• FormSpring - Make Online Forms for Free; The easy way to build, host and process online forms.
• JotForm -It is the web based WYSIWYG form builder. With it, you can design forms to use somewhere else and let the JotForm server collect the data for you.
• Sidewalk - The easiest way to gather and analyze customer information; Create custom forms in a matter of minutes. Then, place them on your Web site with a simple copy and paste. When people fill out your new Web form, Sidewalk automatically saves and organizes the information for you.
• StarterBase - It lets you create, organize, and share data on the web. With starterbase, you can create a quick and easy CRM system, and create customer feedback forms, among many other things useful for a startup.
• The Blue Form - It is the process automation service for creating and managing online forms in your organisation. It allows complete control over the form workflow, allowing you to select approvers, and keep track of the form after it has been filled-in.
• The Form Assembly - It lets you create and process web forms, and collect responses.
• Wufoo - It is an online tool that helps you build and host online forms. You can create a mailing list, a contact form, a marketing survey or even a complete customer management system.

• While Saas is not a new idea, the economic climate and rapid advancements in application development tools have combined to make SaaS more attractive and successful today than their predecessors–ASPs (application service providers) and hosting services of the past.
• SaaS allows for lower total cost of ownership and quicker time-to-value.
• SaaS solutions are emerging to address nearly every business application need. SaaS not only applies to customer relationship management and salesforce automation but also makes sense for many front-office functions and team-oriented collaboration purposes.
• As SaaS gains mainstream acceptance, it is becoming an important disruptive force in the software industry.
• It is not easy for the big and established software vendors to dominate the market of SaaS. You can also join the SaaS movement and make wealth.
• SaaS is not only for corporate user. Many SaaS providers aimed at small and midsize business and the home user.

To probe further about SaaS and its players, SaaS Showplace (saas-showplace.com) is a good place to start with. It gives a simple, easy-to-use directory of SaaS providers and enabling technology vendors.

My point is that the responsibility to solve the problem of long URLs should go to those websites that generate long and unwieldy URLs and those users who posting them directly into email messages.

Four web software to create a short URL from a long one:

1. TinyURL.com: “Are you sick of posting URLs in emails only to have it break when sent causing the recipient to have to cut and paste it back together? Then you’ve come to the right place. By entering in a URL in the text field below, we will create a tiny URL that will not break in email postings and never expires.”
2. SnipURL: “Website URLs are long and difficult to remember. SnipURL allows you to “snip” your long URLs into small, friendly and persistent links for sharing and remembering. Free!”
3. shorl.com: “To make a long story short: Shorl makes long URLs short.”
4. DigBig: “Shorten a long Web address.”

Num Sum is advertised as easy, sharable web spreadsheets. With it you can (1) track your records, lists and data online, (2) share with other users you decided, (3) connect with other users who have similar interests. Example uses of Num Sum are: team schedules, home budgeting, online stock portfolio, and recording project progress.

iRows is the Web based online spreadsheets. With it you can (1) manage your data online, access it anywhere, anytime, (2) share your data others, (3) display your data on any web site, change it here, and all sites change automatically, (4) compute, chart, and analyze your data online.

Number (Beta) is the web based spreadsheet that enables instantaneous collaboration with anyone on your project team. With it you and your-invited users can work with a spreadsheet, view changes in real time, and discuss changes.

Zoho Writer - Online Word Processor

You can access, edit, share your documents from anywhere. With Zoho Writer, you can share your documents with your friends or publish them for public. Documents created in Zoho Writer can be exported as PDF/DOC/HTML files. Create, edit or re-format your document using WYSIWYG editor. You can import Microsoft Word or Open office document format. You can post your document into your blogs like WordPress, Blogger, TypePad and Live Journal from Zoho Writer. Zoho Writer allows versioning. No need to keep multiple copies. Zoho Writer now supports Multi-language. You can write documents in your mother tongue.

Writely - The Web Word Processor

It’s free, simple and secure way of web document sharing. Nothing to download — your browser is all you need. Collaborate just by entering people’s e-mail addresses. Publish on the web or post to your blog with a click.

