In software engineering, a web application or webapp is an application that is accessed via a web browser over a network such as the Internet or an intranet. Web applications are popular due to the ubiquity of web browsers, and the convenience of using a web browser as a client, sometimes called a thin client. The ability to update and maintain web applications without distributing and installing software on potentially thousands of client computers is a key reason for their popularity, as is the inherent support for cross-platform compatibility. Common web applications include webmail, online retail sales, online auctions, wikis and many other functions.

Here’s a great starting compilation of web apps that every web developer, designer and freelancer should consider.

This listing was originally posted on InstantShift

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Project/Task Management Applications

Calendars and Time Tracking Applications

Invoicing Applications

Financial/Accounting Applications

Payment Applications

Document Storage and File Management Applications

Social Networking Applications

e-Mail Marketing Applications

Communication Applications

Client Contact and Feedback Applications

Web Analytics Applications

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Applications

Security and Privacy Applications

Online Portfolio and Resume Applications

Hard Drive Backup Applicationss

Project/Task Management Applications

Basecamp

Basecamp is online project management software. People can create, manage and communicate tasks, files and to-do lists. Basecamp offers a way to improve project communication. Use it to keep your teammates and clients informed about what’s going on with your projects. With a focus on simplicity and communication, it’s an enjoyable tool to use. Basecamp is not the most extended project management tools but it is one of the easiest to use. Which is important because you’re clients might be first-time users.

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Project2Manage

This online project management system that allows you to stay up-to-date on task and connect with your team. It provides with a huge list of features including messages, to-do lists, reminders, file management, iCal support etc. It enables you to add unlimited clients and users to each project. You can also create documents using its Spot2Jot feature and then share it with all your connections.

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Smartsheet

Smartsheet allows you to track and manage work in familiar smartsheet and calendar views. You can also upload files, track discussions, and share online with co-workers, clients, contractors, vendors etc. Using smartsheet you can set reminders and receive notifications when things change, generate filtered reports across all the work you manage and instantly find anything you’re tracking using search.

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Staction

Staction is a simple, but advanced way for groups of people to keep eachother up to date on the work they’re doing. How can you talk about project management without mentioning Basecamp? It’s really set a standard, and a high bar. Staction isn’t a me-too app. It’s not fixing what’s broken with Basecamp, -it’s a different way of looking at how groups get work done. Basecamp is about the project, and about the granular nugget of information. Staction is about the aerial view. With Basecamp you’re in the trenches. With Staction, you’re in the clouds. Of course we think it’s better, -or we wouldn’t have bothered to build it.

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Remember the Milk

Managing tasks is generally not a fun way to spend your time. Remember The Milk helps you so that you no longer have to write your to-do lists on sticky notes, whiteboards, random scraps of paper, or the back of your hand. Remember The Milk makes managing tasks an enjoyable experience. Remember the Milk has more features and looks nicer than most of its competitors. The many features of the service makes it also a bit more complicated than for example ta-da list.

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5pm

5pm is an entirely web based project management solution that is designed to effortlessly manage projects of varying complexities. 5pm displays an intuitive approach to the complicated task of project management, allowing its users to seamlessly handle users and groups across projects with minimum effort. It boasts of an interface that can be easily customized and has a stylish timeline view.

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Huddle

Huddle is a network of Online workspaces that brings project management software, online collaboration and document sharing together. Huddle gives you simple, secure online workspaces containing powerful project and collaboration tools. Huddle is hosted, there’s no software to download and it’s free to get started.

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Action Method

There are too many ideas in the world, and not enough action. Without organization and productivity, brilliant ideas never happen. Action Method Online is a radically different approach to productivity, designed to simplify project management and life.

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Subernova

Subernova makes you more productive by taking the stress out of remembering important details of your projects, lets you track your time, collaborate with team mates or clients and keeps your business smooth by keeping tabs on your invoices, deadlines and more.

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Task.fm

Task.fm is a really simple reminder and task management tool. Use task.fm to create reminders that can be delivered via sms, email or voice call. Task.fm is smart enough to understand your natural language so you don’t need to bother entering dates or times manually. Instead, just type something like “meeting with bob next Tuesday at noon” and we will pick out the date, time and event automatically. You can create reminders on the task.fm site, through email or Twitter.

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Calendars and Time Tracking Applications

Backpack

Backpack is an easy intranet for your business. Very easy to setup and use service that integrates to-do lists, notes, files, images, and a calendar with reminders that can be sent to your email or cell. Safe and secure. The main difference between Backpack and other competing applications, such as Google Apps, is the lack of functionality available with the free version. Backpack isn’t quite as generous when it comes to free functionality so, unless you are willing to hand over your credit card information, you won’t be experiencing the full features. The free features that are available, such as the calender and writeboard functions, do work well, but they are the very least of what could be expected from such a product and nothing worth writing home about.

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Google Calendar

It’s a free online calendar powered by Google, it’s easy to keep track of life’s important events all in one place. It helps you to organize your schedule and share events with friends, so you’ll always know exactly what you need to be working on.

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Harvest

Harvest lets you and your staff track time, log expenses, and create invoices in one simple, integrated workflow. Set yourself or your team up on Harvest in just a few minutes, and instantly start tracking time and expenses. Use the Harvest graphical reports to see the distribution of your company’s resources in a visual, intuitive way. Quickly create an invoice, and with just a single click, bill your client. You’ll see your revenue come in faster with Harvest. Give Harvest a try and improve your business today.

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Ta-da List

Ta-da List is the web’s easiest to-do list tool. Make lists for yourself or share them with others. It couldn’t be simpler. When you’re busy with lots of projects, it can be hard to keep track of what you’ve accomplished. Make web-based ta-da lists for yourself or other people, then share them and check items off as you go.

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RescueTime

RescueTime is a web-based time management and analytics tool for knowledge workers who want to be more efficient and productive. The best way to get a sense of how it works for you or your team is to sign up (for free!). You’ll be up and running in a minute or two. Not yet ready to give it a try? View one of the tour videos or scroll down for some feature screenshots.

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Tickspot

Tick is a simple and friendly time tracking application focused on helping you hit your budgets. In the service industry your hours are your inventory. Lose track of them—they spoil. Hit your budgets—move more inventory. Tick gives you the information you need, when you need it.

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Freckle

Freckle is a time tracking application. It is designed for real people who do real work. Freckle helps you see the big picture: which days have you been working? How much, and on what? Is all that time billable time? What are your teammates and employees doing?

