1. Search, 2. GMail, 3. Reader, 4. Analytics Can't think of anything else I "actively" use. - Yuvi
Search, Gmail (although via IMAP in Thunderbird), Google Reader, Google Talk, FriendFeed (Hey, just look at the service. They _are_ what makes Google.), Google Calendar (in Thunderbird) - sebmos
Gmail, Reader, Search, Docs, Calendar (everyone in our family has an account with shared calendars. Comes in handy as my son lives with his mom and the poor kid is always on the run!), Analytics, AdSense reports. - Kevin C. Tofel
Funnily enough I forgot Google even did search when I first read this... 1. Reader, 2. Search, 3. Gmail, 4. Docs, 5. Calendar, 6. Youtube - Richard Bradshaw
1. GMail, 2. Search, 3. Maps, 4. Reader, 5. Docs, 6. Sheets, 7. Blogger, 8. SMS gateway (46645), 9. WAP gateway - m.google.com, 10. Google Apps, 11. code.google.com, 12. App Engine, 13. Google Translate, 14. Custom Site Search, 15. Picasa, 16. Feedburner. - Brian Daniel Eisenberg
1.Search, 2.GMail, 3.Reader, 4.Talk, 5.Calendar (that's every day usage) - Xavier Donat
1.search, 2.youtube, 3.reader, 4.maps, 5.ego search emails - Cat Laine via twhirl
Reader, Mail, iGoogle, Calender ( but not so much these days) - Roberto Bonini
Gmail, Reader, Blogger, FeedBurner, Search, Picasa, Docs, Analytics, Talk, GrandCentral, Calendar, Maps, Translate, Health, and some others that I don't use often enough to remember. - Voyagerfan5761
mobile Google apps/Cal/Email, GCalendar, Gmail, GoogleApps (Docs, etc), GReader, Groups, Gears, Toolbar, news Alerts, GTalk, Search, Maps/Earth, YouTube, iGoogle / News, Picassa, Goog-411, ... just started using Google Health - Susan Beebe
I believe "comment" is just only one part of the web interaction, besides "comment", the intention to comment, the time to comment (reaction time), the frequency to comment(comment once or always), where to comment(everywhere or only here).....all contribute to the interaction, so don't care two much about "comment", just have fun! - K.D.
I haven't even touched the subject of traffic with this. I personally believe that distributed conversations lead to more interaction on the place it all started. - Alexander van Elsas
I agree, without a place like friendfeed, I would never have been exposed to your article at all. Hooray for FF and it's fragment promoting brethren. - Jon-Paul Bussoli
I still want comments from url posts on FF to be integrated with my blog. - Eric Hamilton
Great post! It's a very logical argument. - Mark Dykeman
perfect post - agree 100% myself though I do understand the seo/traffic focused concerns I think they will find that this fragmentation of comments and distributed systems will ultimate improve their gross readership, casting a wider more diverse net - to most other than pure monetary driven that would have to be a good thang right :-p - mike "glemak" dunn
@Eric, if that's so why are you commenting on FF instead of the blog? ;-) - Alexander van Elsas
Mike, you are right. I have gotten a lot more traffic to my onw blog ever since people started seeing it at Twitter, Friendfeed, Disqus and other sites (sites I probably don't know about). Conversation shouldn't be centralised. Let it scatter, it's better for all of us ;-) - Alexander van Elsas
Mark Dykeman thank you. @Shey says (on my blog) he wants to centralize the discussions, not the comments. My blog title used the word comment, but the post was about conversations. Centralization isn't a good idea imo. That's why I said: - Alexander van Elsas
"But some things should not be forced into central destinations. And conversation or comments are on that list. They need to be set free. They need to scatter around this wonderful universe. One giant conversation. Who cares if we can’t follow it from beginning to end. The great thing about it is, we can always start a new one!" - Alexander van Elsas
Sometimes I'd like the ability to link conversations - e.g. when one comment on my blog raises an interesting issue, but people talking on FF miss that. But in general I prefer the idea of more conversation rather than more focused. - Robin Cannon
Robin, you can link discussions manually can't you? All of these features are nice to have, but conversation is free, and can't nor should be encapsulated in one place. - Alexander van Elsas
