The title of this post could well have been me slamming my face into the keyboard in the hopes that something clever might come of it, but alas, it wasn’t. It’s actually an acronym for “if this, then that.” It’s a new, free, online service that can be used with your favorite social media apps and much more.

Basically, the service allows users to set conditions, that when met, trigger a corresponding action of their choice. For example, you can setup your IFTTT account to post a link on Facebook every time you upload a new video to YouTube. Or you can be notified every time you are mentioned in a tweet. It is a great automation and listening solution, and the possibilities are endless. You can choose from 25 different services including, Craigslist, Google Talk, Google Reader, Instagram, Flickr, Stocks, Vimeo, Foursquare, WordPress and more to create your actions and triggers. The service even allows certain actions to be taken based on the weather outside, or if the pollen count rises above a certain number! Craigslist is a particularly cool one to use. You can setup an action to notify you through a method of your choice (SMS, Email, or even a phone call) whenever a new listing is created based on the search results of your choosing! Right now, I have my IFTTT account setup to notify me via text on important birthdays. This way, even if I don’t log in to Facebook that day I can still remember to wish my friends and family a happy birthday.

For the time being, IFTTT is limited to having only 10 active actions with corresponding triggers at a time, however, you may turn specific actions off, and turn others on from a bank of however many you wish to create. IFTTT is still in it’s Beta stage, so I’m sure there will be even more cool things to come in the future. IFTTT is also by invitation only at the moment, but you can visit their site at ifttt.com and request your own invitation! Take advantage of this cool new service and get an invite before they close the Beta!