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Invoicing Applications

The Invoice Machine

The Invoice Machine takes a new clever approach to online invoicing. It’s beautiful and simple-to-use interface makes producing professional looking invoices a very pleasant experience.

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Freshbooks

Very popular and first choice. freshbooks deliver fast and simple invoicing and time tracking services that help you manage your business. freshbooks believes running a business is hard enough. We believe financial record keeping should be easy, fast, (and perhaps even fun), but still detailed enough to satisfy your accountant.

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Blinksale

Blinksale is perfect for anyone who needs to invoice clients for services or products sold. Blinksale is an excellent choice for attorneys, accountants, designers, IT professionals, software developers, journalists, contractors, engineers, architects, videographers, and more. Basically, if you need to send invoices, Blinksale can work for you.

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Intuit Billing Manager

Intuit Billing Manager is the fast, easy, FREE way to manage your invoicing online. Use the Billing Manager web site to create customized, professional invoices, send them by email and track payment history and status — all on one place. Spend less time on your paperwork and more time on your customers.

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Ballpark

Using Ballpark is going to be your daily bottom of the ninth, full count, walk-off home run moment of invoice zen. It makes it easier than ever to collaboratively send invoices and estimates, keep track of current and future projects, and compress all those email threads into one coherent conversation. Equally useful for teams of one, ten, or one hundred, it’s built for everyone from freelancers to glossy agencies. You’ll feel more organized from start to finish.

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Zoho Invoice

Zoho Invoice has gained the loyalty and trust of companies and the individuals around the world by providing a feature-rich and user friendly interface. Quickly, easily send elegantly formatted invoices and quotes to your clients. Track invoices, send reminders, accept payments online and acknowledge receipts.

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SimplyInvoices

If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to invoice your Basecamp time, Simply Invoices is worth a look.

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Financial/Accounting Applications

LessAccounting

LessAccounting is a small business accounting software. After logging into Less Accounting, the dashboard is your home page. From the dashboard you can see an expense overview, chart cash flow, see which invoices haven’t been paid and see what expenses need to be paid. Allows you to track expenses and send Invoices & Proposals (html and pdf, download pdfs). Tracking expenses is easy with nightly bank data aggregation. Includes iPhone application and integration to a wide range of popular business applications.

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Mint

Mint does what most people hate to do manage their money intelligently and that too free of cost. It saves people from spending hundreds of dollars on hiring finance professionals to understand where they spent their money and the hours one spends wondering where all the hard-earned money disappeared. Once a person sets up his or her Mint account, the site collates their bank account data and credit card data, processes it, and displays the financial state in an intuitive and easy-to-understand manner. What’s more is that Mint does not just provide the user with the vanilla savings and spending balance sheet; it gives them excellent insights on how to manage their money.

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Wesabe

Wesabe is part money management tool, part community. Wesabe gives you the tools and the insights to take control of your finances. See all your bank and credit card balances in one place and learn ways to get ahead.

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QuickBooks

QuickBooks Online is your source for online accounting software that is more than accounting software! It’s an easy- to-use, online version of America’s most popular accounting software. And your accounting is free with our free trial of QuickBooks Online; it’s a great way to manage the online accounting of a new business. And our accounting versions are so feature-rich they’re an excellent way to take care of all your accounting online, without the need to install accounting software on your computer.

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Xero

Xero is an online accounting system designed for small businesses and their advisors. It’s simple, smart and secure. It really is one of the best ways to keep all of your finance and invoicing in check.

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Pulse

Pulse is the easy way to manage your cash flow online, allowing you to quickly manage and evaluate your income and expenses. Pulse empowers you to make decisions. While other accounting tools let you track your financials, they don’t give you the ability to make the tough day to day decisions that happen when running a small business.

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Work etc.

Worketc run your entire business originally came from a small, but rapidly expanding web design business.  As business owners, worketc quickly realized how challenging growth is and set about putting in place the systems and processes that would allow our little business to become a big business.

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Geezeo

Geezeo is a leading software services provider for banks and credit unions. We help organizations engage their base, reach new markets, and increase wallet share. Their primary focus is to provide services and technologies that enable the clients to activate their target audiences—to participate in sound financial decision making, engage in community discussions, take advantage of relevant products and services, and create a more valuable customer experience.

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Payment Applications

PayPal

PayPal allows any business or consumer with an email address to securely, conveniently and cost-effectively send and receive payments online. PayPal is an e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet. PayPal serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper methods such as cheques and money orders. A PayPal account can be funded with an electronic debit from a bank account or by a credit card. The recipient of a PayPal transfer can either request a check from PayPal, establish their own PayPal deposit account or request a transfer to their bank account. PayPal is an example of a payment intermediary service that facilitates worldwide e-commerce.

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Google Checkout

Google Checkout is an online payment processing service provided by Google aimed at simplifying the process of paying for online purchases. Users store their credit or debit card and shipping information in their Google Account, so that they can purchase at participating stores at the click of a button. Google Checkout also offers fraud protection, as well a unified page for tracking purchases and their status.

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Document Storage and File Management Applications

Box.net

Box.net is a better solution for file transfer than FTP because it allows your business to quickly and easily transfer files to clients, host files for work group collaboration, or simply act as a secondary backup space for important files. There are no set up costs, no equipment to manage, no software: just instant, secure file management.

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Dropbox

Dropbox is the easiest way to store, sync, and, share files online. There’s no complicated interface to learn. Dropbox works seamlessly with your operating system and automatically makes sure your files are up-to-date. Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

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Google Docs

Google Docs is Google’s online office suite application. It allows you to read and write documents, spreadsheets and presentations. In this review we will be concentrating on the word processing functions. Google’s aim is to use their online Docs applications to compete with computer based office suites. An online environment can offer certain advantages in this respect. When using an online application, your files are all automatically stored to Google’s web servers and automatically saved at regular intervals. This means that if your own computer’s hard drive crashes, you will still have your files available online.

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Zoho Writer

Zoho Writer easily share your documents online, with friends on an individual basis and in group. Collaborate on them in real time. It allows you to access and edit existing documents even without an internet connection. Offline document edits will be synchronized when you are online. It provides a nice way of sharing documents with the whole world. Make use of Zoho Writer’s feature rich WYSIWYG editor for publishing your documents to blog.

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Drop.io

Drop.io is an easy to use, online collaboration and file sharing service that provides users with a simple, real time and private way to chat and share images, video, audio, documents and other digital content through unique, user-created and controlled sharing points called ‘drops’.

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Upload Robots

Upload Robots is just like a thumb drive, but it’s on the internet so you’ll never misplace or damage your files. In seconds you can upload, store, download, share and access all of your files online. It is free, simple to use, easy to understand, quick and incredibly useful way to upload a file from your computer and share it with your friends and colleagues.

