ACCESS WITHOUT FUSS

.Mac (£69 per year, www.apple.com/uk/dotmac)

Apple’s .Mac service comes close to matching Google’s online services with simple tools, cleverly integrated with the programs on your computer. The iDisk tool offers 1GB-4GB of online storage and the Sync and Back-up software ensures simple online access to data on your Mac. Manage e-mail from any net-connected computer with Mac Mail, though the 1GB of storage with iDisk is stingy. You can publish a web page — with podcasts and blogs — or share photos online. Pricing, at £69 per year (or £138 for 4GB of storage) is criminal.

GRAPHICS WITH PUNCH

Zoho (free at www.zoho.com)

The superb Zoho offers online mini-versions of familiar office software through a web browser — and knocks Google Docs & Spreadsheet into a cocked hat. There’s little to separate the rival word processors, but the Zoho Writer feels more intuitive. Its powerful spreadsheet software streaks ahead because, unlike Google, it offers colour graphs, while the PowerPoint-style package is a great way to collaborate on slides with colleagues. Occasional sluggishness is a minor drawback.

ONLINE STORAGE

Diino (free at www.diino.com)

With 2GB of free storage, Diino is a basic back-up tool for your PC’s vital documents that makes them available securely over the web. Unlike Zoho or Google, however, you can’t edit documents through the web browser, which is irritating. The Diino software also includes rudimentary e-mail and blogging.

VIRTUAL BRIEFCASE

Yahoo! (free at www.yahoo.co.uk)

Yahoo offers similar online services to Google’s, but doesn’t package them as neatly. The e-mail software — still on trial — isn’t as slick as Gmail, though Yahoo! members can open several e-mails as tabs. The Calendar synchronises well with your PC and the online repository for documents, Briefcase, is handy, but the 30MB storage is pathetic. Web services that Yahoo has bought — flickr.com (for photo-sharing), or its desktop gadgets software, Yahoo widgets — show promise.

WORLD ON A STICK

SanDisk Cruzer Titanium 2GB U3 drive (£24 from www.pricestorm.com)

Don’t want to entrust your e-mail and data to Google’s targeted advertising? Carry your digital world on a Flash memory stick with built-in U3 smart drive (see www.u3.com) such as this SanDisk. The mini operating system fires up when you plug the stick into a USB port on a PC (no Macs, sadly). Portable versions of regular software come preloaded, so your internet bookmarks and e-mail inbox travel with you. No trace of your presence is left on the computer you’ve camped on.

OMNIPOTENT OFFICE

Microsoft Office 2007 (from £196 at www.savastore.com)

Online software can’t yet match dedicated PC software, as the magnificent Office 2007 proves. Word and Excel have been radically redesigned to be far more friendly and you can swiftly produce documents that Google can’t match. Sadly, the e-mail program, Outlook, was largely neglected in the redesign, and isn’t included in the Home and Student Edition (£100). Office Live (free at tinyurl.com/2bmu9u) provides small businesses with simple tools to publish a website.