Why Everyone Needs A Google Account
11/12/08
I have been recommending Google accounts for my clients for about a year and a half now for a variety of reasons such as:
- GMail - the best webmail service I have encountered
- Google Talk - built right into GMail and compatible with most IM formats
- Blogger - a comprehensive and easy to use system for weblogs
- Google Docs - online word processing, spreadsheets and presentations that covers 80% or more of the functions found in software packages like MS Office.
- Google Calendar - an excellent way of keeping a professional or personal schedule and sharing it with others
With Google voice and video chat, live face to face online communication is available to everyone. Start by chatting with someone through Google Talk and then "call" them to connect with voice and video. You can choose "pop-out" to open the chat/video in its own window and resize it. There is even a full-screen feature to get a lifelike feel to your "chatting".
I added this feature to my account here at North Street Productions and look forward to communicating with my clients face to face without having to spend the extra time and money driving.
I now am even more convinced that Google accounts are one of the most useful and beneficial services available to any business or organization.
Mind42 - Free Web Based Mind Mapping
11/8/08
I have been putting together a plan for creating an online presence for one of my clients and came across Mind42. They provide a free, web based mind mapping application that is very easy to use and share with others. Mind mapping is a way to visually organize a plan or set of related ideas using "nodes" for each facet and linking them to a central idea or starting point. Check it out here.
Sprout Builder
7/12/08
UPDATE: As of May 2010 SproutBuilder is a very expensive pay only service. I would no longer recommend it for anyone but an enterprise level business ($$$).
Sprout Builder is an extremely useful web service that allows you to create static and interactive widgets for your web page or weblog. You can use it for slideshows, videos, music players, display RSS feeds, calendars, charts, maps and more. And, you can let visitors embed your Sprout in there web page which becomes a great tool for promotion of products or services.
Link
MyFax.com
3/17/08
This is a great web service that lets you fax documents right from their website. You get your own fax number and can receive faxes to that number in your email. You can also get copies of faxes you've sent along with confirmations in your email. This is a very handy and inexpensive service - especially if you don't have or want to get rid of your fax machine. We use it here at North Street Productions for all of our faxing now.
Document to .pdf Converter
3/3/08
iPaper
2/20/08
Scribd has a great new product called iPaper that let's you view/store/upload documents to the web. It is compatible with most common document formats like .pdf, .doc, .xls, .ppt, and .odt. You can display your documents on your website. This is a great new web-based application that can be a real asset to many businesses.
Idea Generator
1/22/08
This is a neat creative tool developed by The Directors Bureau (I have no idea who this is - their site was not loading). It works a bit like a slot machine. Click the intertwined arrows and the three word dials spin and settle on a random set of words. If you like one or two of the words but not the other, click on the arrow above or below the unwanted word to get another one.
Try it out here.
Sketchcast
1/16/08
Sketchcast is a new web service I came across the other day. You can record yourself drawing with or without voice-over and put it on your own "sketch channel" or post it on your site. Great for demonstrations, diagrams or just for fun.