ajaxWrite
www.ajaxwrite.com
By Kyle Monson
It's a Web-based word processor that's free and that works (but only in Firefox).

Concise Freeware
www.concisefreeware.com
By Kyle Monson
If you're on the prowl for software, especially the kind you don't have to pay for, check out Concise Freeware, with its enormous collection of Firefox plug-ins, old PC games, and utilities.

GetJar
www.getjar.com
By Jennifer L. DeLeo
The best things in the mobile world are free! Well, at least on GetJar.com. Browse or search the site's list of free software by title, device, or platform. We found the Pocket Oxford English Dictionary for Java and Arcade Park for Palm. Add your reviews or become a beta tester. And if you think your phone's too old or cheap to run cool apps, you might be surprised by what's out there. One note of caution: Some parts of the site may not be safe for work, as the site hawks mobile porn apps alongside all-ages fare.

OpenDNS
www.opendns.com
By Kyle Monson
It's fast, free, and secure. This DNS service offers speedier browsing (via smart caching and geographic distribution) and protection from phishing sites. The service will even correct typos that you punch into your browser—you didn't really want to go to www.googe.com, did you?

PocketMod
www.pocketmod.com
By Jennifer L. DeLeo
It's affordable enough for anyone to buy, small enough to fit in your pocket, and it holds all the data you need to get you through your day, including shopping lists, checkbook, and calendar. See what the PocketMod can do to improve your life.

Prosper
www.prosper.com
By Kyle Monson
Whether you're looking for money to pay off high-interest credit cards or you have some spare change that you'd like to collect interest on, the P2P lending model of Prosper is an intriguing one. Act as banker or borrower, depending on your needs, and the site lets you join up with other lenders to diversify your loans and diversify your risk.

Download Squad
www.downloadsquad.com
By Kyle Monson
Download Squad keeps you up to date on the latest happenings in the world of software and Web applications. The site is informative, witty, and graphical, and the bloggers post quite a bit.

GmailTips
www.gmailtips.com
By Kyle Monson
This exhaustive Gmail tips site has all sorts of hints and tricks to help you get the most out of the free mail service. The site is run by Jim of Jim's Tips, and if it doesn't quench your thirst for shortcuts, go to his main page for more mobile- and Web-application tricks.

The Green Button
www.thegreenbutton.com
By Kyle Monson
Got questions about Microsoft Windows Media Center Edition? The Green Button is the place to go. You'll find answers to all your MCE questions, forums to discuss the latest updates, and even some useful downloads.

StopBadware.org
www.stopbadware.org
By Errol Pierre-Louis
StopBadWare is like an online neighborhood watch. The site keeps an eye out for malicious Web sites and catalogs sites and applications that have been reported. It has joined with Google to warn users about blacklisted sites before it's too late.

TechCrunch
www.techcrunch.com
By Jennifer L. DeLeo
TechCrunch has news and reviews of Internet sites and services that you may not find anywhere else. Edited by Michael Arrington, the site keeps up with beta software, new Internet start-ups, and the whole Web 2.0 movement. Also, click the Jobs tab to go to CrunchBoard, a new job board exclusively for Web heads.

Techdirt
www.techdirt.com
By Molly K. McLaughlin
The regularly updated Techdirt brings you important news, analysis, and "dirt" about the tech industry, laid out in concise nuggets. Users can submit content—the site counts on it—from hard news to amusing tidbits. The site also offers targeted research services and a daily newsletter.

TweakGuides.com
www.tweakguides.com
By Errol Pierre-Louis
If your system needs a tune-up, TweakGuides.com is the place to go. The site has guides to optimizing individual games, browsers, and drivers, as well as a TweakingCompanion for getting the best performance out of Windows XP.

Akihabara News
www.akihabaranews.com
By Kyle Monson
Think Best Buy has the latest tech gear? You're living in a low-tech U.S. bubble, my friend. For the real cutting-edge stuff, you'll have to head across the Pacific. Akihabara News lets you do just that. The gadget blog showcases new technology products that may never appear in the U.S., and the English translation is off just enough to remind us that these wonders are to be had only in foreign lands.

iLounge
www.ilounge.com
By Errol Pierre-Louis
As the homepage suggests, iLounge is the place to go for "all things iPod, iTunes, and beyond." This site is a repository of iPod-related news and information: reviews, previews, feature articles, and even tutorials. iLounge also offers an iPod Book 2.2 guide, 202 pages of comprehensive iPod information, as a free download.