Shey wonders why I feel centralising discussions would restrict them. My reply is that that isn't really my point: it’s not so much restrictive, it’s just not very valuable to me. It’s impossible to get all these conversations in one place. It makes that place a destination site, something that we need to get rid off. Social media allow interaction anywhere. It isn’t restricted or centralized. Centralization will need a business model that is destination based. And that limits our options. It doesn’t set us or the conversation free. A bit theoretical perhaps, but I firmly believe in freedom. - Alexander van Elsas
There are some great comments all over the place around this conversation, it's fragmenting already :-) - Alexander van Elsas
Alexander, I think I understand what you're saying: centralization != 100% freedom. To an extent, that is true. But as a reader, I would appreciate being able to easily access multiple discussions. - Shey
Shey, and you can! No need for tools, just take a look around (as you do already!) You are probably in more conversations already than humanly possible :-) - Alexander van Elsas
"If Earth had to send one man to the Intergalactic Olympics, who should go?" - Hutch Carpenter via Bookmarklet
Interesting discussion. Think they've gone for a pretty simplistic option though, and deliberately taken a wide selection of sports for variety. Ronaldinho is being sold by Barcelona in large part because, despite his skills, he's considered a poor trainer who lacked fitness last year - hardly the definition of a great athlete. Probably right to have a decathlete first. But then arguably for all round athletic ability you'd need to have 10 decathletes, which is a slightly less interesting list! - Robin Cannon
having been a decathlete - I would say they are the best all-around athletes bar none... - Tony via Alert Thingy
But not many decathletes can't do what Lebron and Tomlinson can do. Those two guys have amazing athletic abilities that is evident in their respective sports. - Shey
Arent you putting pretty much the entire Internet under the umbrella of social media here? E-mail makes distance irrelevant, being able to listen to the Yankees game 3000 miles away over the Internet makes distance irrelevant, all kinds of things that I wouldn't label as social media per se (like your website itself!) make distance irrelevant. Are all those things "social media"? - Robert Seidman
Robert: to your point, I have left things a bit broad and I may need to look at that again. However, I *do* consider blogs to be "social media". - Mark Dykeman
I have to agree with Robert on this one. The internet itself is the delivery agent, I was writing websites and communicating with people all over the world in 95, pre-social media and/ or blogging. - Duncan Riley
I would say that Social media is the evolution of social text, just like hypermedia is the evolution of hypertext. So I'd define "Social Text" by us people using _tools_ like emails, IRC and news groups to exchange "textual" information. Now we still do the same but we take it to another level: sounds, videos, pictures... Hence my conclusion: Internet has been and will always be "social" :) - directeur
Good input, folks. A telephone can make distance irrelevant and no one's been putting that under the social media umbrella either... or should we? - Mark Dykeman
Pressed ENTER too quickly... directeur, you have an interesting line of thinking there. I hadn't been thinking about the concepts of "social text" or "hypermedia". - Mark Dykeman
Everything we do now is just an extension of what we have done before but it's just a question of scale. Megaphone, telegram, telephone, fax, BBS, email (and reply to all), forums, IRC, IM etc. It's all a continuing evolution of ways to communicate over longer distances and with more and more people. Distance has been irrelevant to one degree or another for a long time but it is the increasing ease with which we negate that distance that we are now looking at. - Colin Walker via fftogo
commented in the blog, dude, good work... - Sabrina
Robin Cannon wonders if there will be a need to have a mobile device become a web access device "I’m curious as to how much of that is down to the user experience - which does need a rethink as you suggest - and how much is down to the fact that the majority of cell phone users generally aren’t that interest in functionality beyond a phone (…and possibly ‘looking cool’)." - Alexander van Elsas
I answered "European Telco’s almost went bankrupt on it when they eagerly bought UMTS frequencies. Only to find out the user didn’t actually use data services.One major barrier is now being taken, the usability is increasing really fast now with Apple, Google and Mozilla entering this arena. There will be new interfaces, but maybe even more important better services that integrate into this user experience. People will try that out, first on WiFi (no costs), later using the Mobile network." - Alexander van Elsas
