Learn and Lead

It’s time to update my top 10 learning tools and techniques list. This time I’ll try to focus more on tools and services. You can view my previous lists of Aug 08 and Jan 08.

My top 10 learning tools in April 2009:

1. Google Reader – I read blogs via RSS feeds. I have tried Google Reader, NetVibes, Bloglines and Feedly, and I have stuck to Google Reader. It also allows me to share interesting articles from my feeds. In case you are interested, you can view my shared items here. I still find many people who don’t really know or use feeds. I don’t lose any opportunity to educate them to the merits of feeds and using a feed reader.
2. Twitter – I will complete one year of Twittering next month. It’s been a great learning tool. I read somewhere that Twitter lowers the barriers of communication. Completely agree with this. Have made more connections on Twitter than on any other network. Connect with me on Twitter @manishmo.
3. TweetDeck - can’t just complete this list without talking about some of the Twitter tools I use. TweetDesk desktop app helps me organize twitter contacts in groups and helps me manage tweets easily.
4. Google Chrome – IE feels extremely slow and archaic after I started using Google Chrome. I love the simplicity of the interface. And the best feature is ability to type anything in the address bar to search for it. No need to actually go to the search engine website.
5. Google search engine – Googling is now a verb. This is my most used search engine.
6. Compfight, a flickr search engine – Love this as it allows me to quickly search Creative Commons images that I can use on my blog.
7. LinkedIn – Okay, perhaps it is not a tool but definitely a network that I have found invaluable. I have made some great connections through the eCube forum.
8. Blogging – Blogging continues to help me reflect on my thoughts and crystallize my learning. I prefer self hosted Wordpress platform more. I still use Blogger for my personal blog and have moved to hosted Wordpress for my team blog.
9. Bubbl.us – Love this collaborative mind mapping service. Simple interface and great collaborative features. I have been using this to collaborate with my connections.
10. Mr. Tweet – this Twitter service has helped me identify new folks to follow based on my network’s network. I have found it quite useful in identifying new folks to connect with.

Image: Imagination by tjtrewin

We have been inundated with posts on the new Google browser Chrome. Here’s another one adding to the flood of posts on the subject :-).

Google’s new browser Chrome is said to give Microsoft Internet Explorer a run for its money. IE at this time has 72% browser market share. So will Chrome make a big dent in IE’s market share? I am not sure if that will happen soon. As I wrote earlier, IE is most popular in corporate organizations because (a) it comes bundled with Windows, (b) we are too lazy to learn new tools, and (c) organizations don’t really see browser as a productivity enhancement tool. Even though Firefox is known as a better product, IE is still the most used.

So who will start using Chorme? It will be first used by people who anyway have experienced more than one browser. These are primarily the Firefox users. Chrome will basically eat into Firefox’s share before it starts to eat into IE’s share. I do admit that the viral marketing of Chrome has been much stronger than Firefox and I have come across a few die hard users of IE (not because they love it or anything, but because it is the only browser they have used) are talking about Chrome even while being oblivious of Firefox’s power. Some might just download and use Chrome. But the biggest loser in this browser war is going to be Firefox. Sad really...