Hi

I'm Gina Trapani. I build apps and other tools which make digital life easier.

I lead development and community around ThinkUp, an open source social media analytics webapp. I also created and lead development of Todo.txt apps, open source tools for text-based task management. I co-host This Week in Google, a weekly web show that covers the latest news about Google and other cloud services. Back in the day, I founded Lifehacker and authored four tech books. I also blog at Smarterware and tweet at @ginatrapani.

I live in sunny San Diego, California, by way of Brooklyn, New York. Some nice strangers wrote a Wikipedia page about me.

Here's my formal, complete bio. You can send me an email, but be forewarned: most days I receive more messages than I can respond to. Thanks for understanding.

Currently

• Developing
  • ThinkUp, a webapp for crowdsourcing insights on social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and Google+
  • Todo.txt apps, desktop and mobile apps for managing a text-based task list
  • Better Firefox Extensions, including Better Gmail 2, one of Mozilla's Featured Add-ons
• Co-hosting
  • This Week in Google (TWiG), a weekly web show on Leo Laporte's TWiT network
• Writing
  • Smarterware, my personal blog
  • @ginatrapani on Twitter, one of The New York Times' "Nine to Follow Among Millions"
  • Lifehacker, daily group blog I founded in January of 2005 and led until January of 2009, where I now contribute occasional posts

Recently

• January 2012
  • Released the iOS version of Todo.txt Touch for the iPhone, iPod touch, and the iPad. Buy it here.
• December 2011
  • TV.com readers name This Week in Google "Best Web Tech Show" of 2011.
  • Lifehacker bloggers take 9 out of the top 10 spots on ReadItLater's Most Saved Authors of 2011 list; I came in at #6.
• November 2011
  • After 8 alphas, 17 betas, and 1,342 commits by more than 60 contributors over 20 months, ThinkUp comes out of beta. Here's the press coverage.
  • Quoted in The Morning News' article Home for the Holiday Tech Support.
  • Tweet-quoted in Caroline Drucker's Ignite talk, How to Get More Women in Tech in Under a Minute.
• October 2011
  • Todo.txt Touch for iOS development is underway. Help the open source community by contributing code or testing the app in progress.
  • Comedian Steve Martin uses ThinkUp to publish a book of his tweets.
  • Quoted in Dinah Sanders' new book, Discardia.
• September 2011
  • Contributed an essay to End Malaria, a new business book whose purchase prices goes to Malaria No More. My co-authors included Kevin Kelly, Dan Pink, Jeff Jarvis, David Allen, and Steven Johnson.
• August 2011
  • Computerworld's Android Power blog includes me on its list of 25 interesting Android experts to follow on Twitter.
  • The Huffington Post includes me on their list of 27 Female Founders In Tech To Follow On Twitter.
  • Presented Open Source 101 at local San Diego tech gathering, Refresh SD. Here's the San Diego Union-Tribune coverage of the event.
• July 2011
  • Served as a judge on DonorsChoose.org's Hacking Education contest.
  • Patrick Norton at Tekzilla interviews me about ThinkUp and developing open source software.
  • A week after launch to selected field testers, Mark Zuckerberg is the most followed person on Google+. At #10 on the list, I'm the most followed woman on the service.
• June 2011
  • The third edition of Lifehacker the book is now shipping. Get your copy on Amazon or in your local bookstore.
  • The New York Times quotes me in a style piece about business cards going the way of the landline: Business Cards Go Paperless, or Almost.
  • Linux.com covers the current state of the Todo.txt apps universe in Nathan Willis' piece, Task Management from the CLI to Android with Todo.txt.
• May 2011
  • IEEE Spectrum quotes me in 5 Technologies That Will Shape the Web.
  • Attended Google I/O 2011 and covered it live for This Week in Google.
• April 2011
  • Spoke at GitHub's inaugural conference, CodeConf. Here's the full transcript of my talk: Your Community Is Your Best Feature.
  • Did a fun shoot with portrait photographer Bill Wadman who made me look way better than I do in real life in the final photos.
• March 2011
  • TIME magazine includes me on their list of 140 Best Twitter Feeds.
  • Had the privilege of pitching my worst web site idea to a venture capitalist along with 7 other hilarious presenters on Andy Baio's Worst Website Ever panel at South by Southwest Interactive 2011. My idea didn't get funded, but the session was one of the best of the conference.
  • PCMag includes me on their Twitter Top 100 List.
• February 2011
  • WorkAwesome's Mike Vardy interviews me in a short podcast about ThinkUp, Todo.txt, standing desks, Lifehacker, and getting things done.
  • Laptop magazine includes me on their list of The Most Important Women in Mobile Tech 2011.
• January 2011
  • Released my first Android app, Todo.txt Touch, a mobile todo.txt manager which integrates with Dropbox and complements the Todo.txt CLI.
  • More...

Show

Now co-hosting a weekly webcast This Week in Google (TWiG) alongside tech guy Leo Laporte and journalist Jeff Jarvis, which covers the latest Google and cloud computing news, stats, and tips. Watch live and chat with listeners as we record each episode via Skype on the TWiT Netcast Network at 1PM Pacific/4PM Eastern time every Wednesday. Otherwise, download or subscribe to new episodes, or watch on YouTube.

---

Latest Book

Lifehacker: The Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, and Better, third edition, is a compendium of all the best hacks from Lifehacker.com's archives, and my personal manifesto on working more efficiently in the digital age.

Check out the official web site of Lifehacker the book to browse the table of contents, download a sample chapter, and join the mailing list.

---

Elsewhere

• Lanyrd--See conferences where I've spoken and attended
• GitHub--See all my coding projects and activity
• FriendFeed--See my activity on various social media sites in one place
• Mozilla Add-ons contributions--Firefox extensions I've authored
• Userscripts.org contributions--Greasemonkey user scripts I've authored
• Userstyles.org contributions--Stylish styles I've authored
• My Wikipedia entry
• My Wikipedia contributions

Thanks for your interest.