107 Best Websites Review

From the editors of MakeUseOf.com

107 Best Websites On The Web

Here you go, the best 107 websites for all your needs. We’ve taken the effort to categorize the websites and picked only those we believe to be the best ones and which will most likely be useful to you. Spread the word!
Folks, share this page with friends! 102digg	By Category: Music Movies Photos / Albums News/Reading Online TV Productivity Socialize Online Video Security/Privacy Online Shopping Local Stuff Browsing Aids Books Finances Software Downloads Ask Questions Search Engines Learn Stuff Files & Documents I am Bored Others

MOG (USA only) The most-praised music site. For ony 5$ a month MOG gives you access to 10 million CD-quality songs. Access and play songs from computer, iPod, iPhone or Android phone. Recommended! [View]	iTunes Store Massive online store for music, movies, TV shows, apps, games and audiobooks. Buy stuff to play on your Mac or Windows computer, iPhone or iPad. [View] MakeUseOf tips for iTunes store.	Pandora (USA only) New age online radio. Enter a song or an artist you like and Pandora will play similar songs in a playlist. Vote on individual songs to further train Pandora about your tastes. [View] Best tips for Pandora users.	Grooveshark Excellent music search and streaming service, allowing users to listen to favorite music free of charge that can be played immediately or added to a playlist. Over 100 million track plays per month. [View] See some cool Grooveshark tips.
Last.fm Last.fm keeps a record of what you listen to on your computer or iPod. Then, based on your tastes, it recommends you more music and concerts as well as connects you with like-minded listeners. Extremely popular [View] Read MakeUseOf Last.fm review	Spotify (avail. in 8 countries) Download free Spotify player to your computer and get access to over 13 million tracks. Any track you like, at any time. Create as many playlists as you like. [View]	ZumoCast Stream music and videos stored on your computer from the iPhone, iPad, and any other computer; without the need to upload anything. [View]	Google Music (USA only) Upload up to 20,000 songs from your personal music collection to listen from any computer or on your phone, even offline. All for free. [View]

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IMDB Most popular online source for everything related to movies. Moview ratings & reviews, various top rated lists, HD movie trailers, news and lots more. [View]

Netflix Leading online subscription service for movies & TV shows. For only $7.99 a month, members can instantly watch unlimited movies & TV episodes. [View] Check out Netfilx tips.

Hulu (USA only) On demand streaming of TV shows and movies. Lots of free stuff. But for an unlimited access you will have to pay. 100% Legit. [View] Check out our Hulu tips.

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Flickr Best photo sharing site on the net. Upload photos from PC or mobile. Share photos with friends, see their photos and add comments. [View]

Instagram An easy way to share photos with friends on Facebook, Twitter or Flickr from an iPhone. [View]

Picnik Easily edit your photos online. Resize or apply ready effects. Upload photos from PC or your social profiles. [View]

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Google News Automatically collects breaking news articles from popular news sources and sorts them by topic and popularity. [View] Check out our Google News tips.	Google Reader Most popular RSS reader online. Lets you Easily follow latest updates from favorite sites on a daily basis. Highly recommended. [View] Get Google Reader cheat sheet.	Popurls Popurls nicely presents highest voted stories, pics and videos from the most popular social news sources as well as highly regarded news sites on a single page. [View]	JimmyR Check out what’s currently popular on the web on a single page. See latest buzz in News, Tech, Pictures, Videos, etc. [View]
Hacker News Social news website site for technology stuff or “anything that gratifies one’s intellectual curiosity”. Users submit links. Submissions can be voted up. Highest voted stuff appears on top. [View]	Reddit Cool news source for interesting and offbeat stuff. Users submit and vote on the links to interesting stories and decide, through voting, what’s good. Highest rated links appear on the homepage. [View] See 5 cool things about Reddit.	Wikileaks Controversial non-profit organization that publishes submissions of private, secret, and classified information from anonymous news sources, news leaks, and whistleblowers. [View]

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BBC iPlayer BBC iPlayer is an internet TV and radio service developed by the BBC. Watch live BBC TV or catch up on the last 7 days of BBC programmes. [View]

LiveStation Watch over 20 top international news channels online. There is a desktop player that lets you watch those channels right on your desktop. [View]

Myp2p.eu Watch live Football, MLB, NHL, NBA, Cricket, Tennis etc. events and games online. It also offers a downloadable client that can be installed on your desktop. [View]

