I know it’s been probably over a year since I did a Free Toolsday post, but I want to get them going again.  So if you know of any good free tools to share, let me know and I’ll review them!

This week I’m going to review an application I use daily.  I was a big user of Trillian for a long time in an effort to effectively manage all the different Instant Messenger programs I have friends on.  Digsby goes one step forward and not only allows you to connect to multiple accounts on MSN Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, ICQ, and Google Talk, but you can also connect to Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Twitter.

I use this to effectively manage the fact that I have friends, colleagues, and coworkers that all use different instant messaging platforms to connect.  It saves system resources to run one application instead of 4, and is just more convenient.  I do see the basic emoticons, but sometimes I miss the more advanced features of some of the various messengers.  The one thing I wish Digsby would add is IRC support.  I was able to open an mIRC chatroom I used to frequent in Trillian, but Digsby does not have that feature.

The social network features work for statuses, not all the features of Facebook, MySpace, etc.  It does work like a basic Twitter client, but is a little clunky.  I mainly use it to tweet on the fly and check statuses, but I do still mostly just use TweetDeck for my heavy twittering.  Best of all, as you can imagine considering I’m posting this on Free Toolsday, it’s a free application.  So you can streamline your instant messaging at no cost.

You can download it here. (Download link has been fixed!)

Most of the tools I review are online tools that require no download, or like Giftag.com last week, just a browser add-on.  But today’s tool is a program available for free from Download.com that has been invaluable in tracking how much time I’m spending on tasks so we can report that to our clients at New Edge Media.  The program I’m talking about is called Time Sled. From the developer, FineApp:

Time Sled is a time tracking utility that will allow you to account for the time spent on one or another task. You start it when you begin working and you stop it when you finish working. The tasks you are working on may be grouped into projects. Using such grouping, you may set an hourly rate (the cost of the work performed for the project per hour) for each project. Time Sled will be calculating the time spent on one or another task (project) as well as the total amount according to the indicated hourly rate

This is a trial version that you’re downloading for free, so it does have some limitations.  This is a great tool for me to track how much time I spend, but since the free trial version only allows you to track 4 hours with of projects, I can’t log and archive my time spent within this program (for that, we use Basecamp).  What I like about this program is that you can nest by Client (in my case).  So what I do is I call the overall project the client’s name, then I add the individual tasks and track the time as I’m working.

The program doesn’t take a lot to run and does its job quietly in the background.  The one issue you have to remember is to stop the task or pause when you get up to take an extended break from the computer!  There are reporting features too, although since I use the free, limited version I honestly haven’t explored them much.  The full version is available for purchase through the FineApp website for $34 and has no limitations in reporting or time, so if you’re looking for something a bit more robust after you’ve used the free version and want for more, that is a very affordable option.

This is overall a great tool for any freelancer or firm working with multiple clients.  And I’ve found that additionally it assists me in staying focused since I’m subconciously aware that I’m tracking the time I’m spending.  It’s a great way to help organize your day!

This is a great tool for the Holidays – Giftag.  It’s brought to us by the same team that developed Best Buy’s internal employee social network Blue Shirt Nation.  Giftag is a wish list on steroids, an add-on for your browser that allows you to add any product to your wish list while browsing the internet with minimal clicks.

Since a lot of the things I usually put on my own wish lists don’t just come from Amazon and other popular mega online retailers, I’ve been using a different third-party website to collaborate my wish lists for Christmas and my birthday for a couple years now.  While it was a good free option, it was sort of a hassle because you have to enter in the manufacturer, website URL, retailer, price, category, and a description to get a well organized list.  And you had to have multiple windows or tabs open to do so, entering in these details on their website while looking at the product in another.

Sure it was easy enough to share via email, and easy for anyone to see it.  But it was very plain.

Not Giftag.  The added benefit of it being a browser add-on is phenomenally convenient.  As I’m browsing, should I click on a link randomly and be taken to a product I desire to add to my wish list, I simply click the icon in my Firefox toolbar and a window pops up, allowing me to select what part of the image I want to include on my wish list.  In essence, what the add-on is doing is taking a screen shot.  Now, in the demo video on the Giftag website, they show the user dragging a square over the entire item picture and description, but for my tastes I just drag the box over the picture of the item.  A footer bar expands in the browser window to allow the user to edit the name of the product, add tags, and add a description.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Screen shot of my List"][/caption]

I’m a bit anal-retentive about how organized my lists are, so I usually copy the description from the website before I click the Giftag button and paste it into this area, along with any specifics to my gift, such as what size or color I want. And remember, I can add products from any site; no Best Buy embargo here.  The best thing about Giftag is that you can share the list using the ShareThis service, so sharing it through e-mail, MySpace, SMS texts, AIM, blog posts, and other social networks is all available!  From the home page you can also see recent items that other users have added to their wish lists, and friend up users with similar tastes or friends to share wish lists directly through the Giftag site.  This truly is the wishlist of web 2.0!

The demo videos they’ve put up are the best seller to this amazing free service, just in time for the holidays, so check it out at www.Giftag.com!