Delicious

Delicious is a site owned by Yahoo that allows a user to save their bookmarks and access them from any other computer online. You can also share your bookmarks and subscribe to other users you want to follow. For a journalist this tool can be very useful, the ability to have access to stored information from anywhere is important for a journalist in the field.

For example you could subscribe to ‘the centre for investigative journalism’ and read their news story posts about the industry. Tags can be added to bookmarks making searching very simple. A tab alongside your search results gives the amount of people that have bookmarked that particular page giving an indication as to its popularity.

This website also gives you the opportunity to share your own bookmarks with everyone else, including your own webpage. By adding the appropriate tags on each story/video published your piece can be easily found by any delicious user using the clean, simple interface. If you write a blog you can sync it with delicious and create a daily post of your latest bookmarks to your blog.

Setting an account up is extremely simple, it only takes 2 minutes and has detailed instructions whether your using internet explorer or firefox. The downside to this technology is that when you search it will typically come up with all the most popular news sites eg. BBC, CNN and the more useful ones are buried deep down. This site can be incredibly valuable but needs to be utilised properly. Even if it is used solely as a bookmark organisation tool it is worth joining.

Is it free? Yes

Where do I get it? Delicious.com

Easy to use? 4/5

Useful to journalists? 3/5

Tweetminster - Get it while it's hot

Every man and his WiFi-enabled dog is on Twitter these days. There are some great stories to be had, but often a depressing amount of searching is needed to root them out. But for those of a political bent, help is at hand. Behold Tweetminster!

Tweetminster collects all the Twitter feeds of MP’s and prospective MP’s into one place, along with the official Downing Street feeds. Updates are in real time, and there is a handy ‘Tweetometer’ that shows which topics are currently popular among Tweeters. There is also a downloadable desktop application called The Wire, which allows for tracking Tweeters without the bother of opening a web browser.

There is undoubtedly journalistic gold to be found using Tweetminster. A search function allows users to find and follow their local MP, and the official Downing Street and Defence feeds post links to fresh stories. However, there is still a great deal of irrelevant chatter to trawl through, which would make searching for stories here an arduous process. There’s also the problem that most politicians are aware of the popularity of Twitter, which could lead to their posts being as reserved as if they were delivered live on television.

Probably the biggest flaw is that there are far too many Labour representatives on there. 59% of all Tweeters wear the red rose, so if you’re after anything about the Tories, who have a measly 16% presence on there, you’re going to struggle.

Overall, Tweetminster is a useful and interesting site - if you’re prepared to sift through a lot of chaff to get to your bit of wheat. Alas, I can’t help thinking that its increasing popularity will lead it eventually to become little more than a mass of one line press releases.

Is it free? Yes
Where can I get it? http://tweetminster.co.uk
Ease of use: 4/5
Usefulness to Journalists: 3.5/5

Reviewed by: Adam Kaczmarek

Dropbox - Free and unlimited file sharing

In a digital age, journalists are using an increasingly varied number of computers and devices to produce and share their work. Dropbox is a free tool that allows fast and easy transfer of files instantly between separate devices, even when they are turned off. It allows for complete peace of mind for backing up work, and provides tremendous freedom to the journalist who is constantly on the move.

How does it work?
Dropbox utilises the concept of an online 'cloud'. A place where you can upload and store any file of any size. It creates a specific folder on your PC or Mac into which you can copy files. These are then invisibly uploaded to your online dropbox for access anywhere, at any time. Any item placed into your dropbox is synced automatically with any device you have designated to share with.


Is it useful for journalists?
Dropbox allows safe and secure file transfer between an unlimited number of devices. It works on Macs, Windows PCs and is compatible with Linux systems. You have access to your dropbox anywhere, from any computer with internet access. Online counterparts to every file can be downloaded, and using the automatic syncing of files you will never lose a backup file ever. Save files on an office PC and by the time you arrive home, duplicates will already be on your home machine.

Are there alternatives to dropbox?
While Apple has their own iDisk utility, it is currently only available for Macs. Their MobileMe platform - while as universal in use as Dropbox - has a subscription fee. Dropbox is completely free of charge, providing gigabytes of storage for you to save files in. The software uses minimal system resources and can be setup to never interfere with your internet browsing.

Dropbox is an invaluable tool that allows for rapid and secure distribution of documents and files freely between an unlimited number of devices.

Is it free - Yes

Where do I get it - Visit www.getdropbox.com

Ease of use

Utility to journalists


Review by - Aaron Bayley.

Twirl........An essential tool for journalists!

A good Journalist has to be organized,in touch with recent activities and above all needs access to one of the best and most popular web client on windows. Twhirl connects you with Celebrities, politicians, family, friends and most important fellow journalists accessing Twitter.
Twhirl is a social software desktop client, that is based on the Adobe Air Platform.It is easy to use and most of the features available on Twitter are also accessible through Twhirl. In this day and age Twitter is one of the most famous and loved social network,people share important messages, pictures and videos.

