10 Common Web Tasks You Can Do Without Signing Up

Security bugs like Heartbleed make it abundantly clear that your logins and passwords are not safe. But what if you could use the Web for common tasks like uploading photos and videos or chatting with friends, all without signing up for an account?

Guarding your privacy is important. There are obvious benefits to having logged into a service like Flickr because it will keep all your albums in one place, but that also means everyone can steal or harm all your albums in one place. And sometimes, you just crave anonymity for your own reasons. Whatever the case may be, we found ten great websites to carry out common tasks without signing up.

Shorten Links: Is.gd

Before we dive in, it's important to know one thing. Since you won't be logging in, many of these sites will give you URLs that are not easy to remember and can't be saved on the site itself. That's why you need is.gd, a link shortening service that doesn't require logins. The best part of is.gd is that it lets you customize the title of the shortened URL, so you can make it something memorable — that way, you save your link for future reference without having to sign up at any site.

There's no shortage of great websites to share files without signing up, but my favourite for this is File Dropper. Why? First, it has an upload limit of 5GB, which is far higher than most others. Second, it won't delete your files if they are in use! Yup, even on a free, no-login account. The file will be deleted from the servers if it isn't downloaded even once within 30 days. So just upload your file and share — and perhaps shorten the link first so you remember it!

Got a long document or maybe even a small snippet that you want to send to someone as a link? Head to Pastebin and put it in. You can quickly turn it into a link which the other person can then read, copy or edit, depending on the permissions you grant. It's awesome enough that the hackers at Anonymous often use it. But if you want something else, there are four alternatives that may be better than Pastebin.

By far the quickest way to share images on the Web, whether as single photos or entire albums, is to upload them to Imgur. Probably, this is why Reddit loves this tool! You can upload images directly from other sites, from your hard drive, or paste them from the clipboard. Imgur even lets you make memes (Imgur also has a new MemeGen app for iPhones). Psst, if you're going to use it, you might want to supercharge Imgur with browser add-ons.

YouTube and Vimeo both ask you to sign up for an account before uploading a video, but that's not the case with Vidd.me. Just drag-and-drop your video or paste a link from the Web and the service will upload it. Then you can stream it or embed it, just like you would with a regular online video. But here, it's completely anonymous and without any sign-ups. It's just painless video sharing.

Make Video Calls: Appear.in

Want to make a video call to a person or a group without having to sign up for Google Hangouts or Skype? Meet Appear.in. Just go there, create a new video chatroom and share the link with others. Appear.in can work with up to 8 people at a time, and if you are thinking of it as a Google Hangouts alternative -- you don't have to sign up to use it. Brilliant!

Chat With Others: Chatstep [No Longer Available]

Just like a video call, if you need to create your own private chatroom to talk to someone else, head to Chatstep. Key in a room name, choose a nickname, add a password if you want to, and voila, you have your own chatroom! It's persistent, so older chats are visible and you can even share images. The best part? "We store no user information, messages, or images. We also have no ads or tracking scripts."

Listen To Music: Grooveshark

Most music streaming services, including the likes of Spotify and Radio, require you to sign up to play a song. Not Grooveshark though. It's free and it can instantly start playing a song as soon as you search for it and hit the button. And that's not all, it will even let you create a playlist without any fuss. Saving playlists and uploading songs still needs a log in though.

Convert Files: Zamzar

It's hard to believe that a service like Zamzar is completely free, let alone the fact that it doesn't even need you to sign up. But if you throw a file of up to 100MB at it split between up to 5 different files, whether uploading from your hard drive or as a direct link, then Zamzar will offer to convert it to various file formats, including documents, video, music, images, archives and more. While there's no sign-up, you will need to put in your email address to get the download link. Files get deleted after 24 hours if you do not sign in.

Send & Receive Emails: Yopmail & Deadfake

You would think that email is the one thing that absolutely needs a sign-up, but that's not the case. When you're giving out your email, you might want a fake temporary address. And when you're sending an email, you might want to be anonymous.

For a disposable email inbox, YopMail is a great service that just works. Plus, it keeps messages the longest, storing them for up to eight days.

To send anonymous emails, Deadfake also works as advertised. Fill in the To, From, Subject, and Message boxes and you're done. It's as simple as that.

These are just some of the many no-signup websites for useful tasks, and we've even got some incredibly simple ways to share stuff on the web, but it's impossible for me to list every single one out there. That's where you come in. If you have a favourite no-signup website that you use often, share in the comments!