As an (aspiring) entrepreneur, I feel obligated to initiate some word-of-mouth advertising for some innovative companies that have truly changed the way I do things. In the current climate of bailouts and rising unemployment, many have come to expect that a thriving business or employment is a fundamental, inalienable right, on par with that of free speech, life, and the pursuit of happiness. However, the harsh reality of life is that if you aren’t adding value to someone or something, you are not truly “working.” This is the essence of business, of capitalism, and of service– the exchange of adding-value for a return on investment (not necessarily monetarily though). So often we forget this simple truth, and so I thought I’d promote several FREE online services I use that have added-value to my work, travel, and life.
Travel: Dopplr & Trip It
Travel continues to be a center piece to my work and life, and so early last year I turned to two online startups to help me get organized and network with community when traveling. Dopplr is a beautiful service that combines the power of social networking with the usefulness of an online travel journal. The design and interface of Dopplr are a joy to work with, creates my public profile and Facebook app, and they’ve just released my 2008 annual travel report, where Dopplr reports I took 26 trips in 2008, which added up to 105,995 km or 29% of the distance to the moon. Furthermore, Dopplr calculates that my travels emitted 12,863 kg of CO2, and even allows me to purchase carbon offsets if my conscience were to compel me. I felt as if it was quite a well traveled year until Dopplr posted President Obama’s travel profile here. For real utility, however, I’ve turned to TripIt– a virtual travel assistant that automatically organizes your travel itinerary. Oftentimes it’s as easy as forwarding a confirmation email to plans@tripit.com, and TripIt will automatically build your itinerary.
Personal Finance: Mint
Having been a longtime Quicken user until this year, perhaps the most profound service I’ve started working with is Mint. Personal finance has finally been made easy with this beautifully designed and simple service nearly automates the entire budgeting and transaction tracking process, to where I now spend no more than 10 minutes a week managing my finances, investments, and budgeting.
Pointless Fun: Twitter
Like so many, I spent the last few years absolutely dumbfounded by the hype over the seemingly useless platform known as Twitter. Although I’ve had my Twitter account for a while, very few of my friends and colleagues got into the micro-blogging concept in and of itself. And so it wasn’t until Twitter synced up with my Facebook (and my social network) that it actually became useful. I have no idea how they’ll ever monetize this, but in the meantime, I find it to be a remarkably addicting and fairly useful way to communicate brief messages to your community.
Productivity: Remember The Milk
Remember The Milk has become my go-to To Do list that I can access whether at home, the office, or on the road. With a fast interface, and the ability to automatically load tasks while on the go by simply emailing my account, RTM has easily helped increase my productivity by 20% or more. An honorable mention goes out to RescueTime for it’s service as well.
Efficiency: Xobni & Xoopit
Xobni (or “inbox” backwards) has changed the way I interface with the ubiquitous, yet stubborn, Outlook. Armed with a powerful search engine, syncronization with LinkedIn, and a feature that automatically organizes email file attachments and contacts, Xobni is a highly recommended add-on for anyone that spends most of their day in front of a computer on Outlook. Similarly, Xoopit has proven to be a moderately useful media search add-on for Gmail by making photos, videos, and other files more easily searchable and accessible.
Post a comment, a Facebook message on my wall, a tweet on Twitter, or an email with some of your favorite FREE, value-add services out there–
