Here’s our pick of a few useful applications and web-based software tools, and most of them are free.

ooVoo: Video conferencing tools add liveliness in communicating with friends or even business associates. These tools allow you to use your standard webcam and broadband internet connection to have multi-party videoconferences. One such application is, weirdly titled as ooVoo is available for Windows and Mac users. After a quick registration, you are able to communicate with people through text-chat, video-audio conference (up to six people) and also to record video messages. You can also share up to 20 files at once to as many contacts as you want, up to 25 MB per file. Still in beta, it is free to download and use. Once reserved only for high-end and very costly proprietary hardware systems, videoconferencing tools like ooVoo have sharply grown in number this year and they now offer multiple useful alternatives that you can start using without having to spend even a rupee.

Twitter:

Google Docs: This one’s no brainer. Google Docs rules online office suites even though competitors like Microsoft Office Live Workspace announcing their free beta launch. On closer comparison, Google Docs is limited to the types of files their service allows you to edit online: HTML, .txt, .doc .rtf, .odt, .xls, .csv, .ods, .tsv, .tsb, .ppt, and .pps. On the other hand, Office Live Workspace allows you to upload all kinds of files, not only Office document file types. So, in addition, you can upload .PDFs, pictures, or seemingly any kind of file except the ones, which are blocked to protect users as they are file types Windows sees as executable files. Ability to create a form in a Google Docs spreadsheet and send it out to anyone with an email address, is a big advantage. One can respond directly from the email message or from an automatically generated web page and their responses are automatically added to the original spreadsheet.

Ning: Ning allows you to design and build a social network about anything that interests you. And in 2008, consumers flocked to the site to do exactly that — a new social network created was created every 30 seconds. As of October 2008, Ning was host to half of a million networks. In effect, it can be labelled as mini-MySpaces, or social niche-works, as some are calling this new genre. For example, we used Ning to create a social network especially for devotees of Web 2.0 technologies. People who joined our network have the ability to create their own personal profiles, upload photos, connect with friends, send instant messages, write their own blogs, contribute to forums, and the like. This fad can only grow in the consumer space because like Twitter, as Ning has begun to attract celebrities who find the service a viable way of interacting with fans.

Nivio: This one’s special since it’s an idea conceptualised by Indian entrepreneurs. Nivio essentially brings the power of a desktop computer to the internet. With a Nivio account, users get their own personalised Windows desktop, complete with some of the world’s most popular software. Best part, you pay only a fraction of cost of the original software and yet get all the features. For as little as Rs 219, you get a complete Windows XP desktop, 5GB storage and an up-to-date security software.

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