Photonhead
www.photonhead.com
By Tony Hoffman
Filled with tips, tricks, and tutorials, Photonhead is a great resource for newbies and not-so-newbies to digital photography. Photonhead covers choosing a camera, taking photos, and photo editing, and has a cool "SimCam," which lets you adjust shutter speed, aperture, and ISO on a test image and see the results as if it were a real camera. Look elsewhere for camera and software reviews, though, as the ones on the site are ancient.

SLR Gear
www.slrgear.com
By Kyle Monson
It can be tough to keep on top of the latest digital-camera news and releases, and that's without even worrying about lenses, flashes, and all the other accessories. That's what SLR Gear specializes in—going beyond the camera body to test and review all the other stuff a photographer needs. Whether you're looking for a new lens for your Canon Rebel XT or a camera bag for your Nikon D200, SLR Gear can give you expert recommendations.

TechieDiva
www.techiediva.blogs.com
By Jennifer L. DeLeo
TechieDiva fills a void in the gadget blog arena by writing about technology for women. Here, females can satisfy their tech tastebuds with news and reviews on fashionable cell phones, laptop bags, Swarovski jeweled desk accessories, and more. Sign up for the newsletter to be included in giveaways automatically.

Crazy Meds
www.crazymeds.org
By Steven Wishnia
Crazy Meds is a helpful guide to psychiatric medications written by the people who use them, with blunt honesty, more scientific rigor than you'd expect, and a very dark sense of humor. Before you start popping Paxil (or anything else), go to Crazy Meds to check out the pros and cons.

Go Ask Alice!
www.goaskalice.com
By Natali Del Conte
A health question-and-answer site run by Columbia University's Health Promotion Program, Go Ask Alice! is a great place to ask embarrassing medical questions anonymously. Check out the especially insightful hangover tips!

Britney's Guide to Semiconductor Physics
www.britneyspears.ac/lasers.htm
By Tony Hoffman
Not all geeks are gawky, nor beauties brainless, but who'd have guessed that Britney Spears is a semiconductor-
physics whiz? At least that's the improbable premise of this site, which intersperses playful photos of her—such as one in which she's in a bathtub full of diamonds (which the caption compares to semiconductor crystals)—within an equation-dense hard-core physics text. Whether you're cribbing for your Ph.D. in laser dynamics, have a thing for that gal from Louisiana, or just enjoy a good reality warp, it's worth checking out.

Charity Navigator
www.charitynavigator.org
By Molly K. McLaughlin
So you have some extra cash and you'd like to give it to a good cause, but you're not sure which you can trust? Before you open your wallet, check out Charity Navigator, a nonprofit organization that evaluates and rates charities for you. Searching on the site is simple, and the top-ten lists, including "celebrity-related charities" and "inefficient fund-raisers," are a great feature.

Double-Tongued Word Wrester Dictionary
www.doubletongued.org
By Natali Del Conte
The Double-Tongued Word Wrester Dictionary highlights words and phrases that you may not have heard before, with a specialty in slang and fringe English. Citations of usage in the media are included, in case you doubted that a word like "Septoctnocember" was ever really used.

Expert Village
www.expertvillage.com
By Kyle Monson
Expert Village is a repository of all sorts of useful (or useless) info, put together by experts, freelance writers, and even a video team. Get help fixing your leaky faucet, watch a video on kickboxing technique, or become a better soccer dribbler.

FindSounds
www.findsounds.com
By Rachel Florman
You've got your choice of search engines if you're looking online for articles. Photos and graphics are easy enough to find with Google or Yahoo Images. But what if you're looking for sounds? Let's say you need to find the hoot of a barn owl or the grind of a jackhammer. FindSounds is designed for just that kind of search. Scouring the Web for AIFF, AU, and WAV files, the site provides a list of search results. Click on the speaker icon to hear the sound, or choose the Sounds Like icon to get a new list, with sounds that are related to the one you've chosen.

