DEV Community: Po Hip

I Built UsefulGo — Free Online Tools That Make Everyday Tasks Easier 🚀

Po Hip — Sat, 14 Nov 2026 07:42:43 +0000

Have you ever needed to compress a PDF, remove an image background, or convert a Word document… only to discover that the website wants you to sign up or pay before downloading?

I've been there. More times than I'd like to admit. 😅

Sometimes, you just want to get one small task done without installing software or figuring out which features are actually free.

That frustration is part of what inspired me to build UsefulGo.

One Website, Lots of Useful Little Tools

The idea is simple: bring together everyday online tools in one place, making common digital tasks a little easier.

Instead of searching for a different website every time, you can visit UsefulGo and find tools for things like:

📄 PDF tools: Compress PDF files, convert PDF to Word, and turn Word documents into PDFs.
🖼️ Image editing: Remove backgrounds, rotate images, and make quick adjustments.
📸 Passport photos: Prepare photos for ID and passport applications.
⚡ Everyday utilities: Simple browser-based tools for tasks that don't need complicated software.

For example, if you've ever tried emailing a PDF that's too large, you can try the PDF Compressor.

Or if you're preparing a product photo and need to remove the background, UsefulGo has a tool for that too.

Nothing fancy. Just useful things that save a little time.

Why Build Another Online Tools Website?

That's a fair question.

There are already plenty of websites offering similar services.

But I kept noticing the same little frustrations: confusing interfaces, unexpected paywalls, and too many steps for something that should take a few seconds.

I wanted to create something straightforward.

Open the website, choose a tool, finish your task, and move on.

That's the experience I'm working toward.

The Developer Side of Things

Building UsefulGo has also taught me that even the simplest-looking tools come with interesting challenges.

PDF files don't always behave as expected. Images come in different sizes and formats. Large uploads can affect performance. And a feature that works perfectly on desktop might need extra attention on mobile.

There's also a lot to learn about SEO, accessibility, security, and user experience.

It's been a fun side project, and I'm still improving it.

What's Next?

UsefulGo is still growing, and I have plenty of ideas I'd like to explore.

My goal isn't to build the most complicated platform out there. It's to create a collection of small tools that people genuinely find helpful.

If you're curious, you can check it out here:

👉 UsefulGo — Free Online Tools for Everyday Tasks

And I'd love to ask:

What's one simple online tool you use all the time, or wish someone would build?

I'm always looking for ideas, and your suggestion might inspire the next UsefulGo tool.

Thanks for reading! 🙌

I Built UsefulGo — Free Online Tools for Those Little Everyday Tasks 🚀

Po Hip — Fri, 13 Nov 2026 16:49:21 +0000

Have you ever tried to compress a PDF, remove an image background, or convert a Word document… only to discover you need to create an account or pay before downloading?

I have. More times than I'd like to admit. 😅

Sometimes, I just need to get one small task done. I don't want to install software, sign up for another service, or figure out which features are actually free.

So I decided to build something myself.

It's called UsefulGo.

One Place for the Tools You Actually Need

The idea behind UsefulGo is pretty simple: bring together useful online tools in one place, so people can spend less time searching and more time getting things done.

I've been working on tools for some of the everyday tasks people run into:

📄 PDF tools — Compress PDFs, convert PDF to Word, or turn Word documents into PDFs.
🖼️ Image tools — Remove backgrounds, rotate images, and make quick adjustments.
📸 Passport Photo Maker — Prepare photos for ID and passport applications.
⚡ More utilities — Small tools designed to make repetitive tasks easier.

You can explore them at usefulgo.com.

Why Build Another Online Tools Website?

Fair question. There are already plenty of them.

But I've noticed that a lot of simple tools come with unnecessary friction.

You upload a file, wait for processing, and then discover there's a paywall. Or the interface is so cluttered that finding the download button becomes a challenge.

I wanted UsefulGo to feel different.

Nothing revolutionary. Just tools that are straightforward, accessible, and easy to use.

The Interesting Part of Building It

As a developer, I've learned that building a tool is often easier than making it work well for everyone.

People upload unexpected file formats. Large images can slow things down. PDFs don't always convert perfectly. And something that works on desktop might behave differently on mobile.

Then there's SEO, performance, security, and all the small details you don't think about until real people start using your website.

It's been a fun learning experience, and there's still plenty to improve.

Still Building, Still Learning

UsefulGo is a side project I'm continuing to grow.

I'm experimenting with new ideas, improving existing features, and figuring out which tools people actually find helpful.

