The Internet’s in the middle of an incredibly important shift: it’s moving away from a closed, geek-only space with tons of prerequisites and knowledge required, to a place where anyone can be involved, share themselves, and partake in all of the cool stuff the Internet has to offer.

A lot of this is due to social networks. Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and others are making both the creation and the consumption of information – whether it’s about our friends, issues that interest us, or whatever – easier than ever. This ease of use is a crucial step of making the whole Web mainstream, and not just Google and email.

One of my favorite, and I think one of the most important, tools out there is Posterous. What is Posterous? It’s the simplest, easiest, and fastest way for anyone in the known universe to become a blogger, a journalist, a lifestreamer.

If you can send an email, you can create a Posterous blog. That’s because that’s the way you blog – you simply send an email to post [at] posterous.com. Your email gets posted, and you get a dedicated URL for all your thoughts – often yourname.posterous.com.

If you attach an image to your email, it gets put into your Posterous post. If you attach a song, people can play it from within the post. If you paste a YouTube link, the video will automatically get embedded into the post. There’s no formatting or coding necessary (though there’s plenty of opportunity for it if you so desire), no knowledge required. Just fire off an email, and you’re set.

Getting Social

Posterous can also be set to work with your social networking accounts. By default, Posterous will automatically update things like your Facebook status, your Twitter status, your other blogs, or even an iTunes podcast, every time you email Posterous. But by sending your post to different email addresses (like twitter at posterous.com or facebook at posterous.com), you can specify where in the social world your post goes.

Endless Uses

The ways you can use Posterous are absolutely infinite. You can password-protect your site, and make it a family blog, with pictures and notes. You can make it a photo-journal, with galleries that get automatically created by Posterous. It’s the perfect venue for thoughts and things that are too long for the one-sentence nature of things like Facebook and Twitter, and can be everything from a notebook to a full-fledged and popular blog.

There’s support for custom domains (you can buy imsupercool.com instead of imsupercool.posterous.com), analytics for tracking visitors, RSS support, and much, much more.

There are already a ton of interesting people on Posterous (check out a few of them here), including yours truly. I’ve got two – one is a personal site, for pictures, music, and the like; the other is The 2.0 Life+, where there’s lots of cool tips, links, and more for readers of this blog.

If you’re looking to start a blog, a presence online, or just a place to share your photos with your family and friends, fire off an email to Posterous.

There is no step 2.

What’s your favorite blogging tool? Do you use Posterous, or Tumblr, or anything else for super-fast blogging?

Posterous Turns Anyone Into a Blogging Powerhouse

Facebook’s not just a gigantic time-sink, making you less and less productive as the service gets more and more popular. There are lots of ways to make Facebook more useful, and apps are one of the best. Thanks to its huge universe of applications, Facebook actually offers a number of ways for students, and anyone who’s still game for a little learning, to figure out something new.

These apps can enhance online learning, give you more control over your schedule, and make it easier to interact with professors and classmates. They’re particularly good for students of all ages, but they can help anyone who’s looking to further their learning, or get a little more organized. Here are 15 Facebook apps worth exploring (and worth telling your parents about, so they’ll leave you alone about all the time you spend on the site):

Course Hero - The Course Hero Facebook app is a social learning network built for students, teachers, and self-learners to share and view online academic resources. The app also provides helpful links to other open educational resources.

Teach the People – Teach the People is an educational app for teachers and students who want to share and find knowledge on Facebook. The goal of this app is to provide a collaborative community where students and instructors can learn from one another.

Blackboard Learn – Blackboard and Facebook are now working together through this unique app that allows users to get updates on educational course information. With this app, students can receive assignments, grades, forum posts, and connect with classmates through Facebook.

Weekly Schedule – Weekly Schedule provides a way for Facebook users to display their weekly schedule to their friends. The app is perfect for study groups and for classmates who want to work together on assignments, notes, and other projects.

Courses 2.0 – Courses 2.0 is a class schedule-sharing app. This Facebook app allows students to share and coordinate schedules as well as add tests, events, and assignment due dates.

