I have come to realize that in the last 2 years, and well into the next 5, Mozilla Firefox has been by far the most important piece of software that I use. I donated $100 back when Mozilla Foundation started up and despite them not even needing the money I still bought plenty of gear from the store. <3 Mozilla.
I find facebook and other social networks to be powerful tools. You can get close to instant feedback from your friend on facebook. Surveys and doing a little bit of viral marketing helps too.
