Inside the Mind of Sators

The Web 2.0 is making life easier for document management, tasks, notes, etc.  I’m finding a lower and lower need to depend on Microsoft Office products or actual installed software as I move to free online applications.  Here’s a few online software products I use that would highly recommend:

• Google Docs – (http://docs.google.com/) This is by far number one on my list.  This answers the call for documents, powerpoint, and spreadsheets.  The best part about Google Docs is that all of your files are stored online and can be accessed from anywhere, edited anywhere, and shared to other users to collaborate on a single document – thus eliminating the potential for multiple offline files being emailed around and nobody knowing if they have the latest version.  The latest online version of your Google doc is always online.  All files are searchable, publishable to a website, etc.
• Evernote – (http://www.evernote.com/) I’ve gone through several phases for random notes – post-it notes, notes in Outlook, Microsoft OneNote, etc.  Evernote is an online program that allows you to file random notes into “Notebooks” that are stored, searchable, etc. all online.  You can make as many notebooks as you want, i.e. Personal, Work, etc.  Their pricing is based on usage, and their free version is typically enough for a basic user.  Notes can be created from their website, their installable software, iPhone, etc.  They also feature that if you include a photo or audio file in your note, their servers can examine those and make the text or speech in your photo/audio file searchable.
• Remember The Milk – (http://www.rememberthemilk.com/) I love task lists.  I feel I work really well and stay focused when I have some sort of list.  Sometimes it’s just a list in my mind, but Remember The Milk takes tasks lists to the next level.  You can categorize, tag, even GeoTag your tasks based on what location they pertain to.  They can send reminders via SMS, iPhone, Skype, etc.  I dig it.
• Mint – (http://www.mint.com/) Some people are on the fence with having their financial data online, however Mint brags about their privacy standards.  Mint is useful for keeping simple track of your budget, balances, and financial status.  I have yet to part ways with using Quicken though because Mint is read-only, you cannot put any future transactions into it.  It simply reads all of your transactions from your online accounts and breaks them down for reporting sake.

Today marked the launch of a new website for Minooka Bible Church, http://www.minookabible.org/. This was the cultivation of several months of planning, meetings, content collection, design and programming. MBC’s previous website, developed by Sators.com, had not been given an overhaul since its’ release in 2002, therefore making it long overdue for a revision. Read more…

I decided to raise the bar a little and try out some new blogging tactics. Thus, the unveiling of a whole new look – welcome to my little island of thoughts. If there’s any place that Jamie or I would ever love to be to relax, it’s the beach. Read more…

Could one ever really exist? I mean, this is the internet. It’s worldwide! Anyone and their brother could get the simplest website off the ground if they wanted to. With that at stake, we as designers hold the standard that in order to make ourselves worthwhile and of value to your clients, we must excel at our trade and rise above the templates! Could Google have more in mind though?

Google no doubt has become a part (and for some a large part) of our daily lives. Whether it be our search engine of choice or our home page, for some it could be our email, im, atlas, and coffee maker (perhaps not yet…but just you wait!). As I was discussing with a colleague, we were talking about some of the Google applets that are offered, and the point came up that Google no doubt has taken off. The snowball is rolling down the mountain, how much snow will it pick up along the way and what stretch of our lives will Google make easier for us next? That’s just the thing! Google’s applets tend to be quite easy to use, quick in loading, and convienient for our quick need of information. When is this movie playing around me? Punch it in Google. How did my stock do today? Google knows. How long am I going to be in the car and where is the closest taxi? The answers are quickly found with a Google click.

As developers though, Google also has also made some of our lives easier. With each applet that Google comes up with, API’s have also been developed for easy integration to your website. Whether it be the simple adding of a Google search or map, or even as far as your complete checkout system, Google has the tools readily available. Not just that though, it’s FREE! How can we say no? However, the question we must ask ourselves is whether we are signing and sealing our own grave. At what point will Google stop, if ever? Will it be that someday Google will have it’s finger of code on every website? On one hand, why reinvent the wheel? On the other, let’s be creative! Free vs. man/billable hours. A system people already know how to use vs. a proprietary system. Coming from a fellow designer, we are in between a rock and a hard place. Truly there will always be the need for custom designs and uniqueness, however with Google taking over the rest of pie, how do we stop this train?

Are there any answers? Do we admit that Google is here to stay and adopt them into our designs, or do we instead forge ahead as unique designers and programmers and rely not on Google applets? The choice is yours, but it sure is hard to think of the internet these days without Google.com.