
Ask HN: What Web apps increase your productivity? - juliend2
I can't live without Freshbooks. Recently i subscribed to BaseCamp (and loving it so far).<p>What are Your web apps that you can't live without that boost your creativity/productivity?<p>Thanks in advance.
======
edw519
Hacker News.

This is not a joke. I realize that hn is not a web app in the classic sense,
but I get far more value from hn than _any_ webapp. Let me explain...

I learned long ago that increasing productivity was like "striking out the
pitcher". You got small, easily measured, and much appreciated improvements.
But the _real_ improvements come in _major shifts_ in thinking and processing.

I once had a choice of 2 projects to work on, each about the same amount of
work for me. One would save 8 people 10 minutes per day. The other would
change an entire business process, potentially saving millions of dollars.
Believe it or not, I chose the first because I didn't understand the
ramifications. Until my first mentor stopped me and pointed all this out
(That's how he became my mentor.)

I have looked at several web apps and desktop tools but eventually rejected
them all (except for Textpad which rocks). I'm just not interested in saving a
few minutes here and there. (I also realize that there may be many web apps
that go beyond simple productivity improvements.)

Hacker news, OTOH, changes the way I think all the time. Once or twice a
month, I come across something that improves my work by magnitudes, not
percentages.

I also get my creative juices flowing simply by participating. It's hard to
place a value on that.

~~~
9oliYQjP
What's interesting here is that a lot of the commenters -- myself included --
are blurring the definition of what a web app is. I wonder why that is? I
don't have a point other than to ask that question, because my gut tells me it
would be an interesting thing to investigate.

~~~
thenduks
In general, I'd put it like this:

A "web application" is a browser-based tool that allows a user to _create and
consume content_.

A "web site" is a browser-based tool that allows a user to _consume content_.

~~~
pg
Yes; for me the test has always been that a web app has something equivalent
to File->New.

------
GavinB
Dropbox. I don't have to worry about backing up files, and I know if I screw
things up I can revert to old versions. Not to mention, sharing files is as
easy as dropping them into a folder.

I've been using BackPack for to-do lists, but it doesn't have the depth of
features I need. Can anyone recommend a to-do list app with good nesting
functionality?

~~~
blurry
If you have gmail, you can add Google Labs Tasks. Nesting, one-click add from
email, etc.

~~~
RossM
And integration with Google Calendar, which is a godsend.

------
9oliYQjP
I'm going to adopt a liberal definition of web app here. The only web app that
appears to increase my productivity is Twitter. But I use a desktop client to
access the service. I use it for live-searching of programming problems I need
to solve. Why is this so funny? Because I didn't comprehend Twitter at all, so
much so that I originally joined only to leave my account languishing for
months before actually beginning to use it.

I tried Basecamp and it just got in the way of things. When your app is so
simple that it can be replicated by email, a calendar, and some shared disk
space, don't be surprised when clients refuse to use Basecamp and "degenerate"
to using email, a calendar, and some shared disk space. At least, that's been
my experience, so I cancelled my account.

Most of the other web apps are pure fluff and/or not productivity enhancers.
Freshbooks et all appear to be exceptions to this rule. Online accounting web
apps are so much better than their desktop counterparts. If I had a nickel for
every time somebody has asked me about an Intuit software problem they're
having, I'd be rich.

~~~
prpon
I'd be interested in knowing how twitter increased your productivity. For me
twitter is a great tool for networking, increasing visibility for your
product/project.

I am yet to see any real networking benefits myself, I find having to put up
with 'I am running now', 'I am eating a burrito' more than anything of
significance from people I would like to network.

------
thorax
Assembla

Google (if that counts)

Featurelist.org (our own site) -- specifically the user feedback widgets that
dump all the feedback from all of our different sites into a handy place (per-
project) so I can respond/escalate/investigate/etc.

