Skylight is an application that combines many of the tools that people use to make their business run smoothly—including scheduling, invoicing, and task assigning software—and combines them into one seamless and thorough web-based app. Instead of signing into and out of various business applications all day, business owners who use Skylight can sign in once and get all of their managerial work done in just one spot.

Because Skylight has so many unique features to choose from, it can be difficult to know where to begin once you start using the site. Input information about your business, and head to your personal dashboard page where you’ll see a handful of widgets that can be dragged around to wherever you prefer. Depending on the needs of your company, you might want to head over to the project management section, where you can view an activity feed, set milestones, and assign tasks to certain member of your team. Any project or document within your Skylight account can be commented on and tagged, making it easy to group together like projects and find exactly what you’re looking for at a moment’s notice.

Collaboration is a key feature throughout Skylight, and the application actively encourages its users to connect with colleagues, clients, and even friends through the online portal. When you make a connection, you can invite people to view the projects you’re working on with customizable access controls that prevent any one person from seeing too much of your latest plans. Overall, Skylight is a full-service business management application that offers all the tools your company needs, and probably a few more that you didn’t even know you’d want.

Practical Uses:

• Start assigning tasks to employees at your company
• Create invoices to send to clients
• Make all of the files for your clients accessible from any computer
• Connect with clients online and get feedback on upcoming project ideas

Insider Tips:

• Use the drag and drop interface to create custom business reports
• Upload your current contacts list directly into Skylight
• Create unique tags and group projects by category
• Use the search feature to find mention of a certain word used anywhere within your account

What we liked:

• Skylight offers all the tools you need to manage a business in one application
• Users can organize the dashboard widgets however they like to create a page that meets their needs
• Tagging system is an effective way of managing projects and documents
• Access level controls limit how much content each collaborator can view

What we didn’t like:

• With so many tools, it can take a while to get acclimated to using Skylight

Alternatives:

• Moobiz – www.moobiz.com
• WorkingPoint – www.workingpoint.com
• Zoho – www.zoho.com

Company Info:

• Launched: August 2009 (Beta)
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: London, United Kingdom
• Founded by: Jamie Mill and Taimur Khan
• Web site: skylightit.com

Costs:

• Free (in Beta)

Rating:

• 4 out of 5 (great)

Email messages can easily get hacked, and security with standard snail mail isn’t much better. So what’s a person supposed to do when he needs to share an important document with a client, but doesn’t live close enough to drop it off in person? SafeDrop thinks it has the answer. The secure document and message-sharing site allows users to send sensitive files without fear that the messages will be copied, pasted, or forwarded to anyone else.

Whether you’re a freelancer or a business owner, you can sign up for a free trial with SafeDrop and start testing out the site for yourself within minutes. Use the site similarly to how you would use a new email account by typing in a message and attaching any important documents. SafeDrop provides a special space for a one-time message, where you can type “maximum security” information like passwords and credit card numbers without fear of this information being exposed to anyone else but your recipient. Once your message is ready, go ahead and add the email address of the person you’re sending it to and you’re done. Your message will be encrypted while it’s in transit, and SafeDrop will send you a delivery receipt that lets you know when the message has been viewed.

The messages and documents you send and receive through SafeDrop will be automatically deleted after a pre-selected period of time, leaving no trace on anyone’s servers or paper trail to be followed up on. You can also create a custom domain through the site, giving you an additional level of security and professionalism when communicating with important clients. Whether you’re sharing credit card numbers, banking passwords, or top-secret trade information, SafeDrop is an application that ensures your messages will be seen only by the people you intend.

Practical Uses:

• Send private messages that even your IT staff can’t view
• Securely share confidential information with other business associates
• Give your spouse your bank password without fear of it getting stolen in transit
• Share personal messages with your closest friends without fear of misuse

Insider Tips:

• Create a custom domain for a company-branded look
• Control the privacy levels and determine how long each message should be kept
• Upload private documents that can only be viewed by the intended recipient
• Specify how long your client has to view the message before it’s automatically deleted

What we liked:

• Users can set all the controls for their own accounts
• View your messages with a web browser or a desktop tool
• Use the API to control even more elements of your account
• Only 3 SafeDrop admins have access to the data on the company servers

