October 2009

The Monday Mashup is an experiment, designed to get my creative juices flowing. I get a random word and a random number, and I write a list based on that mashup. I’m not going to require myself to make the list perfect or expert–just requiring myself to do it consistently. At least for now.

This week’s mashup: Eight Tabs (that are often open in my browser)

1. Gmail

I live out of my Gmail inbox. Gmail makes storing, sorting, searching and using the emails I receive so easy that it makes more sense to use it as a hub than to try and extricate all of that information and put it into other places. I use many of the Gmail features, including color-coded labels, filters, and canned responses, all of which make my life as an online businessperson significantly easier.

2. Google Reader

There are a couple hundred million blogs out there, and in my obsessively extensive websurfing, I’ve seen an awful lot of them. Not all of them, but probably more than what can possibly be considered normal. The ones that click with me–the ones where I can lose a couple of hours reading the archives and wind up penning a fangurl-esque email to the author proclaiming my adoration for their writing–get put into Google Reader, where I can check in on them on a daily basis.

3. Google Calendar

Google Calendar (also known as “Gcal”) is my favorite online calendar–and I’ve tried several. I prefer it to iCal too.

4. Basecamp

I love Basecamp, both for working with my clients and for keeping my own stuff in some semblance of order. Havi (and via Havi, Cairene’s systems magic) have helped me learn how to turn Basecamp from “somewhat useful tool” into “powerful way to get things done, keep in touch, manage an entire business and discrete projects, and never lose a piece of information ever again.” I use it, I recommend it, and I’ve used other similar products only to come running back to Basecamp every time.

5. Freckle

Freckle is a time-tracking application that makes tracking your time easy, intuitive, and–yep, I’m going to say it–kind of fun. (I know. That blew your mind right there, didn’t it?) Since the Freckle team added a timer that you can access via a bookmarklet, it went from “great” to “how are people not using this?!” Even the interface is actually colorful and fun to use. This is the time-tracking software that all other time-tracking software lays in meadows daydreaming of becoming.

6. Twitter

Okay, you got me, you wildly astute reader, you. This one’s a cheat. I don’t “often” have Twitter open in a tab. I use Tweetdeck.

But this list seemed wholly incomplete without the inclusion of the one social media tool that, if some social media-obsessed lunatic ever put an iPhone to my head and insisted I become monogamous with only one social media tool, I would opt for without much hesitation. (Other than the expected hesitation of wondering why the hell someone is forcing me to make hasty decisions about social media communication with threat of blunt iPhone trauma. Of course.)

And if your first thought when I say “Twitter” is “But I just don’t get Twitter,” I can discern a few things about you:

• One: you feel overwhelmed by the amount of conversation and information being exchanged online and see Twitter as more noise.
• Two: you envision the entire populace of Twitter sharing what they had for breakfast and what their dog is doing, and you can’t fathom why anyone would care.
• Three: you haven’t given Twitter a fair shot (at least one month of 10-minutes-a-day usage) to prove to you that neither of the first two are accurate, even though some people do share their breakfast preferences and their dog’s activities, and you’d probably be surprised at how much really good conversation gets started around seemingly stale topics like that. By the way, I had pancakes, and my dogs are napping.

7. Hulu

I spend the vast majority of my waking hours at or near the computer. When I’m at home, I am very rarely near a television. But there are programs (Psych, House, The Office, Community, Greek… to name a few) that I enjoy too much to give up. Enter Hulu. Hulu is [insert deity of choice]’s way of saying, “Fear not, precious internet citizen, for though you may flee the land of high cable bills and programming that runs on someone else’s schedule and pummels you with too many commercials, you need not be without your entertainment.” Thank you, [deity of choice]. (Oh, and [deity of choice]? Thanks for apple crisp, inflatable moonwalk bounce houses and poster putty, too.)

8. Facebook

Equal parts social hangout and wanton timesuck, Facebook has two primary hooks for me:

First, it’s the only social media outpost one of my brothers and my sister-in-law use, despite my persistent attempts at Twonverting them. (Converting them to Twitter. You got that, right?)

Second, it’s the only place where I can simultaneously learn what my elementary school boyfriend’s children are dressing up as for Halloween, RSVP for a teleworkshop a colleague is presenting, discover what 80s teen flick character my college volleyball teammate would be, and brush up on my Uno skills with players from Indonesia, Ireland, and Australia (wassup, Alai, Mark, and Lelei!).

Facebook is way less streamlined than Twitter (what with its bajillion applications and quizzes and ways to annoy people), way less useful than most of the internet marketing types desperately try to make it out to be, and yet… there’s a reason oodles of us keep checking in and hanging out each day. With all of its flaws and mishaps and timesuck qualities, it’s social, it’s fun, and it feeds that most basic of online-human traits: curiosity about everybody else.

Your Turn!

What tabs are often open in your browser? Do share! I’m always looking to add to my tab collection.

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