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Social Networking Applications

Twitter

Twitter is a free social networking and micro blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author’s profile page and delivered to the author’s subscribers who are known as followers. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or external applications.

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LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site. Founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking. LinkedIn has more than 50 million users worldwide, of which approximately half are in the United States. 11 million are from Europe. With 3 million users, India is the fastest-growing country as of 2009. The purpose of the site is to allow registered users to maintain a list of contact details of people they know and trust in business. The people in the list are called Connections. Users can invite anyone (whether a site user or not) to become a connection.

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Facebook

Facebook is a social networking website that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. Users can add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. Additionally, users can join networks organized by city, workplace, and school or college. The website’s name stems from the colloquial name of books given at the start of the academic year by university administrations with the intention of helping students to get to know each other better.

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Campfire

Campfire is like instant messaging, but designed exclusively for groups. Share text, files, and code in real time. Save transcripts so you don’t forget. Campfire is a web-based group chat tool that lets you set up password-protected chat rooms in just seconds. Invite a client, colleague, or vendor to chat, collaborate, and make decisions. Link to a room on your intranet for internal communications.

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Co-op

Co-op makes it easy to stay connected with your co-workers without disrupting them. Your team can use it to post updates, ask questions, share links, and track time. Quickly share your daily agenda with your co-workers. Quickly scan your co-workers’ agendas. Then cancel your daily status meetings!

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Elance

Elance, where companies find, hire, manage and pay contractors online, is transforming the way businesses get work done. On Elance, companies gain instant access to 100,000 rated and tested professionals who offer technical, marketing and business expertise. With well over $200m in earnings to date, independent professionals use Elance to meet clients and get paid for delivering great results.

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e-Mail Marketing Applications

MailChimp

MailChimp is a web-based email marketing software that is extremely easy to use, customizable and easily integrates with Twitter and Facebook, WordPress, Salesforce and even PayPal. MailChimp was also recently named one of the top-rated eMail marketing tools by Mashable and has an impressive list of heavyweight clients including Canon, Business Week, Firefox and the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

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CampaignMonitor

Campaign Monitor is a Web-based email marketing program aimed specifically at Web designers and agencies which makes subscriber management and mail delivery incredibly easy and also providing valuable reports on every aspect of the campaign.

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iContact

iContact is a leading provider of web-based software that improves the efficiency of marketing communication for businesses and organizations. Its a permission-based email marketing service that allows businesses to easily create, send, and track permission-based email newsletters and surveys.

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Communication Applications

Skype

Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice calls over the Internet. Calls to other users of the service and, in some countries, to free-of-charge numbers, are free, while calls to other landlines and mobile phones can be made for a fee. Additional features include instant messaging, file transfer and video conferencing.

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Vonage

Vonage phone service offers unlimited local, long distance and amazingly low rates to call worldwide, over a clear, reliable connection. Vonage VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is so easy to use and inexpensive, even the tech-nervous can handle the switch.

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Gizmo5

Gizmo5 has been recently acquired by Google. Gizmo5 provides Internet-based calling software for mobile phones and computers.

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Jott

Jott.com is a voice to text service that allows users to send emails and text messages, set reminders, organize lists and post to web services with their voice. Once an account has been set up, users access the service by calling an easy-to-remember toll-free number. The speech to text technology being used by Jott is without equal, allowing them to offer a number of capabilities that have never been possible before. The site has 3 membership levels, with the Basic level being free and ad-supported. Registration is required to use the site.

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Jajah

Jajah is an innovative and customer-friendly VoIP service that facilitates its users to make long distance calls at the cheapest rates, without necessitating them to buy any headphones, microphones or installing any software. The application allows its users to connect two standard traditional phones, and both local as well as international calls can be set up through it. To access this application, users need nothing except a standard website connection. In order to avail its services, users are required to simply plug-in their phone numbers along with the numbers they wish to dial, and get connected within seconds.

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VOIPStunt

VoipStunt is a free program that uses the latest technology to bring free and high-quality voice communications to people all over the world. When you use the free VoipStunt software, you can call regular phones in various popular destinations for free or call at an incredible low rate to any other phone on the planet.

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RingCentral

Get your toll free number from the Industry leader in hosted phone services. Virtual PBX, hosted voice mail, internet fax features included!

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Meebo

Meebo lets you use multiple instant messaging platforms from an online application. This means you can use your favorite instant messaging program from a public computer or on a mobile phone. Meebo has all the features you would expect but on top of that they have one unique function. Meebo automatically saves all your message history. So when you log in after a week you can still check your old conversations. This really sets it apart from the other applications.

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Client Contact and Feedback Applications

Wufoo

Wufoo is an internet based application which makes it really simple to create stunning and fully functional online web based forms. Wufoo takes care of everything when you’re building forms. It creates the database, and all of the scripts that are required to collect the information from your users. Wufoo hosts all the forms which means it’s really easy to collect information; you don’t need to know anything complicated or even upload the form to your website. This means that it takes a matter of minutes to complete your forms. Wufoo not only makes it easy to create forms, but it also has some great reporting features.

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PollDaddy

With polldaddy you can start creating surveys in minutes. Survey your users, customers or staff to find out what they think about your services and products and get a quick feedback via polls. Our survey product provides a suite of powerful tools to help you dig deep into the data you collect.

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Concept Feedback

Conceptfeedback.com is a site that allows users to post a concept (new or redesigned website, logo, advertising campaign, etc.) and obtain feedback from other professionals in the design and marketing industries. In order to use the service for free, users must review 5 concepts posted by others before they may post their own concept. This provides incentive for users to provide feedback. Users have a Reputation on the site, which is based on their amount of participation.

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GetSatisfaction

GetSatisfaction is a new type of customer service where customers can discuss problems between themselves and also get them solved by company employees. It’s a great solution for the difficult problem solving activities that many businesses face, and can even be used to build relationships with your customers. One of the best things about get satisfaction is that even though it attracts some very big names like Apple it’s still completely free to use, it’s free to ask, and free to answer both for businesses and individuals.

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SurveyMonkey

SurveyMonkey is a tool which can be used to build online surveys with ease. Building and compiling a survey can be quite complicated, especially if you want the results to be collected over the internet. However thanks to SurveyMonkey this is now really easy. SurveyMonkey makes it really easy for you to design your survey and you can collect responses using a number of different types of questions, including drop down answers, and tick boxes among others.

