I am finding that many of the more popular web services have recognized that Twitter is becoming a communication hub of sorts. This leads to some great connection functionality built right into their apps that lets users get at their data from within Twitter. If you’re spending quite a bit of time in a Twitter client anyway, having the ability to quickly access or add to your info without needing to load another app can be significant.

So here are some of my favorite, or otherwise notable, applications that let me tweak every last bit of productivity I can from my Twitter time.

Toodledo – My task manager of choice has outstanding Twitter integration. I can add and retrieve tasks via SMS or any Twitter client, as well as receive reminders the same way. This is particularly handy when people tweet something that requires me to follow up or is something that I may want to revisit later. With a quick copy / paste I can retweet an item right to my to do list.

Remember The Milk – Another favorite to-do list also offers considerable Twitter support among its many features. Their functionality appears to be as rich as Toodledo, if not even more so.

Joint Contact – Aliza shared her thoughts about Joint Contact and their Twitter integration back in July. It seems like such a logical feature for this type of application, I am really surprised that similar functionality hasn’t made it’s way into other Project Management and Collaboration tools like Basecamp.

I Want Sandy – It’s not surprising that Sandy is so handy at using Twitter as the whole application is geared towards getting information to and fro quickly and easily. Twitter is just one of the many remote data integrations available.

Twittercal – It’s a third party tool that allows you to easily create events on your Google Calendar via a Direct Message. I like that it uses Google Authorization methods and doesn’t require my Google password. I wish it would allow me to add things to more than my default calendar though. As of now, I need to go in and manually edit most of them (which does sort of defeat the purpose…) Admittedly, this is apparently a limitation for Google’s own SMS integration as well.

I found the majority of these integration solutions to be quite robust. The syntax required can sometimes be a bit cryptic but taking the time to learn and master it can really be a productivity booster.

Does your favorite app work with Twitter? What service do you think would benefit most from this type of functionality?

Ever Improving Evernote

I blogged about Evernote back in April while they were still in private beta. Mike Gunderloy has also covered them several times. Judi Sohn has also mentioned them a few times including recently.

The latest from Evernote seems to be some tweaking to add more finesse to the application’s versions on the Web, via Mobile Web and on the iPhone such as:

• Rich text editing including bullets, colors, and styles on their Web version.
• A new web clipper Firefox and Flock extension for Windows, Mac and Linux.
• The ability to change the title of a note during web clipping
• The ability to edit text notes on Evernote Mobile Web and soon on iPhone.

I like the way Evernote uses social media communications to stay in touch with customers including FriendFeed and via a Facebook fan page.

Joint Contact Gets Even More Twittery

In my constant quest for the ideal project management tool for Web work, I took a look at Joint Contact last month, especially taken with their ideas around using Twitter as part of project management. The latest version of Joint Contact includes the ability to send automated Tweets (through a Twitter account with protected updates) when users add documents, images or tasks. Team members who are comfortable with Twitter can be in the loop via their favorite Twitter tool or platform including desktop with Twitterific or Twhirl and via SMS.

Again, to use Twitter as an integrated part of the Joint Contact project management process, the company is emphasizing that the Twitter profiles created must be protected to keep the project messages secure. Regardless of how it plays out, this is an interesting example of a business application for Twitter and for the use of SMS communications for project management. (Joint Contact on Twitter)

Backboard Gets More Secure

Last month, I also posted about Backboard, the handy and elegant feedback application. Since then, the company has enhanced security, providing an access key for extra security when sharing your Backboard with a large group. You can also restrict access to your Backboard to a group confirmed with their own password-protected accounts.

Backboard Groups let’s you share multiple Backboards with the same team and the Address Book Import let’s you easily add your contacts from your Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, LinkedIn and Outlook. Another helpful feature is supporting multiple versions of the same document so you can change your file and get feedback on the new version.

Backboard is one of those Web apps that I really loved in demo but haven’t used it in my Web work to date, but I can definitely see using it in the near future.

Retaggr Enhances Profile Cards

I played around with the Retaggr profile card back in June and thought it was a nice, compact way of displaying one’s credentials. The latest from Retaggr includes:

• The ability to add professional affiliations.
• The ability to include your card in your sig file.
• A feature where you can compare your card with others.
• Host custom widgets in your card.
• Add any profile link into your card even if not a Retaggr partner.

I’m going to use Retaggr soon, really I am. I have an account but have yet to be able to embed it into my blog. So many apps and widgets, so little time. (Retaggr on Twitter)

Zemanta Odds and Ends

Just got an email from the folks at Zemanta. I blogged about them twice – here and here. While I don’t usually find Zemanta helpful blogging at WWD, I am finding that I use it for other pro-blogging gigs and even more often for my personal blogs.