Gullible.info
www.gullible.info
By Kyle Monson
Head to Gullible.info for your daily dose of, er, trivia. The factoids are brilliant, but are they real? The site never divulges, but its name is Gullible.info—you tell us.

The Memory Hole
www.thememoryhole.org
By Kyle Monson
The Memory Hole exists to bring hidden, lost, or forgotten info to light by way of posting documents on its home page. Check out reports such as the one detailing Pfizer's efforts to create chemical and biological weapons for the U.S. government in the 1960s, or another from the 1950s on evidence of ESP in animals. There's plenty of content on the site, so you're sure to find something that piques your curiosity.

NNDB
www.nndb.com
By Natali Del Conte
NNDB is to world culture what IMDB is to entertainment: a database of notables. It is a veritable who's who, and we know it's complete.

PollingReport.com
www.pollingreport.com
By Kyle Monson
Who's hungry for some stats? PollingReport.com is a survey aggregator, letting you quickly search through reams of surveys to find specific numbers or just browse around to see what your neighbors think. Want to see how your fellow Americans feel about the Israel-Lebanon crisis? Stem-cell research? Mel Gibson? PollingReport.com can tell you.

QuoteDB
www.quotedb.com
By Jennifer L. DeLeo
"Life is ours to be spent, not to be saved," said author D.H. Lawrence. So make sure you spend your time at QuoteDB. You'll find a database of over 4,000 famous quotations in 60 categories, from Dave Barry and Hunter S. Thompson to Emily Dickinson and Leonardo da Vinci. Get your daily fix with the Quote of the Day, peruse recently added quotes, or add quotes to your Web site with the Quote Generator.

Sperling's Best Places
www.bestplaces.net
By Kyle Monson
Ever wondered how your town's crime rate compares with the national average? Or how much is spent per student in the city you're thinking of moving to? Get these and other answers at Sperling's Best Places. Just punch in a town name or ZIP code and get all kinds of information such as the median cost of a home, average household size, or even the most popular religions in the area.

TheFreeDictionary
www.thefreedictionary.com
By Errol Pierre-Louis
This online reference lets you look up common definitions as well as medical, legal, computer, and financial terminology, along with antonyms, synonyms, and idioms. The fun doesn't end with looking up words, either. The Web site has plenty of extras, including news alerts, word games, RSS feeds, and a customizable homepage.

Webmath.com
www.webmath.com
By Jennifer L. DeLeo
Remember those annoying word problems in math class when you had to figure out if one painter can paint a house in 12 hours and another painter takes 8 hours, how long will it take both painters to paint a house together? Now there's help if you're lost. At Webmath.com, you'll find solutions and tips for algebra, geometry, calculus, and more.

World Wide Words
www.worldwidewords.org
By Jennifer L. DeLeo
Where can you go to learn about the English language from a British point of view? Point your mouse to World Wide Words. Written by author Michael Quinion, the site serves up a large collection of his articles, Q&As, reviews, and explanations of topical words and weird words. For instance, you'll learn that the term "blue moon" didn't always mean something that happens rarely; it used to refer to two full moons in one month. The next years in which this will happen are 2018 and 2037. But you knew that.

Bookslut
www.bookslut.com
By Errol Pierre-Louis
Bookslut is a monthly Web magazine run by a pack of lit-savvy ladies (and a few fellas) that provides a constant supply of news, reviews, commentary, insight, and a healthy dose of opinions. The site covers poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and even comic books.

5ives
www.5ives.com
By Jennifer L. DeLeo
They say things happen in threes, but on 5ives.com, you'll find some of the oddest lists in fives. From "Five Kitchen Tools that Sound Kind of Dirty" to "Five People Who Are Much More Enjoyable if You Imagine Them as Pro Wrestlers," it's time to get your fives fix on.

Box Office Mojo
www.boxofficemojo.com
By Natali Del Conte
Box Office Mojo has information about box-office stats past, present, and future. The site gives a rundown of the movie as well as its performance at the box office.

Comic Book Resources
www.comicbookresources.com
By Whitney A. Reynolds
Get your sticky fingers on the keyboard and go to Comic Book Resources, a site that can give you all the info on your favorite spandex-wearing crimefighters and other freaks of nature. And since it's on the Internet, you don't even have to leave your mom's basement!

