Call it bizarre but after my many years of being a web-obsessed freak (my occupation is even web-related), I’ve either just learned about these within the last year or new efficiencies have surfaced to streamline processes on the web to help me be more inclined to use them. And yet, I’m still searching for EVEN BETTER. So if anyone can help add to this list, PLEASE do so, by all means.
1. Flickr.com: I wasn’t crazy crazy into this site before, but as soon as I got my new Macbook Pro (oh, about a month or so ago), I love the fact that I just plug my camera in and voila… I click on the button that says “Flickr (or Facebook)”. And all this time I thought Wordpress was already efficient!
2. iGoogle: I’ve become RSS CRAZED. Where else can I find the most up to date design inspiration, news (local and worldwide), baking recipes, crafting ideas, and all my friends’ blogs? No where but the single place I constantly go to daily and consider my “command center” of doom. All of these updates are delivered to me along with weathers of 4 different cities, my gmail, bookmarks, traffic, calendar, and other random widget/apps that I choose to have. And as though that couldn’t get any better, I have the most adorable skin where a huge sea monster does different activities throughout the day depending on what time it is. I’d be lying if I said I’m not obsessed.
3. Twitter.com: Yeah, ok so it seems like it would be a bit of a fad of some sort. Honestly, yes, I do agree that it is, but let’s face it. I haven’t been very good at blogging lately and it’s much easier for me to blab one line nonsensical remarks… besides I was already starting to do this on my neglected journal anyway. Not only that, but there is an insane increase in the number of developers that are creating some sort of application based off of Twitter. For example, Cursebird.com, the late fake-twitter, twitter plug-ins for Wordpress, iPhone and other cell phone twitter apps, etc. Even my work creates these feeds for our artists’ webpages! How can one avoid it? Not to mention that, but have you heard about it in the news lately? ok if you’re living under a rock then maybe not, but for chrissake… Celebrities are using it to communicate with regular joes like us and CNN was in a full out competition wtih Ashton Kutcher to be the first to make 1 million followers. Anyone know who won? I kinda don’t wanna know…
4. Pandora.com: I’m a very picky music fan. My tastes don’t usually fall under the mainstream umbrella so it’s hard for me to learn about new music. That is, before Pandora came along and lifted my spirits up and gave my music listening new meaning!!! All I do is type in a band or a song I like, and voila… it starts spitting out songs that are similar back out at you. Did I also mention you can also train your music station to play and not play certain songs after you hear them once or several times? How can this not be a good thing? I am loving some of the genre music stations. They also offer it for the iPhone and a few other select phones, but I’m not really big on listening to music on the go…. YET.
5. weheartit.com and/or vi.sualize.com: Especially because of my RSS feed, I see a high volume of images, and many of these images are great for inspiration for me as a designer. I never want to forget these images, so what do I do? I use an image bookmarking site. vi.sualize.us provides a plugin for your browser where you can right click on the photo and bookmark it, and when you go back and login to your account at vi.sualize.us, a library of all the photos you’ve saved are sitting pretty waiting for you :) I don’t revisit those images often like everyday, but every once in awhile when I do go back, it’s like an old familiar friend greeting you. I love it. weheartit.com also has a browser plugin, but the two work slightly differently. I’d actually like to explore other ones like tumblr.com (I think this is actually something completely different), but hey, since I’ve gone this far and fallen in love with that many sites, why not fall in love with another?
6. Omegle.com: Talk to strangers! Seriously, I keep it clean. What I like to do is instead of saying “hi” immediately which gives the other conversationalist an opportunity to do something sick like cybersex or behave like an absolute tool, I try to engage the other person by asking a question or going straight into a topic. This is one of those things you have to try for yourself. Sometimes, it takes a handful of initiations before you actually get a decent conversation going… but somehow it feels so accomplishing after a real conversation is achieved. It’s weird. But if you’re curious, go look. You can close out right after you find it to be too outside of your comfort zone.
BTW, these were in no particular order. But I’m serious, these sites really are THAT awesome. Maybe they work for me because of the nature of how I behave on the computer, but hopefully you’re also able to find something great from one of these as well. If so, I’d love to hear about it. Seriously. Post.
HAPPY WEEKEND!!!!! I am always looking forward to the weekend but, not so much when I have a busy one coming up. Like the one I’m about to have.
