Review of Five To-Do List Modules for Google IG

June 12, 2006 at 1:26 am · Filed under GTD, Web

I recently set up Google IG as a daily destination site complete with my RSS feeds and Gmail messages. This opened up a new opportunity for managing tasks inside Google IG.

The following five Google Modules are to-do lists for Google IG. When browsing the Google IG Content Directory, the modules are difficult to tell apart. The names and descriptions are very similar, but the pros and cons vary significantly. By reading this post you should be able to easily pick out the best to-do list for your Google IG homepage.

To-Do List - [More info at googlemodules.com]

Developer’s Description: A simple to-do list that sorts by priority.

Pros: Can set priorities, doesn’t ask for email address or require inlining
Cons: Tasks can’t be marked as finished; they can only be deleted

To-Do List - [More info at googlemodules.com]

Developer’s Description: Maintains a list of stuff you need to do.

Pros: Displays finished tasks
Cons: Module requires inlining*, no sorting ability, takes up more space than necessary

TODO List - [More info at googlemodules.com]

Developer’s Description: Displays and maintains simple TODO list.

Pros: Can add date and time to tasks, easy sorting interface, displays finished tasks, import and export ability, the developer is actively responding to feedback and posting comments at googlemodules.com
Cons: Module requires inlining*

To Do List - [More info at googlemodules.com]

Developer’s Description: To Do List, with self-email reminder option

Pros: Makes it easy to send email reminders
Cons: Requires email client, asks for email address, no sorting ability, module takes up more room than necessary

RL ToDoList - [More info at googlemodules.com]

Developer’s Description: Simple and fast to-do list system!

Pros: Screenshots look good, but couldn’t get it to work
Cons: Requires email address, never sent password, password resend results in error message

*A Note About Inlining

Google gives the following warning for modules that require inlining, “Inline modules can alter other parts of the page, and could give its author access to information including your Google cookies and preference settings for other modules. Click OK if you trust this module’s author or delete to remove this module.”

This sounds like the developer of the module can access your personal data, but Vikram Agrawal, the developer of TODO List cleared things up for me commenting at googlemodules.com, “Google modules can store user preferences. I am using those fields with some javascript. So data is stored securely with google. No one but you can access that data with your credentials. Hence, if module is deleted the data is lost. Total privacy of data and no need for any personal information or database at my side. Neither me nor anybody else can get your data.”

Final Review

With the assurance from Vikram Agrawal that his module, TODO List, protects the privacy of my data, it is the clear winner. It is by far the most feature-complete to-do list and even goes so far as to include the ability to import and export tasks, which stays true to the web 2.0 concept that the user’s data is their own.

If there is still doubt in your mind about privacy of your data, the first To-Do List which allows you to set priorities on items looks to be the best alternate.

Some of the biggest cons that ruled the others out were 1) asking for my email address and 2) taking up more space than necessary inside Google IG.

Technorati Tags: to-do, todo, todolist, to+do, google+ig, google, ig, gtd

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