I’m a great fan of storing things online – links to decent, helpful websites, documents, photos, videos, emails, the list is endless. Storing such things really make my life easier sometimes, so that I can find those decent websites, or show those photos to my friends, over and over, no matter where I am, or what PC I’m using.
Over the time, storing these valuable helpful things online has become easier and better and is constantly improving. So, as you’d expect, the online apps and tools I use to store my stuff changes every once in a while. To cut to the chase, I thought it would be a good post if I were to list out all the online apps I use, and why I chose them over some of the others out there.
Gmail is Email
First and foremost, email. I think email is by far the most used and most helpful to have online, and without my email being online there are many things I would have struggled with otherwise. Being able to access my email from my phone is a huge bonus as well, meaning I can read, reply and check my email from basically anywhere I go. I chose Gmail as my online email tool almost 3 years ago because of its massive storage abilities, on-going improvements, fantastic speed and ease of use. The famous Gmail "conversation view" is absolutely brilliant too – I love it – and I haven’t yet heard or found of any other online email app doing similar. Finally, the Google Toolbar integration is stunning as well, from this you can view your latest unread emails from a single click, then click on any from the list to read the whole email. I honestly could not live without Gmail.
Flickr for the photos
Since you’re reading my blog then you should (I hope) know that I am quite keen on photography, so finding somewhere to store my photos online to show the world was a must. I’ve been on Flickr.com for almost 2 years and it continues to impress me. As a huge Google fan you’d expect me to be using Picasa Web Albums I bet, but somehow this doesn’t quite cut it for me to change. Flickr has a much better community (very active groups, etc), you can search for other peoples photos a lot easier than Google’s equivalent, using Flickr seems generally easier, you can add "notes" to photos, and so much more. Google really needs to kick things up a few gears if they want to even get close to what Flickr has to offer.
Bookmarking
Del.icio.us has been my source for bookmarking decent websites for a long time now, but as I said above, times change and today (hence this post) I’ve moved over to Google’s attempt. Google Bookmarks are so much easier to use than del.icio.us, so much so that I’m unsure why its taken me so long to make the move. The integration with the Google Toolbar is superb, bookmarking websites is effortless – just 1 click – and sorting them out at a later date is as effortless and as easy as what I’ve come to expect from Google’s various applications. A truly brilliant app.
Documents, spreadsheets
I was hesitant to start using online tools to create and store my documents, but about 6 months ago I decided to make the move. Google’s Google Docs was the chosen app and in the 6 months I’ve been using it, I cannot see why I’d go back. Security was the primary reason for me not moving over initially, but to be honest with a company as well founded and as huge as Google, I personally can’t see any problems with storing documents, spreadsheets, and the like online. I find Google Docs an improvement over traditional office desktop apps because of their simplicity more than anything. Have you ever turned on all of the toolbars in Microsoft Office before? Can you see the document after doing that? Thought not! 95% of the time, all I need to do is write stuff, change the font, and print – nothing else. Another great feature is that you can save as PDF format straight from the web browser, so sending a document over to someone via email can’t be easier, its handled all online and you can be assured that PDF is a globally recognized format, so they’ll defiantly be able to read it.
Google Reader
Bookmarking websites for later use is all very good, but its sometimes hard to keep track of what all those brilliant authors talk about day-in, day-out. What’s needed is a central single location where all the websites you really enjoy reading can be read easily from the same place. Enter Google Reader. Now, I’ll be honest, I know there’s a lot of other feed readers out there, but I haven’t actually tried any others so I don’t have much to base this on besides my experience in Google Reader. So, yes, what can I say? Its perfect and does everything you’d expect it to do, plus a little more. Its very fast, easy to use and "just works" as it should, without fail. Job done.
Although I have a gmail account, I rarely use it. The Google Reader gets used every single day. I actually got to this post from it.
That’s great, I’m glad my feed (and blog) gets read! Interesting to hear you don’t use Gmail, why is that? What do you use instead?
I don’t use Gmail as I have generally no use for it. I have my ISP email and my domain email, as well as the Mini Club email. All of these are collected through Thunderbird (which I love). I have enough to worry about with those and RSS feeds without having to go to GMail every few minutes as well!
Ah, fair enough. I swear by Thunderbird at work, but I really enjoy the flexibility of Gmail for my personal emails – to access them anywhere in the world with a PC with a ‘net connection.