Google Apps / GMail

Defensio (for avoiding having to manually inspect spam comments on our apps)

__ These aren't in the "can't live without category", but still quite helpful:

Feedback Army (for quick usability/sanity checking)

Paypal

Jing (both a tool and a web service)

Amazon S3/EC2 (once you get over the initial hurdles, it pays back in
productivity)

Authsmtp (is that a web app?)

StackOverflow

bug.gd (another of our sites, in the process of renaming to ErrorHelp.com) --
since I log every error/solution I ever run into, often I run into my own
errors again later and the solution is waiting for me even if I don't remember
how I solved it before. Often enough someone else solved an error I had, too.

~~~
santacruz
Skype has screen sharing from now ( download beta)

------
teej
Rescue Time. It's hard to cheat, it "just works", and it's dangerously good at
picking out my unproductive spurts.

~~~
Herring
Anyone else find that it needs a lot of micromanaging?

------
rjurney
EC2. I run an XL instance and do any actual program execution on it while I
code.

How often are you waiting on your computer? How much is your time worth,
compared to $0.80 an hour?

~~~
zacharypinter
Can you explain this setup a little more? What type of applications are you
working on and in what language? How do you send code quickly to the server
(i.e., do you have to commit code before you execute)?

~~~
rjurney
When I'm waiting on code, I'm usually doing database stuff. At the moment I've
been working on the same database conversion for weeks, that takes a few
minutes to run on an XL instance, and about half an hour on my macbook pro.

I have an svn checkout on the EC2 box (which I update each reboot), and I scp
the file I'm working on over for test runs in between commits. I'd use rsync
if it were a bunch of files at once, but it usually isn't.

It also sometimes runs Perl/Catalyst web apps.

I save the image each day (when I remember to turn it off), but a smarter
setup would be to simply mount my working directories on an EBS mount.

------
xsc
Google Calendar.

Saves me from calling my fiancée at work to see what we have going on.

~~~
Mintz
I can't even remember how I managed my life before Google Calendar. Texting
reminders to myself, settings tasks that need to be checked off, having a
simple interface to see how my week/month is laid out... it's a lifesaver.

------
madmotive
This changed my life: <http://freeagentcentral.com>

Biggest benefits if you are UK based. Blew Freshbooks out of the water from my
perspective.

~~~
greengirl512
Oh wow...I like it! In fact I like it so much I may even overcome the inertia
I referenced earlier and switch over. Thank you!

~~~
pmuk
Another one to try is <http://www.clearbooks.co.uk>

------
cousin_it
Ask the commenters in this thread: What webapps _decrease_ your productivity?
Preferably those we haven't yet heard of? I imagine the answers could turn out
much more interesting :-)

~~~
rokhayakebe
Youtube. I have to type in the track I am searching for. I would like some
sort of Voxli hack for Youtube that will allow speech input (Hold Y + Say the
name of the video you are looking for/or say Repeat).

------
skmurphy
Skype, especially combining text chat with voice for telcons

Central Desktop for developing/managing documents and meeting agendas,
minutes, specs.

Webex Office for calendar & contacts

123SignUp for registration management

Spellr.us for spell checking blogs/websites

iContact for e-mail newsletters

There is also a great list for startups at <http://startuptools.pbworks.com/>

------
jasonlbaptiste
I started using Evernote. Few reasons I like it and continue to use it:

* Can capture whiteboards and make data searchable. Was very useful after brainstorming this weekend. * Has multiple options for using: Web, Cocoa App, iPhone * Easy to use for simple things such as todo lists, jotting notes, voice recordings,etc.

~~~
veritgo
I've also been using it to compile technical notes. The iPhone client is
pretty slick too. Comes in handy when at the command line of a server without
internet access in the datacenter and you need to remember the format of some
config file.

------
tremendo
Of the many to-do apps I've tried, the one I actually use is UnTodos.com, with
the somewhat loose categorization of tasks into "Today", "Soon" and
"Whenever", and easily moving tasks about, it's one that I haven't given up on
(vs. ta-da, rememberthemilk, etc.)

And I also find PivotalTracker.com really usable. At first the terminology
(story, icebox...) was a little uncomfortable for me, but I keep coming back
to it to handle projects, along with co-workers.

------
greengirl512
Remember the Milk...If something's not on my Remember the Milk to-do-list, it
often does not get done. Also, Less Accounting-it's similar to Freshbooks, but
I found it first. I'm not sure which is better, but I'm too lazy to switch at
this point. And of course, Google, Gmail and associated apps. ReQall is
another handy scheduling/reminder service. If they made it easier to organize
tasks with tags and to add time estimates for each task, I might switch over
from RTM.

Incidentally, the website I write for is a great place to discover new web
apps. We try them out and review them for you, so you can decide if they'll be
helpful to you or not: <http://www.usefultools.com/>

------
jcapote
Our shop runs effortlessly thanks to a combination of google apps, freshbooks,
github, basecamp, and heroku

------
jbrooks
We too use Basecamp for our project management.

Also, I tried using Freshbooks for invoicing, but it's restrictions with
multiple currencies made me to look out for an alternative solution.

Recently, I found CurdBee for invoicing which turned out really productive to
me. It allows managing unlimited clients with multiple currencies seamlessly.
Also, their UIs are so intuitive making the whole process very simple. If you
are budget conscious like me and also want to get your work done you should
try CurdBee.

------
MonkeyMachine
I've been recently trying out apps to help better synchronize multiple 2 man
(developer/artist) teams for casual game development, and this is what we've
found so far. (All of these are free, we're not yet big enough to need
heavyweight features that are worth paying for, but when the time comes, I'll
happily cough up the cash for good 'robust' tools)

I am checking out some of the other suggestions for possible 'upgrades' :)

\- Google Docs - for Design Documents where we can both edit/view and see
modification histories.

\- Toggl - for off the cuff task based time tracking, a bit finicky, and won't
let you view details of tasks from other team members, but it's dead simple to
use so that's a big plus.

\- Subversion - This doesn't count as a web app, it's a lightweight install on
a machine in my home office, but it's a necessity for any coding I do, and
crucial for keeping the team synchronized.

\- Skype - for remote brainstorming and quick Q&As when a face to face meetup
isn't possible.

\- Unyte - free Skype plugin for screen sharing. Beats the hell out of having
to say 'now click Window menu, then library, then go here, etc...

\- Basecamp - not often used anymore, but did a decent job of task planning,
scheduling and note making... something about it felt a few degrees off, can't
put my finger on what though. Is probably a good fit for most people.

------
zaidf
Gmail. When its ajax is not acting up.

------
kirubakaran
<http://smacklet.com/>

Wrote it for myself. 'Productivity through consciousness'.

~~~
Raphael
The under-construction pages are really annoying.

~~~
kirubakaran
Okay, I'll do something about it :-) Since don't have many users and since the
current feature set is all I need for myself, I just left it at that.

------
carbon8
Redmine. It's not perfect, but it resolves all of the shortcomings (IMHO, of
course) in the other major project management / issue tracking apps.

~~~
nuclear_eclipse
As a developer of MantisBT, assuming that you've looked at it, mind giving me
a summary of what Redmine has that MantisBT lacks?

~~~
carbon8
No, I haven't. I've primary managed projects over the years using various
amounts of trac, basecamp, ms project and even mediawiki.

It's important to note, however, that it's not always about features, and my
first impression of MantisBT looking at it now was mostly defined by
usability, so much so that it's hard to tell what features it actually has.

The interface on the demo is very noisy. Redmine behaves like a modern web
app, MantisBT appears to behave like a no-frills, late-90s bug tracker. That's
probably fine for a certain set of developers, but I use Redmine because it's
a replacement for both Basecamp and Trac (and fits the workflow of me and my
company better than each), and I'm able to use it to manage non-technical
projects with non-technical members alongside technical projects with
technical members.

Usability is hugely important. It's not just an asthetic issue. Take, for
instance, the issue listing:

<http://www.mantisbt.org/demo/view_all_bug_page.php> or even worse
<http://mantis.simplepressforum.com/view_all_bug_page.php>

Especially in the second example, I have no idea what I'm looking at. There is
so much information that needs to be digested before I understand what's going
on, and it's hard to digest it because there is a lot of visual noise and
overpowering colors. And then once I figure out what's going on and decide I
want to look at a ticket, I have no idea what I'm supposed to click to open a
ticket (apparently the ID)

In contrast, here is Redmine's version of the issue listing (this isn't my
project, just an example with the same theme):

<http://redmine.lighttpd.net/projects/lighttpd/issues>

Anyway, I hope this is useful.

