Seven Online Services I use daily and you can also for free. Some have paid features and restrictions, but the basic packages are free.
Xmarks
This in my opinion is a must have service. It enables you to backup and sync your bookmarks across multiple computers and browsers via browser addons. For example I use firefox on a laptop, but often use Google Chrome on a desktop. Xmarks manages one set of bookmarks. The bookmarks are listed as normal and when I add a new bookmark, I just sync. Also I can optionally log into a webpage and view a list. Ideal if I’m away from both machines and a useful backup. www.xmarks.com
Dropbox
Talking of backups, dropbox is another nifty service. You signup, install their small piece of software and hey presto you have a virtual backup folder on your computer. Plus install dropbox on another machine to share and manage files. Can’t configure network sharing? Fed up of thumbdrives? An ideal alternative, plus again you can login via a web browser and view the files. You can even use a public shared folder to share with the masses.
The basic free dropbox package provides 2gig of data! That’s more than enough for many and you can top it up to a maximum of 3gig for free if you refer people. So if you want another 250mb today at signup, click here. That will also give me 250mb more.
Google Reader
Chuck the rss feed of a blog, site, twitter account… whatever and Google Reader provides the ideal interface to manage your feeds. For years I used Mozilla Thunderbird for rss feeds (as well as email). However with Google reader I’m not limited to one machine. www.google.com/reader
Twitter
I’ve spent a couple of years at least using the social network. I’ve met some fantastic people. I learnt from others, fantastic insight into cultures, been inspired, enjoyed following people and a bit of water cooler chat chucked in. When people don’t ‘get’ twitter I don’t care, their lose. www.twitter.com
Feedburner
Another Google service, but one google brought. Chuck in a RSS feed and you can chuck out something with more RSS options, enable email subscriptions and more. Obviously you probably should only use this for your own feeds.
It makes the list because even in this day and age I will still read an email before reading my RSS feeds. I wish more people used the email subscription of feedburner on their sites, especially small businesses who rarely update their feeds. I would then subscribe to their content, forget and they could update me every so often. Ideal for them writing something once and provides more choice to everyone else. feedburner.google.com
Evernote
Upload, search and organise documents, ideas, images, web snippets etc via various platforms. Initially I didn’t use it often, but now I do. Plus they have a great firefox addon. I never upload confidential bits n’ bobs and I still use notebooks (the paper kind that is) during the day for work and personal life. However this service, coupled with it’s excellent firefox addon has reduced the amount of paper I use. www.evernote.com
Yahoo Pipes
Ideal for site admins. I’ve only just begun to explore the powerful features. Pull various data feeds together, sort, merge and all sorts, then chuck out. It’s easy to use and they provide a great flowchart interface. I’m already using this service, but plan to spend more time seeing what can be done. pipes.yahoo.com
Well hope you find a gem or two suitable for you here and let me know what you think or provide your own recommendations.