Useful Web Sites You Should Know About

Sure, this blog is mainly an excuse for me to write. But sometimes it should be a public service, too. With your well-being at the forefront of my mind, I offer you now a small sampling of useful Web sites I have recently or not-so-recently become aware of. If one of these sites saves your life, you don't have to thank me, I only ask that you leave a comment. Likewise, if you know of a site that you think I might like, share the wealth.

Mi Casa, Su Casa
Ever wonder how much that huge house down the block is worth? Now you can at least get an educated guess. Type in the address and Zillow will give you an estimated price, the square footage, bedroom and bathroom numbers and even a stalker-ish bird's eye view of the home in question. To quote Jason Bourne, "You look tired." And I know how much your house is worth.

Cheaper prices? Woot!
I don't know if I'm the last one to the party on this or not, but Woot! is a nifty site that features a ridiculously good deal on one item per day. I've seen everything from vacuum cleaners to laptops and the prices are pretty sweet, or at least comparable to sale prices elsewhere. Today is a special day in the land of Woot, because the site is having a "Woot Off," where the deals are flying fast and furious. As soon as one product is sold, another is advertised on the site and so on, until the "Woot Off" is finished. Just in the time that I've been writing this entry, I have seen three different items, including an iRobot Roomba. See the variety for yourself. Woot!

Believe the Hype
I love music and the Internet expands my musical knowledge every day. I hope you already know about the song-suggesting power of Pandora. And that you can stream the full version of any song in the Napster library for free.
But you might not know about the Hype Machine. Type the name of an artist or a song and this site will search numerous music blogs across the Net. You can either listen to your search results on the Hype Machine site itself or go to the original blog post that contains the link to the MP3 file. If you do, chances are good that you can save a local copy of the file (and 99 cents). Usually I just wind up trolling through one of the music blogs that I find and discover new music that way. Today's new-to-me track is Somebody Made For Me by Emitt Rhodes and comes from a blog called The Canals. Doesn't this sound like a lost Beatles tune? Anyway, the Hype Machine will help you find music you didn't know you liked.

P.S. You can also use Google to find free MP3 files that people have uploaded to their Web sites.

Get Shorty
One thing that slightly annoys me is when an e-mail contains a really long link that it's almost impossible to easily copy into a Web browser. But Tiny URL has answered my prayers (as long as everyone I know starts using this site). It's pretty self-explanatory. Thank you in advance.

Convert, my brothers and sisters!
Saw a video on YouTube that you'd really like to keep forever? Now you can! Zamzar and Vixy will allow you to convert YouTube URLs into .AVI or .MOV video files for your eternal viewing pleasure. If you just want the audio from a YouTube video, the sites can do that, too, along with a host of other media-converting abilities. Hurry up, before YouTube removes gems like this!