Three Free Web Tools for Small Businesses

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (TheStreet) -- Listen up, small business owners. The social Web mafia -- Google(GOOG) Buzz, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter -- is not the only way to collaborate on the Web.

Earlier this week, Google rolled out an upgrade to Gmail called Google Buzz. The software creates clickable microposts similar to those on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. The feature takes aim at fast-growing social media networks like Facebook and Twitter.

Google Buzz is certainly worth a try, but it has the same drawback as the rest of the Web 2.0 armada: It is part of a vast, complex product that no business will ever fully use. So getting any of these to work in your living, breathing, imperfect, shop requires time. Like anybody has any of that.

The good news is, there's no reason to struggle with sprawling Web tools. Many small firms have been creating social networking applications that handle specific online collaboration tasks and improve communication.

Here are my picks. They're all free or free to start:

Xmarks

Back in 2006, Mozilla co-founder Mitch Kapor had the idea to store, synchronize and share bookmarks among users, machines and browsers via the Web. It took a couple of years, but San Francisco-based Xmarks delivers. Simply download the add-on to Explorer, Safari, Firefox or Chrome, open a free account, sync your links and your Web placeholders become available on any online machine. Sharing bookmarks about a client's job as a Web page, RSS feed or e-mail will save time on Web chatter. Everybody will be able to see what everyone else is seeing in real time. It's a powerful idea.

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