Podclass – Podclass provides a way for teachers, educators, and self-learners to access their course content. The app interfaces with Moodle, making it easy to manage classes, post messages, and interact with students all within Facebook

Check My Campus – This app allows college students to post videos and images of college life. Check My Campus makes it easy to stay in touch with events on your campus. It is also great for college bound students who want to get a real look inside the colleges they are considering

Language Exchange - Facebook members looking to learn a new language will love this unique language learning app. It can be used to find language partners around the world, teach a new language, and learn about interesting cultures.

Dictionary.com: Word of the Day – Lifelong learners will find this app, provided by Dictionary.com, an invaluable way to expand their vocabulary. It is based on the site’s popular Word of the Day feature and makes it simple to learn a new word with every daily trip to Facebook.

Quiz Creator – This quiz creation app from Facebook offers a way for teachers to post educational quizzes for students. Students can also use this app as a studying tool to quiz themselves or their classmates.

CampusBuddy – CampusBuddy is a Facebook app that connects classmates from schools around the globe. The apps also provides features to evaluate schools and professors.

We Read – WeRead, a large and popular book app on Facebook, provides a way for book lovers and learners to write reviews, rate books, and list titles they are reading. Learners can also use this app for find recommendations and others with similar book interests.

Veechi Classes – The Veechi Classes app features illustrative charts for college students to find the right professors and courses. The app also provides a way for students to find and connect with schools and classmates for greater college success

Typing Speed – Typing Speed is a Facebook app that provides a fun way to increase your speed and accuracy while comparing results with your friends and others. The keyboarding test also allows you to practice for faster skill mastery.

ArtShare - Art students will thoroughly enjoy this Facebook app that connects you to works of art from worldwide museums. Artists can also use this app to upload and share their own works of art.

Facebook, for students of all ages, can be a great way to make learning a little more productive, efficient, and fun. Plus, it’s an awesome excuse to spend, like, a LOT of time on Facebook.

What’s your favorite Facebook app?

15 Ways Facebook Can Get You an A+

Post by David Pierce. Find me on Twitter.

Facebook, with more than 300 million users, is now the third-largest country in the world. That’s nuts. It increasingly seems that Facebook is the first, and often last, stop for many people navigating their social spheres, doing everything from keeping in touch to planning events. It’s an excellent social network, and developers are turning into much, much more through applications, APIs, Facebook Connect, and more.

But  it’s still not a perfect tool. There are lots of little things about Facebook that could be improved, and luckily for us, many of the solutions have been found. These aren’t features built into Facebook (yet), but with the help of a few services and add-0ns, Facebook can be made even more fun and useful.

Here are six ways to make Facebook more usable, fun, and helpful:

Keyboard Shortcuts

For power-users of almost any application, knowing how to navigate using the keyboard is a huge time-saver, making the whole process more efficient. Facebook’s no exception. There’s a Greasemonkey script called Facebook Keyboard Navigation that, when installed, lets you move around Facebook with your keyboard.

Press B to go to a list of your friends’ birthdays, E to see all your events, and many more. You can edit the shortcuts to your liking, and it makes Facebook much easier to navigate. You’ll need Greasemonkey, but that’s as simple as installing the Firefox extension and then clicking “install” on the script.

Facebook Lite

One thing I hate about Facebook is how cluttered it can be – with apps, Farmville, and all other manner of annoyances, it’s hard to find what you’re actually looking for. That’s where Facebook Lite comes in. Facebook Lite boils Facebook down to just its basics – walls, messages, photos, video, and a few other things – and makes it into a faster-loading site that’s easier to navigate. If all you’re looking to do is keep in touch, look at pictures, and the like, Facebook Lite makes Facebook a whole lot easier to use.

