Jing is an ingenious screen capture tool that makes it easy to create an image or video of what you're looking at right now, then share it on the web, via email, Twitter, instant messaging and more.

Launch the program and it runs quietly in the background, displaying a simple icon at the top of your screen. When you want to grab something, click this, select the Capture option and choose exactly what you'd like to grab (an individual application, or your complete desktop?), and whether you want to capture an image or a short (5 minutes maximum) video.

Choose the Image option and Jing looks much like many other screen grab tools, with options to annotate your image with text, boxes, arrows and more, and then save the image to disc (the program only supports PNG files).

But a major advantage here is that Jing can also share your grab on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Screencast.com, upload it to an FTP server, and more. And it's all very straightforward. Customise the interface by adding the sharing features you need, and the program will upload your grab in a click - simple.

And better still, Jing can also capture what's happening on your desktop as a short video (Flash SWF format), complete with audio (though also a Jing logo), sharing it in all the same ways.