I use quite a few tools to save or bookmark links to websites that I find useful. So I thought I’d run down my favorite ones.

Why I Bookmark

Every day, I probably save at least 8-10 links for future reference. My vast libraries of links have served me well. There’s a direct benefit between taking a few seconds to properly save and tag a link, and later saving time quickly relocating it vs. starting from scratch on Google.

I realize a lot of people don’t share my enthusiasm for bookmarking. However, I think there are some compelling reasons to get into this habit:

• You often can’t recreate a search you did on Google. Think about the meandering nature of a typical web search. You might go through 5-10 sites initially trying to find exactly what you need. By saving the best link or two along the way, you’ll avoid having to repeat the process for this query.
• You often won’t be able to remember exactly what you looked at or found online. However, if you take some time to add good keywords (tags) when saving a link, you can more easily jog your memory later. Google’s browser history doesn’t completely fit the bill.
• You can share your bookmarks and see what others bookmarked. This latter ability is the secret sauce behind getting human-filtered search results instead of just what Google spits back.

With those points in mind, here’s what I use most frequently. By the way, I favor saving bookmarks in the cloud vs. on my laptop. I want to be able to access these anywhere I can get online.

Click the image to watch the video

Do you meet a lot of people in person? Do you ever have trouble remembering their names and faces, and where you last met them? If so, Evernote Hello might the app for you.

Andy Cordia of Nuance Labs recently reminded me about Evernote Hello. Now, I love Evernote (the flagship product), but I admit I just haven’t been smitten with Evernote Hello. However, it has some neat features—so I keep hoping the app (for iPhone and Android) will improve to the point where I think about using it regularly.

Essentially, it is a way to add information about people you meet, and later review when you met and what you were doing. You can do this by connecting someone (in the app) via your social networks or by entering their information manually. I personally would do this myself, although I would feel weird saying, “Hey, let me enter your contact info…just hang on a minute…” Even weirder is the suggestion to “pass your phone” to the person and ask them to enter their info. No way, Jose!

There is a potentially promising feature in the app called Hello Connect, in which several people launch it at the same time and instantly beam each others’ information to the group. That sounds like a great idea in theory…but I doubt many people have this app. Perhaps if you promoted it ahead of time for a big event, it would be worth reminding people to use it at regular intervals.

Finally, you can use it to scan someone’s business card later—though personally I find CardMunch much better for this—and that app (free for iPhone only) can more easily add the information to your phone’s address book.

Cost: Free

• A simple lead capture form that you can embed in your site
• A “Client Space” where you can communicate back-and-forth with a prospect as you work to close their business
• A Contacts database
• Over 20 reports including total incoming deals, forecasted sales, deal source performance and more
• A free companion app called QuoteBase that helps you create basic yet reasonably attractive online quotes to send to prospects

It’s tax time (ugh!). If you log a lot of billable miles for work, you will surely appreciate Taxbot at this time of year. The app (for iPhone, Android and web) let’s you track your business mileage using your phone’s GPS. To do so, you must launch the app first and type in your destination. Then Taxbot will magically track and record the mileage. It also lets you snap photos of receipts and store them in the cloud. At tax time, you can print reports of all your business expenses to deduct them on your tax return.

Here’s the rub—it’s not cheap. However, as part of the monthly fee, you also get access to a bunch of tax-saving video lessons from financial expert Sandy Botkin. He advises businesses on things like how to deduct 100% of your medical expenses and reduce your risk of an IRS audit. In addition, you can link your bank account or credit cards, and Taxbot will look for deductions you might have missed and allow you to import them.

Cost: Free 2-week trial using the link above , then $19.99/month