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Evernote The only app you will ever need when it comes to taking notes. A “note” can be a piece of text, a webpage, a photo, a voice memo, or a handwritten “ink” note. Organize, annotate, edit, and search notes. [View] Check out 7 ways to make use of Evernote	Gmail The best online email service. Lots of useful fetaures not found elsewhere. Extremely fast. Plus, we have a cheat sheet for it. [View] Get our ultimate guide to Gmail.	Nudgemail Your must-have email companion. Forward any email to NudgeMail and it will send it back when you want it. It can remind you about that email in an hour, day, month, or even a year. [View]	Google Voice (USA only) Enhance the capabilities of your phone, regardless of which phone you have. Single number that rings you everywhere. Online voicemail. Free calls and text messages to the U.S. & Canada. [View] Read, 5 cool things you can do with Google Voice.
Google Calendar Online calendar from Google. Create multiple calendars. Share calendars. Get event reminders via email or SMS to your mobile phone. [View]	Wakerupper (USA, Canada) Wakerupper is the web’s easiest telephone reminder tool. Schedule reminder calls on the web. It couldn’t be simpler. [View]	Remember The Milk One of the very first and leading online to-do list manager. Store and manage tasks. Get reminders via email or SMS. Share tasks. Works even offline. [View] See, 8 ways to manage tasks with RememberTheMilk.

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Facebook No need to explain this one. You might want to check out a MakeUseOf Guide on Facebook privacy though. Includes best Facebook privacy tips. [View]	Twitter This one doesn’t require a description either. If you’re on Twitter or planning to start using it make sure to check out out Twitter guide. [View] Download the complete guide to Twitter.	Tumblr Extremely easy way to start your own blog. Post text, images, videos, links, quotes and audio. Users may set their blogs to public or private modes. [View] See, how to easily start a blog with Tumblr.	LinkedIn Social network for prefessionals. Find past and present colleagues. Discover inside connections when looking for a job. Ask industry experts for advice. Over 100 million users. [View]
Pipl The most comprehensive people search on the web. Search for people by email, name, phone number or even username. [View]	Meebo Chat with friends on AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, GTalk etc. in a single buddylist, right from your browser. Includes features like games, video chat, file transfer and conversation history. [View] Check out 8 reasons to use Meebo.

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YouTube Everyone knows about Youtube. MakeUseOf covers cool tips for Youtube on a regular basis: from top stand-up comedians to most disliked videos. [View]

Vimeo Video-streaming site of choice for creative types. Basically it is the place for shorter and artsier clips. [View]

KeepVid Allows you to download any Youtube video in 3GP (mobile), FLV or MP4 (iPhone, iPod, iPad etc) formats. Includes a single click download bookmarklet for any browser. [View]

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OpenDNS OpenDNS is the easiest to setup internet safety and parental control suite. Control which websites are being accessed in your home. Block unsafe and adult websites. Over 20 million users. [View]	HideMyAss Free online proxy and Premium VPN service provider to surf anonymously and bypass blocked websites. Hide your IP, secure your connection, access Facebook where it’s blocked and more. [View]	Mailinator Next time you need to signup for something where you don’t want to reveal your real email just use any Mailinator address. Then go to the site and retrieve the email. [View]	LastPass Excellent password manager that you should be using. Features include 1-click login, form filling, automatic sync between browsers and more. [View]
Reputation Control what’s being said about you online. It removes your personal info from websites that sell it, alerts you about content that exists online about you as well as tell you who is searching for you. [View]

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Newegg Popular online marketplace for everything computers and software. Best prices for hardware and software. Its slogan is “Once you know, you Newegg.” [View]	Amazon Buy everything from electronics to clothing at affordable prices. Amazon gives you chepaest offers for each product as well as used ones sold by previous owners. [View]	Etsy Primary online marketplace for handmade or vintage items. These items cover a wide range including art, photography, clothing, jewelry, edibles, bath & beauty products, quilts, knick-knacks and toys. [View]	PayPal The most popular payment system online. Paypal makes it safe and easy to send and receive payments online. Counts nearly 250 million users. [View]
Woot! The first and extremely popular one-deal-a-day website. Woot offers one discounted item each day, often a piece of computer hardware or an electronic gadget. [View]	Zappos Founded in 1999, Zappos has grown to be the largest online shoe store. Next time you need to buy shoes try Zappos. Lots and lots of great feedback from users. [View]	eBay One of the most popular shopping destinations online. Ideal marketplace for used as well as new products in every category. Available in several countries. [View]	Craigslist That terribly-designed and mind-blowingly useful classifieds site. Whether you are looking for friends, a job, an apartment, a hair stylist, or a ride, you will find it on the site. [View] Check out 7 most popular items sold on Craigslist.
WatchCount Discover which eBay items have attracted the most interest and see how many people are watching them. Bargain hunter. [View]	ChinaBuye Buy gadgets and other electronic goods directly from China. Worldwide shipping. [View]	FatWallet Popular deals and coupons site. Browse deals by category, store, or today’s best. [View]