For a journalist any social network that allows you access to picture,video and message sharing is vital. Twhirl is so convenient that it supports handling multiple twitter accounts, so instead of being limited to logging on to one account Twhirl allows you to access all your other Twitter accounts.Essential for journalists that love Multi-tweeting.It can also be customised to receive and post without even going to the web.

Twirl pops up notifications on new tweets,shortens long URLs using snurl or twurl and you can also search tweets using TweetScan. Twhirl allows you to cross-post updates to networks such as Pownce and Jaiku which can be very useful for journalsits. Did i mention that it was voted the second most popular web client on Wakoopa?

It's not all journalists that like to have everything in English.On twhirl you are given the option to change the software language.You can change it to Spanish,French, German or even Italian.
The only downfall to twhirl is that sometimes when you click on the links it opens on the browser twice which can be a bit annoying but other than that,it is easy to access,connects you with the rest of the world and is very useful.



Fact List

Is it free? Yes.
Where do i get it from?Log on to: www.twhirl.org
Easy to use? 5/5
Useful to journalists 4/5

Reviewed by Jean Huni

Newssift - The New Search Engine

For Journalists, the answer is here! 'What was the question, you might wonder?' it is, 'How do we find exactly what we're looking for on these search engines?'

Gone are the days, where you put in what you're looking for into one search engine, only to find yourself about seven pages in, still not having found what you're looking for.

 Newssift, is a recently launched business news search engine. created by the Financial Times.The aim of it is to create a better, faster and more refined way to search for information; and in the world we live in, the more of this we have, the better.

From the screen above, you can see that categories are allocated to its related topics. It is also the first search engine to 'apply a relationship based algorithm to business news'. This search engine is very advanced, it practically does the work for you!

The archive is so healthy, it makes your searches straight to the point, but more importantly, easy to locate.

Less than a month old, Newssift is used by a wide range of people, from business decision makers to investors to academics and also including journalists,proving that the new internet faze, Twitter, has no effect on the success of this powerful search engine.

Is it free? Yes

Where do I get it? http://www.newssift.com/

Easy to use? 3/5

Useful to journalists? 5/5

Posted by Ore Onile - Ere

Tweetdeck is making Twitter much more accessible

Twitter has become a hugely important site for journalists, with many politicians, celebrities and other journalists joining the social network. Tweetdeck an application built on the Adobe Air Platform has arrived to make Twitter so much easier to use.

Tweetdeck works with a display of three panels, one showing friend updates, one showing replies and the other showing direct messages. This makes all the information you need a lot more accessible.

The application updates every minute, unlike the main Twitter site where you have to refresh the page, and you get an alert if you are browsing other pages, which is a great feature.
Another good feature is that Twitpic is built in, so you don’t have to go to the site to upload pictures. Also Twitscoop is a tool which monitors words that are frequently used; this could help you keep up with the latest breaking story.

Tweetdeck makes it easy to create groups, so you can easily keep up with one person or a bigger group of people. Also it’s easy to update messages, just write you’re update at the top of the screen and hit return, this works as well when replying to other messages and sending direct messages.

The main drawback is, that it’s not easy to search and follow new people, other than that Tweetdeck is a great application for Twitter, which makes using this networking site a pleasure.

This product is very easy to use, and once you’ve installed it you won’t know how you coped as a journalist without it.


Is it free? Yes
Where do I get it? www.tweetdeck.com/beta
Easy to use? 5/5
Useful to journalists? 4/5

Reviewed by Gary Hammersley

iPhone 3G

First impressions mean a lot and I’m afraid the iPhone does not give a good one to a journalist. A very basic 2.0 mega pixel camera that has no zoom and with no video camera tool it is questionable why journalists would ever consider this a good journalism tool.

But this is the only major failing of the iPhone. There are many good features that a journalist can use to their advantage. The apps store has been widely publicised by apple and it quite simply is an ingenious tool. Journalists can download at apps which tell them of the latest news and because there are so many variations they can choose an app which is suitable for them. Other apps include translators and Skype.


And then there’s the maps tool, probably the best tool on the phone. It can locate any place in the world providing you give adequate information. It can direct you there by foot, car or train. I would not recommend this as a replacement satnav because it does take a while to update your position.

So although there is much room for improvement for the iPhone before it will be accepted as a fully fledged journalistic tool it is still incredibly useful and I am sure that in the near future the iPhone will establish itself to many journalists.



Is it free? No. Handset costs £342.33 (8GB version) and £391.27 (16GB version)


Where do I get it? Available on Apple website, or from O2 or the Carphone Warehouse websites


Easy to use? Takes some getting used to if you haven't used a touch screen before. 3.5 / 5


Is it useful to journalists? Yes. But it desperately needs a decent camera and video recorder. 4 / 5

By Jonathan Gilmore