If you have a minute, I'd really appreciate you checking it out:

👉 UsefulGo — Free Online Tools

And I'm curious:

What's one simple online tool you wish existed, or one you use almost every day?

I'd love to hear your suggestions. Maybe one of them will become the next tool I build. 🙂

Thanks for reading!

I Built a Website to Rediscover the Songs We All Forgot We Loved 🎧

Po Hip — Wed, 11 Nov 2026 23:58:31 +0000

What if you could travel back to 2007, 2012, or 2016 just by listening to music?

Not with a time machine. Not with old photographs.

Just one song.

You know that feeling when a song you haven't heard in 15 years suddenly starts playing?

You remember every word.

And somehow, you also remember the people you were hanging out with, the games you were playing, and the things you were worried about back then.

It's weird how our brains work.

We forget passwords we created yesterday, but we can still sing along to a song from 2009 without missing a beat.

That little realization gave me an idea.

What if there was a website where you could pick any year and instantly rediscover the songs that made it unforgettable?

So I built one.

Meet Hits UsefulGo.

🎵 Remember When These Songs Were Everywhere?

Let's do a quick experiment.

Think about these years:

2003: Beyoncé's Crazy in Love was playing everywhere.

2007: Rihanna's Umbrella became one of those songs you couldn't escape.

2009: Lady Gaga's Poker Face was practically unavoidable.

2012: PSY's Gangnam Style took over the internet.

2015: Adele's Hello had everyone singing along.

2017: Ed Sheeran's Shape of You seemed to be playing in every store, café, and car.

Now here's the interesting part.

You probably remember more than just the songs.

Maybe you remember where you were when you first heard them.

Maybe they remind you of a particular summer, an old friend, or a relationship you haven't thought about in years.

That's the magic of music nostalgia.

And that's exactly what I wanted to capture.

🚀 Introducing Hits UsefulGo: A Little Time Machine for Music

I recently launched a small side project called Hits UsefulGo.

👉 https://hits.usefulgo.com/

The idea is ridiculously simple:

Choose a year. Explore the popular songs. Rediscover your memories.

You can explore music from 2000 through 2026, revisit familiar artists, and find hits you might have completely forgotten existed.

No complicated setup.

No endless searching for songs you can barely remember.

Just a simple way to travel through the music of different years.

For example, imagine selecting 2008.

You might come across songs you listened to on your first MP3 player, tracks that played at every school party, or hits you haven't heard since your teenage years.

And suddenly, 2008 doesn't feel that far away anymore.

💿 Why I Wanted to Build Something Different

We already have amazing music platforms.

Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube make it incredibly easy to discover new music.

But I noticed something.

Most music discovery experiences focus on the present:

What should I listen to next?

What's trending right now?

What new artist should I follow?

Sometimes, I don't want any of that.

Sometimes, I just want to know:

What were the biggest songs in 2006?

Or:

What was everyone listening to during the summer of 2011?

Or even:

What songs were popular when I was 16?

I wanted to create a place where exploring music felt less like searching a database and more like opening an old box of memories.

That's how Hits UsefulGo started.

🕰️ The 2000s vs. the 2010s: Which Era Had Better Music?

This might be one of the hardest questions for music lovers.

The 2000s: MP3 Players, MTV, and Iconic Pop Hits

If you grew up in the 2000s, you probably remember:

Downloading songs to your MP3 player.
Watching music videos on MTV or early YouTube.
Sharing songs with friends.
Discovering artists like Eminem, Linkin Park, Beyoncé, Rihanna, and Coldplay.

There was something special about that era.

Music wasn't just background noise. Sometimes, finding a new favorite song felt like discovering treasure.

The 2010s: YouTube, Viral Hits, and Streaming

Then came the 2010s.

YouTube became a massive part of music culture. Streaming transformed how people listened. Viral hits reached audiences across the world.

Remember Call Me Maybe, Gangnam Style, Uptown Funk, Despacito, or Shape of You?

Some of those songs were impossible to avoid.

And whether you loved them or secretly hated hearing them for the hundredth time, they became part of the soundtrack of that decade.

Personally, I think every era has its own magic.

That's why exploring music by year is so interesting.

You get to experience how popular music changed over time.

🔍 The Best Songs Aren't Always the Ones You Remember

Here's my favorite part of exploring old hits.

It's not finding the obvious classics.

Everyone remembers songs like Bad Romance or Rolling in the Deep.

The real fun begins when you find something you haven't thought about in years.

You see the song title.

You recognize the artist.

And then it hits you:

"WAIT… I USED TO LOVE THIS SONG!"

