iTools was one of Apple’s first offerings in the online services space. Introduced on January 5, 2000, it provided free access to an @mac.com email account, a greeting cards service dubbed iCards, and HomePage, a web page publishing service. iTools also gave users access to KidSafe, a directory of kid-friendly websites, and iReview, a site that reviewed popular websites. This is also when users were first introduced to iDisk.

iTools was configurable from within system preferences, similar to the way the current version of MobileMe works. At this time, however, iTools was Mac-only, providing only limited editing functionality to those accessing their HomePage accounts from other operating systems.

Although iTools was popular among Mac users, it soon gave way to the paid serviced called .Mac. Pronounced “dot Mac”, Apple announced and released the services at the MacWorld Expo in New York on July 17, 2002. Because it required a paid subscription, .Mac offered many new features and a dedicated technical support staff.

.Mac offered an upgraded version of HomePage, iDisk service, @mac.com email accounts, and iCards. It wasn’t until June 15, 2005 that users were given new features like .Mac Backup and McAfee Virex. Apple later upgraded their offerings with a newer version of online Mail access, Back to My Mac remote features, .Mac Web Gallery, and increased storage -- a whopping 10GBs of space.

In June 2008, Apple replaced .Mac with MobileMe. Announced at WWDC, the new service was relaunched alongside the introduction of the iTunes App Store. However, MobileMe’s launch proved to be very buggy, leaving many customers without access to their email and other services for days.

MobileMe ushered in a new era for Apple’s online services offering. But not without removing many of the features that .Mac users had come to love, including support for Mac OS X 10.4.10 and earlier versions, iCards, web access to bookmarks, .Mac slides, and .Mac groups. HomePages were also removed later in favor of iWeb-formatted websites.

And now, Apple's ditching MobileMe for iCloud, a new service that will offer users a free @me.com email address, storage of music, photos, apps, calendars, and documents. In addition, your music can be pushed to all of your devices, and device backups can be stored in the iCloud. Apple will still be charging for their iTunes Match service, but $25 per year is nothing compared to the $99 per year of .Mac and MobileMe service.