Vodafone in the Uk are currently running an ad campaign trying to get people on to a particular tariff with "unlimited free Facebook". Operators are realising the importance of the mobile/social webs and starting to think how they can cash in on it. - Colin Walker via fftogo
@Colin - do you think they actually understand the importance though, or are just jumping on the bandwagon? I don't think big/traditional business does have a handle on social webs, but they've heard of Facebook in the news. - Robin Cannon via twhirl
@Robin, @Colin, The operators are starting to experiment, and what is good about it is that they aren't focusing on building their own web portals (they really suck at it). Instead they let the pro's do that and simply try to provide access to that. A good thing. But the tariff plans are a major bottleneck, especially for young people (who are the main targets right now). And the usability obviously sucks. We need Mozilla, Google and Apple penetrating the mass first ;-) - Alexander van Elsas
Robin, I doubt a company like Vodafone would base a large ad campaign on jumping on the bandwagon so I feel this may be the start of things to come. - Colin Walker via fftogo
But the question the Telco's aren't answering is if a user WANTS access to Facebook using his mobile. Somehow I have doubts that is a compelling enough reason for users to sign up. Don't have sales figures on it, but I doubt they are selling more plans because of this Facebook campaign? - Alexander van Elsas
Darn, Colin, you were Akismet'ed again. Your comments are spam :-( - Alexander van Elsas
Surprisingly good article. Guy gets it. - Leo Laporte
Definitely a good article, it is always a pleasure when I see big media not only notice the hyped online services but also takes time to understand the trends - Svetlana Gladkova
Very much worth the read. Twitter does seem to be an app that big/traditional media is "getting" a little more than the social networking in general (which they seem to equate to "look, kids enjoy Facebook and Myspace". - Robin Cannon via twhirl
"As many surveys have suggested, fear of public speaking is one of our strongest anxieties, often ranking above the fear of dying." Reminds me of the Seinfeld joke: "This means that when they're attending a funeral, most people would rather be in the casket than reading the obituary!" - Rubin Sfadj
Reminds me of how my generally-crappy credit union trumpeted its special Facebook app. Um, like I want to share my finances with my friends how...?! - Adam Lasnik
There are these new sites for sharing your financials, right? Cake Financial is one. - Hutch Carpenter
I know of them but I could never see any sense in talking about my financial life - and I can't imagine actually enjoying social networking on the BoA site, really - Svetlana Gladkova via twhirl
I think there's a reasonable argument for a financial based social network. For general discussion of good practice, and either a professional focus (for bankers/financial workers) or general consumer focus (getting your finances in order, avoiding debt, good deals, etc). There are a couple of reasonable finance based portals out there, e.g. MoneyExtra, but not really an effective network. - Robin Cannon via twhirl
My point is that I just feel it is not necessary for every service or product to have a dedicated social network to support it - and Bank of America is definitely not among the names I'd want to communicate around. In fact, I'd prefer to keep my presence in their online banking as quite as possible not to provoke any thieves. - Svetlana Gladkova
they may as well have a community because you're more likely to get answers out of peer customers than their horrible tellers and customer service reps. - Andy Sternberg
@Andy Yes, this could really be the reason - though I myself am not going to participate anyway, at least until I have questions that won't be answered by the CSRs - Svetlana Gladkova via twhirl
I dislike verbose language and padding, particularly being told what is about to come later, then repeating what has just been explained. Short posts which are just links or one liners are also a waste of attention. - Andy Roberts
I'm trying to keep my posts under 500 words...and failing. Is there a recommended length? - Joseph Z.
