Web 2.0 Applications

Some Attributes of Web 2

1. User generated and/or user influenced content

2. Applications that use the Web (versus the desktop) as a platform, in innovative ways

3. Similar visual design and shared functional languages

4. Leveraging of popular trends, including blogging, social tagging, wikis, and peer-to-peer sharing

Web 2.0 refers to the the new generation of applications that are hosted on the Web. One of the advantages of this is that many formerly workstation-based functions such as word processing can be now be Web based and thus available on any Internet connected computer. The good news is that many of these applications are free!

Office Suites

Some of the software attempts to duplicate the functions of the Microsoft Office Suite, and include word processing, spreadsheet and presentation applications. Most can create and read Microsoft's file types.

OpenOffice

OpenOffice is a free suite of Microsoft Office compatible applications including word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, vector drawing, mathematical function creator and database.

Zoho Virtual Office

Zoho provides a well reviewed collection of applications including word processor, spreadsheet and presentation. ZoHo has recently won a contract with General Electric for 400,000 desktop suites!

Google Docs and Spreadsheets

Google offers just a word processor and spreadsheet for now, although it promises a presentation app soon. If you already have Google Mail you are ready to go. If not, sign up here.

Ajax13

Ajax13 offers a full set of office applications. The good news is that it's free. The bad news is it will only work in Firefox.

Cloud Storage

You can now store data in the cloud. This has the twin advantages of access from any internet computer and off-site backup security. See this excellent list of free storage sites as well as the ones listed below..

Mozy

The free version of Mozy, called Mozy Home Free gives you an account with 2 GB of space that has the exact same functionality as Mozy Home Unlimited (which costs $4.95 per month for unlimited space). You can associate 2 computers with your Mozy Home Free account.

Dropbox

With Dropbox Basic you get a free 2 GB account that has features identical to the paid versions, and you can associate multiple computers with your account, which is useful for file & folder synching.

Build Yourself a Portal

A customized home page or portal can be useful. A basic page can be populated by your choice of dozens of personalized applets. These include calendars, to-do lists, RSS feeds.

Netvibes

The Netvibes portal is perhaps the most full-featured, with numerous default applets. However this results in a somewhat crowded layout.

iGoogle

Google's personal portal is clean, well organized and has many applets available. You must first sign up for a Google account if you don't already have one.