Writeboard - Online collaborative writing software

Writeboards are sharable, web-based text documents that let you save every edit, roll back to any version, and easily compare changes. Use Writeboard to write solo or collaborate with others.

1. The Web now is not simply a document delivery system. It becomes an application platform. It can be your programmable oyster through public API’s and web services.
2. With technologies that enable data to become independent of the website it originated on, content now can move beyond websites, can be altered, filtered or remixed by anyone for any specific purpose.
3. The Web now encourages more and richer user participation. Users control how data is categorized and manipulated. The Web now gives people more flexibility to find, organize, share and create information in a socially-networked fashion.

The following are two recently hot weblogs posts about reviews on Web 2.0 applications of 2005.

• Top 10 Innovative Web 2.0 Applications of 2005 (By: Mark Millerton)
• The Best Web 2.0 Software of 2005

If you want a gentle introduction on what Web 2.0 is, I recommend this: What is Web 2.0? By Andy Budd of Clearleft Ltd.

The article also gave six great examples of Websites that were built using this Web 2.0 approach. I also learn from it a Dutch company BackBase which has been doing a wonderful job on Web 2.0 and rich Internet applications.

Web 2.0 refers to technologies that allow data to become independent of the person who produced it or the site it originated on. It deals with how information can be broken up into units that flow freely from one site to another, often in ways the producer did not foresee or intend.

The Web 2.0 paradigm allows net users to pull information from a variety of sites simultaneously and deliver it on their own site to achieve new purposes.

But it is not a world of stealing others’ work or pirating information for one’s own gain. Instead, Web 2.0 is a product of the open-source, sharing notions the internet was founded on, and makes data more connected. This allows new information and business opportunities to be built upon the shoulders of the information that came before.

Web 2.0 lets data act as its own entity, which can be changed, altered or remixed by anyone for any specific purpose. When data is an entity, the net moves from a collection of websites to a true web of sites that can interact and process information collectively.

Related: Based on the similar idea, Spell with Flickr is a much earlier application that makes use of Flickr API. One good thing is that the main source code is included for learning purpose.

Your Internet application sends data to the HTTP-Tunnel Client, which in turn tunnels the data over HTTP (port 80) to the HTTP-Tunnel servers. The servers then send the data to the intended destination and forward the responses back to the HTTP-Tunnel client. This forwarding technique effectively bypasses firewalls, (or for users who do not have a firewall, but want secure, monitor free usage), permitting the user to successfully use thier favorite application.

So, you now know that HTTP sometimes is not real HTTP. It could be a black tunnel for people to transmit anything they like.

The Unofficial Web Applications List

This site is dedicated to the growing volume of web applications out there. As I come across new web applications, I will keep adding them to the site.

Online Image Editor: With this free online image editor, you can rotate, resize, add text and clipart, color correct and more. It is completely online, you don’t need to download or install any image editing software.

Backpack from 37signals: It is a web-based PIM that helps you get organized online. Someone called Simply Geek said: “It’s like Flickr and Ta-Da Lists got together and had a freakishly clever child. It is the solution to my short term memory problems and heaven for the organizer in me. …”

Kiko - A New Kind of Online Calendar. Kiko is an online calendar that was developed based on the newest web technologies. It is also free for registration.

Writely: It is a web-based word processor. It is still in beta stage. I am unable to test it since the server seems to be overloaded by the overwhelming response.

How many people are online at that moment? Can somebody tell me?

Update: add one more in the list.

AJAX IM: Asynchronous Javascript And XML Instant Messenger is is a browser-based instant messaging client.

30 Things You Didn’t Know You Could Do on the Internet

The Web is learning new tricks every day. These surprising sites and services will help you solve problems and save time–and one might even make you a star.

I particular like this item: Web APIs: Make the Big Sites Work for You. Do you know what are Amazon API, Google API, Flickr’s API, and Yahoo API? Do you know you can do something great and interesting with them? Here are four links for furture references.

• Develop Your Own Applications Using Google
• Create Applications Using Yahoo! Search
• Amazon Web Services API
• Flickr API