It all depends on the topic. If you can seriously write an article that has little fluff and is captivating, go for it. Otherwise, keep it nice and short. - Mark Frost via twhirl
I prefer long blog posts in two conditions: interesting topic and organized layout - Didik Wicaksono via twhirl
Depends on the topic. If the article is just news and speculation, short. If your topic is a "how to," useful information, I like long with pics. - Jason Kaneshiro
It's very dependent on topic and writing style. Better to write until you've finished your point, rather than either being too brief or padding too much. - Robin Cannon via twhirl
It depends on the purpose. Posts that guide to another resource can be short; posts that give a comprehensive guide to something need to be longer. I write posts and then edit them to take out any verbiage. - Sharon Hurley Hall
So, I see that basically everyone agrees on the length being dependent on the post's purpose and topic, and the decision of reading that post is affected, again, by the topic and the actual structure of the post. Nice, again a "no golden rule" situation. So, what we need to do is go back to the most basic blogging tips: focus, use lists, subheadings and images and keep our posts clean and easy to scan/read. - Alex Cristache
I have in mind to write detailed posts but wind up posting short "give me more" articles... - Anthony Farrior
Colin says "Spot on, sharing without intent is pointless and I would go further to say that sharing with no intent to discuss removes the value of the share.As I posted last night, it does indeed seem that the only people actually talking about anything on FriendFeed are the social media junkies - it is hardly surprising, therefore, that the bulk of this talk will then be about the social media tools. There is plenty more information of FriendFeed but almost all held in dead shares with no discussion." - Alexander van Elsas
Haven't I got an honest face ;) Still, you wouldn't want to buy a second hand car off me. - Colin Walker via fftogo
Colin I observed the same thing. I also noted that (for me) the recommendation stuff turned out to be about Friendfeed and Twitter in most of the cases. That is whyI don't rely on Friendfeed as a single source of information. Could be I "follow" not enough or too similar type of people. But my guess is that the aggregation of this world is still very one sided due to it's inhabitants. No crossing the chasm here. - Alexander van Elsas
@Colin I guess Akismet doesn't like you very much. Did you once try to sell them a second hand car ;-) - Alexander van Elsas
Sprague, That makes me an idiot and a moron too. I avoided it for a few weeks, and actually, I started writing the post with a different topic in mind. But the "recommended" butons of Friendfeed sorta led me to finish the post differently then I expected. Weird really. Well, if you want to you still can (on my weblog), I won't tell anyone ;-) - Alexander van Elsas
"The first step is recognising you have a problem." It's horribly clichéd but true. The real question, however, is what do we do about it? - Colin Walker via fftogo
@Colin what problem are you referring too? I can think of a few I mentioned, one of them getting a bit carried away when I started calling Friendfeed fans names ;-) - Alexander van Elsas
I'm still not sure why everyone is viewing this whole thing through such a microscope. I know everyone would like to think that these tools are only slight variations of what already exists and that they only differ in "scale" but the fact is scale is everything. If the early adopter crowd is just starting to get comfortable with the role these new tools will play in our lives why would we expect the whole process to be normalized at this point? - Marco
Do not worry about it too much, just keep feeding. I am hungry! lol - Igor The Troll
I've been trying to engage FF users about topics such as US Presidential politics & mobile devices and it has been 'difficult' BUT I WILL KEEP TRYING http://friendfeed.com/drthomas... - Thomas Ho via fftogo
@Marco, the question isn't why there are only early adapters doing the conversations (about the same things). The question is if itcan cross the chasm based upon the value it provides now. In my post I sort of rant about that it won't. Mostly because I think aggregation of RSS feeds isn't strong enough as a value proposition, even with comments and likes. The fans are currently cheering for themselves. Twitter isn't working on data collection, but fills in a user need. That is always more valuable. - Alexander van Elsas
And Twitter can be used as a social utility, whereas Friendfeed can't. BTW @Thomas, you re talking tot the wrong crowd here. Don't bother trying. The people that engage in such topics are probably on some other cool service ;-) - Alexander van Elsas
