All platforms: Based on the open source Firefox code base, social web browser Flock adds heavy integration into popular social and media web sites to your regular web surfing. We haven't mentioned Flock in ages, but the recent 1.2 release is worth another look. Much like Digsby bakes social networking into your instant messenger, Flock offers easy access to your favourite social services built into the browser. Let's take a closer look at what you get with Flock.

Read More »

Let's face facts—you're probably Googling yourself on a regular basis, whether for pure ego satisfaction or monitoring of your professional image online. New search aggregator Addict-O-Matic just happens to be great for seeing how you "look" online, as it focuses on returning results from the top social networking sites, Web 2.0 services, and blog-watching services. Of course, it's also a great tool for monitoring a topic or another person across the web's wide expanse, but once you add Addict-O-Matic to your Firefox search bar options or just as a bookmark, you know you'll be heading back to satisfy your online-mirror-checking fix.

Read More »

I was recently introduced to the CaringBridge website when a colleague became ill and was hospitalised. It's a pretty cool site where you can create a free, personalised journal which serves as a hub for the ill person (or their family) to post photos and updates on their progress, and where friends can leave messages of support.
There are two levels of privacy available - one lets anyone view your CaringBridge site as long as they know your chosen CaringBridge site name, or you can choose to only show your site to people who have registered with the site.
Once you sign up you can browse the patient's online journal, and subscribe to be notified by email when their journal is updated.
I've really appreciated being able to receive email updates to hear how my friend is going, and I can imagine that for people who are facing serious illness, CaringBridge would be a nice and unobtrusive tool for keeping wellwishers updated and receiving messages of support.
My one slight niggle was that it does nag you for donations to keep the site running, but I suppose it's fair enough - funding has to come from somewhere.

The subtitle of this post should have been "Tabs versus Home Pages: The Showdown". :)
Aka Mike posed the question 'how many tabs do you have open for your main web browse of the day'. I always have too many tabs open, so I thought I'd check out his post and the comments to get some ideas for better tab management.
Here's my current morning browsing ritual  - it basically boils down to 2 Firefox windows - one for writing and the other for reading.
Each morning I open Firefox and hit the "Work Time" folder of links that I've set up on my bookmarks toolbar. That opens up my CMS, the Lifehacker AU website and our internal photo gallery - everything I need to start work with one click.
Next I open up another Window in Firefox (because I like to keep my work page separate to my reading page) and hit the "Blogs" folder I've also got set up on my toolbar. That opens up  my Bloglines page as well as IT Journo (a subscribers-only website for journalists) which gives me access to all the blogs I read. From there I'll open individual stories as tabs if I want to put them aside to read later, or if I want to read the comments on them.
There are a few other sites I visit on a daily basis, which include my iGoogle home page (which, if I'm honest, I'm just using to read Twitter via the BeTwittered gadget). I also have Google Talk and Google reader set up on my iGoogle page, as well as the Don't Break the Chain motivational gadget and the Activity Tracker gadget.
Apart from Twitter, I also check in on Livejournal and Facebook each day. I'm thinking I should look at centralising my social networking through Friendfeed or Netvibes.
So, Lifehackers. How do you manage your daily browsing? Do you lean towards tabs or home pages? Have you centralised through a social networking aggregator or a home page? Tips appreciated in comments.

Daily Browsing Tab Count [aka Mike via Problogger]

Create or browse interactive timelines with webapp Dipity. The service can create any sort of timeline you want, but it really shines when creating a personal timeline; that's because Dipity integrates with tonnes of popular webapps, like Flickr, Twitter, Last.fm, or any RSS feed, so that all you have to do is provide Dipity with a few usernames or URLs and it'll automatically build your beginning timeline for you. After items are added, click on any item on your timeline or zoom in for a closer look. If you're using it in the personal timeline manner, Dipity is essentially another lifestreaming app along the lines of previously mentioned FriendFeed—it just has a different way of presenting your stream. Dipity also supports manually creating timelines on any subject, but if you want total control over your timeline, check out how to roll your own hosted timeline.

Read More »

Sometimes you like a photo so much, you want to post it to Facebook, Flickr, and all your other Web 2.0-type identities. Media sharing web app Oosah (a strong contestant for weirdest web app name so far) has opened up a new feature that makes trading a digital photo or other media files between Flickr, Facebook, Picasa, and other social sites pretty easy. After signing up and confirming logins, you can simply upload to Oosah or drag a file from one web app to the other, saving you the time of multiple uploads. If you're going to spend valuable work time sharing your latest photo journey, you may as well hit at as many outlets at once as possible. Oosah is free to use, requires a sign-up to activate.

Read More »

Sci-fi blog IO9 takes a look at the future of social software and says that while we may be worried about its hit on our productivity, in the future we may need to work about whether it will actually make our jobs obsolete.
Their interview with interactive telecommunications professor Clay Shirky on the future of social software and communications asks if freely produced user generated content will lead us to a world in which content producers won't get paid. He says we're creating a whole new social environment, not just new forms of content.
The gist of it seems to be that your greatest potential for survival in the new online world order is to be one of the builders of this new world (eg create a social network or application that works) or be the top of your niche in content production.

Will efficient social software take your job away? [IO9]

If you've ever forgotten the details of a recent conversation with a friend or family member, weblog Parent Hacks suggests taking notes during personal calls to improve your social brain.

When I forget enough of these details, the next time I talk to that person it sounds a lot like I wasn't listening, or worse, don't care.... At first it seemed odd to rely on tools to remind me about details I thought I should just be able to just keep in mind. I felt slightly guilty about even needing reminding about the most important people in my life. But it's better than forgetting.

Read More »

Tap into the wisdom of the crowd for your health with community web site PatientsLikeMe. Using the site, you can read all about the experiences of other real people who are afflicted with certain illnesses as well as share your own experiences. The purpose, then, is to allow users to interact with one another, track how treatments are working for other members, and explore the side effects patients are seeing with certain treatments. The site's motto is "Patients helping patients live better every day," and it provides a tonne of tools to help you do just that. If you've given it a try, let's hear your thoughts in the comments.

Read More »