3 Free Tech Tools You Need to Use

The internet is full of tools that can make your life easier. Here are 3 of my favorites. If you have not heard of these, please give them a look. They can empower you in ways you would never have imagined.

LinkedIn - If you work for a living, you should use LinkedIn. Plain and simple. LinkedIn is a social networking site that caters to business professionals. It is primarily used as a way to keep tabs on connections new and old, but has countless other applications. From personal branding to market research, to finding a job, to sales support, to ad-hoc help desk, the site’s usefulness grows daily. In 2004 the site had about 500 thousand users. As of 2008 it is estimated to have 21 million. How is that for growth? While there is a paid version of the site that adds functionality, you can do most of what you would need to in the free version. Creating a profile is easy and can be done pretty quickly. This one is a must.

Jott - What if you could call a phone number, speak, and have your words emailed to you in both transcribed text and audio form? What if you could do this for free? You can. Jott offers you the ability to send transcribed voice mail messages to yourself and others at no cost. This one is great for when you have those “great idea” or “damn I better not forget that” moments but don’t the ability to immediately write it down. I put Jott in my speed dial, and with the touch of one key, I can leave myself a message. Within minutes I get an email in my inbox capturing my message. The quality of the transcription is actually very good. Having used this hundreds of times, I can only think of one time that I actually had to play back the audio to understand what my message was. All you need to do to sign up for the service is to go to the site, enter your phone number, enter your email address, and viola - Jott at will. This service has come in handy for me more times than I can count. It is so simple, but so powerful at the same time.

Goog411 - Google on your phone. I am not talking about looking things up on an iPhone or Blackberry, I am talking about calling your search in and having it read back to you over the phone. Need Pizza in Dayton, Ohio? Call 1-800-Goog411 and have the Google search done for you for free. They will even connect you directly or email you a google map right to your chosen destination. It is so simple. This one is perfect for those in sales and other fields with lots of windshield time. Not sure exactly where that customer is? Goog411 can save the day. Need to grab some lunch or find a tow truck? Goog411. Again, this is free. This one is also embedded in my speed dial and used regularly.

These are 3 of my favorite freebies. What 3 free tech tools can’t you live without?

What’s Up Docs? Google Uploader

Yet another step closer to the long awaited “GDrive” Google released a tool to ease the process of uploading documents from your computer desktop to Google Docs. The new tool allows one to drag and drop word processing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations right into your Google Docs account. The types of files you can upload is limited, but the big 3 are there. Hopefully this service will continue to expand to include all file formats - creating a searchable, sharable, and portable online repository for important documents. While Google Docs is not as robust as its desktop competitors, it has all the basics…for free. Definitely worth a look, and this uploading application only makes using the tool better.

Google Docs Uploader

Phone it in: Goog-411

Google is great. You can use it to find just about any piece of information ever produced. But, what is one to do when information is needed and a computer is not handy? Simple, just call in your search. Dial 1-800-GOOG-411, and get connected to whatever business, organization, or service you are searching for. Google will literally run a search on the keywords you provide, and then read back the results to you one by one. This is really handy for people who spend a lot of time behind the wheel - think sales people, service reps, business trainers. Want to find the nearest Pizza place, hospital, hotel, or book store? Simply speak the city where you are located followed by the name of the business, service, or product you need and voila. Unlike typical 411 services,there is no charge for the service, and just like a normal Google search, you get multiple results. If your phone is web enabled, Goog 411 can even map directions for you on the spot. This, along with Jott.com are hardwired into my speed dial. I have been using this service for months now, and can’t remember life without it. This service further emphasizes the importance your web site’s ability to perform well in search. On the web, people are not prone to go more than a few pages deep to find something. This opportunity seems limited until you consider the phone. How many listings will someone sit through until they decide to make a choice over the phone? One? Three? Seven? Something to think about as you consider your site’s search performance. Give Goog-411 a try.
1-800-GOOG-411: Find and connect with local businesses for free from your phone.

Save Time, Do More: Jott.com

Recently, I discovered that it’s possible to post to my blog from Jott.com. If you are not familiar with Jott.com, well…it is one of the most amazing and useful services that you can find. Jott offers free voice to text translation. So when you are in your car and think of that great idea, simply call Jott, leave a message, and voila - you get an email with both a text transcription of your message as well as the original audio. Now for safety and convenience, I recommend putting it in your speed dial - mine is in speed dial 9. (Goog411, the other most amazing phone tool I know of, is speed dial 4.) Well, as I stated above, Jott can not only send you an email message, but you can also use it to send messages to others and post directly to Google Calendar, Wordpress Blogs, Toodledo, Remember the Milk, Twitter, and numerous other web tools. Jott is one of the rare productivity tools that actually might make you more productive. What tools will you use to make 2008 your most productive year yet?