I Am, Therefore iChat

Mac OS X comes with a bunch of menubar items, but our favorite is the one foriChat. To enable it, go to iChat > Preferences and click the box for Show Status In Menubar. The iChat menubar item allows you to quickly log on and off, set your status, and even strike up a chat.

iSeek and I Shall Find
iSeek ($15) puts an Internet search box in your menubar. Type in a search term, and by default it brings up results in Google. But you can also click the arrow and choose another site, such as Weather.com,Google Images, or Dictionary.com.

Use iSeek to find anything you want fast.

Get to iTunes Faster
Synergy (€5, or $6.67 at press time) adds forward, back, and pause buttons for iTunes to your menubar, as well as playlists and recently played tracks. It also flashes the name of the current song and its album art in a translucent window on your desktop

A Better Clipboard

Jumpcut (free) is a repository for clipboard items. Copy or cut URLs, blobs of text, or whatever, and Jumpcut will store them in your menubar for easy retrieval anytime.

Clear Your Desktop for Company

Desktopple (donationware) saves the day for anyone who snaps a lot of screenshots.Choose the Hide Desktop option, and Desktopple clears away all of those unsightly icons so you can take a nice, clean shot.