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Web Worker Daily

3 Collaboration Tools Startups Pick for Short-term ProjectsAugust 26

Every organization has its own needs when it comes to picking out collaboration tools. Startups, in particular, need tools that don’t get in the way of the big project the team may be focused on. They often have a need for a simple tool that will keep the team on track while still allowing for flexibility as the project evolves.

With that need in mind, I asked the teams behind several startups what tools they use to collaborate. There was a definite split between the tools teams use for rolling out a specific product or project, and the tools startups use when they’ve got a longer development plan ahead of them. These are the tools that fit with specific projects or products.

1. Ta-da List: Veribook uses Ta-da List. Keith Chung says, “We’re a small two person start-up that works separately probably 99 percent of the time. However, we work incredibly closely developing our website using Ta-da List almost exclusively. By having a series of sortable to-do lists that we share, we’ve been able to develop dozens of features, debug hundreds of bugs, and fulfill

Miranda IM 0.9 Released With Improved Unicode SupportAugust 26

I’m now primarily a Mac user, but back when I was on Windows, my multi-protocol IM client of choice was Miranda IM. It’s a lightweight, highly extensible and unobtrusive open-source tool that supports AIM, Facebook, Gadu-Gadu, Jabber, ICQ, IRC, MSN, Yahoo and more. The Miranda IM team this week released version 0.9, which in addition to bugfixes has some useful new features:

• New improved protocols engine with full Unicode support
• New high quality icon theme
• Windows 7 taskbar icon support
• Added full Unicode file transfers
• Added ability to transfer files longer than 4 GB
• Added the first official 64-bit core version
• And many improvements to protocol support

You can see the full list of updates here. Miranda IM is available for Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, 2003, XP, Vista and 7. You can download the latest stable version (0.9.1 as of this writing) for free

Step-by-Step: Creating Your Blogging SystemAugust 26

If you’re a blogger, your most common problem is likely not knowing what to write. You open your word processor or editor to find a blank canvas staring back at you, which causes the same thing to happen to your mind — it goes blank. Week after week, you struggle to pull together coherent posts that are just this side of rambling, and in the back of your mind, you know that you’re not doing the best job of managing your blog to ensure that it helps you reach your goals.

The solution? Develop a system around your blogging efforts. Here are the steps I took to create a system for producing and managing content for my own site.

About a month ago, I was approaching yet another week of blank canvases, so I set out to find a way to be more intentional and focused with my content. The first thing that came to mind was an

All Hail the GmailAugust 26

This morning, Google turned on a new feature in Gmail: the ability to make and receive Google Voice phone calls. Google Voice is now tightly integrated with the address book, which has many waxing eloquent and predicting the death of Skype. Being a long-time VoIP watcher, I’m not as moved by it. Sure, it’s a very welcome addition, but I would have settled for better voice mail transcription and better quality of voice calls.

Nevertheless, the new feature launch made me realize that Gmail is the most viable launch pad for new Google services. From Google Talk to Google Buzz and now to Google Voice, Gmail has a mass audience and the momentum qualities to turn a new feature into a must-have service.  There are about 173 million Gmail accounts, while Yahoo Mail has 284 million and Hotmail has 360 million.

It’s part of my long-standing belief that

Make Phone Calls Directly from GmailAugust 26

It’s now possible to make and receive phone calls to the U.S. and Canada at no charge directly from Gmail’s web interface. I’ve been testing the new service, and so far, I’m very happy with it.

As always, Google is rolling out the new service gradually. It hasn’t become active on all of my Gmail accounts yet. Also, Google says that it will be available for Google Apps, but doesn’t specify a timeline.

So you’ll want to log into your Gmail account and see if there’s a new option that says “Call Phone.” It will appear under Chat in the navigation menu on the left. If you see this option, your account is ready for phoning!

It’s pretty simple to set up. You’ll need to:

• Install the voice and video plugin, which is available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.
• Select a Google Voice phone number. If you don’t already have one, you’ll be prompted to do this. Numbers are available only in the continental U.S., but you can select many different area codes and locati