MaximumPC 2007 10

Web Apps

OFFICE PRODUCTIVITY INSTANT MESSAGING

60 MAXIMUMPC OCTOBER 2007

Meebo

One-stop IM shop for your web browser

WEB

Ajax13

A free MS Office alternative that lets you rock while

you work

Widgetbox

Hundreds of widgets for your

online life

Most blogs are about as interesting as

the cracks in a sidewalk. Some even less

so. Widgetbox gives you the tools to add

cool, dynamic content to your blog in

the form of hundreds of widgets for just

about any purpose. Need to add instant

lolcats to your front page? Select the I

Can Has Cheezburger widget, copy the

code, and paste it into your blog. But

there’s more to the site than mere diver-

sions. Widgetbox also gives you the tools

to create your own widgets—either by

turning your blog into a “blidget” that

others can subscribe to or by coding

something unique and adding it to the

Widgetbox collection.

Free, http://www.widgetbox.com

Work sucks. If they didn’t pay you so well to do it, you probably

wouldn’t bother. So why would you want to drop a few hundred bucks

on a suite of business apps when you can get the same features

online? Ajax13 is one of many free offi ce suite web apps, offering a

word processor, an Excel-compatible spreadsheet program, a draw-

ing app, and a PowerPoint-compatible presentation program. These

aren’t sloppy editors, either—each includes a standard button bar

that’s loaded with familiar tools. Plus, Ajax13 comes with ajaxTunes, a

mini music player loaded with Internet radio stations, so you can chill

with some tunes while you labor for the Man.

Free, http://www.ajax13.com

Why anyone

even bothers

running a single-

service IM app

anymore, we

just can’t fi gure

out. And now

Meebo is giv-

ing us cause to

wonder whether

installed clients

are even worth

the trouble

these days.

With its clean

Ajax-powered interface, Meebo gives you slick,

intuitive access to all the major IM services,

including AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk,

and Jabber. The Meebo client runs within your

browser, and like Google Talk, pops up with a

single click. Just create a Meebo account and

then link it to all your IM accounts for one-login

access without having to bloat your PC with

some overblown, adware-ridden chitchat client.

Free, http://www.meebo.com