Although the phrase “information overload” sounds positively old fashioned these days, the issue is certainly not going away. One reason? Today we are not only dealing with so much new user created content (and not just trivia and junk–there’s an increasing amount of good stuff too), but also a seeming never ending flow of really useful free digital information management tools . The open source and sharing nature of the Web has created not just an explosion of news and conversation, but an ongoing stream of interesting sites, applications, hacks, bookmarklets, and so on – all geared to helping make information gathering on the Web more efficient.

The May issue of The Information Advisor wraps up a two-part look at the impact of Web 2.0 on business research, including a piece by our Brooklyn, NY contributor DerekTutschulte on Web 2.0 Information Overload. We conclude with his list of “top 10 time saving strategies” a few of which I am excerpting here:

* Archive your voice mails.
Vonage will allow you to send your voice mails to an email address, making archival and retrieval as convenient as going online.

* Get rid of it.
Time to make a decision. If that email is over two weeks old and you aren’t going to answer it immediately, delete it. You will feel better having done so and this small effort should propel you to take on other small tasks that have been clogging your brain. This is the advice of David Allen author of Getting Things Done.

* Put an RSS feed on probation.
When adding a new RSS feeds to your aggregator, label it “probation” or put it into a folder named likewise. In a couple weeks, check to see if you’ve been utilizing your new feed articles. If so, take it off probation. If no, toss it.

* Type your computer what to do.
With ActiveWords you can program keyword shortcuts to those common computer tasks.

* Collaborate on flowcharts and diagrams.
At Gliffy.com you can create and share Visio-like documents in a snap. (Must sign up as a Beta tester)

* Try a widget.
Try a Konfabulator Widget from Yahoo to check your emails at a glance and add other functionality to your desktop that will reduce the time you spend online. These are mini-interfaces to web services you access numerous times a day.

* Today’s popular links all on one web page.
Through an easy-to-use interface, PopURLS.com compiles the most popular links from various information collection sites.

* Roll Your Own Search Engine
Create a customized, searchable database! On Rollyo, you enter the sites you want to search, enter your keywords and Rollyo will do a search just on those sites. Create and name as many different sets as you want for different subjects and applications.

What are your solutions or strategies?

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