Top Web Based Applications for Small Business

[Kristijntje]

Welcome, boys and girls, to the computing world of tomorrow! Desktop programs are a thing of the past, replaced by free, simple, Web-based apps that do everything from spreadsheets to e-mail--and more!

Making it possible is Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML), a programming technique that gives Web sites the same kind of interactivity and speed that desktop programs have traditionally had. With Ajax, we'll no longer need desktop applications. Our data will be available to us everywhere we go, because it will all be stored on Ajax-based Web sites. Who needs Microsoft or other makers of desktop software? We're finally free!

That's the hype, anyway. But is it actually true?

To find out, we've scoured the Internet for the best Ajax-based sites in six categories: calendars, e-mail, information managers, spreadsheets, desktops (known in the Ajax world as webtops) and word processors. We've picked winners and runners-up in each category, and taken a look at a few of the other competitors in each category as well...

full article: http://www.forbes.com/2006/09/07/web-bas...print.html