{"id":527864,"date":"2010-04-14T18:16:07","date_gmt":"2010-04-14T22:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webworkerdaily.com\/?p=29459"},"modified":"2010-04-14T18:16:07","modified_gmt":"2010-04-14T22:16:07","slug":"web-work-101-10-apps-you-can%e2%80%99t-do-without-%e2%80%94-redux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/527864","title":{"rendered":"Web Work 101: 10 Apps You Can\u2019t Do Without \u2014 Redux"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/webworkerdaily.files.wordpress.com\/2010\/04\/stock_johnnyberg_handyman.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  title=\"stock_johnnyberg_handyman\" src=\"http:\/\/webworkerdaily.files.wordpress.com\/2010\/04\/stock_johnnyberg_handyman.jpg?w=300&#038;h=183\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"183\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-31187\" \/><\/a>Last March, I wrote a piece about the <a href=\"http:\/\/webworkerdaily.com\/2009\/03\/01\/web-work-101-10-apps-you-cant-do-without\/\" >10 apps a web worker can&#8217;t do without<\/a>. A year later, and the app landscape has shifted significantly, so here&#8217;s an updated list of what I consider to be the best solutions for our critical tasks in 2010.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Backoffice<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>1. Invoice management<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.freshbooks.com\/\" >Freshbooks<\/a> is still an excellent invoicing service, but there are some new and some improved invoicing apps in this space, such as:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.winkbill.com\/\" >WinkBill<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.simplybill.com\/\" >SimplyBill<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.workingpoint.com\" >WorkingPoint<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You can also track expenses with:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.expensify.com\" >Expensify<\/a> (<a href=\"http:\/\/webworkerdaily.com\/2009\/03\/11\/expensify-makes-handling-expenses-a-breeze\/\">see our review here<\/a>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And add functionality to your online invoicing:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.officedrop.com\/\" >OfficeDrop<\/a> (includes Freshbooks integration. <a href=\"http:\/\/webworkerdaily.com\/2010\/02\/25\/officedrop-incorporates-contextual-files-into-freshbooks-invoices\/\">See my review here<\/a>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Also check out Celine&#8217;s piece on <a href=\"http:\/\/webworkerdaily.com\/2010\/02\/10\/how-to-use-the-web-to-improve-and-manage-your-finances\/\">managing your finances online<\/a>. If you are looking for solutions for creating and managing contracts, check out <a href=\"http:\/\/webworkerdaily.com\/2010\/03\/02\/using-web-tools-for-creating-and-managing-contracts\/\">Celine&#8217;s roundup of contract resources<\/a>. You may also want to check out <a href=\"http:\/\/outright.com\/\">Outright<\/a>, a bookkeeping and tax prep tool that <a href=\"http:\/\/webworkerdaily.com\/2009\/09\/29\/outright-teams-up-with-paypal-expensify-to-ease-your-bookkeeping-woes\/\" >Scott reviewed<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2. Time tracking<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Need to get a handle on how much time you&#8217;ve spent on a particular project or task? There are apps for that &#8212; some standalone, some that integrate with your invoicing systems, and some like <a href=\"http:\/\/www.brainsoftlabs.com\/\" >Where is My Time<\/a> that help you to analyze how the time flew by and how productive you were during that time. Here are some others:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/klok.mcgraphix.com\/klok\/index.htm\" >Klok<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/bubbletimer.com\/\" >BubbleTimer<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.toggl.com\/\" >toggl<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.paymo.biz\/\" >Paymo<\/a> (tracking with invoicing)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.myintervals.com\/\" >Intervals<\/a> (plus task and project management)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rescuetime.com\/\" >RescueTime<\/a> (with time management and project tracking. <a href=\"http:\/\/webworkerdaily.com\/2008\/04\/17\/rescuetime-offers-improvements-to-its-ridiculously-easy-time-management\/\">See our review here.<\/a>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And in the time-, cash- and distance-tracking category, take a peek at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.1daylater.com\" >1DayLater<\/a> (<a href=\"http:\/\/webworkerdaily.com\/2010\/02\/08\/taking-a-closer-look-with-1daylater\/\">see our review here<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/webworkerdaily.files.wordpress.com\/2010\/04\/stock_toutouke_tools.