There are tons of great products and services on the Internet, so many it can be very over-whelming. So I figured I'd list a few of the ones I use and some of the benefits of them all. Also, these are all free services or at least have some free version/level available.
The first thing to bring up has to be the browser itself. I have done a few blog posts already about different browsers, but it has to be said again here because the rest of this blog is about different web-based products and services. If you're using Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) STOP IT! IE does not work, and there's no signs of it getting fixed any time soon. Pretty much any of the other options (Chrome, FireFox, Safari, Opera, etc) are fine though. If you don't know the differences between them and don't want to do the research, just get Google Chrome ( http://chrome.google.com ) the best IMO for the majority of users.
The second thing to mention has to be Google... all things Google! They put out so many great products and services it's amazing it all comes from one company. And Google is far more than just Gmail. Gmail is just their email service, but they provide lots of others. It's also important to realize there's a difference between a "Google account" and a "Gmail account". Most people don't realize there's a difference because when you get a Gmail account it automatically comes with a Google account, but you can create a Google account with absolutely any email address, not necessarily an @gmail.com address. Which brings me to the services...
For email service I suggest Gmail. It's web-based email so you can access it from anywhere with an Internet connection. But also now thanks to some recent technological advancements you can even have your gmail accessible while you're offline (as long as you're using a working browser / not IE)! For more info about Gmail check out http://nicksnetniche.blogspot.com/2009/05/love-ya-google-gmail.html
Photo Sharing & Editing
Another Google product many people tend to not know about; Picasa. There's actually two parts to this. One is the desktop software to organize and edit your photos on your local computer and to upload your select photos to the other part, the Picasa Web Albums where they can be stored, linked to, and shared with others. More info on this one here... http://nicksnetniche.blogspot.com/2009/07/love-ya-google-picasa.html
Document Storage & Editor
As an alternative to the very popular and expensive Microsoft Office there's Google Docs. Not as powerful as Office, but it's quickly growing in features and of course, free and has features that come with it being web-based such as sharing and collaborative document editing between other users. http://nicksnetniche.blogspot.com/2009/08/love-ya-google-docs.html
Calendars & Schedules
Easy to use calendars that you can create multiple calendars for organizing your events, and all the regular things you'd expect of course like one-time or repeating events. You can also configure your cell phone in Calendars so you can have it automatically send you text message reminders of upcoming events. Share your calendar(s) to other users so they can see your events in their calendars. calendar.google.com
Maps & Directions
I used to use mapquest.com for all my driving directions, but of course Google now does it better in pretty much every way... Save maps with custom markers, share maps to others, get driving / public transport / walking directions. Amazing search support; rather than having to provide start and end points in separate Address/City/St fields you have a single search box where you can type nearly anything including searches such as "Some-Business to Some-Address" maps.google.com
Online Streaming Music
Pandora.com (or Last.fm is just about the same) are great services for streaming music to your computer. You start by indicating some music you like and it starts playing other music that's similar you'd probably like. Then you can further refine your "stations" by giving songs it picks to play a thumbs-up or thumbs-down or by explicitly adding other songs/artists to your station. The free version of Pandora does have a limit of 40 hours per month and does play very short advertisements once in awhile, but the pay options are also very inexpensive.
Lala.com is another web-based music service, but this one allows you to actually build a playlist of specific music to listen too. I've not used this service as much as Pandora as this seems to be better to listen to specific songs, but for general listening Pandora has more advantage. Pandora does not allow you to listen to specific songs (as it's more of a web-based radio), but it does keep playing without the need to pick songs to play and helps you find and discover other music you would probably like.
Online Streaming TV & Movies
Hulu.com Yup, free online streaming of various tv shows and movies, all in the browser, no need to download and install anything! And as the site gets more popular they keep getting more and more content.
Ever had a situation where you were somewhere and wanted to be able to check or do something on your computer at home or at work without going there. LogMeIn.com allows you to install a small application on your computer and then from anywhere else you can simply go to the website, log in to your account, and then connect to and control your computer(s) right through the website!
File Transfer and Sharing
DropBox.com is a service that allows super easy transfer of files between your multiple computers or between different users. You install a small application on your computer and it creates a special "My Dropbox" folder on your computer. Then any files you place in that folder automatically uploaded to the DropBox servers under your account. This then serves as a backup for your files as well as you can access those files then by logging in to your account through the website from any computer. But the real beauty of this service is you can then install the application on other computers, set them up under the same Dropbox account, and the service automatically synchronizes all the files in your Dropbox folder across all your computers. (It's really as easy as you save the file in your Dropbox folder on one computer and when you look on your other computer, the file is already there without doing a thing!) You can then open the file, make changes, save it. And when you look on your first computer your changes are already reflected on it.
You can even Share sub-folders to other Dropbox users to provide a way to super easily transfer files to others without the need to go through the process of attaching the files to emails, sending them, then the other person has to download the emails and attachments and save the files themselves.
And there's even a special Public folder that allows you to get a web link to the files that you can provide to other users and they don't even have to have a Dropbox account. Files in your Public folder can be accessed by anybody with just the link Dropbox provides you.
Chat & IM
There's tons of Chat and Instant Messenger services out there and most people already have a few. Meebo.com provides a service that allows you to create a single Meebo account and then register all your other chat and IM accounts under it. You just log in to your one Meebo account and you have a single unified list of Buddies/Friends and you can chat with them all right from Meebo. They even have different Meebo apps available such as downloadable application, but I prefer to just use the browser based one.
RSS
If you're not familiar with what RSS is check out http://nicksnetniche.blogspot.com/2009/04/whats-this-rss-feeds-subscribing-stuff.html . As far as an RSS reader my current choice is Google Reader; reader.google.com . Again all browser based and subscriptions stored under your Google account so can be accessed from anywhere.
Personal Finances
I've not actually used this one yet but was just now told about it by a very good tech-friend, and it definitely looks like it's worth checking out... mint.com . An alternative to Quicken or other finances tracking & budgeting applications.
Graphics Editing
Aviary.com has a few products but they're pretty much all about graphics editing, and one for sound wave file editing. A pretty good alternative to the pricier Macromedia Photoshop / Illustrator products. (Keep in mind Picasa is probably better for photo editing, this is more for vector or clipart graphics.)
Telephone calls
Ok, not really telephone, but rather Voice over IP (VoIP) technology allows you to use your computer speakers and microphone and with many services your webcam so you can have conversations with others over the Internet as if it were a regular telephone / video conference call. I don't use these services too often, but still the best appears to be Skype.com
Android
Ok, this isn't any kind of web service but it's worth mentioning. Android is an operating system for electronic devices, primarily web-enabled cell phones. There's lots of Android phones on the market now for nearly every cell service provider. The reason I mention this is because Android is actually developed by Google and very tightly integrates with Google. Pretty much all of the services I just mentioned because they're all web-based and accessible from anywhere with an Internet connection, you can also then access them from web-enabled phones as well! (Or at least will be able to soon... Dropbox and LogMeIn currently have Android versions of their apps in development) But all the other services from Google (Gmail and Contacts, Calendar, Docs, Maps, Reader) are all accessible right from the device.
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