KEY POINTS:
I've spent more time on the web this year than ever before and have come to rely on a handful of great internet services. Some of my favourites are listed below. While most have been around for a few years, they caught the imagination of the masses this year and are thriving.
* Facebook, the social networking site for those who can't stand the adolescent gaudiness of MySpace has been around since 2004, but was only opened to anyone with an email address late last year. And boy, did the floodgates open. With more than 50 million active users, most added this year, it has become one of the most-visited websites in the world - adding on average four million users a month and serving 15 billion web pages. It's just a great place to keep tabs on what your friends are doing - share photos, message each other and meet like-minded people. I've no time for all the goofy little games that have been designed to plug into Facebook, but I depend on it to keep tabs on my friends and colleagues.
* The rise of instant messaging has changed the way we communicate - we're as likely to send an instant message across the internet as we are to call, email or text message. But not everyone is on the same instant messaging network and Trillian is still the leader in cross-platform messaging. Through simple, free-to-download software, you can see the status of contacts on the AIM, ICQ, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo and IRC networks. A premium account adds numerous business messaging services and Skype. The software works with Windows and Apple Mac computers or as an internet-only application. My bugbear is the lack of GoogleTalk compatibility.
* Gmail, Google's free webmail service which was opened to the public in February, keeps getting better. The genius of Gmail is the way it encourages you to use the search bar to trawl through your email. I've found Gmail becomes more useful the longer I have it, as the database of information keeps growing. If I need a phone number, email address or important document, I simply punch a keyword into the search bar and the results are returned against a green background. Built-in GoogleTalk is convenient for messaging while you're working on email and I love the way Gmail saves the contact details of an unknown email recipient so you don't have to write out the address in full next time.
* I was miserable when my favourite web-based music radio station - Pandora.com - was limited to North American users earlier in the year as its owners baulked at royalty payments a worldwide service would entail. Luckily, a similar service - Last.fm - has filled the void for me. The British website has been around since 2002, but came into its own this year, when it was bought by CBS Interactive. It's now the biggest web-based music platform with 20 million users. Last.fm uses the power of social networking, feeding you the suggestions of like-minded listeners.
* Wordpress is a free weblog publishing system that plugs into the open-source MySQL database software and forms the basis of a growing number of impressive websites. Wordpress isn't for entry-level users. Blogging services such as Blogger and Typepad are better suited to them. But with relatively little effort, you can use Wordpress to build a decent-looking site that allows for multiple categories of articles, multiple authors, article tags and is likely to be picked up by search engines.
Next week: Best places to buy online in 2007.