What we didn’t like:

• For day-to-day emails, using SafeDrop is probably not necessary
• Monthly price is based on the number of users, making it less than ideal for larger companies

Alternatives:

• Keyvault – keyvault.net
• Lockbin – lockbin.com
• Whisper Bot – www.whisperbot.com

Company Info:

• Launched: 2009
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: London, England
• Founded by: Angus Bradley
• Web site: www.safedrop.com

Costs:

• Free trial
• £9.99 per user, per month

Rating:

• 5 out of 5 (wow)

Shrinking is a weight loss tracking application that gives users all the tools necessary to monitor their food, exercise, and weight loss goals. From the super simple graph on the application’s dashboard that shows just how much progress you’ve made, to the timeline tools that work to keep you on track with meeting your dieting goals, Shrinking offers all the tools a person could need to manage their weight loss program right on the web.

After you register for a Shrinking account and create a username and password, you can get started by entering your current weight, your goal weight, and the date you’d like the meet that goal. Shrinking will automatically generate a graph showing where you’re at in relation to your goal, which you can use to gauge your progress throughout the weight loss journey. The next step is to start working on a food and exercise diary. Reserved for users with premium accounts, this feature lets you track what you’ve eaten and how much you’ve worked out each day. The application then calculates your calorie consumption and lets you know if you have a net gain or a net loss of calories for the day. Also for premium account users, Shrinking offers a general notebook feature where you can write down inspirational quotes, random thoughts, and anything else that motivates you to reach your physical goals.

One of the biggest benefits to using Shrinking is its food diary feature, which can provide you with the calorie counts for just about any food under the sun. Search for a specific food item or browse through dishes and you’ll instantly see a breakdown of all the nutritional information, including serving size, fat, calories, protein, and more. For people who are serious about losing weight, Shrinking is an application that can help you stay on track and on time when it comes to meeting your health-related goals.

Practical Uses:

• Monitor your weight on a day-to-day basis
• Get closer to reaching your ultimate weight loss goals
• Keep track of whether you’re gaining or losing weight over the course of a month
• Write down your food intake and keep track of your exercise schedule

Insider Tips:

• Upgrade to a premium account to take advantage of the diary and notebook features
• Let the BMI Analyzer tool calculate your BMI
• Type in any food item and see a breakdown of the nutritional information
• Set multiple weight loss goals to make reaching those goals easier

What we liked:

• Graphing tool makes it easy to see how much progress you’ve made
• Food diary will automatically calculate how many calories you consumed
• Timeline tool lets you see how many days you have left until your goal due date
• Users can view how many calories they burned and consumed for any given day

What we didn’t like:

• The best features are reserved for premium users

Alternatives:

• Gymnag – www.gymnag.com
• LifeMojo – www.lifemojo.com
• MyFitnessPal – www.myfitnesspal.com

Company Info:

• Launched: January 2010
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: Jacksonville, Florida
• Founded by: MediaLeaf Technologies
• Web site: shrinkingapp.com

Costs:

• Basic plan is free
• Premium plan is $3/month

Rating:

• 4 out of 5 (great)

Stuck in a food rut? Give Yummly a try. The recipe database offers a better way to find interesting dishes than simply thumbing through a cookbook or Googling around for ideas online. By keying into the issues that matter most to home cooks—like understanding the differences between styles of cooking and individual ingredients—Yummly has been able to create a searchable recipe database that promises to deliver all the dishes that you’ll actually like in just a few short keystrokes.

The way you use Yummly will depend on what you feel like making. If you’re not sure of what you want to eat, then start out by using the application’s “Food Finder” to browse all the most popular dishes on the site. You can sort recipes by course, by diet, or by allergy, and see how many calories are in each serving before clicking on the dish. If you already know what you want to eat, you just don’t know how to make it, then type the name of the dish you’re looking for into the search box on Yummly’s main page. You’ll be presented with a list of dishes that meet your request, and you can click on whichever looks best to find out the specific ingredients you’ll need to begin.

What makes Yummly especially useful to amateur and expert cooks is that the application lets users edit recipes and save them as their own. You can also see common ingredient substitutions—which is helpful if you’re missing one or two ingredients for the dish—and add your own photos to show others on the site what the dish looks like when it’s complete. For people who like cooking and connecting with friends through social networking sites online, Yummly provides an interactive way to learn new kitchen skills and discover recipes worth trying out.

