Explore the world of birds with the Internet Bird Collection
If you're a birder, you will love the Internet Bird Collection, a non-profit, volunteer endeavor to collect as much information as possible about birds from all over the world. If you find and photograph or video a bird in the wild, you can upload your findings to the IBC and share it with other bird enthusiasts globally. The Internet Bird Collection offers Statistics, Forums, Videos, Photos, Sounds - pretty much anything a bird lover could ever want. It's a great way to harness the power of crowds, in this case birders, in order to create something that everyone can use.
More Web resources that are volunteer driven
Search of the Week: Steve McNair and Sahel Kazemi
According to Google Insights, the top searches were steve mcnair dead, steve mcnair, and sahel kazemi. Breaking these searches down geographically, the regions that searched the most for these terms were the United States and Mexico, with Tennessee, Mississippi, and Maryland doing the most searches.
Yahoo's Buzz Index reports Sahel Kazemi was one of the highest searches this week, outranking Steve McNair by far, oddly enough.
Ask saw spikes for this topic in the categories of Top News Searches and Top Advancing Searches; Steve McNair outpaced Sahel Kazemi for Ask.com searches. Related Ask searches were Steve McNair Biography, Steve McNair Wife, and 398 questions about Steve McNair.
Previous Top Searches
Five sites for free college courses
If you've ever felt the hankering for a bit of higher education, but you don't want to pay the hefty bills that go right along with it, then here are five sites you can pick up free - yes, FREE - college courses in all sorts of subjects:
- MIT: Everything from Physics I: Classical Mechanics to Street-Fighting Mathematics.
- Yale: Classics, History, Political Science, and more.
- UC Berkeley: Podcasts and Webcasts of UC Berkeley current and archived courses.
- Carnegie Mellon: Engineering, physics, and hey! Computational Discrete Mathematics.
- Notre Dame: Ooh! Lots of good stuff here, from Africana Studies to Gender Studies to Romance Languages and Literatures.
There is just a wealth of education treasures to be had here! Do you have any favorite spots on the Web where you've picked up a free bit of education? Let us know in the comments section below.
More Web freebies
Need crossword help? Try OneAcross
If you're a fan of crossword puzzles, and you need a bit of help (especially on that dastardly Sunday crossword puzzle!), you'll want to give One Across, a crossword search/computational engine, a try. Here's how One Across works:
- Enter your crossword clue into the "clue" field.
- Enter the pattern, i.e., the length of the word, into the "pattern" field.
Click on "Go!". One Across will run through hundreds of different words that fit your clues and give you ones that fit. Nice shortcut for those really tough crossword puzzle clues!
More Web shortcuts
Shop locally with Milo
If you're looking for a specific item and you'd like to see what the best deal is in your local area, you might want to try Milo, a search engine that ONLY brings back store listings in your zip code.
For instance, I told Milo to look for a MacBook in my neck of the woods, and this is what I got:
- More search suggestions to further narrow my search, such as stores, brands, and prices
- A map of all the stores that carry what I'm looking for
- Listings of MacBooks and related paraphernalia
You can arrange your results by relevance, price, or consumer rating. There's also a product directory and a state by state listing, such as Alaska, for cities and stores.
More shopping resources on the Web
Google Maps: now with real estate listings
How do you search for real estate listings on the Web? Do you use a specific realty company's website, Craigslist, Zillow, or Trulia? Well, now you can use Google Maps to search real estate listings all over the world. They're just rolled out this feature today, and I'm already impressed. Search options include the traditional number of bedrooms, price, and square footage along with a checkbox for foreclosure listings (this seems to be available only in the States at this time).
In order to get to the Google Maps real estate listings, navigate first to Google Maps and type in a location you're interested in, say, San Francisco, California. You'll see a link on the top left hand side that looks like this:
Clicking on that link takes you directly to Google's real estate listings, which they pull in from various real estate listing sites, MLS services, and other real estate services. As already mentioned, Google does make it possible for you to browse real estate listings all over the world, which is VERY handy. Here's an example from Tokyo, Japan:
And Berlin, Germany:
Heck, you can even search Finland, Brazil, New Zealand, or Saudi Arabia. Definitely a useful resource!
More maps on the Web
Five ways to make that link shorter
How many times have you come across a great Web site that you want to send to a friend, and the darn URL is so long that it ends up breaking in pieces all over your email message, making it very inconvenient for the person who receives it to open? This happened to me a LOT before I learned about the many ways you can shorten those humongous URLs - here's five that you can try out right now.
- Tinyarro.ws - Shortest URLs on Earth
- bit.ly, a simple url shortener
- is.gd URL Shortener
- tr.im your URLs
- Tiny URL - create a shorter link
More useful Web tools
Happy Fourth of July
Happy Independence Day! You really should be at a barbeque or something right now, instead of inside looking at a computer, but since you are, and you chose this site, you get the Extra Special Independence Day Blog Spectacular.
Here are a few web goodies for your Fourth of July amusement.
