Info, Search, and Reference
By Kyle Monson and Eric Griffith
These sites let you crunch the numbers, analyze the data, or just look up who that one guy is in that one movie.
blippr
www.blippr.com
blippr takes the idea of a character-count limit, made popular by Twitter, and applies it to movie, book, music, and game reviews. You've got 160 words to weigh in on your favorite (or least favorite) stuff, so make them count; as with Twitter, the enforced conciseness often makes for some brilliant writing. The site also uses your profile info and friends list to fuel a recommendation engine.
Common Sense Media
www.commonsensemedia.org
Common Sense Media is an invaluable resource for parents who want to know more about the media their kids are consuming. CSM offers detailed, clear-eyed reports on the content of movies, music, video games, and more, without resorting to rants or value judgments. You can write and submit those yourself! (They'll be posted in the reader reviews section, separated into "Adult Reviews" and "Kid Reviews.")
Criminal Searches
www.criminalsearches.com
Criminal Searches provides the scary-but-useful data on how many criminals live in your neighborhood, what crimes they were convicted of, and, in some cases, their names and personal info. It's all culled from public records, and is presented as a Google Maps mashup. You can restrict your search to sex offenders, search on a specific name to get a criminal history, or do a general search for criminals by city or ZIP code. This kind of data is certainly not for the faint of heart but can be useful in assessing the safety of your neighborhood.
Damn Interesting
www.damninteresting.com
Did you know it's quite possible that a severed head may actually feel pain for a while, post-separation? I think that's damn interesting, and so do the editors at Damn Interesting, enough to write an 1,100-word article about it. Their goal is to "collect and dispense damn interesting facts and ideas, whether they appeared in the past, the present, or the (anticipated) future." For example, did you know a supercollider was almost built under the plains of central Texas? Or that New York almost had a subway system based on pneumatic tubes? If you find that damn interesting, visit Damn Interesting.
ExpoTV
www.expotv.com
Here at PC Magazine, we love products. So a site filled with videotaped opinions and reviews about the latest toys, from phones to new cars, catches our attention. ExpoTV's catalog of video clips offers unique insights on products you may not have considered reading reviews of, such as yoga mats or highlighter pens. And if you make a video review of a product and submit it, ExpoTV may pay you $10 if they run it, with an extra penny each time it's played on the site (all via PayPal). Your video review may even make it on ExpoTV's video-on-demand shopping spots on cable TV.
glassbooth
www.glassbooth.org
Which side of the political divide are you on? The Web (and Facebook) is rife with political quizzes that want to tell you who to vote for, but glassbooth goes a step further. After taking a short quiz, glassbooth tells you how your views line up with each candidate's, and why. The site also provides quotes from the candidates and links to more info about them, should you wish to research further.
Howcast
www.howcast.com
Without a doubt, Howcast has the best-looking how-to videos on the Web. Perhaps better yet, the videos don't take themselves too seriously. How else to deal with topics like "How to Become an Ultimate Fighter" (quote: "embrace your failures") or "How to Get Rid of a One Night Stand" (you will need cunning and a poker face). Sign up to get a How-To Video of the Day via e-mail, as well as to be able to edit their how-to wikis, talk to experts in the community area, or upload your own videos. The user-generated stuff is okay, but the Howcast-produced vids are particularly great.
HowToCleanStuff
www.howtocleanstuff.net
Whatever you get dirty, this site can probably tell you how to clean it. Items include: dryers, white wall tires, LCD screens, paintings, golf balls, fake plants, cookies (the browser kind), furniture, venetian blinds, every kind of floor, and clothing (and specific kinds of spills, like Kool-Aid and gum), and pets and people. For example, there is a step-by-step on de-skunking both humans and dogs, neither of which involve that old wives' tale of tomato juice. Perhaps the best: instructions on "How to Polish a Turd."
NationMaster
www.nationmaster.com
Don't worry, it sounds more ominous than it really is. NationMaster aggregates world data on a staggeringly wide variety of subjects, letting you compare nations with one another based on many different criteria. For instance, America kicks the rest of the world's butt at soft-drink consumption.
RepairPal
www.repairpal.com
Until recently, God and your mechanic were the only ones who knew how much it actually costs to replace the fuel injector on a '95 Toyota Previa. Thanks to RepairPal, that kind of info is now open to everyone. Punch in the make/model/year/mileage of your car, the necessary repair, and your ZIP code, and RepairPal will tell you how much you should expect to pay and where you can get the work done. The site also lets you rate your mechanic afterward.
Searchme
www.searchme.com
Searchme is an innovative search engine that essentially uses Apple's Cover Flow interface to present your search results. To search, enter a term and then scroll horizontally through full previews of each relevant Web page until you find what you're looking for. You can also create "Stacks" of bookmarked Web pages to revisit later.
Viewzi
www.viewzi.com
Viewzi aggregates search results from Google, Yahoo!, YouTube, and more, and lets you pick how you want them presented. Do you want just the text from the Web pages? Just the photos? Video previews (shown here)? Searching with Viewzi is fun and, depending on your search term, can actually be more convenient than a simple Google search.
WhatTheFont
www.whatthefont.com
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and WhatTheFont helps you imitate the best graphic designers. To find out which font is being used in an image or on a Web site, upload a scanned image of it to WhatTheFont, or submit the URL. The service analyzes your submission and sends you the name of the font so you can use it in your own design projects. —next: Lifestyle >