Practical Uses:

• Learn how to make an egg salad sandwich
• Check out photos to see how your enchiladas are supposed to look when they’re finished cooking
• Follow users whose recipes you enjoy
• Get ideas about what to make for dinner this week

Insider Tips:

• Sign up for an account and create a public profile
• Make edits to recipes and save them as your own
• Sort recipes by most popular or highest rated
• Connect through Facebook to share Yummly recipes with your friends

What we liked:

• Input the number of servings you want to make and Yummly will automatically adjust the recipe
• Users can submit their own recipes to share with others online
• Most recipes have nutritional information included
• Step-by-step instructions make it easy to follow any recipe
• Users can edit recipes based on their own likes and dislikes

What we didn’t like:

• Many recipes still do not have photos attached

Alternatives:

• AllRecipes – allrecipes.com
• Epicurious – www.epicurious.com
• Supercook – www.supercook.com

Company Info:

• Launched: June 2010
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: Redwood City, California
• Founded by: David Feller Founder and Vadim Geshel
• Web site: www.yummly.com

Costs:

• Free

Rating:

• 4 out of 5 (great)

Mapbuzz is an application that allows users to create online maps showing all their favorite spots in town. These maps can then be shared with friends, offering an easy way to tell others about your favorite nearby restaurants, yoga studios, or hiking trails. For people interested in traveling, the application offers a fun way to plan trips ahead of time and mark out all the tourist destinations that can’t be missed. And since the maps on Mapbuzz are searchable, new users can utilize the collective power of the Internet to find out about under-the-radar nightspots and restaurants that wouldn’t be included in any guidebook or article in a travel magazine.

You’ll need to sign up with Mapbuzz to start creating maps, although you can search through the maps that other people have made by simply typing any destination into the search box on the main screen. If you don’t find any maps that match what you’re looking for, then go ahead and make your own. Click “Create Map,” name your map, add related tags and a description, and click “Create.” If you already have the data points for your map, then you can import those directly into the Mapbuzz site. If not, then type in the name of the city where you map will be set, and use the symbol tool to place markers in all the spots you want to add. Each marker gets a name, an icon, a description and tags, and you can even use the line tool to link two places together.

One of the greatest things about Mapbuzz is its social networking component, which makes it easy for people to share maps with each other and follow the ever-changing maps created by businesses, schools, and election campaigns. The various rating features offer a basic way to determine the usefulness of a map before clicking on it, while the “Nearby” feature offers a way to see only the maps that were created to showcase places near your current location. For travelers and city dwellers alike, Mapbuzz is an interesting new app worth checking out.

Practical Uses:

• Share all your favorite nightspots with your friends
• Make a map showing all the different schools you’ve attended
• Plan out a bar crawl with your friends and print a map of all the destinations
• Get to know a new city by checking out the maps made by other users

Insider Tips:

• Use the tagging feature to find related maps and get your own map seen by others
• Rate the usefulness of each map you check out
• Search for similar maps before making your own
• Create a profile of yourself to give people a better idea of who is making a map

What we liked:

• Creating a map with Mapbuzz is as simple as creating one with Google Maps
• Tagging and search features make it easy to find the maps you want
• Click on any user’s name to find other maps he or she has made
• Great way for friends and families to share information about vacation destinations or favorite restaurants nearby

What we didn’t like:

• Some of the features made the website move very slowly on Firefox
• Not every city has pre-made maps available just yet, although that will change as more people start using the site

Alternatives:

• Atlas – fmatlas.com
• Click2Map – click2map.com
• Google Maps – maps.google.com
• Share My Map – www.sharemymap.com

Company Info:

• Launched: 2007
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: Denver, Colorado
• Founded by: Charlie Savage
• Web site: www.mapbuzz.com

Costs:

• Free

Rating:

• 4 out of 5 (great)

Zingaya is an application that takes long distance calling to a whole new level and makes getting in touch with loved ones and business associates as simple as can be. Without needing a standard telephone, or even a downloaded program such as Skype, users can start receiving calls from their friends and family through their very own websites. In fact, people who use Zingaya don’t even have to know the phone number of the person they’re trying to reach. The application lets users embed a “Call” button onto their website, that friends, associates, and customers can use to ring them up anytime day or night.

