If you find the stark interface intimidating, try Magnolia.
• Wordpress - The installed blogging engine that powers this site! I’ve used several blogging applications, and Wordpress has the right balance between power and ease of use.
• Google Calendar - My favorite web-based calendar. Since I often use several machines during the course of a single day, I love having my calendars online. My only complaint is that I wish I could suck all four of my calendars into a single mega-calendar iCal feed.
• Remember The Milk - My Todo List manager. At it’s simplest level, you can create lists of tasks, set the due dates in a very intuitive manner, and track your progress. It has way more features than I actually use, but I love that it supports RSS and integrates with everything.

• Gmail - Google’s mail app. I use it to manage one of my three main e-mail accounts (I use Thunderbird and Entourage for the other two).
• Facebook - I joined Facebook when we discussed social networking in one of my seminar courses in 2005. I tended to visit it on a month-to-month basis until this February, when a huge number of non-student friends and colleagues suddenly showed up there. And now, largely due to the API, it’s hot stuff.
• Twitter - You know the beginning of this story. It’s simply everywhere, and it stuck.

This is just my list of web-based applications, not operating systems, software, extensions, add-ins, widgets, or gadgets. That’s another show! This also explains why I generally have at least a dozens tabs open in Firefox at any given time. Do you folks have any favorites that aren’t on my list, but should be?