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  title=\"stock_toutouke_tools\" src=\"http:\/\/webworkerdaily.files.wordpress.com\/2010\/04\/stock_toutouke_tools.jpg?w=300&#038;h=225\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" class=\"size-full wp-image-31188 alignright\" \/><\/a>3. Social CRM<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Here are some startups that provide useful Social CRM products:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.batchblue.com\/\" >BatchBlue<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sugarcrm.com\/\" >SugarCRM<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For quick contact information exchange, I love the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.poken.com\/\" >Poken social business card<\/a> and am so disappointed that they aren&#8217;t taking off like I think they should. I wear my cute skull Poken at every conference I go to but have yet to get &#8220;poked&#8221; unless Poken is a conference sponsor.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m also keen on <a href=\"http:\/\/bu.mp\/\" >Bump for the iPhone<\/a> and Android, and also covered some other contact sharing apps in this roundup: <a href=\"http:\/\/webworkerdaily.com\/2009\/01\/05\/5-ways-to-beam-your-business-card\/\" >DropCard, Rmbrme, BeamMe, ShareCard, SnapDat.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>At SXSW, I was given a very impressive demo of relationship management tool <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gist.com\/\" >Gist<\/a> (<a href=\"http:\/\/webworkerdaily.com\/2009\/09\/15\/relationship-manager-gist-opens-public-beta\/\">see  our review here<\/a>) that promised a lot, though I have yet to incorporate it into my daily work.<\/p>\n<p><strong>4. RSS Reader<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t know about you, but I&#8217;m over RSS readers. But to be fair to those who have yet to discover the social firehose, you could go with the ever-popular <a href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/reader\">Google Reader<\/a> and the novelty of <a href=\"http:\/\/snackr.net\/\">Snackr<\/a>, which puts a little ticker at the bottom of your computer screen for passive, almost subliminal consumption of your feeds.<\/p>\n<p>And here are a few other popular feed readers:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/webworkerdaily.com\/2009\/02\/19\/filtrbox-g2-expands-service-and-cuts-pricing\/\" >Filtrbox<\/a> (see <a href=\"http:\/\/webworkerdaily.com\/2008\/07\/15\/filtrbox-dials-the-noise-way-down\/\" >my initial review here<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.netvibes.com\/\" >Netvibes<\/a> (this is really more of a &#8220;build your own landing page&#8221; service that incorporates feed reading features)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.feedly.com\/\" >Feedly<\/a> (a similar landing page service)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For saving articles to read later, I currently use a combination of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.delicious.com\" >Delicious<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.instapaper.com\/\" >Instapaper<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/alizasherman\/favorites\" >&#8220;favoriting&#8221; tweets containing links on Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Communications<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>5. <span style=\"text-decoration: line-through;\">Email management <\/span>Social communications management<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I have changed the heading of this section because I find that my communications are no longer mainly taking place through email, and are increasingly moving into my social networks.<\/p>\n<p>While I am trying to move away from Gmail and start using email management tool <a href=\"http:\/\/www.postbox-inc.com\/\" >PostBox<\/a> again (its attachment management tools make it a compelling option for me), I am also looking out other social communications management systems and apps.<\/p>\n<p>I was panicked to find <a href=\"http:\/\/www.threadsy.com\" >Threadsy<\/a> &#8212; the intriguing integrated communications client that you could use to see your email, social networks, and Twitter in a single place &#8212; under &#8220;re-construction&#8221; but have signed up to see what is happening with the app.