Calendar Integration

With a simple tool called fbCal, you can subscribe to a calendar of all your events and friends’ birthdays, right in whatever calendar application you already use – Google Calendar, iCal, anything. You’ll be able to see all your events, plus your friends’ birthdays, without having to go to Facebook and remember to check. I forget literally anything that’s not on my calendar, so having all my Facebook information integrated directly is huge.

If you don’t want the whole list, there’s a great Greasemonkey script called Facebook to Google Calendar that lets you add an event to whatever calendar you’re logged into at the time. In one click, you’ve created an event on Google Calendar reminding you about your upcoming Facebook event. For GCal users, it’s a huge streamlining of the process.

All The Little Things

This is one of those “I never knew I needed this!” things that I love so much. Facebook Fixer is a Greasemonkey script that does a huge number of things to improve, bit by bit, the whole experience of using Facebook. It does things like making profile pictures and photos bigger, letting you download videos, integrating with your calendar, adding a few keyboard shortcuts, and automatically reloading pages when Facebook encounters an error.

There are a huge number of features with Facebook Fixer, and it’s a great script. It is a little buggy at times, but I’ve found that the benefits (particularly the homepage customization it offers) far outweigh the periodic reloading of Facebook I have to do.

Facebook Toolbar

Facebook, particularly the chat and messaging services, are beginning to replace both IM and email for a lot of people. But they still require actually logging into Facebook. With the Facebook Toolbar Firefox extension, Facebook becomes more widely available. You’ll get notifications right within the toolbar, as well as the ability to search Facebook from anywhere, share websites on Facebook, and to see what your friends are up to. For the always-on Facebook user, the Toolbar is a crucial thing to have.

All the Apps

Ever since Facebook opened itself up as a platform for applications, there have been approximately 51 million applications created for use when you’re logged in to Facebook. I can’t even begin to name the best ones, but here are three lists of some of the best apps available for Facebook.

With a little work, Facebook can actually be made to do almost anything you could possibly want to do on the Web. It’s a fantastic communication tool, a way to have a lot of fun, and even a way to get things done in a more efficient way. It’s also a huge time suck, but so it goes.

What’s your favorite thing about Facebook, or the one thing you wish existed most?

How to Make Facebook Even More Useful

Over the course of my life, I’ve probably started a journal about 850,000 times. Every time something monumental happens, or I go on a cool trip, I start a journal, and keep it for a little while. Then, life either gets boring, busy, or both, and I give up.

What I’ve realized recently, though, is that the reason I’ve never stuck to a journal is that it takes so long. In order to write legibly – and it’s debatable if that’s even possible – I have to write stupidly slow, and it takes me about 4 days to write a journal entry that says “had a bagel for lunch today.”

So I went looking for a way to keep a journal in a way that made more sense within what I already do, and I figured it out: I needed a journal online. I’m constantly at my computer, and frequently have a few mintues without anything of great consequence to do; that’s the perfect time to journal!

First of all, here are a few reasons I think a journal online is better than one on paper, or in a Word file:

• It’s permanent: if there’s a flood, or a fire, or a small child, they can’t destroy your journal, because it’s all backed up somewhere else.
• It’s searchable: You can search through your journal if it’s online, and if you want to find a particular event or date, it’s much easier to get to than it is to flip through all your journal pages.
• It’s shareable: I’m a firm believer in how important it is to share things with others – none of us are ever the only ones dealing with what we’re dealing with. But whether you want to share a journal entry with the world or turn it into a book, having a digital record of your journal is a great thing.

I’ve used, and even written about how good Penzu is before, particularly within the notion that all GTDers should keep a journal. But for a few reasons, I stopped using Penzu a year or so ago. Thanks to a few improvements and changes, though, Penzu is at the top of the heap of any kind of journal, and has made starting, updating, and keeping a journal incredibly easy.

Penzu’s keeping me a journaler, for a few reasons. The biggest one, by far, is its speed: in two seconds, you can start journaling. Log in later, but just start writing when you need to write. Your posts get auto-saved as you write, so there’s nothing distracting you from just getting your thoughts on paper.

