How 2.0 Are You?

Web 2.0 is a term that means different things to different people, but there are some common characteristics that seem to characterize Web 2.0: alpha or beta status. A certain look and feel to sites. Social aspects to the application (for the most part). Building something that should enhance something else (Facebook apps, browser plug-ins). Some things are also common that also crop up, like frequent down-time, or lack of a business plan that ends up with a site shuttered, or too many like versions with your social network seemingly spread across them all. If you're like me, you have a string of user accounts and passwords miles long (thank you PassPack), but how 2.0 are you really in your daily life? How many of these apps can you no longer live without?

Like most freelancers, I want to tear every hair out of my head around this time of year. I hate dealing with taxes and realizing that I haven't done a thing about keeping my books well, and am therefore digging through my email folders and accordion files looking for all my receipts. Of course, I can quickly grab my income using my PayPal history, but I really need to get on the ball with more current accounting instead of creating a spreadsheet every year. I have no interest in using the kludgy Mac version of QuickBooks, so I went online looking for a service. Here's a hint, folks, there isn't anything out there for small business accounting. I know of several like Wesabe for personal accounting, but I wasn't able to find anything that would give me a nice P&L statement at the end.

Of course, this got me thinking; how much am I actually DOING online? If my first reaction is to look for a Web 2.0 application to do my business accounting, what exactly am I doing online?

Like most people, I blog, so that's one. In addition to my articles here at Profy, I also have a little blog I just started on Profy's platform, and a few other scattered about that I contribute to on an irregular basis. I read not only regular news, but also subscriptions to many top tech sites run through Twitter in my IM client to keep up on what's happening in the tech world, and I check Facebook throughout the day as well for recent stories that friends may have posted. A quick check of my email that includes any family birthdays, deaths, or births in my huge family sends me straight over to Geni to post news items, send birthday greetings, or update information, and any article ideas I find in email or feeds get added to our Profy shared worksheet on Google Docs (although I'd love to switch to Peepel, quite frankly). Sandy also sends me Tweets and email reminders during the day letting me know where I have to be and when, and Dandelife Minute Mails show me streams every morning for people I follow.

PassPack also remains in a browser tab at all times for a quick check of how to log into any number of applications. I have Particls 2 running most of the time, and my trusty search friend SurfCanyon has been with me for two days, but I don't see uninstalling it any time soon. iLike is always running in iTunes, and a Ma.gnolia bookmarklet sits in my toolbar for marking anything I may want to refer to later. And while I haven't bothered to actually register with Upcoming, I check it every day to see who is going to be attending Web 2.0 Expo in April. And my to-do list in Remember the Milk sits next to my Google Calendar, which not only stores my schedule, but also calendars for my family.

Just off the top of my head, at least 15 Web 2.0 apps are part of my daily life. That isn't including apps that I use occasionally, or things I may have running right now that I forgot.

How Web 2.0 are you?