Blogging and Social Web Tools to Declutter Your Life

Let’s keep this simple — here are the blogging and social web tools decluttering my life at the start of 2009:
 

Google Chrome Search Bar

In Chrome, the URL field is also a search form. If I know a site’s URL, I can type it in directly. If I’m searching for something, I can type it in directly. One data entry field is better than two, I say. I’ve grown so dependent on it that I try to use the URL field as a search field anytime I use Firefox. If it’s that habit-forming, it must be a handy tool.

Google Chrome Bookmarks Bar

Instead of a drop-down menu, like we all grew up with, Google Chrome has a horizontal bookmarks bar that lets me visualize my most-used bookmarks. I’m a visual guy. I like that I can glance up and see a one-touch link to other tools I need (My blog admin page, Flickr, Twitter search, etc.). And, it’s one less step — navigating a drop-down menu gets tedious if you do it dozens of times a day.

The downside: Space is limited. On a standard 17″ monitor, you can fit about 10-12 bookmarks (with text) on the bookmark bar. Any other bookmarks overflow into a drop-down “Other Bookmarks” tab. All-in-all, though, it beats the old way.

Twhirl

I’ve tried TweetDeck. I’ve tried TweetBar, Feedalizr and TweetGrid, too. While those all have nice features, I keep coming back to the sleekness, simplicity and reliability of Twhirl. I like that its slim design keeps it from cluttering up my visual space.

Press This Bookmarklet

Press This is a WordPress bookmarklet — an application that runs in your browser and lets you grab snippets of the web for blogging. Simply highlight the text, images and videos you want from any web page and hit the “Press This” button. An editing window lets you revise, add content, save a draft or publish your post. It’s perfect for capturing snippets of inspiration that you can flesh out later. Press This makes it easy to respond to or expand on a post you’ve read somewhere else, too.

TinyURL Bookmarklet

URL shortening is vital for shrinking those ridiculously long URLs. Many Twitter clients include a URL shortening tool, but not all. It can be tedious to copy a URL, open a new browser tab, navigate to TinyURL.com, paste the URL, get a TinyURL, copy it, and paste it wherever you need to paste it. The TinyURL bookmarklet shortens any web page URL with a single click of the button. Easy, fast, convenient — and useful!

Dorame (Pandora desktop app)

I use Pandora to discover new music and anytime I want music with a certain sound or genre. But keeping a Web browser open is a hassle, especially if I have to keep it pointed to a specific page. Dorame plugs me into Pandora with a desktop app that minimizes to the taskbar — yet another way to reduce clutter. It runs on Adobe Air (the same platform Twhirl runs on). Pandora has its own desktop app, but I don’t know much about it. Dorame works just fine for me.

Google Reader’s “Starred Items”

I switched from iGoogle to Google Reader as my blog/RSS feed reader of choice last fall. Organization seems easier. But following dozens of blogs can get overwhelming. I just can’t read every post. I skim most posts in the reader pane. If it’s an interesting topic that requires more focused reading, I star it. If not, I mark it as read so it can disappear from view. Again…less clutter. Later, when I’m not swamped, I’ll check my “Starred Items” and try to plow through them methodically.

BackType

Todd Defren’s post turned me on to BackType. Here’s the gist: If you comment on blogs all over the web, it’s hard to keep track of where you’ve been. BackType is like an archive for your comments on others’ blogs, complete with periodic email summaries. Set up a BackType account and you’ll be able to keep an eye on the conversations you’ve contributed to. Because, let’s face it, commenting one time and never returning isn’t a conversation.

Disqus

I like threaded comments on blogs. Without threading, your comments section is just a litany of post-facto monologues. With threading, actual conversations can occur. Disqus — despite a few minor flaws — makes threaded comments possible.

ShareThis

Of all the content sharing plug-ins available, ShareThis is best at giving me what I need. It allows a reader to quickly and easily share a blog post via email, Twitter, instant message, SMS/text, social network (Facebook, MySpace, etc.), social bookmarking (Delicious, etc.), or social news (Digg, Reddit, etc.).