First Published in The Straits Times Digital Life.
Parenting
1. Kiasu Parents
www.kiasuparents.com
Raising a child is difficult enough. In Singapore, bringing up children has additional levels of stress. This is where Kiasu Parents comes in.
Aptly named, the site is a portal for local parents to gather and exchange tips and ideas on bringing up baby.
2. Nymbler
www.nymbler.com
For a site dedicated to naming your newborn, Nymbler scores by having a distinct name to call itself. Sure, Baby Name Wizard (www.babynamewizard.com) may be easier to find on search engines, but it loses points on originality
Pets
3. The Daily Puppy
www.dailypuppy.com
Even if you are not an animal lover, there is no denying that dogs are one of the cutest looking creatures on the planet and there is no further proof than The Daily Puppy.
Food
4. Food Network
www.foodnetwork.com
If you cannot get enough of the cooking shows on TV, check out Food Network, where you can watch full episodes of various cooking shows, from Iron Chef: America to 30 Minute Meals, for free. The site is the home of the United States cable TV channel of the same name.
5. Epicurious
Whether you are scrambling for a cake recipe or need to decide on what wine to take to a dinner party, Epicurious will have what you need. The site has been around for years and is a treasure trove of information on food.
6. TasteSpotting
www.tastespotting.com
All you will see on this site are pictures of delicious food.
However, TasteSpotting is not just a collage of food porn to drool over.
The site is a compilation of recipes from the Web and each picture is a link to the website or blog where the recipe resides.
Healthy Living
7. Spark People
www.sparkpeople.com
There are two types of dieters: those who want to be left alone doing their own thing and those who need lots of support and encouragement from others.
Spark People is a weight-loss website for those who need moral support.
The site encourages you to shed kilograms by dieting and exercising. It has many of the standard tools, such as calorie counter and exercise tracker, that weight-loss sites offer.
8. Zen Habits
www.zenhabits.net
Healthy living is not just about exercising and dieting, it is also about being stress free, and Leo Babauta has some ideas on how to do it which he shares on his blog Zen Habits.
9. Fail Blog
www.failblog.org
The success of this site is dependent on the failure of countless of people. Remember shows on television that air home videos of something stupid that took place by accident or a mistake caught on camera?
Fail Blog relies on users putting up occasionally embarrassing, silly or compromising pictures or videos for a good laugh. The end result is a collection of content that shames the subject, but entertains the viewers.
10. F*** My Life
www.fmylife.com
The site name may be a tad explicit, but it sums up the thoughts of visitors who leave postings about how they are experiencing a new low in their lives.
Each paragraph-long post bears a touch of irony, even as some are simply downright funny.
11. Oddee: A Blog On Oddities
www.oddee.com
Robert Ripley of Ripley’s Believe It Or Not will feel right at home here.
From the 15 Stupidest Warning Labels, 20 Most Bizarre Mugshots to the World’s Most Creative Buildings, Oddee tracks the weirdest, most quirky and some downright puzzling mistakes made by man.
Data managers
12. Evernote
www.evernote.com
Even if you have an elephant’s memory, it is near impossible to remember everything.
Evernote aims to do this mammoth task for you.
Think of it as a huge manila envelope in which you can save any kind of information you want, whether it is a recipe you have torn off a magazine, a label off a wine bottle, a business card or a love note scribbled on the back of a napkin.
13. Scanr
www.scanr.com
Phone cameras these days can snap clear pictures of documents you want to keep. However, if you leave them in JPEG format, storage is a problem and they would be unsearchable.
To help, Scanr lets you convert these images into PDF or text files. The online application can convert pictures of written or printed documents ranging from notes, forms, receipts, business cards to even scrawlings on whiteboards. All you have to do is snap a picture of the document and upload it onto the site.
14. Geni
www.geni.com
There is no poking or sheep throwing in this social networking site.
Its aim is to help members build up their family tree.
Unlike a regular social networking site, you can add only members related to you on Geni. When you first sign up, you are asked to add biographical details of your parents, siblings and other relatives.
Inspiration
15. Notcot
www.notcot.org
Tune in to all that is amusing and aesthetically pleasing on the Net at Notcot.
The site is a collection of pictures that are not only pretty to look at, but also link to other sites. These pictures and links are contributed by netizens around the world, but curated by a team of editors who decide what is good enough to go on the site.
If anything, the pretty pictures can, hopefully, spark off some creativity.
16. Lovelines
www.love-lines.com
Take a peek into the hearts of people around the world through Lovelines. The website lets you discover what the rest of the world is feeling through their blogs and Internet postings.
It does this by harvesting people’s feelings through analysing thousands of blogs every minute and then picking up lines where there are expressions of love or hate.
The results of this analysis are presented in the form of an interactive page with sliders and charts.