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Groupon Cool deal-of-the-day website that features discounted gift certificates and coupons usable at local shops, restaurnats, service providers and more. [View]	LivingSocial LivingSocial sends you one fantastic deal every day with discounts of up to 90% at one of your local restaurants, bars, spas, theaters, and more. [View]	Yelp Fun and easy way to find and talk about great (and not so great) local businesses near you. Check out local restaurants, bars, shops and see real reviews from users like you. [View]	Urbanspoon The ultimate destination for restaurant reviews. Check out best restaurants in your city for you favorite dishes. Read reviews from critics, food bloggers and friends. [View]
Foursquare Discover cool places in your city. Restaurants, shops, bars and pretty much anything that has something interesting to offer. [View]

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Symbaloo Symbaloo gives you a nicely designed and easy to use startpage for the web. It’s like a favorites bar on your browser but nicer. It holds your favorite sites as well as a number of useful web tools. [View] Check out, Create Your Own Virtual Learning Environment Using SymbalooEDU.	iGoogle Get yourself a custom online startpage from Google. Your startpage can have everything from latest articles from your favorite websites to weather reports, stocks, games, daily jokes, calendar and lots of other cool widgets. [View]	Diigo The only bookmarking tool you will ever need. Easily bookmark and organize webpages, highlights, notes, screenshots etc. Access your bookmarks from anywhere. [View] See 7 reasons Diigo tastes better than Del.icio.us.	Instapaper Awesome tool that allows you to save interesting pages or articles you come across online for later reading. You may then read those articles at home, or during commute on your mobile.[View] Check out: Manage your bookmarks and reading list with Instapaper.
Google Translate By far the best online transaltion tool. Allows you to translate text or webpages while you browse them. [View]	TinyURL Create a tiny URL for long links that are too long to be included in the emails or elsewhere. TinyURL can create a short link for any page you are currently at. [View]	JustPaste.It Simple online clipboard. Copy and paste any piece of text and instantly get a private web link to share that text with friends. Supports text styling and images. [View]	StumbleUpon Stumbleupon shows you cool stuff discovered by people like you. You select topics that you find interesting and start stumbling: every click on the Stumble button takes you to some interesting site, photo or video. Pretty cool. [View]

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Project Gutenberg Over 36,000 free ebooks to download to your PC, Kindle, iPad, iPhone, Android or other portable device. Choose between ePub, Kindle, HTML and simple text formats. [View]	GoodReads Probably the largest social network for book enthusiasts. Keep track of what you’ve read and what you’d like to read. Highly recommended by book lovers. [View] Check out Goodreads review.	ManyBooks This free website offers nearly 30.000 ebooks in many different formats. Whether you want to read the ebook on your iPad, iPhone, smartphone or ebook reader, you can get it here. [View]	Pixel of Ink Must-bookmark site for Kindle owners. Lots of free and well discounted books for Kindle. There is something called Bargain Bin where you will find Kindle Books that are highly rated yet a bargain at under $1. [View]
DailyLit Read books only short parts a time. Choose a book you want to read and you will receive short installments by email or RSS daily (or days your prefer). You may read books on any computer or mobile device. [View]

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Mint (USA, Canada) Fully automatic spending tracker and budgeting tool. Mint tracks your budget, monitors your spendings, advices on how you can save, and lots more. Highly recommended. [View] Read: Use Mint to manage your budget & spendings online.	Yahoo! Finance Top financial news and research website in the US. Get stock quotes, stock exchange rates, corporate financial reports, and check out popular message boards for discussing a company’s prospects and valuation. It also offers some hosted tools for personal finance management. [View]	Pageonce Another good service to manage your budget. Watch account balances, track bills and payments, monitor credit card purchases and deposits, stay in the loop with real-time alerts, etc. Optimized for mobile usage. [View]	Wikinvest Wikinvest helps you make the most use of your online investment portfolios. The benefits include getting real-time market data, portfolio analytics, thorough research on companies and more.[View]
Google Finance Google’s alternative to Yahoo Finance. More or less similar feature set but not as popular. [View]

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MakeUseOf MakeUseOf maintains its own top 100 best software lists for Windows and Linux. Check them out. [View]