The Penzu interface looks like a piece of paper, with no frills or extra features – it’s just like a journal, only you can read my handwriting. You can save entries, print them, even attach pictures. Every post has a link that you can make public, or share on Twitter or anywhere else. And that’s about it. If you’re looking for a minimalist way to write just about anything, including blog posts, Penzu’s a good one.

For a few dollars a year, you can get a Pro account, which lets you do everything from export your files to a number of formats (in the Free version, you just copy and paste the text), organize your entries in other ways, and more. I don’t use the Pro version yet, but I’m getting close.

Penzu works because it kills all the barriers to me journaling. Five seconds after deciding I want to write, I’m writing. I don’t have to remember my notebook, or find a pen – odds are, I’m already at my computer, so I just start writing.

Being able to search my journal (“Hmmm… what DID happen on Super Bowl Sunday?”) has been both useful and fun, looking back through my own life. I can’t recommend journaling enough, and for anyone who’d rather type than write, go check out Penzu.

Where, and why, do you keep a journal?

Penzu’s the Place for Journaling Online

If you haven’t noticed, there’s a brand-new look at The 2.0 Life. I’ve been redesigning and tweaking for a while now, trying to figure out how to get the best of the blogging-style designs, along with a more attractive and easier way to find better content. And I think I’ve found some good stuff. (If you’re reading in RSS, here’s the link to the new design)

Here’s what you need to know about the new site:

• Search – There’s a search bar at the top of the sidebar for every article, and also one in the footer on every single page. Search is easily the fastest and most efficient way to find some cool content, and I definitely recommend you starting there when you’re trying to find articles.
• Subscribe – You can subscribe to The 2.0 Life via RSS, Email, or even on Twitter, and there’s links for each both in the sidebar and in the footer. The footer also has links to Facebook and Friendfeed, both great ways to connect with me and The 2.0 Life.
• The Homepage – The biggest change you’ll notice on the site is the homepage. There’s the big slider, which will feature 3-5 posts that I think are worth reading. They’re not necessarily the most recent posts (though they frequently will be), but they’re posts I think are worth reading. If you click the arrows in the slider, you’ll see some of the best of the recent content here. Just below the big image and slider, you’ll see links to the most recent two posts written here at The 2.0 Life. If those posts aren’t enough, click the “More Posts” button at the bottom of the page – that’ll take you to the archives, with every post ever written here, all on one page.
• Beginner’s Guide - If you’re looking for something cool or new on the site, check out the Beginner’s Guide. It’ll show you not only how to use and interact with the site, but point you to some of the best and most popular content from The 2.0 Life.
• Related Posts – At the bottom of every post, you’ll notice a little widget with five posts related to the content of the one you’re reading. That’s a great place to find more of what you’re interested in, and is a great place to start finding fun and useful things around the site.
• The 2.0 Life+ – I’ve been keeping a companion site to The 2.0 Life for a while, and it now lives in the sidebar of this site. It’s called The 2.0 Life+, and is full of tips, tricks, links, and all the things worth noting, but not long enough for a whole post here. Definitely check it out.

Overall, I think it’ll be easier to both find the post you’re looking for, as well as to find come cool new stuff around the site. And it’s just prettier, which is really all that matters.

If you find issues with the new design, or hate it and now hate me, let me know! I’m learning this as I go, and desperately need your advice and feedback. Thanks!

A Few New Things at The 2.0 Life

In fairness, this has nothing to do with the topic of this site. But it’s been so helpful and meaningful in my life recently that I figured I’d share.

I’ve got way too much to do, and not nearly enough time in which to do it. Know the feeling?

I’ve spent the last couple of months taking on new thing after new thing. I’ve been interviewing for jobs, writing for my school newspaper, working with a  PR company, freelance writing, writing and editing my blog, and working on a pretty awesome new project for and by students, creating a space and community for my generation. Oh, and then there’s school, friends, homework, and that thing called “fun.”