<\/p>\n<p>You might also like to check out a few email productivity add-ons we&#8217;ve reviewed, such as <a href=\"http:\/\/webworkerdaily.com\/2008\/11\/18\/xobni-brings-even-more-to-your-outlook-inbox\/\">Xobni<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/webworkerdaily.com\/2010\/03\/05\/rapportive-gmail-crm\/\">Rapportive<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/webworkerdaily.com\/2010\/01\/07\/mailbrowser-a-plugin-to-manage-gmail-contacts-and-attachments\/\">MailBrowser<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>6. Calls, Conferencing and Instant Messaging<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Right now, my company has been moving away from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.skype.com\" >Skype.<\/a> Although we all love the app, it seems to drops our calls almost constantly now. We are moving back to the old-fashioned telephone for calls, while for conferencing we have been using <a href=\"http:\/\/www.freeconference.com\" >FreeConference.com.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Here are a few phone conferencing and webinar-style conferencing systems that I also use:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/webworkerdaily.com\/2008\/07\/02\/on-demand-reservationless-toll-free-teleconferencing\/\" >Calliflower<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dimdim.com\/\" >DimDim<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gotomeeting.com\/\" >GoToMeeting<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Note that I didn&#8217;t include <a href=\"http:\/\/www.webex.com\/\" >WebEx<\/a> in the list. I am convinced that the company, which once dominated this space, has had a hard time keeping pace with the more nimble startups.<\/p>\n<p>One other phone-related service that my company is trying is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.evoice.com\/\" >eVoice<\/a>, because we need a virtual PBX system that can accommodate our UK office as well as multiple U.S. locations. Unfortunately,\u00a0 I don&#8217;t have enough experience with it yet to tell you how it is working for us. Stay tuned.<\/p>\n<h3><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/webworkerdaily.files.wordpress.com\/2010\/04\/stock_gun_screwdriver.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  title=\"stock_gun_screwdriver\" src=\"http:\/\/webworkerdaily.files.wordpress.com\/2010\/04\/stock_gun_screwdriver.jpg?w=300&#038;h=225\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" class=\"alignleft\" \/><\/a><\/strong><strong>Work Process<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>7. Project management<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>My company first used <a href=\"http:\/\/www.basecamphq.com\/\" >Basecamp <\/a>for project management before switching to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.5pmweb.com\/\" >5pm<\/a>. Today, I&#8217;m seriously checking out <a href=\"http:\/\/www.glasscubes.com\/\" >glasscubes<\/a> as it provides project management together with collaborative space. It is much lighter on the project management side &#8212; it&#8217;s really just a task management\u00a0 app &#8212; but I&#8217;m getting a feel for the company&#8217;s interesting take on how virtual groups can work better together. More on that soon, too.<\/p>\n<p>Just for giggles and grins, check out my old post about this topic: <a href=\"http:\/\/webworkerdaily.com\/2009\/02\/02\/project-management-collaboration-and-how-our-brains-work\/\" >&#8220;Project Management, Collaboration and How Our Brains Work<\/a>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>8. Calendars and Schedules<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m excited about the web-based services that allow me to give out a link to my calendar &#8212; or just a portion of my calendar &#8212; so\u00a0 people can get on my schedule. But as my post about a<a href=\"http:\/\/webworkerdaily.com\/2010\/03\/17\/live-from-sxsw-its-a-scheduling-bungle\/\" > scheduling bungle at SXSW<\/a> due to system time zone issues, I know that there is still no single tool that &#8220;does it all.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Still, here is a quick rundown of a few tools I&#8217;m still using or trying out:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/webworkerdaily.com\/2008\/03\/07\/timebridge-makes-meeting-scheduling-easy\/\" >TimeBridge<\/a> and their <a href=\"http:\/\/meetwith.me\" >Meetwith.me<\/a> feature<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/webworkerdaily.com\/2008\/08\/19\/timedriver-pares-down-enterprise-scheduling-for-you\/\" >TimeDriver<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/webworkerdaily.com\/2008\/02\/26\/tungle-helps-you-manage-the-time-management-jungle\/\" >Tungle<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/webworkerdaily.com\/2008\/08\/19\/timedriver-pares-down-enterprise-scheduling-for-you\/\" ><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.scheduleonce.com\" >ScheduleOnce<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>9. Cloud-based