Have you noticed how many free productivity tools are available online? Do you use any of them? These tools have totally changed how I accomplish day to day tasks and how I use the internet in general. There are hundreds of great tools out there, but here is a list of 10 free tools that will hopefully help you in some way. Check them out and let me know what you think.
1. StumbleUpon.com
You can use SU many different ways, but here is the general idea. You download and install the free SU toolbar and let them know your general interests by completing a quick form. When you click the “Stumble” button, SU randomly sends you to a new site recommended by other folks with similar interests. Once you are on the site, you have the opportunity to rate that site by giving it a thumbs up or thumbs down. In the process, SU learns your preferences so the site destinations get better and better. You can bookmark and tag the sites so you can visit them later or share them with friends. SU also allows you to search topics as you do with search engines, rather than stumbling. I often bypass Google and search using SU to quickly get to the best and most relevant sites rated by my peers.
2. Delicious.com
Delicious is a social bookmarking service that allows users to tag, save, manage and share web pages online. This gives you the ability to access your bookmarks from any computer and greatly improves how people discover, remember and share on the Internet.
3. Dwellicious.com
Delicious.com meets real estate. Share your favorite real estate listings with family or your agent. Dwellicious allows you to bookmark any property on the web and organize your properties with tags. Great tool for real estate agents or people searching for real estate.
4. Pando.com
Have you ever needed to send a huge file that is too large to email? The days of burning CD’s and using Fed-Ex to deliver them are over. Pando will send up to 1GB for free. www.YouSendit.com is similar and is another great tool to send large files.
5. FireShot, a Firefox browser plugin.
This Firefox browser tool allows you to capture a screen shot of any web page and gives you the option to save it, send it, copy it, etc. It saves the file in PNG format, small enough to email.
6. Awesomehighlighter.com
Awesome Highlighter lets you highlight text on web pages and then gives you a small link to the highlighted page. Send the link to show people exactly what you want them to see on the site.
7. html-pdf-converter.com
Need a Web page saved in PDF format?
Another one: www.htm2pdf.co.uk/
8. Zamzar.com
Ever had trouble opening a file because you didn’t have the right software? Zamzar is a free online file conversion tool that converts almost any image, video, doc, etc file to almost any other format needed. For example, it converts the new Office 2007 files from the .docx format to the older .doc format.
9. FreeConferenceCall.com
Register for a free conference call line for your business. You keep the same number and access codes, so no need to send out new info for regular conference calls. Awesome quality and a lot of great features.
10. OpenOffice.org
Microsoft Office alternative. OpenOffice is free software you install on your computer. It looks and functions a lot like Microsoft Office so it is easy to make the transition. It even allows you to save your docs in Microsoft formats like .doc & .xls. Another huge bonus is it allows you to save files as a PDF for free.
Bonus:
Need more? Mashable.com – 5000-resources-to-do-just-about-anything-online
Enjoy! And please leave comments with other great tools you’ve found.
I’ve been using Screengrab as a firefox plugin instead of FireShot and (although I havn’t used FireShot) I’ve found it to be Very useful.
Can also recommend (for firefox) ; Firebug (for coders) and NetVideoHunter (for people who want to save embeded graphic / video).
Thanks for this list – especially Zamzar.com, which I am going to check out the second I stop typing this (I just spent an hour this morning finding a free (trustworthy) converter for flv to avi.
P.S. Checkout http://www.disqus.com and gigya socialize for wordpress powered sites.
Loch.
Loch, thanks for the tool recommendations. Firebug is awesome. I use it everyday. Great tool! I have not used Screengrab. I’ve never used Disqus.com and NetVideoHunter, but they look great too. I’ll check them all out.
I have not used Zamzar.com as much as some of the other sites I recommended, but it worked great the few times I needed it. Let me know what you think about it if you use it.
PPS – I also recommend http://www.gravatar.com as used on this site
Chris, this is great and hit stuff that I have never even heard of.
I LOVE freeconferencecall.com, and did you know there’s a feature where you can pay (ok, no longer free here), $9 monthly and have all of your calls recorded. It’s a great tool I use when I’m coaching clients, which helps me and them.
Thanks Jennifer. We love it too and have been using it for several months. We’ve used paid conference lines in the past and FreeConferenceCall.com is just as good if not better.
Thank You Chris, Very valuable information, I really like the way you explain what the sites are used for! koodles to you: pink