On both points I would agree - in my mind that is the value of the constant meta conversations that include posts like yours - again, if this crowd of early adopters is still wrestling with which of these tools provide value and in what way how could we expect the rest of the users in the universe to readily grasp these concepts? - Marco
Alexander - you're right about the heavy attention to FriendFeed herein. I'm not genetically an early adopter, roaming from site to site. This is the site that has caught my attention though. To damn FriendFeed for the social media focus of its early adopters seems way too early. If that's all that's being discussed a year from now, then yeah, pile on. Anyone got their old Tweets? What were people discussing early in Twitter's company history? - Hutch Carpenter
Robin Cannon left a comment on my post querying why we as early adopters only ever seem to talk about social media and not (as Thomas suggests) about our other interests. Are we just exacerbating the problem by confining our own discussions to such a narrow field. Just as Thomas is trying to do, why don't we also extend our discussions? Is it because we are linked in to a group of 'friends' to expect to see certain content? Hiding would not work in this regard so we need semantic or tag based hiding for everyone to feel free to share whatever they like without the fear of annoying their followers. - Colin Walker via fftogo
@Marco and @Hutch, I don't damn Friendfeed for the fact that any conversation on it right now seems to be early adopter driven and only about the service itself. I'm putting very large question marks on both aggregation and RSS like services. It inherently needs trust, social, data, noise, or whatever type of fitlering you want to call it. It lacks the intent to share specific things with specific people. It's about data collection. - Alexander van Elsas
@Hutch right on. @Colin If there were nothing to be discussed, the discussions would stop. Look at the discussion arc over the past couple of months - we have gone from "Wow FriendFeed is awesome" to "Ok here are some problems I am seeing with it" and this is from a group of uber-early adopters! like I keep saying - if this group hasn't figured it out yet than no ones has. if that is the case than it benefits everyone for the impromptu think tank that FriendFeed has created to continue these discussions - Marco
Twitter on the other hand addresses the need to send out short 140char messages. It addresses interaction, localization, feelings, emotions, all basic things people tend to care about. That simplicity yet incredible value proposition makes it a candidate to become a social media tool for everyone. I wrote about that before. Twitter should become what Amazon S3 is rapidly becoming for anyone needing storage on the web. - Alexander van Elsas
Marco, are you willing to consider that if this very smart crowd out here can't figure out why the darn tool is so valuable, no one will ;-) - Alexander van Elsas
@Alexander ABSOLUTELY! I have said for a while now that there is no way that FriendFeed or even Twitter makes it to mainstream adoption in their current states (or even at all). To me the applications themselves don't mean a thing at this point - it is the radical concepts that are foundational to them that hold the importance. The great thing is that a group of individuals who understand their value are getting to use them in their rawest form - Marco
Marco, sorry, didn't get that immediately. I guess I'm taking it one step further in saying that social media is about interaction. The start point should be something that is intentionally shared (because the that provides most value). Aggregation based upon RSS feeds doesn't fit in that category for me, that is one of the reasons I find Twitter much more compelling for the mass market than any social " aggregating site. - Alexander van Elsas
@Alexander I keep forgetting that we view all of these tools through naturally different filters. As a social media professional your eye first goes to the inner workings and mechanics of any of these tools. As a social media outsider more or less I am drawn to the "space shuttle" view of where the underlying concepts of these tools are taking us. I hope that I am not giving the impression that I think the more mechanical considerations of you and others are not valuble bcause nthing is fthr frm truth - Marco
Alexander - there is no 'need' to send out 140 character messages to no-one in particular. That's just a construct because the tool exists. Sure, there is value, but there is also huge wastage built in. Take it away, how would our lives change - and the next 100 million people's lives? - Ivan Pope via twhirl
@Marco My first impressions of the twitterverse: a whole lot of nothing, babbling like a brook, chitter chatter, EE (Extreme Echolalia), jibber jabber, MADD (Massive Attention Deficit Disorder), narcissistic exhibitionists, scatterbrains, wall of noise. But it has tremendous potential with the right ranking algorithms and filters. With a great deal of work and refinement, the wave of the future. - Sean McBride
