Top 5 Useful Online Services

While in the past everyone with enough self-respect and computer knowledge had to always have a list of essential desktop programs in mind, these days this list is extended with various online services. Moreover, today some of the programs have been almost replaced entirely by their online alternatives (take, for example, email services).

In some fields online services are still newbies, and users often don’t even think it’s possible to use an online service instead of a desktop program. They have that old pattern in mind: “find, download, install, try – if it doesn’t work, go back and again: find, download…” Of course everyone’s looking for the ways of making life easier and that’s exactly why I wrote this article.

The aim of this article is to make your life a little easier with the help of online services. Let me show you the most useful and practical services that you may not know of yet.

1. Online translation service by Google: translate.google.com

Of course the quality of translating sentences longer than three words is not the best sometimes but you always have a dictionary of many languages at your disposal. The translator can deceive you or make you laugh hard but every time we have something we need to say in another language, who do we turn to?

That’s right, to Google. Truth is, you probably won’t learn a new language with this service but you will definitely be able to compose a simple letter for an online store or to find out what this or that website is about. 

2. Next in line is a well-known service that checks your files for viruses - www.virustotal.com
It has several antivirus programs in its core, it’s constantly being improved and it acts sort of as a “referee” – its results can tell for sure whether the file is infected or not.

Virus databases are being updated every day and this lets it find the newest threats (worms, Trojans and other malware) the moment after they are created.

It probably cannot fully replace a desktop antivirus as it doesn’t monitor the activity on the computer but if you someday receive a suspicious file (attached to an email, for example), you can check it easily. Maximum file size at the moment is 32MB.

3. All-in-one online converter – www.freefileconvert.com.

It supports many different file formats: media files, images, archives, etc. You only need to upload a file and choose the input and output format. In case the file is not on your computer, you can also convert it by providing its URL. Maximum file size is 300 MB.

4. Online data recovery service -onlinerecovery.munsoft.com.

Everybody knows that if a file suddenly doesn’t open as it used to normally, then something’s wrong and it has to be repaired. In this case, before rushing and trying to install desktop programs or, even more, running to a data recovery agency, you can try to restore your file with this online service.

The algorithms are the same as in desktop programs and the service lets you recover MS Office files, email databases and even archives (remember how annoying it is when you download an archive and it seems to be corrupted in the end). Maximum file size is 20 MB.

It’s much easier to check online than to install desktop versions as it’s not really worth the time when you have only a couple of files to recover.

5. Popular online currency converter is the last but not least – www.oanda.com.

 It supports countless currencies and several languages. The service is easy to use and lets you get more information than just converting. The information can be presented in tables and graphs. The exchange rate is updated in real time.

I’ve described only 5 services but if you know about them, you’ll feel more confident while doing everyday tasks because Internet is everywhere these days; it’s hard to imagine life without it.

You won’t get lost anywhere if you have Internet access. The range of tasks that can be performed in the Internet is astonishing. Hope my little list has helped you find out something new about World Wide Web and the services it has to offer. Add more if you have any in the comments below.

Which of the above services do you use? Any other online services you would like to recommend?