Toodledo

Toodledo.com is a Web 2.0 online to-do list and scheduling application. Built around an easy to use to-do list, the site features a calendar, reminders, scheduling, goals and notes sections. The site features support for its application on the Iphone, and data can be imported from a Palm OS PDA, Microsoft Outlook, Apple’s Ical, and other online to-do lists. Actually the site can be accessed by most any web-enabled portable phone. Most of the site’s functionality is available with a free membership, but two levels of premium membership are offered. The site offers the ability to send email and SMS reminders of todo list items, and the todo list is sortable. Collaboration tools offer the ability to work with other people on shared projects. The site is fully Web 2.0 compliant, meaning that it can easily work in conjunction with other Web 2.0 applications such as Google Calendar. The user interface is fully customizable, and functionality is still being added to the site. Toodledo.com was founded by Jake Olefsky, previously employed by Walt Disney’s Imagineering, in April 2006. He describes himself as a website inventor and engineer. The company is located in Seattle, WA. The site’s Alexa rank is below 50,000 and the site has thousands of monthly visitors. Traffic to the site has increased steadily since its launch date. Toodledo is easily the most full-featured Web 2.0 to-do list manager on the Internet. Its closest competitors are Vitalist.com and Todoist.com. Both sites offer the same functionality, but neither offers as many features. The biggest difference between Toodledo and its competition is its scheduler. This is a premium feature that automatically generates a schedule from to-do list items, based on priorities and the user’s available time. Toodledo is also faster and more responsive than either Vitalist or Todoist. Vitalist costs $120 per year, while Todoist is a free application. Toodledo has a very Web 2.0 look and feel. The site has a very clean look, the user interface is intuitive, and pages load almost immediately. There are no ads displayed on the site. All functions are organized around the todo list, and there is a convenient sidebar for navigating to the calendar, scheduler, notes and goals. Most actions can be performed with a single click, but a few require use of a dropdown list. Registration is required to create a todo list at Toodledo. The site allows users to log in using OpenID if they have one. The registration process simply asks for email address and password. No confirmation is asked for and the user is immediately logged into the site, complete with an already generated todo list with two items in it. One item prompts the user to visit the account settings page for the first time, and the other item prompts the user to add some items to their todo list. Registration for premium membership uses Google Checkout or a PayPal account. Google Checkout accepts Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover Card, or Echeck. Google checkout requires the user to create a Google account, and all of the user’s credit card billing information is required, including email address and phone number. Two levels of premium membership are offered by Toodledo, Toodledo Pro and Toodledo Pro Plus. These memberships cost $14.95 and $29.95 per year respectively. Both premium memberships add the ability to use the automatic scheduler, file encryption, statistics, subtasks, collaboration tools, and chains. The Toodledo Pro Plus membership adds the ability to upload and store files on the site. Storage is limited to 1GB, making it quite expensive. Toodledo is recommended to anyone desiring a full featured Web 2.0 todo list manager and calendar application. The site is entirely useful with just a free membership, and for anyone who could benefit from the premium features, the $14.95 per year membership price is a bargain. The automatic scheduling feature available with a premium membership is especially capable and useful. The interface is so intuitive that there is almost no learning curve, so very little computer knowledge is required to use the site. There is a Firefox extension that integrates with the site, and the site can also be accessed via the Iphone.