Fourth of July History
- The US Census Bureau has put together a very good history/information fact sheet all about the Fourth.
- A Capital Fourth from PBS: Includes history and etiquette of the American flag, a chronological timeline of the holiday, and various patriotic reflections.
- Fourth of July Celebrations Database: From American University. This is a huge resource, and has such Independence Day tidbits as Numerical Symbolism and the Fourth of July, a Chronology of Musical Events, and more general and specific historical references.
- Independence Day: If you've ever had a vague hankering to read the Magna Carta in its' entirety, or sit down to do a little light reading with the Declaration of Independence, then this is the place. Includes these and more historical documents in their entirety, a (somewhat annoying) MIDI jukebox full of patriotic songs, and more.
Fourth of July Celebrations
- All over the country, there will be major parties and celebrations going on.
- Independence Day Celebrations: Information on various celebrations all over the world.
- Celebrating the Fourth: From the US Department of State. Includes the President's proclamation and radio address, photo galleries, and historical resources.
Fourth of July Food
- National Hot Dog and Sausage Council: The best press copy ever: "Fourth of July Is 'Top Dog' Holiday for Weiner Lovers. Americans Associate Hot Dogs Most Closely with Independence Day - and Exercise Their Freedoms of Choice in Toppings and Buns."
- Hot Dogs and America: I wish I had known about this one. ""Hot Dogs As America" will offer a selection of ten of the most tempting hot dogs from ballparks and cities around the country, in celebration of Baseball As America, the first major exhibition to examine the relationship between baseball and American culture, on view at the American Museum of Natural History from March 16 through August 18, 2002." Excuse me, Curator, sir? Half of the display over there seems to be missing.
- Barbeque: All bbq, all the time. Mmmm....barbeque....
- Star Trek Barbeque: To boldly barbeque where no man has barbequed before. Grilled meat just tastes so much better when you're wearing a polyester space outfit, complete with pleather boots.
- I.F.O.C.E, or the International Federation of Competitive Eating. Alka-Seltzer is apparently a big corporate sponsor here, for obvious reasons. Perhaps Pepto-Bismol and whoever represents ipecac syrup should send their people to meet IFOCE's people, we'll have a meeting, we'll take a memo, etc.
Fourth of July Fireworks
- The National Council on Fireworks Safety: Includes state laws and many multimedia presentations of various governmental employees nagging you to put it down! Put it DOWN! Do you want to set yourself on fire? Do you? I didn't think so. Here's a sparkler. Yes, it's fun. It's FUN! We're here to have fun, not set people on fire! Don't make me get the angry voice out because then we-NO! We do NOT think it's "cool" to scare your sister and make her cry with the dang Roman candles tied to Dolly Love and Kiss! Get over here! I swear, you're driving me to Crazytown. Yes, you are. Yes, you ARE.
- The Underappreciated Art of Firecracker Labels: We went and got a few fireworks yesterday and I got a good look at what we'll soon be blowing to smithereens. These pictures are actually quite good. Too bad we'll be blowing them to smit-did I already say that? Yes. We'll be blowing things up. Yay!
- Flickr Fireworks: All the pictures at Flickr that have been tagged with the word "fireworks." There's some pretty impressive ones here. I'm sure I'll come home with my usual masterpieces of blur, smudge, thumb, and/or unidentified floor of some kind.
- Cyberfireworks.com: Create your own fireworks show-you even get to choose the location, among which are the Las Vegas Strip, New York City, and the Grand Canyon. This would be fun for kids.
Fourth of July Games
- Fourth of July Scavenger Hunt: The Fourth Of July Web Search scavenger hunt is all about America: the history of Independence Day, various Fourth Of July monuments, identification of historic sites, and Presidents. Plus, it's a great way to test your Web search skills!
- Fourth of July Printables: Fun and free printables for the younger set.
- Fourth of July Online Games: A whole list of fun games to keep the kids occupied for a few minutes while you get the hamburgers ready.
- Fourth of July Puzzles: Fun puzzles for kids of all ages.
Figure out where to meet with Happy Median
Need to meet someone, and want to figure out a good middle meeting ground? Try Happy Median, a simple site that plots, well, a "happy median" between two addresses. Simply type in two geographical points, click "enter", and Happy Median will suggest a few halfway points for you. Simple as that!
More Web mapping tools
Cut the clutter with Readability
Love the content on a Web page, but you're not too crazy about all the extra stuff cluttering up the page (ads, images, multimedia, etc.)? No problem. Just use Readability, a simple bookmarklet (small software program that fits onto your browser's toolbar) tool that aims to make reading on the Web more enjoyable simply by paring out the extra stuff.
Here's how Readability works. Drag the bookmarklet to your browser toolbar, and then the next time you're on a Web page that you'd like to simplify, just click it. Here's a before and after example of a page with Readability applied:
Before
:
After
:
Voila! Instant simple Web page. This is also a great tool if you're trying to view a page on an older computer or a machine with slow Internet access.
More tools for making the Web better