This post has been four months in the making, but after a recent review of web apps with a friend, I realized it was high time I wrapped up the list with a glossy ajax bow. This is it. The best online services out there in my humble opinion. Working the web like it's my job... cause it is.

• Backpack: conveniently at the beginning of the alpha-list, this brilliant service from 37Signals is the archetypal web app. The sticky notes have gone out the window now that I can take my ta-da list and reminders anywhere. Life always seems more organized and clear when I discipline myself to use it everyday. Khoi Vinh said it best: "It's perhaps the most convincing Web answer yet to the power, flexibility and simplicity of a spiral-bound notebook."


• Blinksale: nothing wows clients like a beautiful email... especially when it's filled with relevant and timely invoices. It's a vital tool for freelance work, provides a professional front to my business side, and is a smart, no-hassle approach to getting the job done.


• Campaign Monitor: hands-down the finest part of my designer toolkit. CM (and their little brother MailBuild) make authoring and managing email newsletters blissfully fun and easy. It wouldn't be the first time I've waxed poetic about them. They're five star in every way.


• Feedburner: these days if you aren't aware of the importance of media distribution and syndicated content, then you've clearly missed the boat. Another Chicago venture (like the 37 kids), these guys are at the top of their game with the simple formula: Build + Burn = Boost.


• Flickr: in the past year, I've uploaded more than 1,600 photos with hundreds of tags, viewed almost 20,000 times, receiving 100+ comments, and organized into 66 photosets. And that's just me. Yahoo's service is a hit, and keeps getting better everyday.


• Google Analytics: stats probably seem like a fairly boring topic, but this is one of the few Web 2.0 projects that's getting them right (Crazy Egg makes things too slow, Mint isn't detailed enough, and your hosting provider just doesn't care). There's a reason it takes a giant to pull off a mammoth task like this.


• Harvest: for fast, efficient, widget-based time tracking, this lightweight is the ultimate way to manage your timesheet. Plus they play nice with the big guys at 37's Basecamp project management service (so does Blinksale).


• HopStop: this is not your father's Mapquest. It's a don't-circle-the-block-three-times to find the apartment lifesaver. I said so myself when I was lost in Philly. You can text yourself subway directions or now even call them for the door-to-door.


• JPG: so much more than a magazine, this is a full-out photography community. Thanks to the Flickr phenom, this tiny operation in San Francisco has gone from vroom to bloom, opening the publication to its members and finding themselves on newstands around the world!


• Last.fm: a powerful new idea called the "social music revolution" where the music you listen to get logged online, providing a wealth of recommendations, music tastes, custom radio streams, and data at your fingertips.


• Odeo: it's not the golden days from Evan and Biz at Pyra Labs where Blogger was born, but a complete audio studio online is nothing to sneeze at... and with podcasts on the rise and Twitter in the wings, Ev and Biz and their new company will be humming along for a good while.


• Shopify: the instant shopping experience, built by (gasp) non-programmers. Enough said.


• Vimeo: a video community of epic proportions. YouTube may have the name recognition, but you can't beat simple, tasteful design like this site. And with video clips like this inside, what's not to love?

Next time: a few good desktop apps. So good, they're killer...