Some Favorite Tools for Conquering the Internets

Google Notebook

Want to hang on to snippets of stories you’ve read, photos you found intriguing, URLs you want to remember at least for a short time without having to create a new bookmark or jot something down on a slip of paper that will only get lost? Google Notebook is great for this — while I’ve noticed a few, um, quirks (it’s still in beta), my notebook lives in the bottom right corner of my browser window, always at the ready. I can store clippings in different categories, so if I’m brainstorming for a new creative project, for example, I can keep inspiration pieces separate from items that might simply be for personal amusement, or for a different project. And, again, thanks to Google, it’s all online so I can access it from anywhere.

Netvibes

In this case, I depart from the Google world to another of my favorites — Netvibes acts as a personalized home page to which you can add different “widgets” like RSS readers, weather maps, and so on — much like iGoogle, but in my opinion, better, if only because I feel like I can fit a lot more information on a page because the cartoonishness of iGoogle takes up a lot more real estate.

One of my favorite uses of Netvibes is for the storage of my bookmarks so that, again, I can access them from anywhere. But what I like most about Netvibes bookmarks is that you can categorize them by “tags” and each bookmark can have more than one tag. So, a blog about food can not only be filed under “blogs” but also under “food” and maybe under “Portland or “National,” for example; you can make up new tags as you go.

StumbleUpon

Finally, in case you didn’t have enough web content to peruse in whatever tools you use to peruse it, it can’t hurt to have an easy way to explore the parts of the web you haven’t found yet. Enter StumbleUpon, a Firefox browser add-in that adds a “Stumble!” button to your browser toolbar. You will be randomly transported to pages that have been submitted by other StumbleUpon users. Where you Stumble to will be determined by a set of interests and preferences that you choose when you first start stumbling. Therefore, you will land on something that, in theory, will be of interest to you, and, once there, you will be able to rate that result, thus further influencing future results.

I’ve certainly landed on some oddball picks, but others are now a part of my ever-expanding Google Reader subscriptions. Which reminds me, I’d better go see what reading I’ve fallen behind on while I was writing this post…