@Alexander - social media is *supposed* to be about interaction whether it is or not is still to be seen. All I am seeing is the broadcasting of how great it is and everyone shuffling around into little cliques of similar opinions. The walls are still there except just a little more paisley colored than Web 1.0 - Steven Hodson
@sean lol I think that just about sums it up. I just don't want to see a conversation that I believe very much needs to be happening get cut short because we confuse these tools as the end rather than the means - Marco
@Ivan, $1 Bln says you are wrong about it. Just because Twitter has organised in a specific way on the web, doesn't mean it isn't valuable. People are so used to short messages on their mobile, it will allow Twitter to take over and become the defacto utility for anyone. But they need to execute this well if they want ot become such a utility. It needs Amazon S3 thinking. - Alexander van Elsas
Marco, I couldn't care less about the tools. But my helicopter view doesn't let me see the possibilities of services like Friendfeed yet.It's also the business model that gets in the way (I wrote a lengthy post because it's not easy writing it in a FF comment. I do see the possibilities with Twitter because it is so darn simple. - Alexander van Elsas
@Steven, if you look at the early adapters it is definitely broadcasting and self promotion that rules. A self fulfilling prophecy that isn't going to happen. But when you look beyond that group of people into the masses behind it I do believe that interaction with content as a trigger happens already. We all experience and like it, for example, when a best friend shows you a picture (a printed one ;-) ) and you talk about shared interests and memories. The social media conversation is there already! - Alexander van Elsas
@Sean I have had some really unexpected, deep, philisophical,crazy, stupid, and fun interactions on Twitter (won't go as far as to call them conversations). It is like a hit and run. These moments are rare, but very addictive. You can't force them to happen, they do or they don't. That's what makes Twitter possibly addictive. But Twitter-like services should appear in ANY social media service, that's what I mean by utility. People will use it, the question is if Twitter can execute such a plan - Alexander van Elsas
Chris Grayson calls Twitter a fad, I said there is $1Bln arguments against that. It's not a fad, it just needs excellent execution and a plan to immerse it within any social media around the web. I would take on that challenge any day of they asked me to. http://tinyurl.com/66lh7r - Alexander van Elsas
@Alexander The occasional revelatory moments occur in the twitterverse, but the issue for me is cost/benefit -- how much time and effort does it require to experience those moments? Can my time be better spent? In the meantime, I will continue to lobby for a raft of new ranking algorithms and filters to improve the overall experience. We need a powerful AI-based manager to organize all this traffic in an optimal way for everyone on an individual basis. - Sean McBride
Sean, aha, bt you are now thinking of Twitter, the service as is only. I'm thinking it would be nice to get a tweet of max 140 chars from a friend who posts a picture on Flickr that he wants to share with me. Not just a dumb "share it all" RSS feed, but an intentional tweet! That is the value of the service. We use it on our mobiles already, people will use it on the web too if it was everywhere. - Alexander van Elsas
@alexander am I understanding that you want that service hooked between Twitter and Flickr , for example, rather using an add-on such as Twit+ ? http://twitplus.com/default.as... That takes care of things Twitter side but not from Flickr. - Melanie Reed
@Melanie, actually I'm saying that being able to send someone a message of max 140 chars is a must have on any service. Twitter should be a social utility and distribute it's service across ANY web 2.0 that involves users/interaction. It should be the de facto standard for 140 char messages on Flickr, Friendfeed, YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, and any other service involving users. That's where the Amazon S3 remark comes from. It can be a very powerful business model since it provides the user a lot of value. - Alexander van Elsas
@Alexander Yes, and the user can come in a lot of different guises when it comes to incorporating Twitter on sites such as Amazon to send a tweet to your friends via the @group as you purchase (or don't). Will it become more powerful than "on-site" commenting? Will businesses appreciate the "powered by Twitter" logo on their sites? Will they come to see it as an asset or a worry? Get Satisfaction and its model might have some meaningful input on that.A host of questions come to mind. - Melanie Reed
