Cool Tools began as a mail list that I started in 2000, and formalized into a website in 2003. Every weekday for the past 10 years we have posted a rave review of a useful tool. But the site has always been a secondary moonlighting job for everyone involved. While we have faithfully published daily reviews, there are dozens of other cool things we have not done. There\u2019s no Cool Tools podcast, no Meetups about cool tools, no longer in-depth articles, no \u201cbest of\u201d page. But there should be.<\/p>\n
One of Cool Tools\u2019 long-time fans is Mark Frauenfelder<\/a>, a frequent contributor here of tool reviews. As a reader Mark was unsatisfied with the missing parts of Cool Tools. Now he will be joining me to renew this site and elevate its potential. We\u2019ll be working as partners, trying new things, and optimizing what already works. Included in this upgrade will be a \u201cBest-of\u201d book in paper. <\/p>\n Mark has been editor-in-chief of MAKE magazine, and he is the founder of bOING bOING magazine, co-founder of popular Boing Boing blog, and formerly an editor at Wired, where we worked together. He will take on the title of editor-in-chief. Even though I make my living reporting on the newest of the new, Mark is constantly showing me stuff I knew nothing about. Mark was the first to tell me about this cool thing called eBay, and he was also the first to point me to blogs when there were only a dozen or so, and the first to alert me to podcasts at their birth. As readers of Boing Boing and MAKE realize, Mark has an uncanny ability to find new cool things and to detect big things while they are still small. His curiosity is immense, unwavering, and child-like. He is confident enough about the important things that he is not afraid of whimsy. He likes to keep things fun, and is serious about play. He is committed to making his own, trying stuff, and keeping everything honest and transparent. And sharing all that he learns. (Mark has his own take on this announcement<\/a> on Boing Boing.)<\/p>\n I think we\u2019ll make a good team for the next 10 years of Cool Tools. <\/p>\n