Concussion.org
www.concussion.org
By Kyle Monson
Concussion.org is like the outtakes from the X-Games, if the X-Games were held in your neighbor's empty swimming pool. Check out the surfing, skating, and snowboarding clips, or click on SLAM to see some gnarly, bloody pictures of what happens when skaters hit the pavement.

CookingByNumbers.com
www.cookingbynumbers.com
By Kyle Monson
How many cookbooks begin by asking what you have in your fridge? That's precisely what CookingByNumbers.com does, surveying the contents of your kitchen before dispensing recipes based on what's already in your cupboard. Recipes range from simple grilled-cheese sandwiches to Mediterranean pork chops and even chocolate cake.

Core77 Design Blog
www.core77.com/blog
By Kyle Monson
Core77 has been around for more than 10 years, catering mainly to industrial-design students and pros. But as design has gotten hotter and gone all mainstream, a Web site devoted to slick-looking things doesn't seem so niche anymore. Our favorite section is the blog, which keeps tabs on the coolest products and ideas coming out of the design world.

Coudal Partners
www.coudal.com
By Kyle Monson
Coudal Partners is a "design, advertising, and interactive studio" in Chicago that uses its site, coudal.com, as "an ongoing experiment in Web publishing, design, and commerce." If that sounds too corporate for you, it's because you haven't yet seen the site, which features such attractions as the Museum of Online Museums, various film projects, and the Society for HandHeld Hushing, which aims to stamp out rude public cell-phone conversations.

Crying While Eating
www.cryingwhileeating.com
By Sarah Pike
Crying While Eating, a performance-art-type site, shows videos of just that: People crying about various things while eating various other things. For example, DJ is eating Spam while crying about poor chain-letter etiquette. Hank and Earl are eating pudding and peaches in a cup, drinking whiskey, and crying because NASCAR was preempted. Now that's entertainment.

Cute Overload
www.cuteoverload.com
By Whitney A. Reynolds
They haven't done any serious scientific studies yet, but it might actually be possible for this site to make you die of cuteness. Cute Overload has your daily dose of adorable widdle puppies, kitties, duckies, and more. (Can a squid be cute? You'll have to judge for yourself.) It might just be the only thing to get you through those rough workdays—or the final annoying straw that sends your fist through your monitor.

 

Deadspin
www.deadspin.com
By Kyle Monson
Whether you're looking for sports scores, stats, or gossip about your favorite athlete or team, Deadspin has it. The blog's coverage is superb, with "About Last Night" recaps to use as water-cooler fodder, and "To Watch Tonight" listings so you'll never miss a game.

EricDSnider.com
www.ericdsnider.com
By Kyle Monson
Movie blogs are a dime a dozen, but few tackle the subject with the humor and snarkiness of ericdsnider.com. And few have such a large catalog of reviews—click on Movie Reviews to see the exhaustive list. The reviews are free, and as of last week, so is Eric's weekly "Snide Remarks" humor column.

Films101
www.films101.com
By Errol Pierre-Louis
Fancy yourself a film snob? Then Films101 caters to your sophisticated taste. Films101 is a movie database and resource for discovering rewarding films. To make the cut for films101, the movie must be strongly recommended by critics and filmmakers. Most of the site's titles come from all-time-best movie lists and major movie-award lists.

Hanttula
www.hanttula.com
By Errol Pierre-Louis
This site is packed with a weirdly entertaining blend of content authored by Mike Hanttula. It has hosted the Museum of Food Anomalies, a fact-based story guide to the ABC show Lost, a now-defunct Website Blessing Service—where you could get an ordained priest to sanctify your site—and a blog of funky products and sites that are sure to amuse.

Home Envy
www.homeenvy.com
By Kyle Monson
Home Envy caters to the home-owning DIYer, with tons and tons of home-improvement content. Search for tips by room, by task, or by columnist, and get entertaining advice on your latest project.

Ideal Bite
www.idealbite.com
By Errol Pierre-Louis
If you love the earth but don't think of yourself as "granola," Ideal Bite has the info and the attitude you're looking for. The stylishly designed site offers relevant, down-to-earth advice and articles on practical ways you can go green. Click on the Tip Library tab to look for eco-friendly tips by topic, or on the Blog tab to read what's new.

