Top 10 online services and applications
Google services
Google has a wealth of free online services and applications
that everyone should use. Below is a listing of some of our favorites.
- Google Docs - Fantastic collection of free services including a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation service, online forms, drawings, and more. Each of these services can also be viewed and edited between multiple users.
- Google Calendar - One of the best if not the best online calendars available to create appointments and even share events between other users.
- Google Translate - Another fantastic free service by Google that allows you to translate any text, website, or document into another language with support of over 50 different languages.
- Gmail - By far one of the best online free e-mail services with an almost endless list of features and probably the best e-mail spam filter.
- Google maps - Excellent maps service that not offers updated maps, directions, satellite views, and even street views of much of the world.
- YouTube - The premier location to share and view online videos.
RescueTime
RescueTime is an excellent service that can help keep you
focused while on the computer and track how much time you spend on each
task. This service keeps you focused while on the computer by only allowing
you to perform productive tasks and can prevent you from accessing
unproductive programs and websites. In addition, the site offers a wealth of
graphs and data to see where you spend your time and can even keep track of
how much time you spend on each web page you visit.
WOT
An excellent add-on that can be added to any major Internet
browser including Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome that alerts you to
any Internet page you are visiting that is not safe. This service works by
allowing any user to create a comment and rating on any web site, which WOT
uses to alert a user if the site is not safe. WOT protects you from any web
page with malware, reported scam sites, sites that invade privacy, or
conducts other fraudulent activities.
Dropbox
Another great tool that allows you to share and sync any file
between your PC, Mac, Linux, and Mobile device. Not only is this a great
tool for sharing your files but it is also a great tool for backing up your
data online.
Grammarly
Fantastic service that checks for misspellings, commonly
confused words, plagiarism, grammar errors, punctuation, and will even
suggest alternative synonyms. A Microsoft Office add-in can also be
installed to check any document you're working on within Office. Finally,
with each suggested correction an explanation about the problem, examples,
and the ability to ask the community is made available.
Flickr
The most recognized and used services for exploring, sharing,
and storing photos online. Thousands of pictures are uploaded to this
website every minute, making it a fantastic place for inspiration for any
photographer and a great place to store, show, and print your own images.
Skype
Another great online service and tool that allows anyone to
make phone calls and video calls between other Skype users over the
Internet.
Aviary
A fantastic online suite of tools including an image editor,
effects editor, screen capture, vector image editor, image markup, color
editor, and even an audio and music creator. Each of these programs is
online and can be used through your browser.
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that has been generated
using millions of different contributors around the world. Today the site
now contains over 3.5 million different English articles on almost every
topic imaginable and millions of other topics in dozens of other languages.
PayPal
The number one used service for taking and sending payments
without using a credit card.
Top 10 steps in writing an effective e-mail
Below is a listing of our top 10 tips for writing an effective e-mail. Following these suggestions will get you a better response from your e-mails and make e-mailing more enjoyable for you and your recipients.
Keep your e-mails short
Less is more. The shorter you can keep your e-mail while still relaying
your message or question the better. At most we suggest no more than
three paragraphs of text.
Make the subject line clear and easy to read
The subject of the e-mail should contain enough information to let the recipient know what the e-mail is about.
Make the e-mail personal
Always include the name or alias of the e-mail recipient. If you want
the e-mail to be even more personal include your real name in the e-mail
as well.
Watch your spelling and grammar
E-mail with spelling and other grammatical errors tells the reader it's
not that important. Always spell check, keep the below suggestions in
mind, and proof read the e-mail before sending it out.
- Always use proper punctuation and capitalization.
- Never use shorthand or acronyms people don't understand.
- Do not WRITE IN ALL CAPS; it gives the impression you're YELLING.
Don't forward jokes and other e-mails
While you may find a joke funny or find an e-mail interesting or
disturbing most people don't enjoy getting forwarded e-mails. Never
forward e-mails to all your friends and family.
Remember e-mail isn't private
Realize
that e-mail is not encrypted and can be forwarded to other people.
Never send personal or company confidential data in e-mail.
Reply to e-mails effectively
When replying to e-mails keep the below suggestions in mind.
- Try to reply to e-mails as quickly as possible.
- Use the "Reply to all" option cautiously. Really make sure if there are multiple recipients in the CC that everyone really needs to see your reply.
- Keep the e-mail thread (previous messages) in the body of the message and your response at the top. This helps remind the reader what the e-mail was about.
- Do not over use e-mail program options such as "high-priority", "automatic replies", "read receipts", etc.
Keep the CC and BCC to a minimum
When using CC
to send to e-mail to multiple recipients try to keep the list to a
minimum. Often when someone sees more than four in the list they'll
disregard it as not important or think one of the other recipients will
take care of it.
Also, use BCC instead of CC
when it's not important for the e-mail recipients to see whom the
e-mail was sent to and to help keep everyone's e-mail addresses private.
Use plaintext instead of HTML
Always
send your e-mails as plaintext. It may not be as pretty but it does
allow the e-mail to be read easier and is often less distracting.
Use a clean signature
Signatures
can be an effective method of displaying your contact information at
the bottom of e-mails. However, follow e-mail signature etiquette when
creating your own signature.