Making and receiving phone calls is easy with Zingaya, and you can get started getting back in touch with friends just as soon as you sign up for an account. Select a pricing plan and then use the widget wizard to create the Zingaya “Call” button widget to be placed on your site. You can adjust the look of your widget to blend in with your existing website, and elect to have your incoming calls routed to your home phone, cell phone, or Skype number. Once you’ve embedded the widget on your site, anyone with a web browser and a microphone can simply click on the “Call” button to reach you directly. These calls can be recorded and saved, and you can set up an online voicemail to pick up automatically during non-working hours.

For businesses, Zingaya is a particularly useful tool. The application makes it easy for customers visiting your website to call your company directly with further questions, and Zingaya has been shown to improve customer satisfaction and lower telephone operating costs for businesses using the app. For individual consumers and businesses alike, Zingaya is an interesting new way to connect with people from around the world without spending a bundle on long distance fees.

Practical Uses:

• Give your friends an easy way to get in touch while you’re studying abroad
• Make it easier for customers to call you directly with follow up questions
• Receive phone calls from people without having to give out your personal number
• Save money by no longer needing a toll free number for customer complaints

Insider Tips:

• Use the call history feature to keep track of which clients called that day
• Elect to only receive calls from people in certain countries
• Widgets only work on your domain, so people can’t post your widget on their site
• Decide whether to have calls routed to your cell phone, home phone, business phone, or Skype

What we liked:

• Widgets can be customized to blend in with your website
• Set up Zingaya to only deliver calls to your phone during business hours only
• Your actual telephone number is always kept private
• Online voicemail feature ensures your cell phone inbox isn’t overrun with messages from people calling through Zingaya

What we didn’t like:

• The free plan only allows for call forwarding to Skype, as opposed to a fixed or mobile number

Alternatives:

• JAJAH – jajah.com
• Ribbit – www.ribbit.com
• Skype – www.skype.com
• TringMe – tringme.com

Company Info:

• Launched: June 2010
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: London, England
• Founded by: Alexey Aylarov
• Web site: www.zingaya.com

Costs:

• Free plan
• Standard plan is $1/day, plus usage fees
• Advanced plan is $2/day, plus usage fees

Rating:

• 5 out of 5 (wow)

UserVoice is an application that makes it easier for businesses to find out what their customers have to say. By letting customers voice their opinions and utilizing the power of collective intelligence, companies can improve the products and services they offer, impress customers with their willingness to listen, and hopefully increase sales of whatever it is they’re offering to clients.

If your business already has a website set up, then installing UserVoice should be a snap. Just make a few decisions regarding which type of feedback you’d like to illicit from customers or employees, decide which languages to support, and then copy the provided code from UserVoice right into your own site. A fully-customized and branded widget should instantly show up on your website, where people can type in suggestions and vote on which other user ideas they like the most. Ideas with the most votes will appear at the top of the customer feedback list, and you can respond directly by commenting underneath any suggestion on that list. Mark the best ideas as “under review,” and then update the status when the idea has been accepted and implemented into your corporate plan.

To make the voting process fair, each user is allotted only 10 votes to dole out at any given time, while a live search feature makes it easy for people to find previous suggestions that are similar to their own before submitting the same idea twice. Each week, UserVoice will send your customers an updated email to let them know the latest status changes to all their suggestions and tips. For companies looking for a better way to facilitate interaction with clients, customers, and even their own employees, UserVoice is an excellent app that’s easy to implement and fun to use.