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Web Analytics Applications

Google Analytics

Google Analytics (abbreviated GA) is a free service offered by Google that generates detailed statistics about the visitors to a website. Google Analytics makes it easy to improve your results online. Write better ads, strengthen your marketing initiatives, and create higher-converting websites. Google Analytics is free to all advertisers, publishers, and site owners.

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Clicky

Clicky is a popular web service that is capable of monitoring the traffic that visits and leaves your website. It is so popular because it can also track Ajax and Flash events. The sites services can be compared to Google Analytics, and it’s very simple to install. JavaScript simply needs to be embedded into your site; many of the common CMS and blog platforms include instructions showing you exactly what to do.

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StatCounter

A free yet reliable invisible web tracker, highly configurable hit counter and real-time detailed web stats. Insert a simple piece of our code on your web page or blog and you will be able to analyse and monitor all the visitors to your website in real-time!

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Woopra

Woopra is the world’s most comprehensive, information rich, easy to use, real-time Web tracking and analysis application. We deliver the richest library of visitor statistics in the industry through our innovative desktop application. But Woopra is more than simply statistics.

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Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Applications

Highrise

Highrise CRM helps you manage your contacts, keep track of who said what when, schedule follow-ups, set reminders, and convert leads into done deals.

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Gist

Gist is an online service that helps you build stronger relationships. By connecting your inbox to the web, you get business-critical information about key people and companies.

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SugarCRM

SourceForge.net has a wide range of Open Source projects that are intended for enterprise use. This month’s Project of the Month, SugarCRM, is a powerful application positioned to be on the front lines of business. CRM, Customer Relationship Management, software powers the sales team of an organization, the people who drive the revenue for any business. It allows members of the sales team to track leads, new customers, current customers, sales issues, sales projections, and marketing campaigns.

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Bidsketch

Bidsketch is an application that lets you create, track, customize, and design beautiful proposals. Multiple ways to present your proposals ensure clients get what they want. You can export to PDF or share online. Every client gets a portal that lets them view and comment on their proposals.

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Security and Privacy Applications

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition

Protect your business files with a good antivirus program. AVG Anti-Virus offers a free solution for protecting your computer from viruses.

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SpamSieve

SpamSieve gives you back your inbox by bringing powerful Bayesian spam filtering to Mac e-mail clients. It’s quick and easy to control SpamSieve from within your mail client, and you can customize how it interacts with the rest of your message sorting rules. Other spam filters get worse over time as spammers adapt to their rules; SpamSieve actually gets better over time as it adapts to your mail.

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Escrow

Internet fraud costs victims millions of dollars each year. Protect yourself with Escrow.com! We protect both the buyer and seller with a simple, 5-step trust process.

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Cloudmark

Cloudmark provides comprehensive messaging security solutions that protect subscribers and messaging infrastructure from spam, phishing, viruses and other harmful content. Founded by pioneers in messaging anti-abuse, Cloudmark’s solutions were architected from the ground up to stop current and emerging threat vectors with high efficiency and scalability.

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Online Portfolio and Resume Applications

Behance

Creative thinkers – the people with the most ideas – often struggle the most with organization and productivity. Behance aims to change that. So they design products & services that organize the creative world.

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Carbonmade

With Carbonmade, you can manage your online portfolio with a variety of tools that allow you to change how you display your work. The core idea behind the design of Carbonmade is to keep your images or video at the forefront. For a better idea on what Carbonmade can do for you.

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Raveal

Raveal allows you to perfect your message: define your professional profile with a resume, portfolio, and social voice. It also allows you to perfect your message: define your professional profile with a resume, portfolio, and social voice. Raveal gives you exposure by indexing your profile with major search engines.  Raveal also provides a custom-built, visual search engine for employers and potential clients to search and find you.

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deviantART

DeviantArt (commonly abbreviated as dA) is a Worldwide online community with worldwide appeal showcasing various forms of user-made artwork. DeviantArt aims to provide a place for any artist to exhibit and discuss works. Works are organized in a comprehensive category structure, including photography, digital art, traditional art, literature, Flash, filmmaking, skins for applications and others, along with extensive downloadable resources such as tutorials and stock photography.

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Qfolio

Qfolio offers the complete online visual portfolio solution for Designers, Architects, Artisans, Artists or anyone with a visual portfolio to present. We build it, host it, help you promote it and make it easy for you to keep it up to date. Your Qfolio is your stand-alone visual portfolio website. It contains images of your work as well as the text documents of your choosing organized to your liking.

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Hard Drive Backup Applications

Mozy

Computers are prone to several kinds of risks, which may include hard drive crashes, natural disasters, virus-attacks, and thefts. The occurrence of any of the above accidents can lead to data loss which can pose serious problems for the user. Therefore, to avoid any havoc situation, back up is required. Mozy is a highly reliable on line back-up providing system, which helps in keeping the important stuff on one’s computer safe. A copy of important data is stored remotely, at a secured location, so that in the event of disaster it is still retrievable. With Mozy, online storage becomes very easy and affordable. One can access his/her backed-up files from just about anywhere.

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iDrive

Get 2 GB of full featured Online Backup for free. Features include Automatic Backup, True Archiving, Versioning, Continuous Backup, Mapped Drive Backup and more.

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Resource Link worth Mentioning

• Main Post Image Source: VladStudio

Find Something Missing?

While compiling this list, it’s always a possibility that we missed some other great web based applications. Feel free to share it with us.

The post Essential Web Apps for Freelance Designers appeared first on NDesign.

1. Contact details.

It might seem a bit obvious this one, but you’d be surprised how many people forget to add their contact details. Not only must you have your contact details–at a minimum your address, phone number and email address–but you must make those details easy to find. Don’t hide them away in the footer. Make the “contact us” page one of the most obvious ones. Because having a website boils down to just one thing: making more sales. And if your website visitors have a hard time getting in touch, then they’re not going to buy from you.

2. Map

A bit less obvious, but a must-have that can make a real difference to the number of leads your website generates. The nature of the Internet is anonymous–we’re all dealing with companies and individuals through a computer screen. And because of this, the Internet is a scammer’s paradise–it only takes a few minutes to build a website and pretend to be a company. So having a map of where you are adds a real reassurance to your website visitors. It turns a virtual interaction into something more solid, and gives your website visitors the peace of mind that you’re real people living in the real world

3. A Lead Capture Form

This is the next step on from adding your contact details. Many website visitors want to know more about your products and services, but are disinclined to give you a call or drop you a line. But they’re quite happy for you to get in touch with them. And in order to make that possible, you need a lead capture form. Think of this as a sales assistant approaching a shopper, rather than a shopper going out of their way to approach a sales assistant. A lead capture form allows your website visitors to leave their details and express an interest in you, without going the whole hog of picking up the phone. And since many people surf the web out of office hours, the chances are that the time that they’re actually on your website is a time when you don’t have anyone to answer the phone. Having a lead capture form allows you to give them more information when it’s convenient for you, and lets them express and interest when there’s no one around to talk to.

