I follow several (actually dozens) blogs on my Gmail Reader (efficient way to scan for good info and learning about ministry, leadership, hispanic branding, photography, scrapbooking, etc…..and rarely take more than a half hour even when I email interesting posts to others….usually pastor) One of the blogs I read is tonymorganlive.com who is a pastor and chief strategic officer for New Spring Church. He had this post. I use 14 of the 25 on his list (I guess I am more wired than I thought!)…..and I am going to check into the other 11 allright….especially mint.com
25 Free Web Apps That Make Life Easier
Here’s the revised list of various free Web applications that I’m using. I tried to rank these in order of perceived value they add to my life.
- Gmail – I’ve been using it for years for personal/blog email. Last year I ditched Outlook and am also using it for all work email. Try Gmail Labs for fun beta options.
- Google Calendar – We’ve been using it for family calendar for several years. Last year I also shifted my work calendar. Now my wife, my assistant and I are all on the same page.
- WordPress – It’s how I share daily insights about ministry, leadership and life from my blog.
- Twitter – It’s how I share mini-insights throughout my day.
- Google Reader – I made the switch from Bloglines to Google Reader within the last year. I use it to track about 100 blogs each day.
- PeopleBrowsr – I loved TweetDeck, but I made the switch recently to PeopleBrowsr (no “e”) because it provides a browser-based option for following friends on Twitter.
- YouVersion – I love being able to read, search and study the Bible online. It also adds an entirely new dimension when you can do that in community with others.
- Mint.com – I quit Quicken cold turkey in January, and I’ve started using this app for tracking all my personal finances.
- Google Documents – Whenever possible, I’m trying to shift all my word processing and spreadsheets to the online option because it makes sharing and collaboration a lot easier. This is especially helpful when working with teammates in other cities.
- Lala.com – This music site lets you listen to a stream of a full song before you commit to purchasing it. You can also sync your iTunes library to the site.
- Google Analytics – I use it to track stats for my blog.
- FeedBurner – This is the service I use to track subscribers to my blog.
- ChurchMetrics – This free service offered by LifeChurch.tv is what we use to track stats across all our NewSpring campuses.
- Delicious – I use Delicious to track cool churches and tag websites for future blog posts.
- ScribbleLive – This website allows me to live blog events. One click allows full integration with my WordPress blog.
- Facebook – Okay, I don’t really use it. “Fake Tony” uses it. I’m on it, though, because it’s how the world is connected through social networking.
- YouTube – There are other (maybe better) websites for sharing video, but everyone is using YouTube.
- Hulu.com – It’s my preferred site for watching television shows online.
- Skype – Anything that allows me to make video calls to my sister in Cambodia for free is a pretty cool service.
- Mogulus – This is my current favorite app for broadcasting live video from my webcam.
- Google Groups – When I need a private method of communicating and sharing information and files with others, I use this site to bring people together.
- Pandora – This is a site that you can use to create your own Internet radio station that plays your favorite genre of music.
- Woopra – This site is amazing. I use it to periodically monitor live traffic on my blog…though I’ve been afraid to try the instant chat with current visitors on my blog.
- YouSendIt – It’s a great tool for sending big files to other people.
- Bringo – This site places the telephone call and navigates the phone trees so that you can talk directly to a human.
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