Best Web Tools

With so much business, shopping, communication, and entertainment taking place online, the best web tools make the Internet experience a little easier, a little more meaningful, or even a little more fun. Still not convinced? The web tools featured below are all free to use and enjoy, so it won't cost you a cent to try them.

1.

 What started as a simple search engine has become a veritable treasure trove of web tools. You can search for and share videos, find maps and directions for any location, create mailing lists, and translate web pages into other languages. They're available from any computer, any time you need them. It's all free, although you may need to register to access some applications.

2.

 It seems like everyone has a blog these days, and the Blogger interface makes it easy to join the trend if you haven't already. You can include html code in your posts or use the toolbar to create bold and italic text and add links and images. Upload blog posts to a page on your own domain, or post to a free Blogspot page provided by Blogger.

3.

 Social networking sites like MySpace and Friendster are the best web tools for meeting new people, catching up with friends, and learning about the hottest new bands, movies, and television shows. Easy to use and highly customizable, they allow even novice users to have a web presence.

4.

 You'll never be without your favorite URL when you organize and share your bookmarks on sites like del.icio.us and StumbleUpon. One big advantage to these web tools is the portability they offer; you can access your Internet favorites from any computer. They're also a great way to let everyone know about the sites you love while you peruse others' selections to find new favorites. Opportunities to rate and review sites add functionality and fun to the experience.

5.

 Why pay more than you have to when shopping online? PriceGrabber.com allows you to compare prices on computers, movies, music, books, games, clothing, jewelry, health and beauty items, and much more. Search results feature big name retailers like Amazon.com alongside smaller online storefronts. Enter your zip code to calculate your final price including shipping and tax. Then, check out the seller ratings and reviews to gain confidence in your purchase.

6.

 If you're in the website business, you know how much traffic depends on using the right keywords in your site's content. Enter any term into the selector tool to find out how many times that word was searched for in the past month, and receive suggestions for related keywords. For instance, searching for "book" also brings up the terms "book store," "comic book," and "book case" along with the relative popularity of each of these keywords.