4. Photos of You and Your Staff

This is another great way of reassuring your customers about who they’re dealing with. In the same way that having a map gives your web visitors the confidence that you exist, having your photos on the website creates a personal connection between them and you. It’s so much harder to turn away from a face than a computer screen. Having a photo kick-starts a personal relationship with your website visitors, and it makes it much more likely that the visitor will then get in touch. The added advantage is that not many websites include personal photos, so get this right and your site will start to get head and shoulders over the faceless ones around it.

5. Newsletter Sign-Up Form

This option is a good opportunity to warm up future customers. Many people surfing the web for products and services will be in a “research” phase of the buying cycle. They’re not ready to get in touch or start buying just yet, but they are interested in finding out more information. Having a newsletter allows you to start to interact with them before they’re ready to buy. They get the opportunity to “‘taste” your service and personality, without having to commit to buying from you. You can start having a conversation with them, so that when they do decide to buy, that relationship already exists. And as anyone running a successful weekly or monthly newsletter will tell you, it can be the biggest source of new leads for your website. So add a newsletter sign-up form, and start emailing news about your company and industry to those signing up, and the customers will surely come.

The post 5 Must-Haves for Every Small Business Website appeared first on NDesign.

Without a real Web site, you lose out on ways to:

• Differentiate yourself
• Create authority and credibility with customers and within your industry
• Spread ideas
• Get social
• Take advantage of Universal Search’s ranking power
• Benefit from the engines bias to show local results
• Share your company story and information
• House your own community
• Save costs by answering frequently asked questions
• Target your specific neighborhood (defined by zip code, points of interest, ideas, etc)
• Build an email list

Where should a small business owner start in building a Web site? Identify the purpose(s) of the site: Not all small business Web sites have the same goal. Many simply want to promote the product, while others are looking to promote their ideas or build an active community. MAKE SURE to give some thought to what you want to accomplish before you consider anything else. You’d be surprised how it changes your perspective.

Get your domain: In most cases, the domain name you choose will probably be very similar to your business name, however, that is not always the case. Be creative! A name plays a prominent role when people discover, remember, think about, talk about, search for, or navigate to a website. It establishes a theme for the branding of a website before people even visit it for the first time. You’ll find some basic pieces of advice all over the Web, and it’s worth mentioning those right away. Ideally, your domain name should be:

• Short
• Catchy and memorable,
• Easy to pronounce
• Easy to spell
• Not too similar to competing domain names
• Not a violation of someone else’s trademark.

Get hosting: This is typically where small business owners start eyeing the door. They’re cool with coming up with a sweet ride domain name, but for some reason “hosting” sounds scary. If you’re a small business owner, there are plenty of very affordable hosting options available that will get you up and running for less than $10 a month. Your hosting plan should also allow you the opportunity to create a [you@domainname.com] email address – VERY IMPORTANT – make sure you set that up to give you some added credibility

Hire someone to design it: You don’t need a fancy, feature-heavy Web site in order to promote your small business on the Web…You do need one that looks professional. If you can’t do it yourself, hire someone to give you a hand. You have to be willing to spend some money if you want quality service that gets results (this also applies to SEO and Content partners). Remember, there’s always some truth to the statement “You get what you pay for.”

Create your content: Again, you’re not Microsoft, Ford or Amazon.com. You don’t need a huge Web site over flowing with content. You just need to give potential customers some place trusted to land that tells them who you are and what you’re about. That means creating (at minimum) your Home page, Product or Service pages, an About Us page, and a Contact us page to share information about who you are and what you do, but also to localize your business through content.

Get listed: Claiming your local business listing in Google, Yahoo, Bing, Yelp, BOTW and all over third-party sites is is key! If you’re not sure if you’re site is already listed or what info the engines have about you, the appropriately-named GetListed.org is your window into that world.

Marketing it: Like the design stage above, you may want to outsource your marketing efforts to professionals who can help you create a social media plan or a marketing road map. However, if you’re willing to get your hands dirty, this is a step that you can handle with a little education. There are plenty of easy ways to build buzz for your small business site without hiring a full-fledged Internet marketing company. One great resource is American Express’s OPEN Forum. You may not even need people like me.

While the number of Small Business Owners creating Web sites is up, that number really needs to grow in the next year. The search engines’ obsession with local has made your Web site an even bigger part of your business and marketing plan. Get on board or be left behind.

The post Should Small Businesses Have A Website? appeared first on NDesign.

Here’s a great example – I went out to dinner at the local B-Dub’s a few months ago. As we paid the bill, we replaced the waiter’s pen with one of my own. Weeks later, we received a telephone call from a friend who was eating at an Applebee’s accross town. They notified us that they were presented with their bill, and the NDesign Pen was in with their check! I can only imagine the strange path this pen took to get from one restaurant to another.

The next time you’re using writing instruments in your campaign, remember that they might travel to unexpected places. Your imprint should include all of the information necessary to make an impact on people who are totally unfamiliar with your company – even if the pen starts off as a giveaway to those who are familiar with you.

SHOP FOR CUSTOM IMPRINTED PENS NOW!

The post Promotional Pens go the distance appeared first on NDesign.

A business card creates a physical connection and bond between you or your business and your customers.

Just like in a website, business cards can become great interactive elements, but with the added ability to have real textures, different materials and shapes.

Here are some great examples of the creativity used in business card design, to help set them apart from the norm!

The post Very Creative Business Cards appeared first on NDesign.

This process is fairly simple, and you shouldn’t have any problems, but I have to caution that you follow this setup at your own risk! If instructions are not followed properly and fully, you risk the loss of your current calendar data! Please read fully!

STEP 1.

You’ll need to download Google Calendar Sync – follow this link to download, and follow instructions to obtain Google Calendar Sync.

Be sure that Oulook is closed, and install the application.Setup will walk you through the prompts. Enter the username and password to your Google Calendar account, and setup an interval period for when the sync runs again – mine is set to 30 mins. You will also need to choose the Sync method:

• 2-Way: Updates both Google & Outlook,    or
• 1-Way: Updates either Outlook only or Google only

On installation the Sync will run once – transferring all of your calendar items to Google Calendar within a few minutes.