Now here’s my real problem: I want to do ALL of it. I’ve taken on tons of projects and gotten myself way in over my head because I love the ideas, get excited about the process, and love being a part of all these things. I don’t want to drop any of them – but I don’t think I can pull it off.

What I’m learning how to do, slowly but surely, is to make intentional choices every day about what I’m doing, how I’m spending my time, and what I’m working toward. I want to do it all, but I just can’t.

If you can, teach me! But if you’re like me, and feeling a little overwhelmed by everything on your plate, all without wanting to give it up, here’s how I’m learning to deal with it. Maybe it’ll help.

Make a List of Everything I Do

This was one of the most eye-opening things I’ve ever done. I sat down one day, and made a list of literally everything in my life that takes time. The list includes things from “catching up with High School Friends” to “Getting a Job”, to ”Stumbling.”

Make that list. List every single thing you do (other than things you can’t stop, like eating or showering) that asks for your time, and make no inclusion too small.

Cut It In Half

My list was a full 110 things long. I don’t know if that’s a lot or not, but it was too long for me. So I went through, and decided to cut it in half, to 55. The number was arbitrary, but it was important. By cutting things I really don’t get much out of, like “re-watching the Office” or “Hunting for new desktop wallpapers,” I’ve actually saved a lot more time than I realized.

But agreeing to cut it to 55 did force me to make some tough decisions. I stopped writing for a couple of blogs, despite having some great gigs. I turned down a couple of outstanding things, knowing I can’t devote much to them.

Now I’m the last person to complain about having too many great things to do – I can’t imagine a better problem. But to do my best on a few things, I’m realizing, is better than sort-of doing a lot more. And I alienate a lot more people doing the latter.

Daily MRTs

(I’m pretty sure I’m stealing this from somewhere – anyone know where?) Every morning, I wake up and pick three things I really want to do that day, my Most Rewarding Tasks. They’re not necessarily the most productive or rewarding for my career or school (in fact, they rarely are). They’re usually things like “get coffee with Eric,” or “go for a run.”

Those three things have to get done today. Period. There’s no debate, unless there’s some catastrophe. If I’m not doing what I want to do, then what good is what I’m doing?

Daily MNTs

Right underneath the Most Rewarding Tasks comes the Most Necessary Tasks. This is a list of three things I really ought to do today. It’s usually work-related – I’ve got a paper to write, or a blog post to get up, or research I need to do for a consulting project.

Those three things, like the MRTS, get done today. Non-negotiable.  When I sit down during my self-imposed “work hours” (a habit I highly recommend), those get done first. I have to make sure they’re attainable, and none are going to take 800 years and I won’t finish them. Every day, I force myself to cross at least three things off my task list.

Review, Review, Review

The “everything I do” list changes constantly, so I’m learning to review it all the time. I try and sit down once a week, and go through my list: what am I doing for each of these? Is one getting neglected for another? What kind of progress is being made? Are there new additions to the list? Is there anything I can knock off?

Having the list of everything  I do helps me re-focus, and figure out what I need and want to be doing, and to schedule my priorities rather than prioritize my schedule.

Panic

Despite my foolproof system, and way of dealing with all the things going-on, I still get overwhelmed every once in a while. I think that’s okay. Periodically, there’s nothing better than a nice ol’ freak-out session. I yell, listen to angry music, and then realize that Yikes! I probably ought to go do something.

We’re all human, right? We can only do so much. But being intentional about figuring out where my time goes, and devoting it equally to things I need to do and things I want to do, as well as cutting out as much as possible places where those don’t match, I’m more sane, more productive, and having a lot more fun using my time wisely.

How do you keep from getting sucked under by everything you can or should be doing?

6 Tricks to a Highly Productive Me

I’ve got a few different tabs open in my Firefox window pretty much all the time. Gmail, Google Reader, Wordpress, a forum I’m on constantly, and even a couple of other sites all live in open tabs, because I access them constantly.