Intuitor Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics
www.intuitor.com/moviephysics
By Errol Pierre-Louis
It seems that everyone's a critic these days. Intuitor's nerds take movie criticism to the next level as they dissect, criticize, and argue the merits of movie physics to debunk what they call "Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics." The site includes an examination of general movie physics flubs, as well as movie physics reviews and ratings from "Good physics in general" to "Obviously physics from an unknown universe."

I Watch Stuff!
www.iwatchstuff.com
By Laarni Ragaza
In this TV- and movie-obsessed age, sites are inevitably going to crop up espousing (and exposing) the most random trivia and observations about what's on-screen. That's not to say these sites aren't entertaining. Case in point: iwatchstuff.com. From info about the newest reality show to the latest Tenacious D trailer, the site dishes on the various pop-culture flotsam with an air of witty and often withering affection. You'll never look at the Today show the same way again.

Jonathan Coulton
www.jonathancoulton.com
By Erin Simon
Welcome to the Internet lodge of inventive nerd-rock musician Jonathan Coulton. You might know him from such hits as the acoustic cover of "Baby Got Back" or "Code Monkey" (sample lyric: "Code Monkey get up get coffee, Code Monkey go to job"). JoCo dot com is nigh overflowing with funny, creative, and Creative Commons–licensed music, which you can hear for free in the Thing a Week podcast.

KCRW
www.kcrw.com
By Kyle Monson
It's just a small radio station streaming out of Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California, but we're hooked on the blend of NPR news, informed talk radio, and eclectic music programming. Pick the shows that interest you or just tune in to the live feed.

Make: Blog
www.makezine.com/blog
By Errol Pierre-Louis
All you DIYers out there might want to add this blog to your favorites list. Make's blog is chock-full of products and ideas you can tackle with your own two hands. These aren't just simple handcrafts, but high-tech projects and modifications such as making a touch-screen bar-code scanner or converting your tracker to electric power.

Metafilter
www.metafilter.com
By Whitney A. Reynolds
Metafilter is bare-bones in its design, but who needs flashy interfaces, anyway? Sometimes, simple is best. The site dishes out daily links—supplied by the large and diverse user community—to anything and everything the Internet has to offer, from news stories to pop culture to esoteric trivia. You might just learn something (or, at the very least, kill some time).

The Ministry of Unknown Science
www.tmous.com
By Sarah Pike
One look at "Kung Fu F*** You," and we were hooked. But it's not all fun and fighting at the Ministry: For the most part, these "scientists" spend their lab time skewering those most likely to take offense, in a series of short films. Which aren't always work-safe, btw.

My Wonderful World
www.mywonderfulworld.org
By Jennifer L. DeLeo
Led by National Geographic, My Wonderful World is dedicated to teaching parents, educators, and kids about geography. Test your global IQ, participate in family activities, print a wall map of the world, and more. You can even write to lawmakers to urge them to support education and educating students about the world.

NameVoyager
www.babynamewizard.com/namevoyager/lnv0105.html
By Kyle Monson
The Baby Name Wizard's NameVoyager might sound more useful for soon-to-be-parents, but the site offers plenty of fun for other folks, too. Wanna see what percentage of the population shares your first name? Or what the most popular names are right now? Or whether "Pat" is a more common name for girls or boys? NameVoyager presents the info in a cool, fun-to-use graphical interface.

Paper Toys
www.papertoys.com
By Errol Pierre-Louis
Make a paper model of everything from a Mercedes 320 SL to a Jimi Hendrix guitar to the Neuschwanstein Castle. PaperToys.com features cutout templates of those and a slew of other paper models you can download, print out, cut out, and fold on your own.

Patently Silly
www.patentlysilly.com
By Errol Pierre-Louis
There are all sorts of kooky inventions in the works that we never hear about. Thanks to the guys at patentlysilly.com, the likes of the "Battery-Powered Illuminated Ice Cube" or the "Solar Powered Electric Candle" don't fly under our radar. The site archives real patents issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for some of the silliest inventions you would never hear of otherwise.

The Political Compass
www.politicalcompass.org
By Kyle Monson
The familiar labels of "right" and "left" or "liberal" and "conservative" might be too simplistic for our times. The Political Compass offers an alternative, giving you a short questionnaire before placing you on a political grid that includes politicians and famous thinkers for reference.

