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Looking for a slick tool to easily build branded widgets? How about a social media browser that integrates social search and sharing across multiple sites? Maybe a cool application for online project management? A sophisticated yet free analytical tool for optimizing your CRM implementation? Low-cost video production? Social media analytics?

Find them all and others here in the first set of the best cool web tools for 2009.

Sprout Builder

In their own words, Sprout Builder is "a visual authoring studio that allows creative professionals to quickly and easily create branded, rich-media content and widgets." It enables designers build anything from simple Flash banners to a sophisticated widgets with multiple media types, feeds and sharing options by dragging different media types onto a canvas and controlling effects. Pricing ranges widely from $19 per month for the individual option to $299 per month for the professional version, but there's a 30-day trial for the curious to try this out.

Flock

Flock is a "social web browser" that integrates email, photos, video and social media sites into a single interface, while simplifying sharing and publishing. It runs on Windows, Mac or Linux and supports multiple webmail types (Gmail, AOL, Yahoo! Mail), social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace), blogging platforms (WordPress, Blogger, TypePad), media sites (Flickr, YouTube) and more. It includes features like a People Sidebar for staying in touch with your social connections, an integrated RSS feed reader, blog editor and web clipboard. And it's free.

Huddle

Huddle is an online project management, collaboration and file sharing tool along the lines of Basecamp, DeskAway and Projjex. It supports unlimited users, online chat, project alerts, a whiteboard feature, document management (approvals, workflow, audit trails), and collaborative document editing. Pricing ranges from a free, ad-supported version to $200/month for the enterprise package, with the most popular service level at $38 per month.

CRM Diagnostic

Customer relationship management (CRM) systems have become ubiquitous, yet many—perhaps even most—implementations fail to take full advantage of the software's capabilities in one or more areas. Most companies could be getting more benefit from their existing systems, but identifying the problem areas, and what needs to be done to improve use of the software, can involve a long and expensive consulting engagement. This free analysis tool from on-demand CRM consulting firm Demand Chain Systems short-circuits that process, helping to identify the most promising areas for improvement in just 40 minutes.

Jing

Jing lets you capture on-screen action or animate still images, add narration, and upload the final video or YouTube or other video-sharing sites or share by email. Available for Windows and Mac, Jing lets you add call-outs to screen captures or images, share your video or output it for further editing in other tools. There's a free version for casual home users, or a Pro version that adds features like additional output options and webcam capture (Mac OS X Leopard only) available for just $14.95 per year.

Skimmer

Skimmer is a free Adobe AIR desktop application designed to organize your social media activities and make interaction easier by aggregating your friends' feeds from Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, YouTube, and Blogger on one screen. It provides instant access to any video linked in a feed post, a slideshow view for Flickr photos or YouTube videos, and the ability to customize your profile and the appearance of your content.

TubeMogul

TubeMogul is a free online video tracking and analytics service that provides a single point for uploading to the top video sharing sites, and powerful analytics on who, what, and how videos are being viewed. TubeMogul tracks viewing statistics far beyond "views," including per-second audience dropoff, audience geography and more. According to their site, "TubeMogul's analytic technology aggregates video-viewing data from multiple sources to give publishers an improved understanding of when, where and how often their videos are watched, track and compare what's hot and what's not, measure the impact of marketing campaigns, gather competitive intelligence, and share the data with colleagues or friends." There are also fee-based versions that provide more advanced analytics and video promotion features.

Check whether the Twitter conversations about you are positive or negative with twendz by Advocable

Palin Ningthoujam reviews twendz, a free social media tracking and sentiment measurement tool that shows you who is talking about your product or brand (or any other topic) on social media sites, what's being said, a keyword cloud of the terms most commonly used in the conversations, and the overall tone (negative, positive or neutral) of the conversations. While not as sophisticated as professional monitoring tools, twendz does provide a quick, easy and free snapshot of the content and sentiment around any topic of social media discussion.

Previous posts in this series:

Best of 2009 (So Far): Social Media Marketing, Part 1
Best of 2009 (S0 Far): AdWords Tips and Tactics, Part 1
Best of 2009 (So Far): Blogging for Business, Part 1
Best of 2009 (So Far): SEO Guidance, Part 1

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