~~~
nuclear_eclipse
Thank you; you pretty much echo all of my current frustrations with Mantis. :P

 _MantisBT appears to behave like a no-frills, late-90s bug tracker._

To be fair, Mantis was started in 2000, and the look and feel hasn't really
changed since then, mainly because of no good separation between code and
presentation; templates are one of the always-on-the-roadmap-but-never-
implemented features simply due to having a very small developer team.

Also, I would argue that from a neutral standpoint, but bug listings have a
similar level of information density. However, Redmine does a good job of
hiding all the unused filters, and an even better job of not _looking_
visually overwhelming. Part of that has been improved recently with the new
colorscheme for bug statuses, but there's still a lot that could be done.

Thanks again. :)

------
adrianwaj
Not an app, but buy a larger screen, or add a second if you don't. Keep them
at head level.

------
chanux
<http://nowdothis.com>

~~~
juliend2
i love this one, and the fact that it's also translated in french.

------
motoko
Google application suite ---especially gmail (search and worry-free
attachments that appear on my iPhone). I've been happy with the recent task
list and calendar resource additions, too.

------
rjurney
PBWorks. I find PBWiki much more effective when collaborating on documents
than google apps or Trac. Its actually a joy to use, and I can't say that
about many apps.

~~~
pageman
I have to agree with this one. Most of what happens in my class are now in
PbWorks!

<http://itethic.pbwiki.com> <http://sysanal.pbwiki.com>
<http://vertsol.pbwiki.com>

------
brown9-2
Stackoverflow, for two main reasons:

1\. The obvious reason: for making it easy to find answers to problems I might
have. 2\. The larger reason: I feel like in browsing and reading thru other
people's questions, in areas that I'm interested in, I've learned a TON of new
things which I would not have otherwise learned or had seen if all I ever
looked at was my own codebase/projects.

------
mcantor
www.rememberthemilk.com

------
nixy
I work a lot with different (human) languages in settings where i sometimes
need to escape special characters in different web environments. That is why
this Unicode converter tool often comes in handy:

<http://people.w3.org/rishida/scripts/uniview/conversion.php>

------
rjurney
This is kinda lame, but I use it regularly because I cannot remember regular
expression syntax: [http://www.addedbytes.com/download/regular-expressions-
cheat...](http://www.addedbytes.com/download/regular-expressions-cheat-
sheet-v2/png/)

