Firefox is the OS
Thursday, 24 July 2008 Jacob TomawRay-Ray asks in comments,
Do you guys know why there’s two versions for Google — iGoogle and Google Reader? I have both going, which adds to the disorganization that I need to sort out…
The reason is because Google is trying to reach people who use homepages (iGoogle) and people who don’t (gReader). My question is why do you use a homepage? (Not is a critical OMG kind of way, but what advantages do you see to it kind of way.)
A lot of people use homepages to gather all their information together. On iGoogle you can see my Gmail, gReader, other feeds, weather, and other misc items. I definitely see the value in it and would recommend it as a second choice or an away from home choice. However, to me it is a bit cluttered and small for everyday use
This is my setup at home and work.
My browser of choice is Firefox. It began because it was perceived to be safer and faster than IE. I no longer know if that is true. I continue to use Firefox because of the add-ons. For instance, I have an add on called Forcastfox installed that added the weather and forecast to the status bar.
Firefox allows you to have multiple pages as you homepage. These pages will open in different tabs. My homepages are Gmail and gReader.
With gReader I have a pretty standard setup. I read mostly in the All Items view sorted by ‘auto’. I star things I want to blog about or need further update. I share things I find interesting and share with comments things I do not think are full blog post worthy.
If you want to improve your gReader abilities, I suggest hitting ‘?’ and learning a couple keyboard shortcuts.
Gmail is more customized. I have two add-ons installed: Better Gmail 2 and RTM for Gmail.
Better Gmail 2 allows me to make sure Gmail is always uses a secure connection;this mean you melding kids cannot read my email as easily. I am also able to add keyboard shortcuts, hide some stuff, and show the inbox count in the tab. All of this really increases my productivity in email.
RTM for Gmail adds Remember the Milk as a side bar to Gmail. I can manage all of my tasks from the same window as email. I can also create tasks from emails for future follow-up.
That is my setup. What do you all do that makes you more productive at the computer?