PressThink
www.pressthink.org
By Errol Pierre-Louis
Who will watch the watchers? How about Jay Rosen and his blog, PressThink? The journalism blog keeps a sharp eye out for media issues and trends, especially those pertaining to the reporting-versus-blogging debate. His latest project experiments with open-source journalism. Whether you're for, against, or in the MSM machine, PressThink is an interesting read.

Radio.Blog.Club
www.radioblogclub.com
By Jennifer L. DeLeo
Tired of listening to the same Web radio stations? Then grab your headphones and listen to other Web users' music on Radio.Blog.Club. Simply enter an artist's name or song title, click on the file name, and enjoy music from that user's playlist. And if you don't want to keep your browser open, click on Detach Radio.Blog for a standalone player. No registration required to play tracks.

The Surrealist
www.thesurrealist.co.uk
By Sarah Pike
You are the most frabjous Polo mint. Goodbye! (If you don't appreciate the preceding, you may not enjoy The Surrealist.)

tastingmenu.com
www.tastingmenu.com
By Kyle Monson
Tastingmenu.com looks at food, specifically the appetizers of the world's great restaurants, and invites you to look at them too. You'll find pictures of table presentations and delicious plates of food in eateries that you may or may not live in proximity to or be able to afford. But sometimes it's fun just to look.

tourfilter
www.tourfilter.com
By Kyle Monson
Tourfilter tracks concerts and shows in 12 major U.S. cities (plus London and Toronto) to ensure that you never miss your favorite band's gig. The site enlists trackers to keep tabs on artist lineups at scores of venues, whether small clubs or enormous stadiums. Check out the city pages for a list of upcoming shows in your area, or input your favorite bands' names to get an e-mail when they announce a nearby show.

TVgasm
www.tvgasm.com
By Kyle Monson
When it takes longer to read the episode synopsis than it would've taken to actually watch the episode, you know you've found a good TV blog. TVgasm is detailed enough in its coverage of favorite TV shows that you no longer need to fret if you've missed an episode.

Valleywag
www.valleywag.com
By Kyle Monson
Valleywag reads like the celebrity blog Gawker, only take out the beautiful celebrities and insert venture capitalists, Web 2.0 geeks, and other Silicon Valley notables. The blog has the latest formal announcements and juicy gossip from deep inside the (apparently) sordid world of technology start-ups.

We Feel Fine
www.wefeelfine.org
By Kyle Monson
Wallow in other peoples' misery or revel in their victories—We Feel Fine lets you do both. The cool interface looks like thousands of bouncing balls, with each one representing a thought or sentiment from the blogosphere. Click on the balls to read what people are thinking, feeling, or expressing. Group hug!

Indymedia
www.indymedia.org
By Errol Pierre-Louis
Fight the power! Indymedia, a network of more than 150 "Independent Media Center" sites, features grass-roots, non-corporate-media news from activists and journalists on every inhabited continent. Want to find the hottest protest spot? This is the place to look.

The Morning News
www.themorningnews.org
By Whitney A. Reynolds
The site's name is actually a bit of a misnomer; it's updated every weekday morning, but not always with news (though you will find the latest news headlines in the right column). The Morning News features short works of both fiction and nonfiction that range from the satirical to the serious. Highlights are the "advice" column "The Non-Expert" and the multiple "How-To" guides.

Regret the Error
www.regrettheerror.com
By Kyle Monson
Regret the Error is the site that takes the mainstream media to task, reprinting corrections and errors from newspapers, magazines, and other news sources. Funny headlines + media apologies = a great afternoon read.

10x10
www.tenbyten.org
By Errol Pierre-Louis
10x10 offers an hourly updated snapshot of the world, with the 100 pictures that matter most on a global scale. 10x10 scans a handful of reputable news sites to come up with the top 100 words and images. Clicking on the images lets you dig deeper and find the stories behind them.

Alien Loves Predator
www.alienlovespredator.com
By Whitney A. Reynolds
His name's Abe; he's a xenomorph with acid for blood and a shiny black exoskeleton. And his name's Preston, and he's a dreadlocked killing machine with a penchant for cloaking devices. They share an apartment in New York City. Hilarity ensues! Alien Loves Predator shares the unexpected antics of this pair through action-figure-based Web comics three times a week.

