There were a couple big conferences recently. Rather than go myself, I read notes of people who did attend. One of the gems is this how-to on keeping your inbox empty. I have been following the advice for a week and it’s worked well.

I have always had the desire to keep my inbox clean, but haven’t had a system. In the past, it’s been pretty brute force. While it has felt nice to be done, I never enjoyed the task. Also, I found myself feeling guilty for replying to friends and family when there were emails that were “more important.” So, I like that this system encourages me to take the time to respond to those first. It makes sense that if I am to keep relationships going via email that I not consider it a burden.

And the best part is that this system isn’t life-altering. It’s a simple (perhaps obvious to some) way of breaking down your inbox.

If you give it a shot, let me know how it works for you.

Recently a friend wanted to show me a neat video he had seen. The problem was he couldn’t find it again. Searching for turntable intersection, he couldn’t find it amongst thousands of results on Google and Yahoo!.

Before giving up, we tried the same search on del.icio.us. One result. The right one.

I’ve never really believed in the utopia of the one result search query before. I’m still not sure if I do, but this certainly impressed me. How long until Yahoo! (who bought del.icio.us in December) incorporates del.icio.us into their search algorithm?

Elliot points to a Google engineer’s guide to writing a Killer Resume (for software engineers). It does have some good advice, even for non-programmers, and I’d recommend the quick read for anybody who wants to write a resume.

I hope I never write another one. It’s out-dated and I’m surprised Google hasn’t come up with a better method than the resume (outside of the Google Labs Aptitude Test).

Personal Web pages, portfolios, blogs, and other ways of expressing ourselves online should be the standard by now. A cover letter and a few good links should suffice. As for what to put on your site, I say be yourself. If you want something more directed, the killer resume article has some great guidelines. Just don’t put them in resume form.

This reminds me of a sign I saw in a Portland restaurant window: “Dishwasher wanted. Apply online only.” I love it.

Recently I complained about MySpace and its ilk. Then I offered my Three Rules for Social Websites. Now I’d like to put del.icio.us, a “social bookmarking” application to this test.

Give me a benefit, outside of the social aspect, to use your site

Del.icio.us organized bookmarks for me by tags/categories that I create myself on-the-fly. I want to remember places I’ve cruised on the Web, so this is useful to me.

Loosen the constraints

One of the coolest things about del.icio.us has been sharing links with friends and acquaintances. But I never had to add anyone to my trusted buddy list. And del.icio.us didn’t even officially add their only social tag (for:, which sends a link to another user) until last July. They let the social aspects build on their own first.

Know thy audience

Del.icio.us shows they know their users by adding features as needed. And they seem to get that we’re techies, too, which might be one reason those loose constraints work so well.

These three factors worked together to build an evolving platform. People use del.icio.us as a to-do list, link log, and community playlist.

To me, this is a whole lot better than a site that lets me set music to annoyingly play when the page loads.

“Social network” sites became the rage a couple years ago. They arose out of nowhere and demanded that I list all my friends. Egads. I didn’t get it. (But I’m often wrong).

These sites are still around and we’ve named a whole group of people after one of them. Worse yet, I still don’t get it, so the “MySpace generation” has me feeling mighty old at 26.

Adam’s 3 rules for social websites

You can trust these rules, because it’s too late for hype.

1. Give me a benefit, outside of the social aspect, to use your site
2. Loosen the constraints
3. Know thy audience

MySpace has done a very good job with #3. It’s almost as if, while brainstorming, they wrote “Not Adam DuVander” as their model user. So, MySpace can take my comments with a grain of salt, because I’m obviously not hip to their jig.

However, I think MySpace could work on numbers 1 and 2. From what I’ve seen (and heard from the happenin’ folks at NPR), the social aspect is all there is on MySpace. And sending me an email to say there’s an email waiiting for me is overkill. It’s the opposite of loose constraints.

And if the MySpace generation were free to make up their own new uses of the site, it could grow with them. Otherwise, they’ll be bored with it by junior year.