Suddenly, you're listening to it again.

Maybe you even remember the lyrics.

That's the experience I hope people have when they visit Hits UsefulGo.

Not just discovering great music.

Rediscovering the songs they didn't realize they missed.

🛠️ A Small Side Project With a Simple Purpose

I Built a Website That Takes You Back to the Songs You Forgot You Loved 🎧

Po Hip — Wed, 11 Nov 2026 03:32:48 +0000

Remember when one song could bring back an entire summer? I wanted to recreate that feeling.

There’s something strange about music.

You can forget what you had for breakfast yesterday, but somehow, you still remember every word to a song you haven't heard in 15 years.

And the moment that song starts playing, everything comes back.

The friends you used to hang out with. The games you played after school. That old phone you thought was the coolest thing ever. The summer that felt like it would never end.

All because of a three-minute song.

That's what inspired me to build something.

Remember What Music Felt Like in the 2000s?

If you grew up in the 2000s or 2010s, you probably remember a few of these:

2000: Eminem's "The Real Slim Shady" was everywhere.

2003: Beyoncé and Jay-Z had everyone singing "Crazy in Love."

2007: Rihanna's "Umbrella" was impossible to escape.

2009: Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" was playing at every party.

2012: PSY's "Gangnam Style" took over the internet.

2015: Adele's "Hello" had everyone feeling emotional.

And that's just scratching the surface.

Back then, we didn't have endless personalized playlists recommending a new song every few seconds.

We discovered music through the radio, MTV, YouTube, our friends, and sometimes completely by accident.

I remember hearing a song everywhere for months, then somehow not hearing it again for years.

Until one random day, it came back.

And suddenly, I was right back in that moment.

So I Built a Little Time Machine for Music

https://hits.usefulgo.com/

The idea behind Hits UsefulGo is simple:

Pick a year. Rediscover the songs that made that year unforgettable.

Instead of spending 20 minutes trying to remember what songs were popular in 2008, you can explore music from that period in one place.

Maybe you want to revisit the songs you listened to in high school.

Maybe you're curious about what people were listening to when you were born.

Or maybe you just want to remember what the internet sounded like before TikTok existed.

That's exactly the kind of experience I wanted to create.

Why Organize Music by Year?

Most music platforms are built around what you want to listen to right now.

They recommend songs based on your listening history, favorite artists, or current trends.

And that's great.

But sometimes, I don't want an algorithm to predict my next favorite song.

I want to go back to 2006.

Or 2011.

Or that one year when everything seemed a little simpler.

Organizing music by year creates a different experience.

You're not just discovering songs.

You're rediscovering a period of your life.

And sometimes, the songs you completely forgot about are the ones that bring back the strongest memories.

The Unexpected Joy of Finding a Forgotten Hit

Here's something I've noticed while exploring old music.

The biggest hits aren't always the most interesting discoveries.

Sure, everyone remembers "Bad Romance" or "Rolling in the Deep."

But what about those songs you used to hear constantly and haven't thought about in a decade?

The ones that make you say:

"WAIT. I COMPLETELY FORGOT THIS SONG EXISTED!"

That's the feeling I'm chasing with this project.

Not just nostalgia for the obvious classics, but those unexpected moments of recognition.

The songs you didn't know you missed.

A Small Side Project With a Simple Goal

I'm building Hits UsefulGo as part of UsefulGo, a collection of free web tools and small projects.

I enjoy building things that solve everyday problems, but this project is a little different.

It doesn't need to make you more productive.

It doesn't need to save you hours of work.

Sometimes, a website can simply make your day a little better.

And if it helps someone rediscover a song they loved 15 years ago, that's already pretty cool.

Give It a Try 🎵

Here's a little challenge.

Open Hits UsefulGo.

Find the year you turned 15 or 16.

Explore the popular songs from that year.

See how many you still remember.

I have a feeling at least one song will surprise you.

And maybe, for a few minutes, you'll feel like you're back in high school again.

One Question Before You Go

What's one song that instantly takes you back to a specific year of your life?

For me, the most interesting part of music nostalgia is how different everyone's memories are.

One person hears a song and remembers their first relationship.

Someone else remembers playing video games with friends.

Another person remembers a road trip with their family.

Same song. Completely different memories.

I'd genuinely love to hear yours in the comments.

And if you want to take a little trip through music history:

🎧 Explore Hits UsefulGo — Rediscover the Songs of Your Favorite Years

Thanks for reading. And happy listening!

Built with ❤️ as part of UsefulGo.

