Open Thread: What are Your Essential Sites?
June 11th, 2008 (11:00am) Mike Gunderloy 26 Comments
Web working covers a lot of ground: from coffeeshop bedouins to full-time telecommuters to home-office workers. But one thing holds us all together: we use the web to be productive.
What does that actually mean, though? Do you just fire up the browser when you have some particular web destination in mind? Or are you one of the people (like most of the WWD staff) who constantly has a browser window open, with your favorite web applications piled up in the tabs?
We have our own ideas about the most useful web sites and applications, but here’s your chance to tell us: which sites could you not live without? If there’s something always open in your browser, what is it? What are the top online destinations that any web worker should know about?
26 Comments Post your own comment
Matt Krause says: June 11th, 2008 11:30am
ConstantContact.com — I use it to keep my face in front of my network.
Geoff A says: June 11th, 2008 11:39am
I usually have Google Reader up with too many feeds to name. Offhand, these tend to usually have quality content that is relevant to this topic:
digital-web.com
thinkvitamin.com
smashingmagazine.com
alistapart.com
webdesignerwall.com
rolltimer says: June 11th, 2008 11:43am
Bloglines, Google Reader, G-Mail, Grand Central and a del.icio.us tag such as ReadLater are usually open in Firefox tabs whenever I’m online.
Yair Silbermintz says: June 11th, 2008 11:51am
When I first went to college I found myself jumping between computers, and so I went to managing all my work online. I had portable firefox open automatically on any PC i went to, and launch with Gmail, Writely (now google Docs), and Meebo. Between these I had email and IM communications, and all my work was just entered plaintext into google docs.
Doug Kyle says: June 11th, 2008 12:03pm
I try to avoid anything that might be a time waster or distraction and simply keep sites that are business focused open. These sites may be for performing work (i.e. tiddlyspot), or for quick reference (i.e. calendar.google.com)
my personal GTD wiki at tiddlyspot.com
igoogle.com and the few widgets I like
calendar.google.com
gmail.com
linkedin.com
sites.google.com – client specific sites, depending on which projects I’m working on
Rob Grayson says: June 11th, 2008 12:09pm
I always have FF open with at the very least Netvibes in the first tab so I can keep an eye on a multitude of RSS feeds (news, tech and various other subjects) and Gmail in the second tab. If I’m translating (as I am most of the time), I tend to have a number of translators’ resource sites open (terminology sources etc., professional translators’ forums etc.), plus at least one instance of Google for general subject research.
Damian says: June 11th, 2008 12:15pm
For me most commonly, its localhost and phpmyadmin, they’re open all the time as I always seem to be doing some web dev
But non web dev stuff, I always have
- google.co.uk (aka iGoogle)
- gmail
- google reader
As you can see, its pretty much all google, that is my launchpad to the net
Mark says: June 11th, 2008 12:19pm
Backpack, Gmail, Netvibes
Carl McKinney says: June 11th, 2008 12:46pm
definitely Gmail, Google Reader, Tumblr, Twitter. Those are the staples.
kcato. says: June 11th, 2008 12:54pm
I’m on the Google train also: gmail, reader, calendar with 24/7 Flickr and Twitter (thanks to Carl McKinney).
Devin Reams says: June 11th, 2008 1:02pm
I keep these four open at all times:
– Gmail
– Google Calendar
– Highrise
– Remember the Milk
I open these very frequently (for social purposes):
– socialthing!
– Google Reader
Vitor - Eletrontech says: June 11th, 2008 1:14pm
For me Google, Google Reader e Google Docs for Daily use.
And Webmasters Tools and Google Analytics to control websites.
Scott Blitstein says: June 11th, 2008 1:44pm
By the middle of a typical day I have an astounding number of tabs open including generally:
gmail
google reader
gcal
batchbook
basecamp
backpack
toodledo
getclicky
WWD
last.fm (or finetune, or pandora)
client site or 2
ESPN fantasy baseball
Thank goodness for the faviconize FF extension to help keep things tidy.
SB
Ryan D. says: June 11th, 2008 1:47pm
In order they stay in the tabs…
1. Gmail
2. Google Reader
3. Invoice Journal
4. Inspiration Folder
5. Sitepoint Forum
6. Google (Search)
Those stay open almost all the time in Firefox..if I’m browsing around and I know I will open a lot of sites I fire up Safari too.
Toni Marie says: June 11th, 2008 1:47pm
Because it’s my business and volunteer central… Joomla.org’s forum. I am both a Joomla pro site developer and a project member.
I keep myself sane by reading dlisted.com (warning, super trashy blog) even though I’m too old to care about most of the “celebrities” that get trashed, and then for work I tend to keep up on smashingmagazine.com, alistapart.com and of course webworkerdaily
Troy Peterson says: June 11th, 2008 2:14pm
Definately use:
1. iGoogle.com
2. Gmail
3. Google Docs
4. Del.icio.us
5. Campaign Monitor
6. Technorati
7. Google Reader
8. Google Analytics
9. BaseCamp
Ellie says: June 11th, 2008 3:41pm
I always have Gmail, Evernote and Google Reader open.
Renata says: June 11th, 2008 5:40pm
wow! That’s hard to say, but:
webworkerdaily.com, smashingmagazine, 43things, del.icio.us, ta-da list, postcrossing, flickr, etc
Ramesh | The Geek Stuff says: June 11th, 2008 8:42pm
My first tab is always iGoogle. Following are my three most used widgets on iGoogle:
1. Gmail
2. Google Docs
3. Google Reader
Ramesh
The Geek Stuff
Tom says: June 12th, 2008 7:03am
1. Google Patents (much nicer than PTO.GOV)
2. SortMyList (of course ;0)
3: BackPackIt
Todd Andrews says: June 12th, 2008 7:47am
I’ve always been wanting one site or application to rule them all. We have gotten close with some of these recent sites and services, but I’m still waiting for the day I can log into one site and have everything from emailing to bank accounts to note taking.
j. anderson says: June 12th, 2008 8:23am
i have my FF set to open the following tabs in the morning:
- my 30Boxes calendar (which is also where i keep my to-do lists)
- Basecamp
- our NYPL Labs WP dashboard
- Google Reader
- Design-Feeds.net
a little while ago we posted to Labs about all the various apps we use here. this “essential sites” roundup is an excellent correlate!
Aaron Bassett says: June 13th, 2008 8:56am
iGoogle
gmail
torrentflux-b4rt on my mini-server at home
whatever client site am working on
that’s usually it :)
Chris says: June 14th, 2008 7:32pm
twitter
gmail
greader
gdocs
diigo
Sav says: June 16th, 2008 1:31am
Makes me very happy that there is no Facebook in this list of comments.
My tabs –
Google
South Park Studios
Mashable
RWW
Original Signal
Frugal One says: June 25th, 2008 9:07am
Taking a different twist here, I couldn’t live without frugal and freebie type blogs. Tons of good freebies and frugal tips, ways to save money and get out of debt!!! I find that stuff very motivating!
One of my favorite sites like this is Engineer a Debt Free Life at http://engineeradebtfreelife.blogspot.com
Feel free to check it out!