CNET Downloads Biggest software download resource on the web. Users may browse software by popularity and/or category. Includes both free and commercial software. [View]

SourceForge Biggest online repository of open source software. Nearly 300,000 free open source programs. [View]

FileHippo Another popular software download portal. Unlike Download.com it comes with simpler user interface. [View]

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MakeUseOf Answers Whenever you have a computer problem or need an assistance on anything tech head on to MakeUseOf Answers. We have an active community that answers 95% of all posted questions.[View]

Quora Quora is a place to ask anything you have on your mind and get answers. Users may answer as well as vote and suggest edits to already posted answers. You may follow sertain questions and only get to see discussions on topics that interest you.[View]

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Google Search It’s Google. Enough said. Cheat Sheet: Must-know Google Search Shortcuts

Wolfram Alpha Cool answer search engine that answers factual questions directly rather than giving you a list of webpages that might contain the answer. [View] Check out, 10 searches to throw at Wolfram Alpha on a regular basis.

Torrent Butler Torrent search engine for movies. Comes with a cool user interface as well as the option to filter results to HD quality only. Useful. [View]

Torrentz Torrentz is a free and powerful torrent search engine combining results from dozens of popular torrent search engines. Over 15 million torrents indexed. [View]

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TED Watch inspiring talks and presentations by remarkable and highly successful people on various topics. Includes some of the best presentations ever made. [View]	Khan Academy What once was only a handful of algebra lessons now turned into a library of over 2,100 quality educational videos on various subjects including math, physics, biology, test preparations and educational talks and interviews. [View]	Wikipedia Free encyclopedia and your quick reference guide for everything built collaboratively by people like you. [View]	Qwiki Qwiki is a one of a kind search engine. Get the results in a visual list and a video on the go summarizing those results – with computer generated female voice narration. Users can sit back, relax, and enjoy the show. Literally. [View] Check out Qwiki in detail.
National Geographic The NatGEO’s corner on the web. This sites brings you some of the most interesting articles as well as some really amazing photos on a daily basis. [View]	Instructables One of the first how-to sites on the web. Find easy instructions on how to make all kinds of cool stuff ranging from anonymous survelliance cameras to home-made potato bazookas. [View]	WebMD Your online reference to health and better living. [View]

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Mozy Fully automated program to backup your files. Set it up once and forget about it. Mozy will keep a backup of selected folders online and regularly sync them without bothering you. [View]	SugarSync File sync and online backup for all your devices including PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry and more. The files can be easily shared with others as well. [View]	Dropbox Dropbox lets you sync selected folders between your computers. Any file you save to Dropbox also instantly saves to all of your computers, phones, and the Dropbox website. [View]	SkyDrive Store, edit, and share Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote files online. You may also store and share all or some photos and videos with friends. Store up to 25 GBs for free. [View]
Google Docs Store and share documents, spreasheets and presentations online. Edit and view your docs from any computer or smartphone. Collaborate on documents with others. [View]	Zamzar Extremely easy to use online file converter. Here you may convert office documents (doc, docx, pdf etc), images, audio and video files and ebooks between different forrmats. Recommended. [View]	YouSendIt YouSendIt makes easy to email large files. You may send files and folder up to 2GB in size in one go. [View]

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Cracked Hugely popular humor site with stories often going viral on Facebook and Twitter. From saddest things people do to look smart to things gay people are going to hate about gay marriage. [View]

The Onion A popular entertainment magazine featuring satirical news articles and videos. [View]

Kongregate Lots of additictive flash games that will kill your free time. Browse games by category, check out top rated, earn achievements, chat with other players and enjoy active user community. [View]

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Wunderground Get a comprehensive weather report with a-7 day forecast. Check weather using your zip code, city, state, airport code or country name. [View]

Google Maps Get directions from one place to another. Get custom routes based on how you plan to commute: by car, train, walking or bicycle. [View]

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Disclaimer: All services listed were thoroughly reviewed. MakeUseOf is not responsible for any damage and/or data loss
that might result from use of any of the above mentioned websites.

Source: http://www.makeuseof.com/pages/best-websites

Graphical Ways To Browse & Read News

4 More Amazing Graphical Ways To Browse & Read News

posted on July 15, 2011 by Saikat Basu


reading news has taken varied (and interesting) routes. There has been no better medium than the web to explore news in all its different avatars. RSS feeds and news tickers have become old-hat when you have more interactive apps coming in. Thanks to information overload, visualizing data has come into the picture…literally.

