The problem with insurance is that you are never prepared for the time when you need to make a claim through your insurance company. We often fail to keep an inventory list up-to-date and, even if we do, if you suffer from a major natural act (such as water damage), your paper-based inventory list may be destroyed. How would you make a successful claim when everything was lost in the flood?

StuffSafe is an online system that enables you to create an inventory list of your household items and keep them updated. As it is account based, you won't need to worry about other people accessing this data and, better still, as it's online it's always safe even if your home computer is damaged. As long as you can remember your password, you can access the contents from anywhere at any time.

StuffSafe link.

Well, I suppose the title got you hooked, at least. I don't understand 'social networking'. Although I have an account on LinkedIn, and occasionally use the site to contact old business contacts, I'm not a massive fan of something like Facebook, unless you're 17 and find it interesting to show all your friends photos of you on the lash, at Glastonbury or other real-life event. Why they need to see these things? When was there a time where we felt compelled to share our social life with people who weren't even involved in the event? Bizarre.

Hurox is a new social networking site that attempts to go further than others by enabling you to share content, sell products to other users (it even provides you with all the e-commerce tools you'll require), create your own community (forget your real-life neighbours) and more.

Hurox link.

The problem with any website is getting the layout as professional-looking as a DTP generated magazine. It's very difficult and there are so many inconsistencies across web browsers, particular on older computers. What looks good on Firefox 2 may look poor on Internet Explorer 6. Believe it or not, there are still a fair few people still using the old IE.

Scribd is website technology that enables you to drop in documents in to your own pages and homepage and share with other users. You can quickly upload and show PDF documents, word, excel and other formats. Better still, you won't need to open the PDF in a separate window or open Adobe PDF, limited system resources.

Scribd link.

Who needs software when you can run either your business or home applications, online? We recently stated that Soho Online would enable you to run your office suite, online, without having to install Microsoft Office. Even better, it has support for Office 2007, which is lacking in some commercial off-the-shelf applications. Well, now you can design, create and host your own website, without even leaving your web browser.

Moonfruit SiteMaker is an online tool that quickly enables you to create various websites, either for home or business. It ships with a number of pre-designed templates, so you can get up and running quickly. There is a free version with 20MB of space, but this contains adverts. Prices are good though. You could quickly design a page to offer photos and other downloads to your friends as, for £12.79 a month, you are given 60GB of bandwidth.

Moonfruit SiteMaker link.

When the MacBook Air was released, people complained that they didn't believe a 80GB drive enabled enough storage space to manage their apps, music, data files and photos. However, if you're clever, you could use a media server to store your music and then simply share the music with the laptop. If you wanted to save drive space, avoid installing large applications and do your work, online. For instance, there are online photo editors, data storage tools and more.

Zoho is an online-only suite of office tools from a word processor through to planning application. You can manage all your work, without ever having to install the applications on your PC (or Mac). Even better, the Zoho Writer now enables you to read and write to Office 2007 document files, for complete transparency.

Zoho online link.

Only a few short years ago, designing your homepage required you to master something like Adobe Dreamweaver. Although it's not overly complicated, the interface is enough to put off most novice web developers. This is why tools such as the Mac-only Rapidweaver have been a revelation. They enable you to take an existing template and then populate your site by inserting important information, such as your contact info and logo. Publish and you have your own professional website.

Webnode is an online-only site that will enable you to create your own homepage or website from a range of existing templates. However, if you want to drop anything advanced in to your site, such as a poll or Google Adwords and you can do this with ease. Want to point your new site to your company domain and you can do that, too. It's completely free, so there's no reason why you can't get started.

Webnode link.

We've written about the use of portable applications both here on this Junky and on vnunet.com on numerous occasions. You can use portable applications to take your favourite desktop tools on the road, either installed on a USB stick, your iPod or an external drive. Find any PC, connect your USB stick and you can use these apps without having to write personal information back to the host computer. Ideal for anyone who has to use another users PC, an Internet cafe or on a hotel PC.

This evening, as part of the BBC Lincolnshire drivetime technology slot, vnunet.com was interviewed to discuss the benefits of using this portable technology and highlighted the type of applications avaiable. We've made this easy for you. Simply click on this pre-defined portable search link and you'll be presented with the various portable applications we're hosting, through vnunet.com.

Portable apps search link.

Storing your files online isn't a new idea. Even way back in 1995, files were downloaded from FTP sites, rather than a website. Even your free homepage is, effectively, a site where you could upload and download files. As long as you can remember your login/pass (or change it to something memorable), you can login, upload, then download from another computer. However, both Microsoft and AOL have attempted to make this a seamless process for novice users by offering free 5GB worth of storage, along with tools to enable you to backup your data.

Windows Live SkyDrive was recently launched, along with an increased 5GB of storage space. Just recently, AOL announced their Xdrive technology, which also ships with 5GB free storage. Just install Xdrive and then drag and drop files to and from the desktop tool. Now, if only these tools went one stage further and enabled you to sync uploaded files to/from different computers, this would make the process even more seamless.

Windows Live SkyDrive and AOL Xdrive links.

There are an increasing number of online media portals where you can stream and watch videos, clips of films, sporting highlights and various creative and humorous home-made videos. Sometimes though, you may come across a video that you want to share with others or store on your PC or, perhaps, locate a video you have been searching for, such as an old music video you used to own on VHS cassette. Most of these online media portals operate with a view-only policy.

Ashampoo ClipFisher 1.07 is a useful application for collecting and downloading video clips from online portals. It enables you to simply copy and paste the video’s URL, and then the software downloads the chosen movie directly to your hard drive, so you can create your own video library.

Ashampoo ClipFisher link.

The other day we featured the GooglePreview Firefox add-on and mentioned that it gave you a different outlook on your Google-based searches. Essentially it offered a visual preview of each site in addition to the usual text description. However, Google are testing different ways that will enable an end user to search through their engine. For instance, if you're searching for historic items, you can search on a timeline basis.

Other options include Google Suggest, where you enter a key word and a list of suggestions appear in the Google search box. They've also added keyboard shortcuts, so if you use Google Search regularly, you can quickly jump to the next result, rather than hanging around.

Head to the Google Experimental Search page for more info.