Web Apps

Many people are uncomfortable with the idea of web-based applications, especially for use with sensitive data. But for a lot of situations, a web-based app can be a very convenient tool.

cnet's Webware section is devoted to discussing web applications. Take a look; you might find something that you can use. I found this interesting article: 15 online photo editors compared.

Also, a Webware article that talks about GMail's experimental built-in web search tool, available under Settings on the "Labs" tab. At first, I thought this feature was quite unnecessary, since I usually just open up a new tab in Firefox when I want to do a search. But GMail's web search is actually a convenient tool; it gives you a small search window to work with while you're composing your email message, and allows you to quickly paste a URL from your search results into your current email message.

Like others, I feel uncomfortable using any web-based application for certain things; and if there's anything that I'm worried about losing, I'm going to back it up to my hard drive, rather than trust things to the "cloud." Still, web-based apps are getting better and better, and there are many cases where using a web-based app makes more sense than using software that you have to install on your computer.