The web is full of these ubiquitous "must have" lists, so it's with little compunction that I add my own. Having said that, 2006 is nearly upon us. The web has seen some interesting evolution in the last twelve months, and it's with this in mind I present to you my "must have" list: 10 Blogging Essentials for '06.

1 - Firefox.

No responsible blogger should be using Microsoft's Internet Explorer anymore. In fact, no responsible netizen should be using IE, either. IE is notoriously insecure, and is absolutely dwarfed by Firefox's operability (tabbed browsing - you'll never go back.) Further, the integrated search and RSS firmly establish Firefox as *THE* interface to the Web.

As if that wasn't enough, here are thirteen more reasons to switch from Killbillsbrowser.com.

2 - Gmail.

Email is one of those functions that I'd never thought could really be improved on, and I've never really been a huge fan of webmail services. That perspective has dramatically changed after my experience with Gmail. Google's uber-clean interface and intuitive flow make Gmail the definitive webmail service. Most people I invite are converts within 24 hours, and evengelists within a week. If nothing else, 2.5Gb of storage (plus your 100 invites, which you can send to yourself for more storage) and having Google search technology applied to your email and contacts gives you an enormously efficient archival system.

3 - Del.icio.us

Monikered as "social bookmarking", del.icio.us and it's counterparts (most notably Digg, FURL) take the simple concepts of bookmarking and sharing, add a couple nice features like tagging, and evolved the way people are indexing (read: cataloging) the internet. It's the single most convenient and polite method I know of for sharing bookmarks. Convenient because it's literally one-click (at least in Firefox, which you're using now....right?!?) and polite because I don't need to compose an email (and decide on who I want to forward this too) with an explanation of why this may be relevant to the recipient. Instead, I can send the URL or RSS feed of my list to someone, at which point they can decide what's relevant to them on their own time and terms.

4 Google News.

Yes, another Google product. The must-have feature for bloggers are the email-based alerts, which you can setup to have Google send you emails as soon as news stories are indexed that match keywords you've chosen. One of the best ways to stay on breaking stories or monitor media reaction/traction. Recent example: "Cyber Monday".

5 - A Top-Ten List that links to high-traffic sites, like del.icio.us, boingboing, MeFi, Flickr, Fark, Slashdot, etc.

Community sites love attention, especially praise and linkage. If you talk about how awesome Flickr is, or how insightful Metafilter is, or how HIP and COOL Joi, Cory, Xeni, Doug and the gang are at BoingBoing, *someone* will start linking you around. Be sure to mention how "old media" is a dinosaur, and blogging and commenting on blogs is the future of media.

6 - Wikipedia - know it, learn it, love it.

Despite a recent high-profile issue with "biography-bombing" (something I totally just made up), the idea of Wikipedia is here to stay. Think of it as a publicly-supported World Almanac or CIA Factbook on steroids. It's a very handy dandy search tool, and they have a convenient Firefox searchbar extension here.

7 - Good Netizenship.

This means behaviors like attribution and links to supporting articles/sites. It's considered poor-form to use someone else's work without attribution (pictures, excerpts, etc) for many reasons. Responsible bloggers are aware of the basics of copyright law, specifically the "Fair Use" provisions.

8 - MySpace.

Love it or hate it, this "community" juggernaut is a potentially HUGE traffic source. MySpace is known for it's allowance of godawful HTML practices on the part of its community, becoming essentially an AOL-redux. Don't let the cheesy designs, embedded media and vapid commenting fool you - an influential MySpace page that links you can create volumes of traffic. The MySpace community is rabidly incestous, creating optimum conditions for meme proliferation.

9 - Flickr.

Originally started as an online game, Flickr has mophed into (arguably) the web's premiere photo (ahem, visual still-media) management service. Flickr is photo-scrapbooking on crack.....and I'm gonna bet withdrawals are nearly as severe. As with many community-oriented websites, the participatory positive feedback loop can be immediately addictive, but IMHO, you're better for it.

10. An open mind.

If there's one historic truth, it's this: You're probably wrong. Somewhere out there in the webiverse (another word i totally just made up), someone smarter and exponentially more educated on the subject you're posting on is going to offer rebuttal. Sometimes subtle and articulate, sometimes obtuse and condescending, you'll have to learn to deal with it. Seek and graciously accept correction.

Photos by Emily Joy, and borolad. Thank you.