Let's face it. Writing can be a rather frustrating endeavor. It's easy to get distracted, especially online. QuietWrite claims to lessen your distractions a bit, at least on its own web interface. The ultimate goal is more writing productivity in less time.

QuietWrite offers a very plain but visually appealing interface of shades of gray, white and teal. You can either sign up for an account or write anonymously. The choice is yours. If you do sign up for an account, the only real addition you can make to your profile that's outwardly visible to others is your pen name. Otherwise, QuietWrite lets you tweak a few internal settings like email options, font type and color, but not much more.

Much like traditional desktop text editors, QuietWrite will keep tabs on your word count. The app will also save every few seconds to ensure you don't lose your work, which is nice. QuietWrite stands out by the mere fact that's it's located online, however. You can access it virtually anywhere you have an internet connection, thanks to its cloud-based storage system. If you have a WordPress blog, there's also a simple feature that allows you to export posts in a few simple clicks. There's also a preview feature for users who are logged in.

For some users, that's where the positives end. Apart from a very basic commenting system, QuietWrite really doesn't offer many features that make interacting with other users possible. You can't favorite a work you enjoyed or want to return to for later reading. You also can't follow users whose writing you like or get updates on when they've added a new piece. Basically, when QuietWrite boasts that it's minimalist, that's exactly what it means.

It's worth noting that QuietWrite is still in its beta stages and the developers seem happy to entertain feature suggestions from users in a forum they created specifically for that purpose. There's a lot of potential here that's just waiting to be realized.

For writers who simply want a visually calming space to write on the web, QuietWrite's a fantastic, minimalist option.

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The iGoogle homepage is connected to your Google account, which means you have immediate access to Google services like Gmail, Gtalk, or the latest headlines in your Google Reader RSS. But there are also many other modules – or gadgets – you can use to tweak iGoogle to your likes and needs: post-it notes, alerts, weather information, currency converters, to-do lists, latest news, dictionaries, games and more.

Setting up iGoogle is really easy. You can pick a custom design for the header, and select the gadgets you want to use by clicking the Add stuff link. Some of the header designs, however, don’t match well with the iGoogle logo and text.

iGoogle gadgets can be freely arranged on the page by clicking on the title bar and dragging them around. The only possible advice here is to try to be selective, so that you don’t end up with a homepage that's so cluttered it’s no longer useful.

iGoogle is a highly customizable homepage that makes your browser really useful right from the start.

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The aNobii site provides a vast source of information for all genres of literature within an easy-to-use environment. You can search for books by keyword, browse the most popular titles by category, and check out latest user reviews.

What's really great about aNobii is the way you can create your own personalized bookshelf and share it with others. A virtual bookshelf appears on your profile, where you can add books that you're currently reading, have already read, or want to read.

Create your own bookshelf

You can enter all manner of information about each book in your aNobii bookshelf, including the date you started/finished reading it, where you got it from, who you've lent it to, enter a review, and give it a rating. This information can then be explored by friends and contacts you meet on aNobii.

aNobii also boasts a neat 'Groups' section, where you can hook up with link-minded readers from around the World. There's also a facility for inviting your Facebook friends to come and join you on aNobii.

Restrictions

It should be noted that aNobii doesn't actually allow you to read or download books in electronic format from the site. It does provide links to online stores where you can purchase the books, however.

Another potential disadvantage of aNobii is that comments aren't filtered by language, thus you may not be able to understand many of the reviews posted by each user.

aNobii is a great place to find unbiased information about books, and to make friends with fellow readers to exchange recommendations.

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