EndUser's Amazon Blog

Top 5 Little Web Apps You Might Not Be Using (But Should)

3:55 PM PST, March 5, 2008, updated at 3:59 PM PST, March 5, 2008

So you're an iGoogle homepage customization pro, you've got a Flickr and a Picasaaccount, your Twitters keep everyone aware of what you're doing minute to minute, and you're savvy enough to chat with your friends through firewalls using eBuddy. You're a web productivity monster. Right?

Here are five little web apps you might not be aware of--all lightweight, free to use, and handy as heck.

Zamzar.com--Zamzar is a site offering free file conversion from virtually any format to another format. Convert your picture, audio, or video files on the fly, or even put in the URL of a streaming video from a site such as YouTube and Zamzar will download and encode the video for you.

There's a subscription version of the service, but the free version is pretty robust: any file up to 100MB can be converted to dozens of formats and even packed into compressed .zip files (or .tar.gz for you Linux users).
Picnik.com--Got a photo you want to edit, but Photoshop takes too long to load and Paint just isn't robust enough? Picnik allows simple but powerful photo editing in your browser, with features from crop, rotate, exposure, and sharpen, to intelligent “autofixes”, advanced color editing, and even adding text and graphics to your existing photo.

Again, there's a subscription service, but that really just gets you the ability to edit in fullscreen mode (or you could, you know, just hit F11) and the removal of fairly unobtrusive banner ads.
Todoist.com--Developed by a “computer science student [with] 2 part-time jobs”, Todoist is a web application that basically functions as a personal assistant, or like a cloud of Post-It notes that follows you everywhere. Create a hierarchical calendar with your to-do items, and Todoist will contact you with recurring reminders via email or SMS, or through its integration with iGoogle, Quicksilver, Netvibes, and more.

A clean interface makes it intuitive to use, and it's more lightweight than your mobile phone's PDA functions but capable of reaching you in more places. And it doesn't require a mouse to use, relying largely on keyboard shortcuts, so it's just as fast to use through your Sidekick as through your Blackberry or laptop.
Xpenser.com--You don't need to be a high-powered corporate road warrior to know the value of tracking your travel and business expenses.

Xpenser offers what it calls a “fire and forget” method of expense tracking, where you can phone, email,or SMS expenses as you incur them to the site and it will organize, tally, and provide reports for your accountant or for your own personal budget tracking. There's even Twitter and IM integration.
Amazon Filler Item Finder--If you've done a bit of shopping on Amazon.com, you're probably familiar with our free Super Saver Shipping on orders of $25 or more. But what if your order is under $25? This little web app allows you to put in your shortfall and your preferred categories and will produce a browsable list of products that will put your order right at $25. The app was created by Kris Brower and Amazon.com has no affiliation with it, but I personally have found it rather handy.

--Aric A.

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Initial post: Mar 5, 2008 7:56 PM PST

Agen GN Schmitz says:

I started my online to-do listing with Todoist, but I've ended up with Remember the Milk (rememberthemilk.com) -- great iPhone web app interface, and I can subscribe to the tasks in the iCal app on my Mac.

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In reply to an earlier post on Mar 6, 2008 9:47 AM PST

Aric Annear says:

A good point. I don't use Macs so I didn't feel the need to switch, but Remember the Milk has a huge fanbase for its well-thought-out Apple integration. However, you have to buy a $25 pro account to use RTM with your iPhone.

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Posted on Mar 6, 2008 7:44 PM PST

J. Deutschendorf says:

One can also find filler items at jangle.net using the lowest price sort.

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