Every day, you can find amazing content on the Web. Due to the multitudes of websites cropping up all over the online world, "information overload" is something we all seem to suffer from. It is easy to feel lost while searching for a particular piece of information you need, especially if you’re looking for a very specific subject.

Hence, designers, web developers and the like are racing to come up with ways to present their bits of information so that users like you and me do not waste unnecessary time combing through irrelevant material. That’s where new curation tools come in. These tools help to filter out and compile online content in an easy-to-peruse way.

What Does Content Curation Mean?

Content curation compiles the cream of the crop of the information you are seeking, be it in the form of audio, video, articles or more.

Fundamentally, content curation goes through the various online contents, filters it, and then presents it in a way that is easy to read based on the specific subject(s) you are looking for. The content curator’s role in this sense is to provide the best content possible via the best form of exposure.

How Content Curation Tools Work

Content curation tools allow normal home users and professionals alike, to easily and efficiently group contents such as blog posts, status updates, presentations, articles, tweets and other multimedia content into a compilation. These are then easily shared online with friends and family.

Of course in every computer-related application or software, this tool ranges from easy-to-use discovery engines to more complicated ones that exists as business solutions to companies.

Each tool below is unique in its own way. We are sure that regardless of whether you are just a home user looking for a free yet effective tool or a professional whose time is precious and who is willing to pay for a more powerful one, you will find what you need in our list below. Here’s the top 10 content curation tools for web surfers.

Themeefy

Themeefy curates and publishes your a customized magazine filled with your favourite web content. You’re allowed to add web links directly from the page, insert content from Twitter and Facebook, customize the theme and edit it by uploading photos and inserting new notes. [Learn more]

Paper.li

Paper.li turns you into a publisher just by curating your Twitter, Facebook and customized Web content into an interactive digital newspaper. It works automatically to update your selected contents and publish them daily on the Web. [Learn more]

Bundlr

Bundlr is an online content curation tool which allows you to curate your favorite topics on the Web and publish it to your network. You can choose to bundle text, images, videos or documents from any website using Bundlr’s toolbar button. [Learn more]

Scoop.it!

Scoop.it! creates customized media by curating your favorite Web content. Once you have your own topic-centric media, you can publish and share it to your blog or social networks. Content can be added easily via a bookmarklet. [Learn more]

Storify

Storify makes stories by curating social media. It allows curators to create and edit elements of a story from tweets, photos, videos, and blog content from the Web. Users can re-arrange the elements and add extra descriptions for their readers. [Learn more]

Pearltrees

Pearltrees cultivate your interests and keep it nicely organized so you can retrieve it one day or share it with your friends. With Pearltrees you can organize them alone or even in a team. [Learn more]

Flipboard

Flipboard is an app for iPad and iPhone users to render their favourite content into a beautiful and engaging personalized magazine. [Learn more]

Qrait

Want to collect links, pictures, videos and other resources for a research? Qrait provides a real-time curation platform which brings selected information onto a page. [Learn more]

Delicious Stacks

Delicious offers a new feature called Stacks, which allows you to create a playlists of your favourite web contents collected by their links. [Learn more]

Eqentia

Eqentia is a content curation tool that provides personal content streaming services. You’re allowed to create a personal news page which will display content from Eqentia’s public and private portals. [Learn more]

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In the recent year you have been showered with free cloud storage anyone can use to store files online, any types of files so you can easily access them anywhere on any devices. These are great so you can practically put aside your worries of not being able to complete your projects or tasks in case you are away from your device. But since many of you are using Gmail and utilizing Google Docs at most, now Google also ready to serve your needs with its cloud storage ‘Drive‘.

Previously Google Docs, Google Drive is another cloud storage you can use to store your files on the cloud and access anywhere across devices. If you are familiar with Google Docs, you will be able to start using Google Drive, and you get to conveniently edit 30 different types of files without having to install software on our own devices.

Google is giving away 5GB of free storage on Google Drive, and you can increase the size starting at only $2.49 a month for 25GB. We will get through some features and walk you through with guides to use your Google Drive so you can start using it today.

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Register & Access Anywhere

To get started, go to Google Drive official page and get access to your free 5 GB storage.

Install Google Drive on your devices

Once registered, go to the download page to install Google Drive client on your Mac, PC and Android devices. iOS users will have to wait until the app is ready.

Google Drive on your Android will allow you to view documents and share them with anyone. You can also create new Google formatted files including Documents and Spreadsheet.

Google Drive for your Mac has similar features to Dropbox, with relevant options when you click on the icon.

And the folder view too.

Google Drive on the web

If you are familiar with Google Docs, then it will be easier to get around with your Google Drive since all sharing, drag-drop and comment features are also available for your Google Drive. To share a file, simply point your mouse to the file, right-click and select ‘Share’.

Main menu is always at the left-hand side, and the view is similar to your Google Docs.

But with the new Google Drive, you can change the view to ‘grid’ from the top menu.

Google Drive and Search with Goggles

Google Drive on the web has search bar at the top of the page that also integrated with Google Goggles, and with this search, you can easily find your files by defining the type of files, or search based on text contains in a document or even photos and PDF files. Simply type any keyword and Google will list all relevant result based on your files on Google Drive.

Edit files on Google Drive

Now with Google Drive, you can edit many types of files among others including AutoCAD, on the go from your Chrome browser without having to install specific software on your computer. To be able to edit various file types, Google has prepared Google Drive’ Chrome extension page just for this purpose, so head over to the page and install required extensions to your Chrome browser.

Not having to install specific software on your computer also means that you can only edit files on your Chrome browser, and connected to the Internet.

Create new files, different types

Google Drive now allows you not only to edit many different types of files, but also to create new ones right from the cloud. To create new file, click on the red ‘Create’ button on the left menu and select the file types you want to create. Select ‘More’ if you want to create file other than Google formatted document, and you will have more selection once you installed more extension for your Chrome.

Access and Edit files offline

To be able to access your files from Google Drive when you are offline, make sure you download Google Drive client for your Mac, PC or Android. There are however some limitations when you are using Google Drive, knowing Google has its own formatted file types known as Google documents, spreadsheet, presentation, forms and drawings.

1. You can open non-Google Docs files, view and edit them offline, provided you have the specific software installed on your computer following file types.

2. You can view, but editing is disabled for Google documents and spreadsheet.

3. You can’t view Google presentations, forms and drawings while offline.

When you edit files offline, changes will be sync automatically when you connect your device to the Internet and Google will place a time stamp for your reference.

Access Google docs and Spreadsheet offline

You can access Google documents and spreadsheet while offline via Chrome browser. To enable this feature, make sure you are connected to the Internet and follow these steps;

1. Launch Chrome and go to Google Drive homepage.

2. Click the gear dropdown at the top right corner of the page and select Set up Docs offline.

   

3. In the dialog window that appears, select Allow offline docs.

   

4. Click Install from Chrome web store.

   

5. Click Add to chrome to install from Chrome extension page to your browser.

Now when you click open Google documents or spreadsheet while offline, it will be open in a new tab on your Chrome browser. You can access the file but you will not be able to edit.

Conclusion

Although the arrival of Google Drive is late, it is still beneficial for many, considering the usage of Google Docs, which previously you can only access on the web, now you can access them locally on your computer. Also, with more file types supported by Google Drive, it will be much easier for you to work anywhere on any devices since you can now edit 30 different file types from your Chrome browser. Knowing Google Drive is the cheapest in the market in comparison with many other players, perhaps there’s some catch, what do you think?

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