The introduction of high-speed Internet access in many homes and most businesses have inspired a number of very innovative and useful services:
Thinkfree Online Beta - Currently a completely free alternative to Microsoft Office which runs inside a web browser. Combine the usefulness of creating and editing Word documents, spreadsheets, and presentations with 1 GB of online storage with file sharing technology and suddenly it becomes easier to do work online rather than pay $500 for Microsoft Office and copy or e-mail files between work and home or other locations when you can simply go online and always have the files available for you.
Google Docs and Spreadsheets - Google’s version of the same thing. More limited in features at the present time, but free from ads and likely to remain free.
Avvenu - Set part or all of your hard drive to be accessible over the Internet. Invaluable for those who use multiple machines. Forget a document at work, logon and download it from your work machine to your own machine.
GigaTribe - Similar to Avvenu except introduces private peer-to-peer file sharing technology. Useful if you want to share your files with a small private group of friends and let everyone transfer files at the maximum possible speed. Encrypted and private.
Mvelopes Personal - Fantastic personal budgeting software which retrieves data directly from your online credit card and bank sites. Track spending patterns, find out where your money goes, and finally start saving by controlling credit cards and finding hidden costs. Extremely valuable and much more useful than Quicken or Microsoft Money.
Stumble Upon - The replacement to the dead web ring. Jump to random webpages on a huge number of categories. Requires a browser toolbar.
Grand Central - Use just one phone number that simultaneously calls all your phone numbers at once, home, cell phone, work, etc. Save on cell phone minutes and make it possible to give only one telephone number instead of two or three.
Craigslist - Bills itself as classifieds for the Internet, but offers a few more regional services then paper classifieds ever could. Regional discussion forums, event calendars, and free classified ad placement.