As part of my year-end tidying-up process (which failed again), I started thinking about the things that I used in every workday that I'd come across on the internet - either 1) websites I checked every day because they gave me ideas on better ways to get things done or) applications or programs that I found on those sites.

In short, there are webtools and applications that I realized make web life (an oxymoron) more livable. I've blabbed about them to friends, and it makes sense to put them all in one place with links so they can find them easily. In no particular order, here's what made my work easier or more enjoyable in 2008:

Zoho -A full-featured office productivity suite in the style of Microsoft Office, except that it's free and it's accessible on the web, no matter where you are. So are your files - nothing to download onto your computer. Very easy to use, with a Word-like word processor, Excel-like spreadsheet, Access-like database program, and so on.

TechCrunch - A great blog about the tech industry; who's funding who, who's new, and who's going into the "deadpool." It's not just a good place for intelligence on the tech industry; you also find out about new web technologies that could change the way you work. (Or relax, like Lala, below.)

Lifehacker - A productivity "getting things done" blog. More suggestions than you can imagine, some not always hitting the mark. But it's a great place for discovering new things on the web that make your time at the computer more productive. Some of the best stuff I've ever found came from Lifehacker, like Zoho.

Lala.com - Best music site I've come across in ages. Ten cents gets you a "websong" from their 6 million song catalog,which you can play anywhere you have a computer. Eighty-nine cents gets you the downloadable mp3, and if you already bought the "websong" you pay only 79 cents. You can upload your entire collection of mp3s from your computer to Lala's server, and access your music anywhere you're using a computer. And a very nice interface.

Dropbox - A way to keep your files at hand when you aren't at the office: save them to Dropbox. You can reach your files from anywhere you have a computer; no more saving to a jump drive and leaving it in the computer by accident, only to realize it when you get home. A 2GB free account gets you started; you'll want to sign up for more.

Google Reader - If you use a tabbed browser and automatically open up to a dozen tabs with sites you want to check every day - stop it. Feed them all into one page in Google's reader, which neatly organizes all your daily must-read sites.

Google Calendar - Just as efficient as the Google Reader. You can access it from anywhere, you can create multiple calendars for yourself (like "home" and "work"), you can share them with others in varying degrees of privacy, you can snap in calendars that are out there in the public domain (like NYSE holidays or Maryland football schedules, and you can mash them all together at one time to see where your conflicts exist. Indispensable.

Jott - When you want to send yourself - or anyone else - a reminder, there's Jott. Call Jott from your cell phone and you can send yourself (or anyone else or a group) an email reminder. Jott transcribes the spoken word into email. And you can do other things with it - like call an email to your Google Calendar while you're driving and add a date. Or call an email to Zillow with an address and get a Zillow real estate report in your inbox when you return to your email.

OpenOffice.org - Another Office-alike suite, but this one downloads to your computer and runs great. Particularly sweet: their version of PowerPoint.

That's the stuff that comes to mind first - except for the one "helper" I found on Lifehacker that no longer exists: IWantSandy! This was a great way to manage your to-do list anddeliverables. Not worth spending time on here since it's gone, but missed nonetheless. Rael Dornfest, the creator of "Sandy," a virtual assistant, has moved on to Twitter. He's hinted that Sandy's DNA might show up in future Twitter features, and that alone made me start to toy with Twitter. Not sold on it yet, but I'll give it some time.

So - enjoy these! And why not sign up for Twitter, while you're at it. Drop me a "tweet" sometime!