Heh, was this in response to my "Ask HN" earlier today? :) I agree that these list based systems are always trumped by a text file or pen/paper for portability and simplicity. However, having tried so many list-based systems as well as the "simpler methods", I still found myself just not getting things done. That's why I built http://todoneapp.com, which is really an experiment with a new methodology for doing things. The point isn't to organize you, it's to compel you to fulfill promises to yourself, in a way. This is the system I needed to help me pull weeds. Putting it down on paper wasn't helping. Building a system that allowed me to say "I need to pull the weeds" and at some point asking it "What should I do now?" to be told "You should pull the weeds. Go away and pull the weeds." That's what I needed. It's much easier to do something that "someone else" is telling you to do, than listening to yourself tell you to do it. YMMV of course. :)

Hey Todone -- Nope. Didn't see your post; looks interesting, though. I really like the simple nature of your list. I like that if focuses on effectiveness, and important items.

Not for me. I used to keep written lists, but got sick of forgetting them at work or having them fall apart when I was caught in a rainstorm.

I used "I Want Sandy" for over a year, and was visibly upset when "she" went away. I got accustomed to my to-dos being as accessible as the nearest web browser, email client, or even SMS device. Today, I use reQall on the web, through their voice number, over AIM, and through its BlackBerry client - whatever's most convenient at the time.

As you can guess from the two I chose, to-dos work best for me when I can rattle off a sentence in natural English and have the system figure out where & when to file it under.

I don't use any web-based todo list, but have tried a few more for curiosity than as a solution to a problem.

I think the reason so many of these things exist is 1) the functionality seems fairly simple 2) the market opportunity is huge

Where I think most of them fail is that they don't (as far as I have seen) provide a compelling differentiator or improvement over pen & paper or txt file.

Sure they are easy to use, but so are the alternatives. Is there a killer feature that is making a to do list better than a txt file? If so, i haven't seen it.

I am using Toodledo.com (very ugly web interface but good functionality) with Ultimate To Do iphone app which can sync with Toodledo and it has been working out pretty well.

I agree a To Do list that is not always with you is not an effective list.

I have tried all the ones you mentioned except Todoist and none of them is as effective as my current solution.

Another nice thing with Toodledo is that they have a good and simple API that can be used to make it available on other smartphones as an offline app.

I'm not sure if it's "web 2.0", but it's nice looking and has an iPhone app to accompany it -- I've been using Things for a year now. I have definitely become more reliable and efficient since I began using it seriously.