Data visualization starts with the idea of giving you a graphical tool to wrap all that information around your head. In the case of news, it ends with a really cool and interesting way to see news a bit differently.
Some of the data visualization based apps that focus on news may be experimental. It’s difficult to say whether graphical news apps will take off or not; but for now they remain as offbeat ways to browse and read news.

DoodleBuzz

It’s called a typographic news explorer. The interesting graphical news app is meant to break you out of the usual way you browse for news – from the top down. This one fosters creativity. It all starts with a doodle. You get a blank canvas and a search box. Search for a news item and then just doodle around to get all interlinked stories. As you doodle on, the news items branch out and you can go on a wild, chaotic journey through all the information that’s out there. Doodling also gets you the original source of the news. It’s difficult to explain this app in words – try it out.

Ads by Google

tenbyten

To describe the site in their own words – Every hour, 10×10 collects the 100 words and pictures that matter most on a global scale, and presents them as a single image, taken to encapsulate that moment in time.
If that went over your head, just launch the app and play around with the little thumbnails. At the backend, the app has scanned the RSS feeds of several leading international news sources (ABC, BBC, Reuters etc.) and culled the most important keywords using a special algorithm. The top 100 words are chosen along with their images. This human history goes into the 10×10 grid. You can check it by the hour and also go back into history with the cool timeline.

Oursignal

We have featured this cool graphical news app before in our directory of news apps. It’s like a news aggregator with a difference – a visual one. Just like any other news aggregator, it plucks the most popular news stories from Digg, Reddit, Delicious, Yahoo! Buzz and Hacker News and displays them in one place. The more popular the story the bigger it appears on the homepage. Clicking on the square takes you to the source. You can also preview it in the bottom frame. With a registration and log-in, you can set about customizing the ways news squares will be displayed like choosing a theme and entering your own choice of feeds. The results are not always perfect but you can try it out. It’s also quite similar to NewsMap which is a Google News aggregator.

Newser

Newser makes news reading more fun by taking news stories from around the world and showing them as thumbnails on a grid. Clicking on them takes you to the news stories. This is not really offbeat, but nonetheless a visual departure from the normal way of scanning headlines. We had taken a previous look at Newser when we mentioned 5 Great Multi-Source News Websites.

These five web apps are interesting visualizations. They may not allow you to read ‘between the lines’ but they serve to break you away from the commonplace. If you are looking at more interesting ways to digest news, check out the articles below:

• 3 Fun & Useful Google News Mashups
• 7 Free Online News Games That Are Based On World Affairs & News Events
• Catch The News On A World Map With These 7 Map-Based News Aggregators
• 10 News Photo Galleries To Catch All The Latest World News In Pictures
• 6 Chrome Extensions For Catching The Latest News Headlines
• 5 Alternatives To The New York Times That Are Still Free

Do you know about any other interesting visual ways to browse news?

Source: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-amazing-graphical-ways-browse-read-news/

Image Credit: Shutterstock

How to search eBay, sellers, stores, or eBay member

Advanced eBay search: how to search for a seller, store, or eBay member, By Wendy Boswell, About.com Guide   August 5, 2011

eBay is one of the most popular shopping/auction sites on the Web, and sometimes it's quite useful to be able to look up a particular seller, item, or member. Here's how you can do that:

Navigate to the Advanced Search form. This form is always located to the right of the search bar at the top of the page, and is labeled "Advanced Search" with three sections: Items, Stores, and Members. We're going to explore each of these sections, one at a time, so click on over to eBay Advanced Search so we can learn to find all sorts of interesting things, including:

Items

• Find items currently for sale based by price, location, buying formats, and other criteria. You can also limit your searches to be from a particular seller, currency, or shipping option.
• Find items from eBay Motors sorted by vehicle make, date, location, etc.
• Find a seller by entering in their eBay user ID and see what they've been up to on eBay.
• Search by bidder to see what someone has been bidding on lately (need a user ID for this one too).
• By item number: locate an eBay auction item by its unique ID.

eBay Stores

• Search for store items much the way that general auction items are found. This is very useful since store items don't always show up in a cursory eBay search.
• Find a store: Is there a store on eBay you're trying to find? This is the place to do it. You can search by item or store name.

eBay Members

• You can search for eBay members by their unique user ID, found in their profile, listings, or store information; or, if you have an email address, you can see what eBay ID is tied to their email.
• You can also obtain contact information from an eBay member you are currently doing business with. If you request this information, your information will be shared with the member you are contacting (this is a security measure to discourage inappropriate requests).