@Melanie. Questions are good ;-) I think if the user finds value in Tweeting, then everyone will build its own tweeting service. Better let Twitter build something right the second time and use that as a basis for everything else. - Alexander van Elsas
@Thomas Here is a great example of a conversation that isn't about Friendfeed, Twitter or any tech subject. All you have to do is make sure your country beats Italy with 3-0 in the European Cup 2008 ;-) http://friendfeed.com/e/3ce2fb... - Alexander van Elsas
@ Alexander. Thanks for spelling my name right. - Chris Grayson
Obama's already said he'd create a federal CTO position for improving infrastructure, broadband networks, and communication between govt. agencies. Haven't heard anything close to this from Mccain. - Nathan Hull
McCain has talked some good talk on green tech, but I have to think Obama, being of a younger generation, will be more agressive with technology. Witness this simple fact: Not only does Obama have a twitter account, but he actually uses it. Other candidates have an account but never use. Obama has also shown a real understanding of the net nutrality issue - David Jacobs via Alert Thingy
The tech industry is probably the last bastion of laissez-faire left in America....hence the constant innovation and falling prices...The last thing I'd like to see is for government to jump in and start tilting the tables. So, the best candidate (for tech, at least) would be the one that maintains the status quo and remains hands-off. - Chris Rossini
I don't want either of them pretending to do anything for us... just get out of our way and let the really smart people build our infrastructure. UPS and Fedex are way better than the Post Office. - Kenneth LeFebvre
Agree with Kenneth. They will both make a bunch of tech promises to get votes and the success of the industry will go on with or without them. Although in the end, they will be around to take the credit. Typical politicians right? =) - Mike Smith
The digital divide is a big issue, and it's something I hope our next Prez will address. Status quo won't cut it. - Nathan Hull
Obama, plain and simple. If you want to know why, I would recommend you seeing his talk at Google and it will explain my reasoning pretty well. - Krish
@kenneth that is one of the arguments that keeps McCain from solidifying his position on net-neut - as a free marketer he believes you should be paid for a service or product you provide but as a conservative he believes in as little government intervention as possible. - Marco
Any of us would be better for tech than either of them. - Morton Fox
Obama. I see no advantage whatsoever with McCain. But we have to stop our near-sighted vision and think bigger—who's best for the whole country, all issues, the world as a whole, not just the tech industry! Obama has demonstrated that he is Web and social media savvy, understands personal liberty & Web freedom issues. I get none of that from McCain. - Cathryn Hrudicka
@Cathryn: To McCain's credit (or more likely, one or two of members of his staff), he's invited liberal bloggers to participate in at least one of his conference calls. I may have even read somewhere that he's planning to do this regularly. That seems pretty smart to me, no? - Bryan Person
rememer to check the todo list on the fridge )- - Peter Dawson
Yeah, remember the milk. Great gMail integration - J. Phil
I've tried RTM, Things, Evernote, Apple Mail/iCal, Inbox, and a handful of other apps: the only thing I ever check regularly is email and the chicken scratch notes on legal pad. From my own experience, you either are a todo list type person or you're not: there isn't a killer app that makes that leap, at least for me. - Mark Trapp
everything I use for reminders eventually ends up in the fail bin. wish i could get better at this, but i assume it's a mindset I'm missing. - Jeremy Toeman
RTM and Evernote are both good apps based on my evaluation, though I'm with Mark on this one. I use ginkgo biloba. :) - Jody Carbone
I don't use anything special for reminders either. Just a list in Google Notebook. - Morton Fox
Mark and I are in the same boat. I just don't find myself checking a service much other then my Google services and my iPhone notepad and cal. Thought they seem to work fine for me. - Andrew Dobrow
i use paper and the GTD system. i haven't found a good online on yet that integrates well. i've tried RTM and tadalists and neither really do it for me - Morgan via twhirl
OmniFocus for my GTD system, and plain paper for ad-hock must do tasks - Mark Nassal
@Rob @Bwana @Phil Gmail integration sounds like exactly what I'm looking for. Thanks! - Shey
Give jott.com a try... Pretty damn good voice recognition and transcription! - Cem Catikkas
Moleskine works best for me. Go anywhere, no reception needed, doesn't seem rude in a meeting to use unlike phone/pda. - Tac Anderson
I generally use Apple's Mail.app for creating tasks. Then iCal reminds me about them. .Mac sync's my tasks to my other Mac, and iTunes syncs the tasks to my Nano and iPod Touch. Also long as I remember to create the task, then I'll have a hard time forgetting it or missing it. - Paul Grave
