Google already knows that I blog for Google but now I’ve almost completely gone Google. I recently switched from Netvibes to Google Reader, from the GTD-app Things to the online web service Remember the Milk and I moved a lot of my e-mail correspondence from Mail.app to Gmail online. While I’ve been fairly reluctant to store the main part of my data/information with one provider up in the clouds I have now been convinced.
Netvibes » Google Reader
I’ve been a fairly happy Netvibes reader for over a year but Google Reader has added some great features since I last tried to find a cure for my RSS exhaustion. I started using Netvibes modules as a way of keeping track of my scattered self online but after a while I got rid of the modules but I now prefer simple bookmarks in my browser.
In Netvibes I managed all my subscriptions with tabs but switching between tabs and individual feed subscription items cost too much time. On top of that scrolling through all the items is not possible, only through a single subscription.
The main reason I prefer Google Reader over Netvibes? The fantastic scrolling features and the “Mark Everything Read” button (in Netvibes you can only mark everything read per subscription or tab). Google automatically marks an item as read once you scroll past it. Love it.
Things » Remember the Milk
Yes, I know Remember the Milk is not a Google product (yet) but it perfectly integrates with Google Reader, Google Mail and Google Calendar. I signed up for a RTM account even before I downloaded Things but I never got the hang of it. Things is an excellent application to manage your to-do items in a flexible GTD-style. However, I did not use half of its features and it felt too much like a standalone application that did not integrate with my calendar.
Remember the Milk offers a tight integration with Google Mail, iGoogle, Google Calendar, Twitter and many more. Forgotthemilk.net wrote a GreaseMonkey script that integrates RTM into Google Reader. Now I can access my todo list from all the applications I use to get things done!
An iPhone application has already been released for Remember the Milk and over 167 users have requested a Symbian application, including me. The mobile website of Remember the Milk is pretty good but I would love an official application for my N95.
Mail.app » Gmail
Hitting Archive and/or starring items is the best way to keep my inbox clean and empty with Gmail. The Better Gmail Firefox add-on adds “useful extra features and skins to Gmail, like hierarchical labels, macros, file attachment icons, and more. ”
The main reason for moving my e-mail to Gmail is the excellent application for my N95 phone. It is far superior to the pre-installed e-mail application in both speed, ease-to-use and functionality.
So what’s next?
I have no idea, please tell me!
Next: Your medical and financial record managed by Google .. I really am disliking them .. they should’ve stopped at building a search engine .. one single large source of anything is just a bad idea ..
I can understand their stretch from search engine to indexing the universe and I agree that a single source for everything is not the way to go.
However, I think there are still enough alternatives to Google products so it is matter of personal choice. When choice is gone it is a different story but right now I’m setting on the company that makes excellent products with tight integration with and by other companies.