We see them all the time on the web: cool tools. Websites that offer a service that is original, technically advanced, or just fun. If you read a lot of blogs, you probably check out at least one of those cool tools every week. How many of those make the move from cool new tool to tools you use regularly?
There are three reasons why you won't keep using a cool tool:
1. It's not usable enough
2. It's not fitted for what you do
Not usable enough: I want Sandy
I wanted to use this service. It's really cool. It's an automated assistant that you can email back and forth with, to build lists, keep track of appointments and receive reminders. Somehow I never could master the Sandy's syntax. I tried a few times, couldn't get Sandy to do what I wanted, and I gave up.
Not fitted to what I do: Cymbolism
This is another very cool service. You search for a word, like powerful, and cymbolism returns a chart with the colors people said they associated with that word. I really enjoyed adding my vote or color associations with words, I and also really liked researching words and looking at the colors that were associated with those words. Unfortunately, I'm not a designer. Although this cool tool is a great reference for graphic design, it's just not for me.
Usable and useful: GMarks
If a tool works well and is useful enough, you will keep using it. For example, I loooooove GMarks. Gmarks creates a menu in FireFox, where I can store my bookmarks. However, those bookmarks are also available on Google Bookmarks.
- It's very easy to use: you save the bookmark to GMarks the same way as you would a regular bookmark.
- It's very useful: not only can I synchronize my bookmarks across several computers, but I can get my bookmarks even if I'm in an Internet café halfway across the world from home.
What about you?
How about your cool tool? Are people coming back to it, again and again? Which one do you use?