Practical Uses:

• Get tips on how to improve your business
• Seek out ideas for new products and services that clients would enjoy
• Find out if clients like your new pricing plan
• Create an ongoing conversation with your customers

Insider Tips:

• Upgraded plans allow customers to leave suggestions and vote without registering
• Moderate suggestions to weed out inappropriate comments
• Configure your UserVoice widget to match the rest of your site
• Suggestions with the most votes will rise to the top of the list

What we liked:

• Leaving a suggestion is an easy and quick process
• Anyone who can copy and paste can insert the UserVoice widget onto their site
• Company data can be kept secure with SSL encryption
• Export your UserVoice data and suggestions to Excel at any time

What we didn’t like:

• Custom designed widgets are only available with the most expensive plan

Alternatives:

• CrowdSound – crowdsound.com
• Get Satisfaction – getsatisfaction.com
• SuggestionBox.com – www.suggestionbox.com

Company Info:

• Launched: April 2008
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: San Francisco, California
• Founded by: Richard White and Scott Rutherford
• Web site: uservoice.com

Costs:

• Free plan
• Tin plan is $19/month
• Bronze plan is $89/month
• Silver plan is $289/month
• Gold plan is $589/month

Rating:

• 5 out of 5 (wow)

What happens when your office uses a scheduling program that doesn’t sync with your preexisting social calendar? All too often, you end up with double-bookings that need to be cancelled and time zone mistakes that cause cross-country calls to go unanswered. Thankfully, the creators behind Tungle.me have found a way to make all those issues a relic of the past, by introducing an online scheduling system that syncs with other web-based calendars including Microsoft Outlook, Apple iCal, Google Calendar, and others.

To start scheduling meetings with Tungle.me, sign up for an account and embed a Tungle.me link in your email signature. Rather than going back and forth with a client to find a meeting time that’s right for you both, simply send an email with information about what you’d like to discuss and direct him to click on the Tungle.me link at the bottom of the note to set up a time to talk. Your client will be taken to your Tungle.me scheduling page, where he can see the times when you’re available. In three short steps, he can input his personal information and pick a handful of times that work for him. Tungle.me will turn around and send you an email invitation listing the various times your client has selected for the meeting, and you can then choose one of those times and confirm the appointment.

When the meeting is confirmed, your client will receive a final email from Tungle.me letting him know the meeting is on. The information will then be automatically added to all of your other online calendars. The synching with Tungle.me goes two ways, which means that as events are added to your others calendar, those time slots will disappear from your Tungle.me schedule. For busy professionals, Tungle.me is an amazing application that can decrease the time you spend scheduling your meetings and add hours back to your life.

Practical Uses:

• Schedule a phone meeting with an important client
• Let your coworker see which times you’re free before asking for a meeting
• Get an automatic confirmation when a meeting time has been selected
• Waste less time booking appointments for clients and employees

Insider Tips:

• Sync Tungle.me with your existing calendars
• Add a photo and contact information to your Tungle.me page
• Ensure clients know how to get to your Tungle.me scheduling page by adding a link to your email signature
• Search for colleagues within the Tungle.me directory, then schedule group meetings by clicking on their names

What we liked:

• People don’t have to sign up for Tungle.me to schedule meetings through the site
• iPhone and Blackberry apps let you schedule meetings without a computer
• The app always takes time zone issues into account
• Clients can’t try scheduling meetings for a time when Tungle.me says you’re unavailable

What we didn’t like:

• Clients who are not tech-savvy may not like being required to schedule meetings through the site

Alternatives:

• Jiffle – www.jifflenow.com
• Scheduly – www.scheduly.com
• TimeBridge – www.timebridge.com

Company Info:

• Launched: May 2009
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: Montreal, Canada
• Founded by: Marc Gingras
• Web site: www.tungle.me

Costs:

• Free

Rating:

• 4 out of 5 (great)

Teambox is an application that uses a Twitter-style system of status updates and replies to help companies of all sizes work together more effectively. Within one minute of signing up, a company’s employees can begin leaving messages and posting status updates to let each other know how far along they are on individual tasks. Without the need for endless emails or back-and-forth instant messaging conversations, employees can spend more time working on assignments and less time letting each other know how those assignments are coming along.

Since Teambox doesn’t require any installations or pesky downloads, you can start using the system and connecting with your colleagues and associates within minutes of signing up. Upload information about all the projects you’re working on right into the site and add specific colleagues to each project by entering their email addresses. Each employee will be able to update his status in a Twitter-style box, where you can also upload attachments to be downloaded by everyone in your organization. Among the most useful areas within Teambox are the application’s Conversations and Task sections, where status updates and dialogue can be organized into threads, all but eliminating the need for email. Task lists can also be created, which is a useful way for a manager to show each employee what issues are ongoing and which still need to be resolved.