collaboration\/document sharing<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>While I still use <a href=\"http:\/\/docs.google.com\/\" >Google Docs<\/a>, some fundamental integration issues are making me look elsewhere. As I mentioned earlier, my company is currently experimenting with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.glasscubes.com\/\" >glasscubes<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Here are a few others:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/webworkerdaily.com\/2009\/01\/08\/iworkcom-apple-takes-a-bite-of-the-cloud\/\" >iWork.com<\/a> (from Apple)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.zoho.com\/\">Zoho<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/webworkerdaily.com\/2009\/01\/13\/an-elegant-option-for-collaborative-content-review\/\" >Colaab<\/a> (<a href=\"http:\/\/webworkerdaily.com\/2009\/01\/13\/an-elegant-option-for-collaborative-content-review\/\">see our review here<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/getbackboard.com\/\" >Backboard<\/a> (useful for feedback on docs and files)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And I know you&#8217;re going to think this is kooky, but the 2.0 version of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.spinscape.com\/\" >Spinscape<\/a> combines mind mapping principles and collaborative communications in a way that is quite compelling to me.<\/p>\n<p><strong>10. File storage\/backup\/sync<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Take a look at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sugarsync.com\/\" >SugarSync<\/a>. It provides backup, file sync and file sharing &#8220;on-the-go&#8221; on any Mac, PC or mobile device <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sugarsync.com\/\" > (<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/webworkerdaily.com\/2010\/02\/25\/can-sugarsync-save-your-company-document-pain\/\" >check out my review here)<\/a>. Here are some other useful options:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dropbox.com\" >DropBox<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.box.net\" >Box.net<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mozy.com\/\" >Mozy<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A newbie in the &#8220;active backup&#8221; and file storage space is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.soonr.com\/\" >Soonr<\/a>, which also has Mac, PC and mobile capabilities.<\/p>\n<p><em>What are some of the must-have applications you\u2019ve found invaluable in your own web work?<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>stock.xchng images by johnnyberg, gun, toutouke<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.):<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/pro.gigaom.com\/2009\/05\/enabling-the-web-work-revolution\/\">Enabling  the Web Work Revolution<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/stats.wordpress.com\/b.gif?host=gigaom.com&#038;blog=1149864&#038;post=113171&#038;subd=gigaom&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"feedflare\">\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/OmMalik?a=1Uzs5s4IyL8:cq2URLqLrmQ:yIl2AUoC8zA\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/OmMalik?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/OmMalik?a=1Uzs5s4IyL8:cq2URLqLrmQ:V_sGLiPBpWU\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/OmMalik?i=1Uzs5s4IyL8:cq2URLqLrmQ:V_sGLiPBpWU\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/OmMalik?a=1Uzs5s4IyL8:cq2URLqLrmQ:F7zBnMyn0Lo\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/OmMalik?i=1Uzs5s4IyL8:cq2URLqLrmQ:F7zBnMyn0Lo\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/OmMalik?a=1Uzs5s4IyL8:cq2URLqLrmQ:qj6IDK7rITs\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/OmMalik?d=qj6IDK7rITs\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/OmMalik?a=1Uzs5s4IyL8:cq2URLqLrmQ:D7DqB2pKExk\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/OmMalik?i=1Uzs5s4IyL8:cq2URLqLrmQ:D7DqB2pKExk\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/OmMalik\/~4\/1Uzs5s4IyL8\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last March, I wrote a piece about the 10 apps a web worker can&#8217;t do without. A year later, and the app landscape has shifted significantly, so here&#8217;s an updated list of what I consider to be the best solutions for our critical tasks in 2010. Backoffice 1. Invoice management Freshbooks is still an excellent [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5932,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-527864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5932"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527864\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}