STEP 2.

THIS STEP IS CRITIALLY IMPORTANT!! Plug your iPhone into your computer and make a backup on iTunes. MAKE A BACKUP, because the next process will delete all of the calendar items on your iPhone. Perform a sync to copy all your iPhone calendar items into Outlook (via iTunes).

STEP 3.

Once the backup is made, remove your iPhone from your computer. Click on “Settings”. Next, open “Mail, Contact, Calendars”. Then click “Add Account” and select Microsoft Exchange as the option.

Enter your Google Calendar account username under “Email”, Leave the Domain blank, and in the Email field, enter your Google Calendar username once again, followed by the password. Click ‘Next’ on the top right corner. It will attempt to connect to a server, and will not find one.

The next screen will ask you to enter the Server information. Put in “m.google.com” (without quotes) and click “Next” again. Currently this setup only supports Calendar and Contacts (NOT EMAIL at this time). Select Calendar ‘On’ and the rest ‘Off’.

You will get two popup requests, asking you if you want to Erase or Keep your current iPhone calendar – Rease the current iPhone calendar ONLY AFTER YOU’VE MADE YOUR BACKUP, AND THE GOOGLE CALENDAR HAS SYNCED WITH YOUR OUTLOOK CALENDAR!! When you sync using the new setup, your calendar items will be added back to your phone using the new process. Click Sync on both requests and wait a few minutes. Open up Calendar on your iPhone, and you will start see your Outlook items (after Outlook’s first sync to Google Calendar).

Google has used Microsoft’s ActiveSync technology to enable this set up. So your iPhone only connects to get new Calendar data when one is available – saving data transfer. 

PLEASE NOTE – the setting for PUSH can drain your battery quite a bit, so you can use the FETCH setting if you prefer.

Let us know if this works for you as well as it does for us!

The post Sync your Outlook Calendar to your iPhone with wireless and 3G appeared first on NDesign.

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Often, as a cost-saving measure, many opt for creating their own designs. Many times, designing your own marketing materials when you launch your businesses – rather than having them professionally created, can make getting those initial clients more difficult, and may work against your business’ success.

Many entrepreneurs choose to design their own marketing materials when they launch their businesses, mainly starting with the creation of their first business card. Or, sometimes they will have an amateur designer, friend, or relative create the design. There are many reasons why this can often be a terrible idea.
Do you really even know how mucah your Brand should cost? Or, worse – how much a bad design can cost your business?

Consider these points:

• Your business will not look stable. It can appear to be less professional, and more likely to fold or to fail. Clients may not have confidence in doing business with you. Think about it – would you do business with a smaller business that seems to be on unstable footing, or that seems like it might not be in business by the end of your project or after you have purchased an item?
• You small business will LOOK like a small business. Large, successful businesses would never consider doing business without professional, originally designed marketing materials. Using materials that are not professionally designed makes your business appear even smaller and can possibly indicate that you cannot perform to or meet the standards required.
• You will look unpolished and rough. Not having a professional “look and feel” can make it appear as though your business does not matter to you. Customers may get the impression that you do not care about the way your business presents itself, which might indicate that you would not care about the quality of your work or the way that your work reflects upon their business.
• You can cause yourself to look “unfocused”. Unprofessional, uncoordinated marketing materials can make your business look “jumbled” or confused. If you have a business card with one look and feel and a Web site with another, this creates a confused — and confusing — look and feel for your business. This can also cause an identity crisis for a small business. When looking at your differently designed materials, potential clients may be fooled into thinking that they are looking at materials that represent different companies.

About half of all businesses fail within their first few years. One source of failure that is commonly cited by experts is sloppy or ineffective marketing. If your marketing materials do not stand out from those of your competitors, your sales will suffer.

When you are initially starting your business, you need to create the quickest possible results that lead to business success. A logo helps to create this by contributing to your business’s visibility, credibility, and memorability — three factors that will help your business to achieve the goal – success.

So, while putting off your logo development may seem like a great idea from a cash-flow point of view, it could result in your business never getting off the ground. It can also lead to your business folding when it would otherwise succeed.

If you think that you can’t afford to design a logo when starting your business, consider the outcomes — how can you afford not to?

The post Why Your Business Needs Professional Branding and Design appeared first on NDesign.

At these times, this is usually when I walk the dogs through my small town. There are many small shops and restaurants, with unique antiques and trinkets. One shop had a set of old typesetting blocks from a printshop. Looking at these, I found myself thinking of a usable idea for a logo project on which I was feeling quite lost.

Where do you turn for inspiration? Have you found ideas in unusual places? Most of us turn to online sources, where we can find stories like this one, with examples of others’ inspiration, to help us along our way. I found an excellent listing of online resources for Design Inspiration when I was last in this position, and thought I’d share!

Hopefully, one or all of these will bring you a glimmer of hope. If all else fails, get a dog and walk….

Online Galleries

Veer: Ideas – A huge idea gallery from stock photography company Veer formatted as a blog and including news and updates from the company itself.

Delicious CSS – A CSS web design gallery that was founded because of the lack of features for tracking design ideas on traditional social bookmarking sites. Categorizes sites in useful ways (such as by color) in ways that traditional social bookmarking sites don’t.

Raster – A regularly-updated gallery of photography and art with collections broken into “chapters.” Founded in 2001, its only goal is to provide inspirational images from a collective of creative minds.

CSS Galaxy – A very simple French gallery of CSS website designs that selects sites based on their standards-compliance, technique, coherent graphic design, and aesthetic.

CSS Uber Clean – A gallery of exceptional CSS-based designs. The sites featured all contain simple, minimalist, super-clean designs.

deviantARTdeviantART – A gallery for all types of artwork, both traditional and digital, that serves as an excellent source of inspiration for all kinds of projects. Just be careful not to get sucked in and spend three days looking through it when you have deadlines to meet!

muse – A collection of some of the best commercial artwork out there. Includes interviews with the artists who create the designs that reveal what their inspiration was.

Behance NetworkBehance Network – Features a gallery of all kinds of creative projects including illustration, music, web design, typography, photography and more.

Depthcore – An international collective of modern art and digital media that releases chapters every three or four months featuring work contributed by members.

Designflavr – A gallery featuring all kinds of artwork and design including Flash websites, CSS websites, vector art, advertising, abstract design, photo manipulation, and more.

Web Creme – A web design gallery with more than 330 pages of great designs. Search the archives by the month a design was featured or by color.

CSS Remix – A gallery of beautiful CSS designs where you can sort designs by what’s popular or up-and-coming.