RememberTheMilk + Gcal +the RTM FF addon for Gmail - Then I use goosync +RTM WAP to trace cal and tasks on my mobile. i tried others web based and Mac but I keep returning to this combination. If RTM will make a Mail.app +iCal integration it will be perfect. - Naor
Hum... I may seem so yesterday, but I use a single file named "bigfile.txt" that is almost the only thing on my desktop and I read it and edit it using vim :) - directeur
Vitalist is great. iphone interface, Netvibes widget. Simple, based on GTD...via feedalizr - David Jacobs
I use the the D*I*Y planner hipster PDA for the same reasons Tac Anderson uses the Moleskine. http://tinyurl.com/yxxucl. It has great boot times and I never loose data because the batteries go dead. - James
Agree w others that rabid usage (and lack of) must be genetic. I've used Ta-da list (but seldom checked it) and now rely on a combination of Jott, Google "to do list" gadget, and GCal. - Erik Dafforn
I drank the GTD koolaid and started keeping a notebook in my pocket. I scribble notes in it all day long, and at night, I type those notes into a set of text files on my PC. I backup these text files onto a flash drive. I've considered keeping the text files in Google documents, but haven't done it yet. - Harvey Simmons
Things for OS X and a simple list in a notebook - I cross 'em off as they're done. Simple and helps me focus. - Chris Poterala via Alert Thingy
Remember the Milk, 'coz it has Twitter support! - Jansen Lu
@Morgan OmniFocus is one of the best MAC GTD tools-- Things is also very good. I have a list of most of the good ones at my blog http://sfp101.com/?page_id=43 - Mark Nassal
Outlook for the to-do lists, easiset for me to tag and set reminders. Still looking for a really good "random note taking" service. Found one for a nano-second last week, stumbled past it, forgot the address. :) - Robin Cannon via Alert Thingy
I use my own wiki for this stuff: http://wiki.kirkkittell.com/in... -- kind of using it as a variation of the 'note on the refrigerator' in that it's only text, but I can access it via desktop or BlackBerry. I went the simpler text route after deciding that no amount of reminders was going to replace diligence (or: I hit 'snooze' a lot) - Kirk Kittell
RTM, i use the mobile version with my n95, and the widget in igoogle . perfect combo - b-noud
Both RTM and a Moleskine. Really would love to use goosync and the mobile stuff on my phone, but my crappy cell provider doesn't let 3rd party apps access the Internet. Anxiously awaiting the end of my contract in the fall so I can get a modern phone and provider. - CJ Kloote
Remember The Milk is the clear winner here. Will check them out first - Shey
@CJ Kloote - which phone you have ? goosync is using SyncML protocol which uses built in capabilities of Nokia and SE phones.. so no 3rd party.. all you need is a data account to do the sync - Naor
If just for me, pencil and paper - rewrite list every day to keep current - quicker for fast incoming todos - use iPhone notes app when not with paper list - David Van Vickle
RTM is handy but I just set reminders in google calendar -- works really well to stay on top of things because I always have Gmail open. - Nicholas Kreidberg
Another vote for RTM - really an amazing service. - David Worrell
RTM. I use mRTM (the mobile version) as Opera browser's panel. Quick to load and accessible all the time. - Ravindran Navaneethan
I use outlook, it sync over the air to my WM6 phone (thanks exchange!)... occasionally I use iWantSandy and Jott as a team. - Soulhuntre via twhirl
@naor - Samsung T610. Not on the goosync supported list last I checked. - CJ Kloote
@CJ i tried to look up this phone specs, but didn't find it anywhere, I never believe those "supported" lists - my SET650i wasn't listed either but it works perfectly :) so tend to check it myself. I've noticed that some Samsung models do support SyncML, so check out your user manual.. it just might work for you - Naor
@naor - hmm, ok, I'll have to check it out. - CJ Kloote
Currently a combo of Things, iCal and Mail. System-wide tasks on Leopard rules. - John Samuelson
Ta-Da Lists by 37 Signals. Free, has an iPhone-friendly web interface. - Glenn Batuyong
Ok, guess I'll have to take another look at RTM. I didn't realize so many people were using it and loved it... - Garrett Fitzgerald
pocket pad of paper with a 3x5 hipster on top. Slips of paper for quick entry and easy sorting. 3x5s for lists with some categorization. - Ashton
I'm with Mark on this one - tried lots of apps but keep returning to the chicken scratch in my trusty moleskin and bright orange cards for urgent items. - Sally Church
I'd like to use RTM in GMail, but for a few weeks now I'm using Prism to have GMail started as a separated app. Now I have no glue how to get the FF RTM addon being loaded in Prism. Any ideas? - Alexander Ebel