Goggles
www.isoma.net/games/goggles.html
By Kyle Monson
It's nothing too fancy, but this fun little flight simulator is a mash-up of Google Maps and a cartoony plane. Fly around various towns or even the Moon and Mars, and don't worry about strafing the terrain below—your weapons have no effect.

Google Idol
www.googleidol.com
By Errol Pierre-Louis
Couldn't make the cut for American Idol? Grab your webcam and embrace your second chance at superstardom. Gidol is an online lip-syncing competition that pits videos submitted to Google Video against one another. The winners are chosen by public voting, and if your video comes out on top you earn a spot in the Gidol Hall of Fame.

Guess-the-google
grant.robinson.name/projects/guess-the-google
By Sarah Pike
In this fun and frustrating game, you're presented with a grid of 16 images that are the results of a Google search for images. Your goal is to guess the search term within 20 seconds. You get points for guessing right and quickly.

LogoGame
www.logogame.com
By Errol Pierre-Louis
The object of this addicting game is to guess the company or organization by a fragment of its logo. It's harder than it sounds. If you want to test just how well marketers have emblazoned their brand image into your mind, take one of the many tests, each with its own theme. Guess them all right and you get the honor of having your name immortalized in the LogoGame Hall of Fame. Want to improve your score? Watch more commercials.

OEDILF
www.oedilf.com
By Kyle Monson
What does OEDILF stand for? Why, the Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick Form, of course! Enter a word into the Limericktionary, and OEDILF returns user-submitted limericks containing the word (there are more than 30,000 in all!).

Omnipelagos.com
www.omnipelagos.com
By Kyle Monson
Omnipelagos connects the dots between people, places, and even abstract ideas in a bizarre twist on the "Six Degrees of Separation" game. Enter two names or words and the site will find a link, no matter how much of a stretch. Anyone can connect Kevin Bacon and Uma Thurman, but what about connecting Kevin Bacon and the Mandelbrot set? That's tougher, but Omnipelagos.com can do it.

Websites as Graphs
www.aharef.info/static/htmlgraph/
By Kyle Monson
Insert the URL of your favorite Web site and this nifty little applet spits out a visual representation, with different colored dots representing the Web site's various tags and links. It's not the most useful Web site around, but it sure does make some pretty conversation pieces for your cubicle.

AntiRebate
www.antirebate.com
By Errol Pierre-Louis
This is one discount online shopping site where you won't have to deal with any snail-mail forms and 8- to 10-week waiting times before your supposedly great deal kicks in. Antirebate.com brings you coupon codes, instant rebates, price breaks, free stuff, and other great deals you get without having to resort to mail-in rebates.

Bad Business Bureau
www.badbusinessbureau.com
By Errol Pierre-Louis
If you've ever been victimized by a company, you know how hard and costly it can be to get retribution. The Bad Business Bureau gives consumers a way to get back at crooked companies. You can report companies who've cheated you and search thousands of other reports for free. You can also buy a DIY guide on sticking it to the scammers without hiring an attorney.

The Consumerist
www.consumerist.com
By Sarah Pike
At The Consumerist, "shoppers bite back" at businesses big and small . . . but mostly big. Amazon, Wal-Mart, and "Evil" have their own tabs at the top of the page, and AOL's been occupying front-page space quite a bit lately.

ConsumerSearch
www.consumersearch.com
By Kyle Monson
ConsumerSearch aggregates consumer research and product reviews to give you recommendations for hundreds of product categories. Looking for the best hedge trimmer? Pickup truck? Electric toothbrush? ConsumerSearch can put you on the right track.

DealCatcher
www.dealcatcher.com
By Jennifer L. DeLeo
Dedicated to helping shoppers save money, DealCatcher offers online coupons and codes for DVDs, video games, and more from Dell, Amazon, Overstock, and many other retailers. You can also compare prices, receive deal alerts, and view Sunday ads.