More about eBay and shopping online

• Five Ways to Search eBay
• Find eBay Auctions with AuctionMapper
• eBay Mobile
• Profile of Meg Whitman, eBay President and CEO
• Your Guide To Online Shopping

Source: http://websearch.about.com/b/2011/08/05/advanced-ebay-search-how-to-search-for-a-seller-store-or-ebay-member.htm?nl=1

Five Ways to Search eBay better
Find what you want on the world's most popular auction site
By Wendy Boswell, About.com Guide

eBay is one of the world's leading auction sites, with literally millions of transactions, listings, and customers. However, finding something you want on eBay isn't always as easy as it should be. That's where this list of five ways to search eBay comes in handy: a list of shortcuts you can use to find what you're looking for on eBay with a minimum of effort.

1. eBay Catalog

The eBay Catalog search is the "umbrella" over the entire eBay range of offerings, from clothing to pets to motors. It's a good place to start a general search with a wide focus.

2. eBay Advanced Search

eBay Advanced Search is available simply by clicking the "Advanced Search" link next to the eBay search bar, located on the top of nearly every eBay page. Here you can use a variety of filters to narrow your search, browse within eBay Motors, search by seller and bidder, find a specific item number, and much more.

3. Use TypoBuddy to find misspelled auction items

Seasoned eBay buyers know that one of the best kept secrets about finding a good deal is searching for misspelled auction items. TypoBuddy streamlines this process, making it infinitely easier for savvy searchers to find deals that others might have overlooked.

4. eBay Stores

eBay Stores - online listings organized around a specific person, topic, or collection - can be a great way to sample all that eBay has to offer. Use the eBay Stores search page to find just what you're looking for: premium stores, anchor stores, or advanced store search offer something for any eBay buyer.

5. Find what's trending at eBay

There are a number of ways to quickly find out what's trending as far as sales and popularity at eBay. eBay Pulse gives you a daily summary of popular searches, stores, and items. The Popular Products page gives you an extremely detailed view at the most popular eBay items in every category on the site. eBay Deal Finder showcases the fastest moving/best deals on a number of different products as compared with other popular retail sites on the Web.

More eBay search resources

• Search eBay - Find the Best eBay Sites-eBay Services - eBay Tools
• eBay - eBay Sites and Services
• eBay Mobile - How to Use eBay Mobile to Manage Your Auctions

eBay Search Tips

• eBay Pulse
• FatFingers
• Find eBay Auctions with AuctionMapper

Related Articles

• Can I give to charity through eBay? - eBay - Frequently Asked Questions abo...
• Tips for Buying on eBay - Tips for Bidding on eBay
• eBay Collectibles Summit IV
• Seven Tips to Trim Your eBay Purchase Price - eBay - Shop Better on eBay
• Rules of the Road - Online Auctions

Source: http://websearch.about.com/od/ebay/tp/Five-Ways-To-Search-Ebay.htm

Google introduces Hotel Finder

July 29, 2011, 11:51 AM

Google Introduces Hotel Search

By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER

Google on Thursday joined sites like Kayak, Expedia and Hotels.com by introducing a tool for searching hotels. 
The site is http://www.google.com/hotelfinder/

Hotel Finder, which Google calls an experiment because it is in early stages and only available in the United States, lets people search hotels in various cities, save those that interest them and book reservations.

The new service, which competes with other travel search engines, comes as Google fights antitrust investigations that include a look at whether Google discriminates against existing Web sites in search results when it enters new businesses.

For instance, since Google introduced local business reviews, social networking and comparison shopping, sites that offer those services have said they worry about whether Google will favor its own products in search results.Google has long said that it does not practice favoritism for Web sites, but gives the user the best result, whether or not that is a Google service.

Hotel Finder links to other hotel search sites, like Expedia and Hotels.com, for booking reservations if they are Google advertisers, and these sites provide Google with price and availability information. Google also links to the hotel’s own Web site. The hotel price ads, as Google calls them, also show up on Google Maps and the main search engine. Advertisers only pay if a user clicks on a price listing.

Google also shows hotels that its own search engine surfaces, which do not yet include price or booking information.

On Hotel Finder, travelers can search hotels in new ways. Google highlights the most popular areas of cities, which is similar to Hipmunk’s service, and Google lets users draw a shape around the part of town they want to search. Google shows whether a price is a good deal or more than most hotels in the area, similar to Bing Travel. Users can also save hotels they like to a short list for easy access.