I Built a Music Time Machine That Takes You Back to 2000–2026 🎧

Po Hip — Mon, 09 Nov 2026 16:11:34 +0000

A few days ago, I was listening to some old songs on YouTube.

I started with one song from 2012, then another from 2010, and somehow ended up listening to music I hadn't heard in over ten years.

You know that feeling when a song comes on and suddenly you remember a completely random moment from your past?

Maybe it's a song you used to play on the way to school. Something you listened to with your friends. Or a song that was everywhere during a particular summer.

For me, that's one of the best things about music. Sometimes you don't even realize how much you miss a certain time in your life until you hear a song from it.

That little trip down memory lane gave me an idea.

What if I could just pick a year and see all the songs that were popular back then?

So I decided to build a small website for it.

Meet UsefulGo Hits

It's called UsefulGo Hits.

The idea is pretty straightforward. You choose a year, and the website shows you some of the biggest songs from that time.

It currently covers music from 2000 to 2026, with over 300 songs to explore.

For example, if you pick 2012, you'll find songs like Gangnam Style and Call Me Maybe.

Go to 2015, and you might remember how often See You Again and Adele's Hello were playing everywhere.

Or go back even further, to the early 2000s, when music sounded completely different.

I find it interesting how quickly you can recognize a song you haven't heard in years. Sometimes I can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday, but somehow I still remember the lyrics to a song from 2008.

Funny how that works.

I wanted to keep it simple

There are already plenty of great music streaming services out there, so I wasn't trying to build another Spotify.

I just wanted something where I could open a page, choose a year, and start exploring.

You can browse songs by year, search for artists, filter by genre, and play music through YouTube.

There's also a random song option, which is probably one of my favorite parts.

Sometimes it brings up a song I completely forgot existed.

And then I end up listening to it for the next 20 minutes.

You can also save songs you like and come back to them later.

Nothing particularly groundbreaking from a technical perspective, but it's been a fun project to work on.

The interesting part is the memories

While building this, I started thinking about how we associate certain songs with specific periods of our lives.

Take 2010, for example.

If you were a teenager around that time, there's a good chance some of those songs remind you of school, old friends, or the early days of social media.

For someone else, the exact same songs might remind them of college, their first job, or a road trip.

It's the same music, but everyone has their own memories attached to it.

And I think that's what makes going back through old hits so enjoyable.

You're not necessarily looking for something new to listen to.

Sometimes you just want to hear something familiar.

Why I built it

I'm an independent developer working on a collection of small web projects under UsefulGo.

Most of the things I build are practical tools, but I also like experimenting with ideas that are simply fun to use.

UsefulGo Hits is one of those experiments.

I don't have some huge plan to reinvent how people discover music. I just thought it would be nice to have a place where you could explore popular songs from different years without having to search for playlists manually.

There are still things I'd like to improve, especially the song collection and the overall browsing experience.

But the basic idea is working, so I figured I'd share it here.

Give it a try

If you have a minute, here's something fun to try.

Go to hits.usefulgo.com and select the year you were 16.

Listen to a few songs from that year.

I'm curious whether you'll recognize most of them, or whether you'll find something you haven't thought about in ages.

And if you do try it, I'd love to know:

Which year brings back the most music memories for you?

For some reason, I feel like everyone has that one year when the music just seemed better.

Thanks for reading, and I'd really appreciate any feedback on the project.

Website: https://hits.usefulgo.com/

DEV Community: Po Hip

I Built UsefulGo — Free Online Tools That Make Everyday Tasks Easier 🚀

One Website, Lots of Useful Little Tools

Why Build Another Online Tools Website?

The Developer Side of Things

What's Next?

I Built UsefulGo — Free Online Tools for Those Little Everyday Tasks 🚀

One Place for the Tools You Actually Need

Why Build Another Online Tools Website?

The Interesting Part of Building It

Still Building, Still Learning

I Built a Website to Rediscover the Songs We All Forgot We Loved 🎧

🎵 Remember When These Songs Were Everywhere?

🚀 Introducing Hits UsefulGo: A Little Time Machine for Music

💿 Why I Wanted to Build Something Different

🕰️ The 2000s vs. the 2010s: Which Era Had Better Music?

The 2000s: MP3 Players, MTV, and Iconic Pop Hits

The 2010s: YouTube, Viral Hits, and Streaming

🔍 The Best Songs Aren't Always the Ones You Remember

🛠️ A Small Side Project With a Simple Purpose

I Built a Website That Takes You Back to the Songs You Forgot You Loved 🎧

I Built a Music Time Machine That Takes You Back to 2000–2026 🎧

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