How I’m using If This Then That

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One of the best new tools that I took away with me from this year’s ECOO conference was If This Then That. Thank you, Zoe and Doug for showing me this super-cool site.

This is not the kind of site that I would show people who are fairly new to Web 2.0 tools, but for people like me who are already using Twitter, Evernote, Diigo, Dropbox, WordPress (to name a few), IFTTT just makes a heck of a lot of sense.

IFTTT allows you to create tasks (or if you need some inspiration, you can browse a list of “recipes”) that make different apps work together. For example, wouldn’t it be cool if everytime that @shareski guy tweeted something, his messages would show up in an Evernote folder that I’d created? IFTTT would let you do it! Or I could send @royanlee’s tweets to a WordPress blog dedicated to his awesomeness. Well… that example might be a bit stalkerish as @royanlee and I realized. But, IFTTT would let you do it!

So here’s how I’m actually using it so far:

If a file is uploaded to my Dropbox, then IFTTT sends me a text message. (I have students submit files to me using www.dropitto.me so I love getting a message telling me when I’ve gotten a file.)

If a Twitter search result turns up for @MsBarkerTweets (my teacher Twitter handle… in other words if someone sends an @ message to my teacher account) then IFTTT sends me a text message. This way, a student can “text” me without texting me. You see?

If I create a bookmark on Diigo, then that bookmark also goes to a folder I’ve made in Evernote called Diigo bookmarks. It even imports the tags!

Finally I’m trying to figure out a way to archive Tweets on a WordPress blog for when I remount my Hamlet/Twitter role play with my grade 12s in a month. I had hoped there would be a way to say: If someone on a list called _______________ tweets, send the tweet to WordPress. It doesn’t seem like I can do that though. I can however have each individual Twitter handle sent to the blog.

So that’s how I’m using IFTTT so far but there are so many possibilities to explore. (I do also plan on blogging my ECOO11 reflections soon!) Thanks for pushing me to finish this, Dean. ;)

How are you using IFTTT?

6 thoughts on “How I’m using If This Then That”

  1. I use it to send me a text when I get a DM on Twitter (’cause I’m not always on Twitter, but I pretty much always have my phone). I also have it save all my Twitter Favorites to Evernote as they are created. LOVE IT! :)

  2. I use ifttt mainly to make bookmarking easier. If I favorite a tweet or if star an item in Google Reader then a bookmark is created in Delicious. Also, if I tag a bookmark with a specific tag, then IFTTT will automatically post it to one of my blogs. ifttt is a lot of fun.

  3. ifttt sounds really neat. I’m still just learning about all these web 2.0 tools, and at times it seems like all of these tools amount to having a bunch of individual juggling balls in the air. It’s nice to know that there is a tool out there that makes all of the other tools play nice together! I’m definitely going to have to find out more about ifttt.
    Cheers!
    Emily