Since they’re in my Firefox window, however, they’re subject to a bunch of annoyances. Firefox will crash, and I’ll lose all my work; I’ll lose the Gmail tab in the midst of the 43 I have open (which might explain the crashing part, come to think of it…). For an application you keep open, rather than a website you visit, occupying a tab in a Web browser just isn’t the best way to manage it.

That’s why I’ve learned to make constant use of two fantastic programs: Prism (for Windows) and Fluid (for Mac).

They’re called SSBs – Site Specific Browsers – and they both do exactly the same thing, which is fantastically simple – they break a single website into its own browser and window, and make it appear and function just like a desktop app.

SSBs work like this: you install the program (again, Fluid for Mac and Prism for Windows) onto your desktop, and then pick a website. The SSB then creates a desktop application for you that simply launches that website in its own window, where it looks, feels and functions just like a desktop app.

You can repeat the process as many times as you want, with as many different websites as you want. Google Docs, Gmail, Google Reader, Twitter, Facebook, Basecamp and Remember the Milk are all popular choices, but the sky is truly the limit with what you can do.

Both Prism and Fluid let you install scripts, basic add-ons that you might have in your browser to make a web app even better, right into the app. You’ll lose little of what your browser offers, and gain a whole lot.

The reasons for having it are several: one, SSBs create an app-like feeling that better replicates what you’d get from a desktop application, rather than a Web app that you can accidentally close or lose to a crash (in my decidedly unscientific studies, Fluid and Prism were both far less prone to crash and data loss than Firefox, Safari, or Internet Explorer). Two, SSBs make it easier to find what you’re looking for – it’s a separate app that you can find via a taskbar, or a menubar, or whatever app-changing shortcut you use.

The real benefit, as I see it, is that it separates the constants from the browsing. Any page that’s not going to stay open forever goes into Firefox, but I need things like Gmail and Basecamp open all the time. Using SSBs means I don’t have to re-open and re-login every time Firefox runs slow or crashes, and I can switch between apps and work alongside the browser, rather than within it – which gets cumbersome in a hurry.

The benefits of a SSB are hard to understand until you actually try it, so go try it. Prism and Fluid are both free, both stupidly simple to set up, and both worth your while. For starters? Try your email. Using Gmail and Fluid has kept me from my endless switching (Mail.app, Postbox, Thunderbird, and Entourage got the boot), and has made getting to, monitoring, and managing my email a lot easier. And that’s just one example.

Go download Fluid or Prism, and set up an app. What do you think?

How to Make Any Website a Desktop Application

I think I can safely say that most of us, when we have a question these days, do the same thing: we Google it. Everything from “when was Abraham Lincoln born?” to “how much cheese do I have to eat to set the world record?” can all be answered with a simple Google search, and it’s become the knowledge source of choice for many of us today.

But there’s a problem with those answers: why should you believe them? Just because the Internet says it, doesn’t mean it’s true. We’d rather get answers from people we know and trust, and to know the source of the answer, rather than just read it on some 13-year-old’s old Geocities page.

That’s where Aardvark comes in. Aardavark, which just became open to the public, has created a way to tap into your pre-existing network of friends, colleagues, and the like to find you answers to questions that are actually helpful.

From the beginning, the site has worked over IM. You add Aardvark as a buddy online, and you can ask questions about anything – where to buy shoes in San Francisco, how to set up a wireless router, or “how long should I wait before I propose?” I got that question, I kid you not. Please don’t ask that question.

Once you ask a question, Aardvark combs through your friends, and friends of friends, on Facebook and elsewhere (the site works through Facebook Connect, and you can log in with your Facebook account) to find the right person to answer your question. Maybe it’s someone who lives in San Francisco, or someone who has a professed knowledge of computer hardware.

As the answerer, you get an email or IM saying there’s a question Aardvark thinks you can answer. You can pass, mute questions on that particular topic, or answer the question. Answering opens a brief line of communication, so you can go back-and-forth for a few minutes, asking other questions and following up.

The idea behind Aardvark is that it’s getting answers from people that either you trust, or someone you know trusts. Rather than relying on some webpage or Wikipedia entry, you get an answer from someone who actually knows.