Etsy
www.etsy.com
By Whitney A. Reynolds
Finally, you can turn your knitting addiction into cold hard cash! Or, alternately, turn your compulsive spending habit into warm, fuzzy knit scarves. Etsy is a marketplace where creators and consumers of homemade crafts can easily do business.

gethuman
www.gethuman.com
By Erin Simon
Anyone who's wasted an hour on the phone sitting on hold or dialing through labyrinthine automated menus will appreciate the gethuman database, a simple but comprehensive list of major companies' customer-service phone numbers and the steps to take to get a real human on the phone. Press 0 and kiss that on-hold Muzak good-bye.

Insound
www.insound.com
By Errol Pierre-Louis
Started by a group of indie rock fans tired of the iTunes and Amazons that ignore the underground scene, Insound is dedicated to the world of indie music. While you won't find the latest Justin Timberlake single, shoppers can find rare or just underexposed CDs, LPs, and even MP3s from bands and artists who break the mainstream mold.

Oodle
www.oodle.com
By Jennifer L. DeLeo
Described as the "search engine for local classifieds," Oodle lets you search for apartments, electronics, concert tickets, pets, even babysitters! We found three 1950s comics for $75. Sign up for Oodle alerts to receive listings tailored to your needs. In addition, you'll discover volunteer opportunities and charities to give back to your community.

PrivateWay.com
www.privateway.com
By Whitney A. Reynolds
Maybe someday you'll be brave enough to take your 100-count container of premoistened rectal pads proudly up to the drugstore counter for purchase. In the meantime, there's PrivateWay.com, a site specializing in discreet direct delivery of all of life's embarrassing necessities.

SnapShirts
www.snapshirts.com
By Errol Pierre-Louis
If you love to read it, you might as well wear it. SnapShirts gives you a way to wear what you read and share it with others. Its custom shirts show off "word clouds" generated from the most frequently used words of your favorite blog, Web site, or author. The word clouds are then printed on a shirt, mug, or mouse pad of your styling, all for under 20 bucks.

Zunafish
www.zunafish.com
By Errol Pierre-Louis
Zunafish puts a new twist on peer-to-peer sharing: Instead of swapping electronic files, you swap actual books, CDs, DVDs, and video games with other members of the Zunafish community. After creating a profile, put items up for trade and find items you'd like to trade for. When you agree to a trade, you mail the items to the address provided and your trading partner does the same, all for a dollar a trade.

Airfarewatchdog.com
www.airfarewatchdog.com
By Jennifer L. DeLeo
Other travel sites may use Web crawlers to find the lowest fares, but Airfarewatchdog's allure is that it uses real people to bring you low fares, even ones from smaller airlines. View the Top 50 Fares, Fare of the Day, and find out the best places to sit on U.S. airlines. There's even a Travel Q&A section to provide tips on things such as rental cars, cruises, and health/safety.

FlightAware
www.flightaware.com
By Kyle Monson
Especially in these days of long airport delays and flight cancellations, FlightAware is a great tool for tracking your loved one's journey home. The site gives real-time locations for flights in the air, letting you quickly know when friends and family will actually be arriving at the gate. Or just browse to check out what today's skies look like.

Flight 001
www.flight001.com
By Molly K. McLaughlin
Born on a flight between New York and Paris, Flight 001 aims to simplify travel shopping and planning so you can actually enjoy your trip. The site is a one-stop shop for all your travel needs, neatly organized by category: carry-on, tech-to-go, aerotherapy, and more. You can shop online or at one of its brick-and-mortar locations—which are designed to look like the inside of a 747 cabin.

Forgotten NY
www.forgotten-ny.com
By Erin Simon
Forgotten-NY.com is your tour guide to the New York City of the past, from 18th-century cemeteries to nightlife neon. Rich photo essays and extensive info document the remnants of forgotten eras that remain just around the corner or down the street. There's no clean navigation here; just like the rambling walks it documents, the Web site is a luscious sprawl to get lost in for hours, whether or not you live in the Big Apple.

Google Maps Mania
googlemapsmania.blogspot.com
By Rachel Florman
Lots of developers use Google Maps as the basis for creating new online tools. And as more and more sites publish these tools, one blogger is keeping track of it all. On Google Maps Mania, you'll find recent sites highlighted, and classics listed. So if you're looking for, say, a place to share favorite cycling routes, a mash-up using the New York City subway map, or an interactive BBC news map, you're in luck.