Stacy's Software Pick: Simplify Daily Tasks with IFTT
| Published: | May 21, 2012 | |||
| Author: | Stacy Reed | |||
IFTTT.com invites you to put the Internet to work for you by creating tasks that fit this simple structure: if this then that.
If you're like me, you have numerous accounts and profiles all over the web; the problem lies in properly utilizing each site or venue to get the maximum benefit. Perhaps you've found it too time consuming to post content to multiple blogs, or perhaps you want to share photos with family or friends who frequent social networks that you rarely visit. Maybe your goal is to reach a broader audience; maybe you want simplify your daily tasks or schedule reminders. Maybe you want to get email or text notifications when there's a change in the weather or when your favorite online store runs a special. Whatever the case may be, IFTTT can help.
Networking socialites, photographers, bloggers and Internet geeks are sure to find this service useful. By setting up triggers (if this) and actions (then that), users can take content from one location, and share it in another. There are oodles of channels, like Twitter, Facebook, Dropbox, and email that can be combined into literally thousands of tasks or "recipes" as they call them, which can be shared or customized to suit your needs. Here are just a few examples:
If this: The weather changes
Then that: Send me a text message
If this: I post an image to my Tumblr blog
Then that: Also post the image to my WordPress blog
If this: News articles aggregate from RSS feed
Then that: Send them to my Instapaper account for me to read later
If this: Kindle adds a book to their Top 100 Free eBooks
Then this: Send me an email notification
The site is currently in beta, but I've been using their service for months with excellent results and have never experienced any outages, errors or breaches in privacy. Bonus, this service is absolutely free to use! For more information, visit IFTTT's blog or their About page.
About Stacy Reed
Stacy Reed is Tucows' resident software librarian and editor. She has been reviewing PC and mobile software as well as web services for over a decade. Helping developers improve and promote their products is only one of her areas of expertise. Stacy is also an advocate for Open Source, Creative Commons and freeware, taking special interest in educational resources, social media, cloud sharing, and mobile technology.
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