Typechart – A gallery of typography for the web with CSS styles included. You can search available styles by font, emphasis (whether something is bold, italic, etc.), type size (heading, body, etc.) and more. Also lets you compare Windows ClearType rendering and Apple font rendering.

CreativeDepart – A gallery of design, art, photography, and more with its own inspiring design. Their goal is to increase awareness of the designs they love to open up more avenues to the creators they admire. You can also submit designs you’d like to see become a part of the site.

CSS Mania – Another CSS gallery with more than 13,000 sites and a blog. View galleries by month or by topic (associations, media, web developers, blogging, etc.)

Screenalicio.us – A gallery featuring more than 10,000 website screenshots. Offers an RSS feed for keeping up with the best new website designs online.

One Page Love – An awesome collection of single-page websites. Covers portfolios, applications, and even temporary landing pages with enough information to help a visitor make an appropriate decision. Also includes searchable tags for finding inspiration from similar sites.

Design Snack – Features two different galleries, one for XHTML/CSS designs and one for Flash. You can browse designs by color or category.

Design Shack – A searchable CSS gallery with more than 1700 designs that lets you browse by category (such as blog, magazine, photography, design, etc.), layout, or color.

eduStyle – Designing websites for educational institutions is sometimes more challenging due to the volume of information and the intended audiences (after all, it has to appeal to current students, prospective students, parents, professors, alumni, etc.). This site has a huge gallery of college and university websites sorted by categories and tags, and also features articles on design and other resources.

COLOURlovers – A community-based color gallery that includes colors, palettes, news, and real-world design examples. Members get points for being active participants in the community.

Faveup – A gallery of logos, business cards, flash and CSS websites where you can vote for your favorites. One of Faveup’s main purposes is to provide inspiration to designers and to showcase and provide links to great designs.

CSSclip – Sort websites by color or look at the Best of 2009 websites. The site also includes news and other resources for designers.

InspirationKing – Another gallery that started as a personal resource before going public. Offers an RSS feed and features a number of well-known websites in its design gallery.

Ads of the World – Check out print, TV, radio, online, outdoor and other types of advertisements from all over the world to get inspiration for both online and offline design projects.

Design Flood – Vote on a scale of 1-9 on the sites featured in this gallery or just browse for new ideas. All the sites featured are handpicked for being unique and well-designed.

Darkeye – Web design gallery where you can search by color or keyword. You can also browse recent submissions, most viewed, and highest rated sites, and you can vote and leave comments on featured designs.

TextureKing – More than 300 textures divided up by category—grunge, plaster, rust, wood, glass, and more. You can then download the textures as free stock photos.

The Cool Hunter – A gallery of all things awesome, including architecture, design, stores, and more based in Australia. The site serves as a celebration of modern creativity in all its forms and is a global hub for everything cool, innovative, original, and thoughtful.

UniqueCSS.com – A judged site that features six of the best and most unique CSS designs on the web every month. Viewers can then vote and the highest-ranked site each month wins $25.

CSS Import – A CSS gallery with more than 2,000 sites featured. They offer RSS feeds for the full gallery and for just the notable entries. The biggest drawback to the site is that the archives are only organized by date.

csstux – A huge collection of websites with browsable archives. There is no search feature on the site, so while designs are tagged with categories, there’s no effective way to find designs tagged a certain way.

UCreative.com – View graphic design, photography, web design, digital art, and industrial art galleries. Each category has subcategories to further refine your search.

CSSArtillery – Great standards-compliant CSS sites from all over the web. The site is browsable by category and subcategory and also offers RSS and TwitterTwitter feeds.

One Pixel Army – A collection of sites perfect for finding inspiration or direction in your own designs. All the sites featured are handpicked by the site owner as excellent sources of inspiration.

Splench – A gallery in a blog format that makes browsing easy. You can view sites by color or search by keyword. An RSS feed is also available.

Website Design Awards – Features some of the best designs on the web with a focus on interactivity, usability, creativity, and originality.

CSS Design Yorkshire – A gallery of more than 2,500 CSS website designs that also has monthly featured websites. All of the designs featured are by designers in the Yorkshire region and all sites are built with good semantic xhtml.

CSSMoon – View web design galleries by category—education, business, portfolios, medical, and more. The coolest part about this site is the header, which allows you to browse sites in a similar way to browsing album covers on the iPhone.

css {imagine} – A huge gallery with a blog that features outstanding designs and other useful posts. They normally showcase ten designs each month, though some months they share additional sites if there are tons of excellent submissions.

Pattern Tap – One of my favorite resources for web design inspiration. View the way other sites handle specific elements such as 404 Pages, Backgrounds, Calendars, Contact Forms, and more.

PageCrush – A place where designers from all over the world can post their best work and where others can go to find inspiration.

The Photography Showcase – View and rate photos of a variety of subjects. The tag cloud makes finding exactly what you’re looking for easy and the site offers a widget you can add to your own site.

Stylegala – Though currently going in a new direction, this site has an amazing gallery of CSS website designs, as well as a forum, resources, and feature articles.

unmatchedstyle.com – A web design gallery site that also includes podcasts, resources, interviews, news, and more. They also offer an RSS feed and you can follow them on Twitter for regular updates. The sites featured are tagged and can be rated on a scale of 1-10.

CSS Scoop – View and rate CSS designs and check out the blog for web design articles covering a variety of topics. RSS feeds are provided for both the gallery and the blog (”The Scoop”).

Beautifully – A regularly-updated gallery of beautiful websites. They also offer weekly web design news roundups and RSS feeds for the gallery, news, and resources.

DiVine CSS – A gallery that features blog designs, CSS, Flash, e-commerce sites and more. Sites are selected by the team of graphic designers, web designers, programmers and developers behind DiVine CSS.

Light on Dark – A gallery of nothing but websites with dark backgrounds and light-colored text. This can be one of the hardest design styles to pull off, so studying successful sites that employ this style is a good place to start.

Wooki.es – A CSS and general web design gallery with browsable categories. Sites featured are excellent examples of innovative and creative uses and are web standards compliant.

CSS Dance – A web design gallery showcasing appealing site design with a rating system. They offer an RSS feed of new additions and you can follow them on Twitter.

CSS Mix – Gallery sortable by color or category and with a rating system and RSS feed. Members can also view sites that are still pending for addition.

CSS Nature – A gallery featuring only green, eco, and organic websites. They also offer open source templates and the ability to comment and rate designs.

Blogs

Web Designer Wall – The Trends category on Web Designer Wall has amazing showcases of web design elements and complete sites.

