Popular Online Services & Applications!
Google Services
Google has a virtual “plethora” of free online services and applications that everyone should checkout and use. Here is a listing of just a few of the most popular:
- Google Docs – A fantastic collection of free services including a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation service, online forms, drawings, and more. Each of these services can also be viewed and edited between multiple users.
- Google Calendar – One of the best if not the best online calendars available to create appointments and even share events between other users.
- Google Translate – Another fantastic free service by Google that allows you to translate any text, website, or document into another language with support of over 50 different languages.
- Gmail – By far one of the best online free e-mail services with an almost endless list of features and probably the best e-mail spam filter. Checkout our Trick for getting pseudo Gmail accounts.
- Google maps – Excellent maps service that not offers updated maps, directions, satellite views, and even street views of much of the world. This is really an amazing tool, including a quick tour of the Whitehouse!
- YouTube – The premier location to share and view online videos. You can download YouTube Videos using this free software.
RescueTime
Have trouble with being disciplined while on line? RescueTime is an excellent service that can help keep you focused while on the computer and track how much time you spend on each task. This service keeps you focused while on the computer by only allowing you to perform productive tasks and can prevent you from accessing unproductive programs and websites. In addition, the site offers a wealth of graphs and data to see where you spend your time and can even keep track of how much time you spend on each web page you visit.
Download RescueTime for Windows, Linux, or Mac Client
WOT
An excellent add-on that can be added to any major Internet browser including Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome that alerts you to any Internet page you are visiting that is not safe. This service works by allowing any user to create a comment and rating on any website, which WOT uses to alert a user if the site is not safe. WOT protects you from any web page with malware, reported scam sites, sites that invade privacy, or conducts other fraudulent activities.
Dropbox
We covered Dropbox a tool everyone should seriously consider using, in an earlier article.
Dropbox is just one of several online cloud storage tools available for free. Dropbox allows you to automatically share and sync files between your PC, Mac, Linux, and Mobile devices. Dropbox can also be used for an online backup of your essential documents, pictures and files.
Grammarly
If you do a lot of writing, Grammarly is Fantastic service that checks for misspellings, commonly confused words, plagiarism, grammar errors, punctuation, and will even suggest alternative synonyms. A Microsoft Office add-in can also be installed to check any document you’re working on within Office. With each suggested correction an explanation about the problem, examples, and the ability to ask the community is made available. Grammarly is available on a trial basis for free.
Flicker
Flicker is the most recognized and used services for exploring, sharing, and storing photos online. With more constantly being added, there are countless numbers of pictures available for inspiration for any photographer and is a great place for you to store and showcase your own images.
Skype
You are all probably familiar with Skype. This is still the standard for those that have a need to make phone calls and video calls between other Skype users over the Internet, world wide.
Aviary
Aviary is a fantastic online suite of tools including an image editor, effects editor, screen capture, vector image editor, image markup, color editor, and even an audio and music creator. Each of these programs is online and can be used through your browser. They also offer apps for your favorite smart phone.
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that has been generated using millions of different contributors around the world. The site now contains over 3.5 million different English articles on almost every topic imaginable and millions of other topics in dozens of other languages. Be careful if you cite Wikipedia as a source for your thesis. Just keep in mind that Wikipedia is written by self proclaimed experts, but you will find details articles on many topics you just can’t find anywhere else.
PayPal
The success of Paypal is amazing. It is the number one used service for taking and sending payments without using a credit card. Paypal is even accepted by an ever growing list of merchants on line, and many in their stores. Paypal offers this list of the participating merchants.
Hope you will let us know of your favorite tools. Drop us an email or leave us a comment below. We want to hear from you!