Hotel Finder shows photos, information and customer reviews and star ratings from Google Places. The photos are provided by a hotel marketing firm called VFM Leonardo.

Google is interested in building more travel search tools, which is why it spent $700 million to buy I.T.A. Software, a flight search company. It has not yet introduced flight search tools and the company said the hotel search did not use I.T.A.’s technology. Microsoft, which also offers flight and hotel search with Bing Travel, fought Google’s acquisition of I.T.A.


Source: NYTimes
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/29/google-introduces-hotel-search/?partner=MYWAY&ei=5065

How To Remove the Google big black bar

How to Remove the New Black Bar on Google.com

Google

by James Plafke | 11:41 am, June 29th, 2011

Many people noticed the new black bar sitting atop Google.com like it owned the place yesterday, and since then, most of those people have sought out ways to remove said black bar and revert their Google to the less eye-popping, minimalist version they knew and loved. After searching through the settings tab like a madman, I could not turn up some kind of simple disable feature, so I took to the Internet to find a quick, easy way to remove that obtrusive bar and get my eyes to focus on the search box once again.

At the time of this post, I’ve found two different ways to remove the bar, both of which are easy enough, but admittedly, not as ideal as a simple, native option in the bar itself. Head on past the break to pick your poison and remove some unnecessary Google screen pollution.

1. Greasemonkey Script

First off, Greasemonkey isn’t compatible with all browsers, such as Internet Explorer, Safari and Opera, so if you don’t use a compatible browser, you’ll have to  use a workaround, detailed here. Currently the script just hides the black bar completely, which means it hides the links contained within the bar, but the creator, Keith Dsouza, is currently working on replacing the eye-popping black with a less obtrusive color, basically reverting Google to the earlier version we’re all used to. You can download and install the black bar hider script from here, and make sure to stay on top of Dsouza’s progress if you really care about the links the script removes and can’t wait for his modified script that brings them back.

2. Stylish

The other easy way to remove the black bar is to employ the help of a user-created style. If you use Chrome, you can install Stylish from the Chrome Web Store. If you use Firefox, you can install Stylish from here. 

Full link below:

http://userstyles.org/styles/49951/google-navigation-bar-revert-to-light-theme

If you use another browser, it seems you’re out of luck. After Stylish is installed, simply navigate here and follow the quick instructions on installing the style (which boils down to clicking a link), which will revert the black bar to the previous light-colored theme. Unlike the current version of the above Greasemonkey script, this style will keep the links from the black bar, rather than remove them entirely along with the bar.

Hopefully one of the above two methods will placate your browsing eyes until 

Google either reverts to the old easier-on-the-eyes bar, or adds a native option to pick a preferred color. Happy browsing.

Source:  http://www.geekosystem.com/how-to-remove-black-bar-google/

Mark W. Smith: 8 tips for better Web searches

Search engines have made dinner party conversations much less interesting.
Quibbling over the first movie featuring Julia Roberts? A lighthearted conversation that used to last an entire course is now extinguished with a simple Google search. (It's "Satisfaction," by the way.)
But search engines have done a whole lot of good -- placing the world's knowledge at our fingertips.
They're even more powerful than you know, with many useful features that are left unadvertised and hidden.
For this list, I looked at the Top 3 search engines -- Google, Yahoo! and Bing -- to find more options to find exactly what you're looking for.

1. Easy math. For those without a calculator handy, search engines offer an easy way to do quick math. Just type in your equation -- something like 78*3.2/98 -- and it'll give you the result (2.55).
Google, Yahoo! and Bing all do this, but Google does it best. It will show you the answer as you type and doesn't return any other search results than the answer you seek.

2. Find the time. Web searchers can type "what time is it in Japan" or any other location into either Google or Bing to instantly find out the local time.

3. Help with conversions. How many cups are in a quart? Or how many pounds in a kilogram? How many U.S. dollars in a euro? Simply typing those questions into Google or Yahoo! will net the result (Bing struggles with the currency question, but can answer the other two.) It's a handy tool for recipe conversions or for international travel.
Oh, and the answers are 4, 2.2 and 1.42, respectively.

4. Check that flight. To check the status of a flight, you can enter the flight number and carrier into Google or Bing (but not Yahoo!) for a live update. Search something like "Delta Flight 1567" and it will tell you if the flight is on time and what time it departs and lands. Bing and Google pull from flightstats.com for this information.
Bing also allows you to compare flight prices from different online vendors at bing.com/travel.

5. Search credible sites. On Google, you can tell the search engine to return results from only certain types of Web sites, such as government or education sites, which usually have more trustworthy results.