A few days ago, though, Aardvark changed their methods a bit. Now, just by going to the Aardvark site, you can ask a question through the Web interface, and get it answered in exactly the same way. Once you’ve asked a question, answers either come to you by email or IM (depending on whether or not you’re logged in to IM).

You have to create an account to ask or answer questions, but it’s a two-second process through Facebook Connect, or a 30-second process otherwise. It’s all free, super-simple, and a great way to get a real-live person to answer a question a computer wouldn’t do well with (like “where’s the best cheap place to eat with great views in New York?”).

Aardvark is totally reliant on the kindness of semi-strangers, willing to help each other out in exchange for some help when they need it themselves. Based on my own experience asking and answering, it’s working pretty darn well. I’ve asked and answered questions across a variety of topics, and it’s been hugely helpful to me.

As a test, I asked Aardvark this question:

In about 8 minutes, I’d gotten these three answers:

I’m impressed. I’ve gotten a ton of useful answers on Aardvark, and hope it catches on as a huge, worldwide social asking and answering service. It takes only a few seconds to ask or answer, and the benefits are huge.

How do you get answers online?

Use Aardvark to Get Answers You Trust

Since I’m right in the middle of my job hunt, I’m doing a lot of traveling. Red-eye flights, terrible and overpriced airport coffee, and strange and unfamiliar lands are becoming staples of my life as I try and figure out what to do after I graduate.

Traveling’s a whole lot easier than it used to be, though, mostly thanks to the Web. There are a bunch of applications out there that aim to make your traveling experience easier and more comfortable, and when combined they can make traveling easier, and help you feel like a  local even in the strangest of lands.

Here’s a few of my favorite ways to get to a new place, and get to know it quickly: (some are US-centric, sorry!)

Dopplr

Dopplr’s about both planning and coordinating travel, particularly within a business. First, it lets you gather all your information (flights, hotels, itinerary, etc.) into one place via email or SMS. You can share your travel plans with contacts (via Gmail, Twitter, and others), and you’ll get alerted by Dopplr if you’ll be crossing paths with someone you know. You can offer and receive advice about your trip, and figure out what to do and who to see while you’re there.

It’s a great way to keep track of where people are, and when you might be in the same place at the same time, as well as a simple way to aggregate and access all your travel plans from a single spot.

Yelp

Yelp is really the one-stop source for finding anything and everything in your area. When you’re in a new city, poke through Yelp to find reviews and options for everything from restaurants, to dry cleaners, to libraries.

There are tons of “best of” lists if you’re looking to hit the hot spots when you’re traveling, and every listing you’ll find (via search or browsing) has useful info like address, phone number, price, reviews, and much more. Yelp’s the first thing I fire up (there’s an awesome iPhone app) if I’m looking for something to do in a new place, because the community around it is so large and active that there’s a ton of great info for the newcomer.

Tripit

Tripit’s a really simple application, that collects and stores all your relevant information for your trip. When you get a confirmation email (for a flight, or hotel, or rental) just forward it to plans [at] tripit.com.  Tripit builds an itinerary for your trip, keeping in one place all the information you’ll need – flight status, weather, confirmation numbers, and all that jazz.

Instead of digging through your email or a stack of papers, just fire up Tripit (there’s a mobile version, an iPhone app, and great email-based retrieval) and you’ll get all the information you need on your trip.

Where

Where is my newest discovery, and is quickly becoming my must-have iPhone app. It’s built around finding where you are, and directing you toward local weather, local news, cheap gas, nearby coffee, and even things like traffic information and movie times. Knowing what’s nearby is a huge plus in figuring out what to do with yourself in a new place, and Where has, more than a few times, saved the day by finding me some free Wifi nearby.

Where is available all over the country, and has apps for the iPhone, Blackberry, Android and Palm. If you don’t have those, though, if you just text WHERE (94373) with a command like “Starbucks 43rd and 3rd New York NY” you’ll get a response with the nearest location of a Starbucks, or hotel, or public bathroom – just about anything you might need to find nearby.

