5 Essential Technologies for 2007

The world is constantly changing, and that goes triple for the world of technology. Recent graduates joining the workforce can be like creatures from another planet, or you can keep the generations in synch by using the emerging tools that the graduates have cut their teeth on.

Here are five technologies that are musts to get comfortable with this year — at least if you have an interest in spanning the intergenerational gap.

Social Networks: Laugh all you want about Facebook and MySpace being a waste of time, but building a network of contacts and releasing information to the right ones at the right time is mission critical to your business, whatever your business is. Of course some social networks are more conducive to the business world than others. Check out LinkedIn or ZoomInfo.

Rich Media Search Engines: Time to target your search to new types of media and relationships. A new service called Spock.com is attempting to give every person from Lindsay Lohan to your mom a page that they can claim as their own and "be found." Truveo searches for videos across the Internet. Both Google and Yahoo! let you search for images with the same ease as you search for text.

Remote Control Your PC: It's getting easier not to lug your laptop around with you. Flash drives and handheld digital assistants started the movement, but these days I'm relying on remotely controlling my PC from afar. I use LogMeIn. I install it both at work and at home and then I can simply log into my computer from afar and treat everything on it like it was on my own desktop.

Instant Messaging: I admit that at first I thought IM was a total bother. I still leave it shut down to avoid interruption on most days, but it's great when you're doing a lot of back and forth to make a quick decision and you don't want to store dozens of email messages. I use Yahoo! Instant Messenger and AIM from AOL.

Smart Phones: OK—they've become so smart it's amazing. They do email, IM, text messaging, and surf the web. They take photos. They act as a GPS and give you driving instructions. They play music, show photos and videos. They keep track of your appointments and contacts. And oh, by the way, they let you talk on the phone, too.

If you're just making the move to a smart phone you certainly want to consider the iPhone, but look at Samsung's BlackJack, the BlackBerry 8800 series, the Palm Treo phone, and a few others, too.

What else should we be learning about this year to stay ahead of the curve? All suggestions welcome.