I was watching Good Morning Today, um, today… and they mentioned OpenID. What a great plug for them! They mentioned a few other services that I use, which are incredibly helpful.
I’ve already plugged most of the Google services I use on a regular basis, such as Calendar, Docs, Blogger, Reader, Picasa, etc. I’m a fan of Google Talk, Groups, Maps, and YouTube. Google recently acquired Feedburner, a site similar to Google Analytics, that tracks your blog traffic, subscriptions count, and other useful information. All of these services utilize your free Google Account and integrate quite well with each other.
Facebook. I’ve been on this site for about 4 years (before it was all over the news) and I’m very impressed with it’s success and growth. At the time I joined, I was also on MySpace. I dropped MySpace since I was getting too much spam and the format was too disorganized. Individual pages were too flexible and there was no conformity. And the ads, oy…. So, Facebook. I very much enjoy the developer platform (one that MySpace has since copied), where users can add their own personal applications that can interact with other users. Examples are Scrabulous, Mob Wars, and Oregon Trail. It’s a great way to keep track of people I don’t talk to on a regular basis, and find out things I wouldn’t normally know about. Picture tagging, news feeds, walls, groups. Lots of features and it’s not just for college students anymore, so check it out.
LinkedIn. A professional social site, basically for keeping track of your coworkers and bosses. Employees you have worked with can leave you recommendations and vice versa. The idea is to get to know people who know people that you already know. Networking without the handshaking, essentially.
Twitter. I recently found out about this application. It’s basically an away-message for life. Per their web site, “it’s a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?” You can follow other friends, and send them direct messages. Methods of posting are IM, mobile, web, or third party applications, like Spaz or the Facebook plug-in.
Ta-Da. A very useful product in 37signal‘s short lineup. It’s a very easy-t0-use to-do list application.
Flickr. Yahoo-brand photo management. It has a very good social aspect that Picasa seems to lack. Lots of third party applications and an easy API for easy website integration.
So go head, check ’em out. No, I’m not receiving compensation for plugs (but I’d considerate it!)
What do you think? Have any good web applications that you use on a regular basis?