So, if you're looking for information on unemployment benefits, but only want results from government Web sites, you can Google "unemployment benefits site:>.gov". The ".gov" is where you'd swap out ".edu" if you want results from the Web sites of educational institutions.

6. Wonder Wheel. Search engines perform the best when you're the most specific, but that's not always possible. Google offers a different way to search to help with this called the Wonder Wheel.
You start with a generic search term, say "chicken recipes." That term goes to the center of a spoked wheel with more specific terms listed at the perimeter. From there you can select "healthy chicken recipes" to make it more specific, which then moves to the center and offers even more specific options on the spokes. Then, you can settle on something like "healthy grilled chicken recipes" and see what the Google results are for that.
To activate the Wonder Wheel, find it on the left side under "More search tools" on any Google results page.

7. Google Squared. If you're looking to compare information on a certain topic, Google Squared is a great place to start. Typing in a topic like "Michigan state parks" will return a grid display with each park listed and columns for things like location and square footage.
You can also add more columns based on the information that Google collects for each state park, or whatever topic you choose. The page can then be exported as a spreadsheet for reference later. Try it at google.com/squared.

I did a similar search of Milford, PA restaurants and got similar great results below.

8. Live Twitter traffic. Twitter, too, has become a vast repository of searchable data. You can search public Twitter updates at search.twitter.com or in the search field on any Twitter page. My favorite search is a way to check for instant traffic updates.
In the search box, type "near:Detroit traffic." That will return live results for tweets sent near Detroit containing the word traffic, so you'll see things like "stuck in traffic on I-94! Tanker crash" to help inform your route. People will also often include photos.
Contact Mark W. Smith: 313-223-4424 or msmith@freepress.com. Follow him on his Facebook page or on Twitter: @markdubya. You can also ask him any technology question on VYou.

Source: http://www.freep.com/article/20110628/NEWS09/106280318/Mark-W-Smith-8-tips-better-Web-searches?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|s

Opera 11.5 follows rivals with minimalist 'Featherweight' UI

From ComputerWorld.com

Takes same approach as Chrome, Firefox and IE9 in move to make browser seem faster

By Gregg Keizer

June 27, 2011 03:50 PM ET

Computerworld - Opera Software will debut a new, streamlined user interface in Opera 11.5, a company executive said today, that closely resembles the minimalist design now sported by most of its competitors.

The new interface, dubbed "Featherweight" by Opera, features only four buttons alongside the address bar, and loses much of the "chrome" -- a browser's interface elements, not Google's application -- to expand the amount of display space for websites.
Featherweight will be the default user interface (UI) for Opera starting with version 11.5, which appears to be close to shipping.
It also closely resembles the UI direction first taken by Google and its Chrome, which Microsoft and Mozilla both followed with their Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) and Firefox 4 that launched earlier this year.

According to Jan Standal, Opera's vice president of desktop software, Featherweight was its reaction to complaints by users that Opera felt slow.

"Even though Opera is extremely fast -- fast at opening and closing tabs, opening windows -- we got reports from users that they felt Opera was slower than other browsers," said Standal. "We wanted to make the browser feel lighter and faster, but keep its functionality."
Standal also echoed arguments made by others, most notably Microsoft, that ditching extra chrome allows more of the Web page itself to show.

When Microsoft first revealed IE9's interface last September, it touted the muting of the browser. "People go to the Web for sites, not for the browser," said Dean Hachamovitch, vice president for IE, at IE9's beta release event last year.

Standal said much the same today. "We wanted to leave as much room for the Web page as possible," said Standal, "and move to a more application-style window."

But he denied that Opera was simply copying the work of others. "Count the amount of pixels," he argued. "We were already there with a light interface. People just didn't see it that way."
Even so, Standal acknowledged that Opera has been working on the Featherweight UI for just six months, a timeline that preceded the release of IE9 and Firefox 4, but followed Microsoft's and Mozilla's showing their browsers' new designs.

Opera has issued a string of "release candidate" (RC) builds of Opera 11.5 in recent days, which hints that a final version will ship shortly.
The newest edition, Opera 11.5 RC5, was issued today, and can be downloaded from the company's website for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

Browsers look more alike than different these days, as minimalist UIs reign supreme.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed . His e-mail address is gkeizer@computerworld.com.

Source: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9217960/Opera_follows_rivals_with_minimalist_Featherweight_UI?source=rss_internet&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+computerworld%2Fs%2Ffeed%2Ftopic%2F211+%28Computerworld+Browsers+News%29