To view all of your projects at once, head back to the All Projects Overview screen to see the latest communication going on within each of your projects in one place. You can also log onto the site via the Teambox mobile app, which makes it easy to tell when new tasks have been assigned to you without having to sit down at a computer and sign in online. Teambox is an app that harnesses the power of Twitter and puts it to use in a business setting, making it an excellent tool for online companies of all sizes to try out.

Practical Uses:

• Communicate efficiently with freelancers
• Let your client see how his project is progressing
• Assign tasks to employees and find out how their progress is coming along
• Share articles and ideas with all the members of your team

Insider Tips:

• Subscribe to an RSS newsfeed of all the status updates within a project
• Download the mobile application to your iPhone
• Include attachments with your task assignments
• Set permissions to limit what each colleague can contribute to a project page

What we liked:

• Anyone who uses Twitter should be able to use Teambox
• Threaded conversations eliminate the need for back-and-forth emails
• Tasks can be assigned to certain employees
• Each project has its own title and URL

What we didn’t like:

• Free and personal plans don’t come with any search features, making it difficult to find specific tasks or conversations quickly

Alternatives:

• Basecamp – basecamphq.com
• Braintrust – braintrust.io
• Google Wave – wave.google.com
• Socialwok – www.socialwok.com

Company Info:

• Launched: September 2008
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: Barcelona, Spain
• Founded by: Pablo Villalba
• Web site: teambox.com

Costs:

• Free plan
• Personal plan is $12/month
• Basic plan is $29/month
• Professional plan is $99/month
• Corporate plan is $299/month

Rating:

• 5 out of 5 (wow)

Sync.in is a web processor that works in the clouds, allowing users to simultaneously collaborate on text documents in real time no matter where they’re located in the world. For remote workers, college students, businesses with multiple offices, and teams of all types, Sync.in has made it easy to work together on pitches, brainstorming sessions, meeting notes, and project plans without having to worry about emailing attachments back and forth.

If you’re interested in using Sync.in, it’s probably because you’ve got something to type. Get started on your project by inviting your friends to collaborate on a new note. The name of each collaborator currently working on the document will show up in a box on the right side of the page, with a unique color next to each person’s name. This color will match up to the text that the user has added to the document, making it easy to determine who has contributed what to the project at hand. Although Sync.in allows multiple users to type simultaneously on the screen, more organized teams may prefer to utilize the chat box in the lower right-hand corner. There, collaborators can discuss important changes before making them on the document. These chat conversations can be referred back to at any time, since Sync.in archives each and every one.

If a change has been made to the document that you don’t like, there’s no need to worry. Sync.in offers a time slider feature, which allows users to go back in time to find any previous version of the document. The app also features an infinite undo history, a desktop launcher, and password protected documents for Pro users. Documents can be easily shared as read-only or editable files by pasting a provided link into any email, IM, or Twitter status update. For teammates looking for a way to get on the same page, Sync.in is a real-time document conferencing tool that cannot be beat.

Practical Uses:

• Collaborate on a pitch for a new client with coworkers
• Work on a research paper with your classmates from home
• Hold a brainstorming session with staffers located throughout the country
• Work on a company mission statement and get feedback right away

Insider Tips:

• Upgrade to a Pro account to make documents private
• Send out a link to the read-only version of the document
• Save, delete, or un-delete any document at any time
• Filter by collaborator to view specific projects a colleague has worked on

What we liked:

• Each collaborator’s text is highlighted in a unique color
• Time slider feature lets you easily return to a previous version of the document
• Chat room conversations are saved for future reference
• Pro users can put passwords on certain documents

What we didn’t like:

• All documents are public for users with free accounts

Alternatives:

• Adobe Buzzword – www.adobe.com/acom/buzzwo…
• Google Docs – docs.google.com
• Google Wave – wave.google.com
• TypeWith.me – typewith.me

Company Info:

• Launched: April 2010
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: Mumbai, India
• Founded by: Cynapse
• Web site: sync.in

Costs:

• Free accounts for public documents
• Pro accounts are $2 per user, per month

Rating:

• 5 out of 5 (wow)