Thanks to the ubiquity of internet access, web-based applications are taking off like never before. Beyond the realms of Twitter and Facebook lurks a fresh and vibrant world of online software that's designed to run anywhere on our connected planet.

As the distinction between computers, mobile devices and the internet continues to blur, web applications are coming into their own, becoming globally important services. These are sites that do one useful thing and do it well.

But sites promoting applications have been around for donkey's years, you might say. What's the difference between a web app and an application that's available for download on the web?

Well, web apps are applications that run over the internet. So unlike the free utilities hosted on Sourceforge or similar, there's no download, installation or configuration to carry out, nor hours of frustration to endure while you try to find the right libraries to compile them. Just point your browser at the relevant website and it will do the rest.

Outside of the box

Freed from the restrictions of an operating system's windowing subsystem, software designers can allow their imaginations to run riot. Interfaces that owe more to high-tech thrillers than to Windows, Linux or Mac OS X are beginning to appear.

Also emerging are more intuitive drag-and-drop interfaces that require at most a few seconds of exploration to get you going. Software use is slowly evolving and becoming as much about discovery and experimentation as it used to be about reading manuals and clicking options.

In this special roundup, we bring you 10 cool web apps that all share these traits. It's a diverse bunch, ranging from future essentials to those that you'll need infrequently. They all exhibit the sort of rich functionality that is beginning to appear through the medium of web browsers, and remove the need to download and install an application suite.

If you want something, it's probably already been written, and so we've also included a site that will help you to find other incredible web applications. Happy browsing!

1. Newsmap

Newsmap is a global news aggregator site like no other, and it's almost guaranteed to get people peering over your shoulder as you use it. The app presents a page covered in blocks of different sizes. Each represents a story, coloured by subject.

Newsmap takes input from news feeds and then gives the stories that are more prominent bigger boxes on-screen, a little like a tag cloud. Simply move your mouse over a story to see its details and a link to the original article.

Verdict: 4/5

2. Instapaper

Instapaper is a way of bookmarking long web pages so that you can read them when you have time later on. The URLs are stored in Instapaper's central database, so you can access them from anywhere.

A range of iPhone apps support it, as does the Kindle, making it flexible and a great way of keeping hold of interesting things to read on long journeys.

To use Instapaper, drag and drop the 'Read Later' icon onto your toolbar. When you subsequently find a page you want to save, just click the icon.

Verdict: 4/5

3. Lovely Charts

There are plenty of times when you need access to some good chartdrawing software for just half an hour. However, it's usually supplied as part of a far larger application. Lovely Charts is different. It's a free web app that creates some very lovely charts indeed.

After signing up and creating a new document, you simply drag and drop symbols and connectors from a range of predefined types to create the chart you want – anything from a simple flowchart to a complex route map.

Verdict: 4/5

4. Picnik

Picnik is an innovative online photo editing tool that allows you to grab your images from wherever you store them and radically modify them to create stunning visual effects. More advanced filters cost money, but you can access the basic ones for free, and these cover most of the essentials.

The service also allows you to use your imported images to create collages, greeting cards, scrapbooks. You can also make a widget that runs a slideshow of your images to send to friends.

Verdict: 5/5

5. Bing Visual Search

Bing Visual Search is still in beta, but it's already showing promise as a new way to search the expanding universe of information out there. On the main Bing page, click the 'Visual Search' link.

Search categories are organised into galleries, and everything is point-and-click. Instead of typing in your search term, you simply click the relevant picture. The list of galleries is still small, but it's an interesting glimpse of what could be to come.

Verdict: 3.5/5