Zemanta’s latest:

• They now support Windows LiveWriter.
• They are suggesting content from CrunchBase.
• They’ve expanded their Amazon books integration to include book covers.

Zemanta does help me enhance blogs in a pinch so I’d put this under the “useful app, using it” category.

You can also find Zemanta on Twitter.

BTW, I really like being able to follow my favorite companies and apps on Twitter.

Are you using any of the apps mentioned here? If so, how are you using them?

I also started using Deskaway’s free level of service for a new client project as I wrote about in May, and after a little over a month using it, my team and I are abandoning it because it just hasn’t been intuitive enough for us. So I recently learned about Joint Contact through a series of serendipitous events and decide to try it out. Next thing you know, I’m getting a demo from the company’s founder and having a great discussion about usability issues and incorporating social media tools into project management tools, namely Twitter.

What? Twitter incorporated into Joint Contact? What does that mean exactly? Well, first, I have to say that from a usability standpoint, for me Joint Contact falls somewhere between Basecamp (which I find to be pretty straightforward) and Deskaway (which I find to be a bit confusing), and much closer to the Basecamp end of things. Like many new companies, they use some of their own terminology that doesn’t necessarily match up with what I’d expect things to be.

For example, when I wanted to sign up a team member, I couldn’t figure out where to go. Team History? No. Contacts? Maybe. But as I set her up as a contact, I saw a feature to convert her to an account then realized that team members were called Accounts and to add a team member you went to Subscriptions (Accounts). Messages are “Conversations.” Projects are “Workspaces.”

Once I wrapped my head around the terminology, I had a little blip with the icons. The workspace icon looks a little bit like a briefcase but I think it is supposed to be a folder. In Conversations, you cannot access the messages unless you realize you must click the tiny talk bubbles to the far right of the Conversation title. In Tasks, once I created one, I couldn’t figure out how to get back into it and during the demo learned that the little stapler icon on the far right was clickable. My comment that it would be helpful if the task title was also clickable was met with genuine enthusiasm.

But before you think I’m disappointed with Joint Contact, I have to say that not only do I love their clean interface, I love their eye toward innovation. They are trying to rethink the way we each work with our Web-based project management tools, from how we toggle between email and the Web-based tool to how our tasks also often have subtasks and that document management is as important as message management so being able to make certain files private versus public is useful.

The thing I’m most intrigued by is how Joint Contact is looking to integrate Twitter into their toolset to provide yet another way to notify team members of a new Conversation added to the Workspace. While this feature is still in the preliminary stages of implementation (i.e. available now but not with all anticipated capabilities), just thinking about how Twitter could actually be used as a work tool is getting my wheels turning about its implications on work process and information flow.

The company imagines several scenarios for Twitter integration. You can set up a private Twitter account for your team members and they can follow your tweets. Then tweets related to the project show up each time a new Conversation is posted letting them know to log in and get cracking – the title of each message in Conversations is the content of each tweet. All Conversations that have been “tweeted” have a tiny Twitter icon next to it. You can also set up a Workspace that consists solely of Conversations that you want to broadcast to Twitter and manage all “tweeted” messages in one place.

If you are someone like me who could use all the nudges I can get – from an email to a Tweet to a text message – in order to pay attention to something that needs to get done, I could change my Twitter settings to receive text messages for that particular project management Twitter account. And voila! I’m now fully informed, even when I’m Twittering and/or away from my computer.

Scott Blitstein recently wrote about Basecamp adding a new email interface that allows you to not only interact with Basecamp via email to respond to Messages, but you can now set up new project items. You can “create and assign custom email addresses to any area of your project and then forward messages, to-do items and milestones directly into your project without logging in.”

One piece that is missing from the Twitter integration right now is pretty mission-critical in my mind: the Conversation tweet does not yet have a link that brings you back into Joint Contact immediately – but that is definitely in the works. Still, if Joint Contact can provide this kind of functionality through Twitter or another more stable social networking/microblogging tool…I don’t know, it just seems to be a missing link in working through Web-based project management apps.

Keep your eye on Joint Contact, and if you like new apps that you can actively participate in helping to make a good product better, your input can really help the company to work out the fine details. You can read more about their thoughts about their Twitter integration on their corporate blog.

You can try them for free, and you get two users and two workspaces at that level. But if you upgrade to a paid account within 7 days of signing up for free, they will double your value to reward you for upgrading so quickly. If you choose a 5 user account at $15/month, they’ll automatically upgrade you to a 10 user account at the 5 user price – a $25/month value for only $15/month – and that price lasts for the duration of your account.