Urbanspoon

Urbanspoon’s all about food – and who doesn’t need to find a good place to eat every once in a while? If you’re on an iPhone, just shaking the app will find you a place to eat nearby. On the Web, though, there’s a lot more functionality: you pick where you are (there’s a shockingly large number of cities and towns supported), what you want to eat, how much you want to spend, and let Urbanspoon figure out where you should go.

Urbanspoon lets you look at menus, figure out prices, find a random new place to eat, and lots more – for the adventurous foodie, or anyone in a new place, Urbanspoon is the best thing ever.

TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor is a lot like Yelp, but is more review-centric. Instead of you finding a place to go, and then telling you about it, TripAdvisor really begins with the reviews in mind. Everything is sorted by popularity of review (and for most things, at least in large cities, there are ridiculous numbers of reviews), and from there you can drill down what you’re looking for. There are tons of categories and choices you can make (like how important free WiFi is to you in your hotel choice) to narrow down your choices and find exactly what you want – again, all accompanied by review after review.

TripAdvisor bills itself as finding what people trust, and really lives up to its tagline of “get the truth. then go.” There are tons of reviews, and in sheer numbers you start to figure out where you really want to go and try. It’s a great source when you’re planning a trip, as well as if you’re just looking for a place to eat or a hotel in a pinch.

With these apps and a little willingness to try new things, you’ll be set to have a blast, no matter where you are.

How do you travel better?

6 Ways To Make Your Next Trip Awesome

Forgive me, anyone who’s not between 16-24 – this one’s not going to do you much good.

There’s constant discussion, on the Web and off, about what students really want. We’re a group of early-adopters, but we’re also super-skeptics when it comes to using something.

What we want, what we like, and how we work and act are a total mystery to most companies. And that bodes poorly both for companies, who can’t figure out what we want, and for us, who never get what we want from companies that don’t get us. Some have tried to figure it out, but no one seems to have hit it yet.

Which is why I think the Network of Cool is so, well, cool.

The Network of Cool (NOC from now on), a project I’ve gotten involved with over the last several months, is in the process of launching in a big way from Launchsquad, an awesome, tech-heavy PR firm. Technically, I’m the Commissar of Cool (which, all will agree, is the awesome-est title ever), but I’ve been part of the process of trying to figure out what students want, and how to get us involved.

NOC is first and foremost a predictive gaming system. Basically, what it means is that members will be asked a variety of questions, about topics ranging from “which movie will make the most money this summer?” to “who’s going to be first to a billion users – Twitter or Facebook?” You’ll bet on an answer, and if you’re right, you win! It’s not gambling, I promise. It’s predictive gaming.

Those players who are most consistently right, and even those who just consistently play, get rewards – iTunes gift cards, Amazon fun, and the like. We’ll also be drawing smaller groups out of the game for more focused chats and research about a particular topic.

There are a bunch of reasons this network is cool, from both sides. For students, it’s a way to get your opinion and ideas out there, to get a pulse on what’s coming down the road, and to be part of a network of smart students. It’s also a lot of fun, and a sweet way to win stuff. Winning stuff rules.

For businesses, it gives them a way to get a read on what students think, what we know, and what we see coming. By getting involved with an established group of smart people (like yourselves – and good-looking, too!), it’s a way for a company to get a handle on coming trends, developments, and demands, three things students tend to be at the front of.

Moral of the story: if you’re between 16 and 24, go join the Network of Cool. It’s a great team of people over at Launchsquad putting it together, and being a part of the Internet-wide focus group to talk about what matters is going to be a lot of fun.

Invites are coming shortly, so head over and drop your info off at the invite page, and go win some stuff.

And by the way? Avatar’s going to make a lot more money than any other movie this year. Blue guys + James Cameron + super-weird trailer = billions.

Students: Join the Web’s Focus Group – the Network of Cool