Work the Web Better

Steve Roll, president of the ASBPE Washington, D.C., chapter has some great tips for improving your online work. Read it here: ASBPE Washington, D.C. Chapter: Online Productivity Tips for B2B Editors.

His top two are the same as mine. If you haven't tried using Firefox instead of Internet Explorer (which no longer supports its Mac version) or Gmail instead of, well, any other mail application (web-based or otherwise), you're missing out on two great resources.

Not only does Gmail allow you to tag messages with as many keywords as you choose (instead of placing each email in only one folder) it has even integrated GTalk, its instant messaging service, which means you can reply to an e-mail as a chat and it's saved in the subject string with the original e-mail.

Google my be taking over the Internet--and therefore the world--but at least its doing it in a friendly, useful way that's free for me. There are some other nice Google features that I've integrated into my workflow:

• Google Notebook to quickly save snippets from websites that I want to remember.
  
• Blogger for this blog. I know some publications are using it as well for their first blog trials. And it has recently undergone a facelift and is easier than ever to use.
  
• Docs & Spreadsheets, which allows you to collaborate on documents with others.

And for those of you who do a lot of instant messaging (IM) using a plethora of services (AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, Gtalk, ICQ, MSN Messenger, etc.) you can consolidate. I recommend Gaim (for PCs) and Adium (for Macs). These are two great--and free--programs that compile all of your IM profiles and buddy lists into one easy-to-use interface.