Web Design Ledger – The inspiration category on this blog has tons of places to go for inspiration and showcases beautiful examples of all kinds of design.

Computerlove – A social platform and blog for finding inspiration and sharing your work. They offer design news as well and ways to promote yourself as a designer.

Design is Kinky – A blog featuring new designs and artwork from all over the world. They’ve been around for more than 10 years, making them one of the older design blogs/sites on the net.

DFCKR – Tracks design news and resources and highlights up and coming illustrators and designers. Their archives are browsable by recent entries, date, and category.

You the Designer – Posts featuring examples of excellent design across the web and beyond put together by a freelance graphic designer.

Think Vitamin – A blog for web designers and developers that includes some great design galleries and articles. The site is put together by Carsonified, the same company that produces the Future of Web Design and Future of Web Apps conferences.

Vandelay Design – Features multiple posts showcasing great designs for inspiration. The blog itself is produced by a web design company in an effort to make their site more useful than just the standard portfolio site.

Design Shard – Blogblog featuring inspiration for print and web design, with a pretty inspiring design itself. It also features other resources for designers, including free photoshop textures and brushes.

I Love Typography – Great inspiration for anyone trying to find just the right font, this site showcases fonts and typography in the world around us, from road signs and shampoo bottles to billboards and posters.

Noupe – Posts offering collections of design elements for inspiration along with tutorials, icons, showcases, and more. Noupe’s goal is to help designers create more engaging websites and functional interfaces.

Six Revisions – Posts covering all kinds of design topics and including a variety of sources of inspiration and useful tools. Includes practical information for modern web designers.

Design Reviver – Offers a variety of articles, including showcases of great design and design elements. They also include tutorials, free downloads, and articles covering anything related to web design.

fadtastic – A multi-author blog covering trends in web design with some great showcase posts. Posts cover trends in web graphics, typography, and more.

Design Melt Down – Covers all sorts of design elements and trends, broken down into chapters. Includes color usage, principles of design, site types and more, all illustrated with real-world examples.

Fuel Your Creativity – A brilliant design blog with some amazing articles in their inspiration section. They tout themselves as the place to go when you’re having one of those “I’m-going-to-implode-if-I-don’t-get-an-idea-soon” moments.

Typographica – A blog featuring typography news, resources and more. They feature mostly print materials that display excellent use of typography, though inspiration could be drawn from here for both print and web applications. Their handpicked font collections showcase the best fonts each year (four years are currently available, 2004-2007).

Online Magazines

Phirebrush – Online magazine and art group offering monthly issues that feature user submissions of photography, artwork, writing, and more.

Multilink Magazine – A free PDF magazine that has issues released on an irregular schedule as they’re ready with variable content.

GizMag – A PDF magazine that features photography, illustration, design, sculpture and more, as well as interviews with artists.

Destructed – A PDF magazine featuring art and design with themed issues that can be downloaded for free. Each quarterly issue features a unique art- and design-related topic.

delve – A free, experimental design magazine with archives available online that features photography, design, illustration and other visual arts.

ROOTmagazine – Features graphic design, illustration, photography, video, audio and other content from everybody willing to exhibit.

RevolutionArt Magazine – Magazine focusing on art as well as culture with over 70,000 subscribers. They cover the arts, modeling, music and more and consider themselves a massive worldwide propaganda machine for making people think about global messages.

Artz Mania – A downloadable design magazine featuring international artists and designers that started in January of ‘07. They showcase designs by artists and designers from all over the world distributed on a platform that’s accessible to people from all walks of life.

encore – A flip-book format online art & design magazine with a very slick interface. They focus on art, design, and film and track down innovative products, events, trends, and artists from around the globe each month.

Castle Illustrative Magazine – A free PDF magazine full of work by “creative nerds.” They put out regular issues focused on free illustration and design. Back issues are available on the website.

Anti – A digital magazine showcasing outstanding art and design content. Eight issues are currently available for free download.

Blanket Magazine – A free PDF magazine covering all areas of art, design, and photography. Each issue also features humorous stories and informative interviews.

Proteus Mag – Features photography, painting, sculpture, graphic designs, fashion designs, and more in a free PDF magazine.

bitFUUL magazine – A PDF magazine that covers all aspects of art and design including music, photography, writing, and art.

WAG – Features “works-in-progress” in art, expression, literature, and more. They aim to be available in paper for some editions, though for the most part they are a screen magazine.

ruby mag – An art magazine that aims to promote different artists to the world. More than thirty back issues are available on the website.

Phase Collective – A downloadable digital magazine that’s currently undergoing a changeover to a blog format. Back issues are still available for download.

TXTnein – A free art magazine available in PDF, Flash or executable files for both PC and Mac. Submissions are open to graphic designers, photographers and artists from all over the world.

File – Online photography magazine with a focus on unexpected treatment of subjects. Photographs that treat their subjects with alternate takes, odd angles, and unconventional observations.

Computer Arts – An online magazine that includes a gallery, forums, creative directory, news and more. The creator of the site, Future, publishes more than 100 consumer magazines worldwide.

JPG Magazine – An online magazine devoted to photography with themed issues. Visitors to the site can vote on photos for upcoming issues. They have open themes where photographers can submit work and which may or may not be featured in future issues.

Flickr Pools

CMYK design – A collection of photos of print designs. This is definitely the pool to look at if you’re looking for inspiration for package or marketing materials design.

Web Design – A pool of website screenshots with more than 7,000 items uploaded. There are examples of just about every kind of web design present, some with multiple screenshots available.

Experimental Graphic Design – A collection of more than 17,000 graphic design images that don’t necessarily fit traditional design conventions.

Poster Design – View more than 10,000 poster designs from all over the world. Great for inspiration whether you’re designing an actual poster or any other print or online project.

Design the Logo – A graphic design pool focused specifically on logo design. Features well-known logos as well as ones for lesser known brands and companies.

Graphic Design Magazines – A selection of photos from magazines focused on graphic design. Shows layouts and specific elements from magazines from all over the world.

Photo-Graphic Design – A pool of graphic designs revolving around the use of photos. Some items from the pool are very straight-forward examples of photo-based design while others are truly original and creative designs.

Catchy Colors – A pool of photos focused on eye-catching color with more than 1.3 million items. Pulling colors from photos is a great way to design a unique color palette for any design project.

flickr in full color – Another photo pool focused on brilliant use of color in photography. While there are only around 99,000 photos in this pool (as opposed to the 1.3 million in the previous pool), the quality of the images is outstanding.

The post Design Inspiration – Where To Turn? appeared first on NDesign.