Two Good Reviews
Looking for a Word Processor? Zaine Ridling at Donation Coder has written a thorough review, and by thorough I mean over 15,000 words, covering various word processors. Not only does he review major and minor desktop word processors, but he also has a rundown of online ones. With each Word Processor he presents the good and the bad, and gives a sense of why you would want to choose one over the other. Equally as important the piece begins by running down some of the larger questions and issues, such as file format, that you need to think about. (The only limitation is that he covers only PC options.)
And for taking notes online . . . Web Worker Daily has a review of online note taking apps. This article covers the seven major online note taking applications. If you are looking to start using one of these, this is a good place to start.