The perl regex cheetsheet.

~~~
DTrejo
<http://txt2re.com/> is one of the loves of my life.

------
trickjarrett
30boxes.com - My online calendar of choice

Gmail

Twitter

Google Docs

Pandora (the ability to choose the mood music, use headphones and block out
the rest of the office)

Twine.com is up and coming as I use it for bookmarking between home and work,
and for sharing links with coworkers.

Tweetcore - This was a twitter client I was developing that had a few features
which I really liked and streamlined my twitter use, but I've abandoned the
project as it was proving more and more complex for less and less a chance of
success.

------
nailer
My wife swears by Dropbox for a way to fetch big files that everyone can use.
She'd use Basecamp if her office hadn't paid for MS Project, which she hates.

------
Raisin
<http://doihavetokickyourbutt.com/> Stops me from zoning out on the web and
get back to work.

------
ruchi
Google Docs

Pbworks

<http://smacklet.com/>

------
feedus
Instapaper - browser plugin that sends things I want to "read later" to my
Kindle.

Amazon Subscription Payments is about to get used on Feed.Us

Quickbooks online - used it solidly since 2001, though I hate it. (new design
is really nice)

Basecamp is helpful (though I hate it)

Campfire would be great if the other guys I work with liked it.

------
jackchristopher
I think we should define productivity, here's one definition I like:
[http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/10/what-is-
productivit...](http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/10/what-is-
productivity/)

------
dangrover
ZenDesk is awesome. If I didn't have it, I'd probably have to hire someone to
handle support for me. But now I can handle more requests and satisfy more
customers than I normally would be able to with just an email account

------
ashleyw
Not a web-app, but I saved a hell of a lot of time by ditching my digital
clock and getting an analogue one instead. Not sure why exactly, I guess I
just like seeing a pie chart on my wall…

------
nader
We use compuccino time track in relation with basecamp for all our project /
time management. For invoices and quotations it's still words since it's more
flexible than any tool out there.

------
embeddedradical
webnotes.net (found out about it here, been using it since), google reader,
vitalist, a personal IT wiki (using screwturn wiki), and the gtdish setup i
got going on on my usb drive (truecrypted w/ backup script that creates a
backup whenever im plugged in at home, maintains last 7 backups [each unique
day, in case i backed up again on same day for whatever reason]), oh ...and
jquery. i know, not all webapps, but those are the things that help me out the
most.

------
mdolon
<http://www.grooveshark.com/> and/or <http://www.pandora.com/>

------
DenisM
<http://jsonformatter.curiousconcept.com/>

Pretty print for JSON, good for exploring new web services

------
cmalpeli
Gliffy.com - a fantastic tool for mapping out database designs, flow charts,
etc. Way better IMO than Visio - and much simpler to use!

------
leftnode
<http://www.slimtimer.com> \- awesome service, pay what you think its worth.

------
racerrick
feedus - got it installed in several applications so that all the hardcoded
text can be changed by anyone in our organization.

------
wenbert
I'm curious why no one posted Etherpad. :-/

------
silentbicycle
BookBurro (<http://www.bookburro.org/>).

------
rokhayakebe
IDidWork could tremendously increase my productivity if I could update my
account using IM.

------
tome
<http://www.doitfuckingnow.com/>

------
slackerIII
<http://www.doitfuckingnow.com/>

------
priyanka
DeskAway - kinda like basecamp, google docs , twitter apps like twhirl and
tweetdeck

------
proee
eCalc - Scientific Calculator <http://www.ecalc.com/calculator/scientific/>

Supports both RPN and Algebraic

Includes integrated unit converter with on-the-fly conversions

Handy when you forget your HP or TI

------
steveneo
Wiki <http://geniuswiki.com>

------
olegp
<http://checkvist.com>

------
feedus
More...

Disqus for comments.

Zazzle for selling tshirts.

------
khandekars
Google {News, Reader}, FriendFeed.

------
Ripst
google calendar and notepub.com for web clips, bookmarking, todos, and general
note taking.

------
steerpike
Diigo

Netvibes

Box.net

Google docs

Google notebook

Google project hosting

------
adammichaelc
SugarSync

------
middayc
www.qwikitodo.com

------
intellectronica
launchpad.net

------
pj
qrimp.com

------
pageman
Heroku/Herokugarden - in terms of teaching my students how to deploy an
ecommerce app in less than an hour (actually 31 minutes). This would have
taken A LOT MORE TIME if there was no such thing as instant deployment!

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0WhxO0W_n4>
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt0RHqRHyvA>
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUG4mf29ZQ8>
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE2YkzKPf0o>

------
skwiddor
Delicious

------
codemechanic
Hacker news and Tonido Workspace for me.