As the site also ties in the feelings with the geographical location of the poster, it can also provide a glimpse into the emotional health of countries.
Entertainment
17. Musicovery
www.musicovery.com
The only time I get to discover new pieces of music is when I’m listening to the radio while driving.
What if you would like to discover songs that are new to you, but might not necessarily be new?
Try Musicovery, an online music service that helps you discover songs.
The cool thing is that you can explore the world of music not just by regular genres like musical style, but also by mood, decade and tempo.
This is a good way to try out obscure bands.
18. The Digital Bits
www.digitalbits.com
Movie fans hankering for the latest DVD releases or Blu-ray releases of blockbusters like The Lord Of The Rings or the Star Wars Trilogy should bookmark this site.
The Digital Bits keeps track of the home-video market, with news and reviews of the latest and upcoming releases from the United States.
19. Kontraband
www.kontraband.com
For family friendly fun, there is YouTube (www.youtube.com), but for everything else, there is Kontraband. As the name suggests, this site hosts clips, jokes, pictures and games that are best viewed when you are alone.
20. Newsarama
www.newsarama.com
To fans of the graphic novel, the movie Watchmen is a work of art. However, for non-fans who cannot quite follow the plot, there is a reason: The comic book was deemed “unfilmable” by the novel’s creator, Alan Moore.
Find out more about comics and comics-related tie-ins like movies and video games, where all forms of spandex and capes are acceptable.
Entertainment
21. Television Without Pity
www.televisionwithoutpity.com
There is simply not enough time in the week to catch all the shows being made for TV and even if there is, it is not as if the local broadcaster airs them all here.
Luckily, TV junkies have Television Without Pity or TWOP.
More than just a review of the latest episodes of hit shows like Lost and Heroes, TWOP is a site with updates on what took place in all episodes aired to date.
Tech Whiz
22. Digg
www.digg.com
News and blogs are not merely rated - users actually Digg them. A technology news accumulator, Digg collates the articles posted by users around the world. Visitors to the sites rate the worthiness of the article by “Digging” them.
Articles with a bigger Digg count, or rating, will be placed higher on the home page and you will not have to sift through thousands of articles to find out what is important as other readers would have done it for you.
23. Hack N Mod
www.hacknmod.com
Only geeks would buy a brand new or second-hand drum set, strip it apart and use the pieces to build a better one. Failure means you do not have anything to show for it but that is the essence of Hack N Mod - a site that teaches you how to take a working product and modify it.
This is a fun IT guide to reusing and recycling - the geek way.
24. AfterDawn.com
www.afterdawn.com
If you have watched an online video, downloaded a song or bought software, chances are you can find tips on this site to get the most out of your investments.
The website offers free software download alternatives, from digital music players to programs that catalogue your DVD collection.
It also has step-by-step guides on ways to modify your hardware, like a DVD player or computer.
25. Lifehacker
www.lifehacker.com
From details of updates for computer software to test-drives of upcoming programs, Lifehacker offers insights and comparisons in simple bite-sized chunks for the technologically challenged.
After all, Lifehacker is a blog for people who want to stay on top of tech developments.
Word play
26. Yahoo! Babel Fish
www.babelfish.yahoo.com
In the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, the babel fish was a fictitious species of yellow-coloured fish that could translate one spoken language to another when inserted into the ear.
The Yahoo! Babel Fish service does not require any insertion and does the same translation, but for text and Web pages.
27. Urban Dictionary
www.urbandictionary.com
If you find it hard to talk to a teenager and not get confused by his lingo, git wit da (get with the) times by checking the Urban Dictionary.
It has more than 3.8 million definitions for slang phrases and words often used by young people.
28. Save The Words
www.savethewords.org
Save The Words is a website set up to deal with the senticous (prickly, thorny) issue of, well, saving words.
Every year, hundreds of words suffer permanent summotion (removal) from dictionaries. They are dropped to make space for newer words simply because they have become less relevant to life today.
The site is a call to arms for word lovers, or just about anyone who wants to abstrigillate (to oppose, resist) the erosion of our collective vocabulary.
29. One Word
www.oneword.com
Writing takes discipline.
Professional writers and authors take years to build up a writing routine and do not just wait around for the words to flow.
One Word helps to build up that discipline for aspiring writers.
Know it all
30. Alltop
www.alltop.com
Wikipedia might be the online encyclopedia for what has happened in the world but for those who want to know what is happening right now, there is Alltop.
Calling itself a “magazine rack” for popular topics, the site collects headlines of stories from around the world and groups them by topics such as health, sports, culture and technology.
31. How To Clean Stuff.net
www.howtocleanstuff.net
Even if you are a cleanliness guru, there will be some cleaning routines you are not familiar with and this is where How To Clean Stuff can be useful.
From diamonds, old photographs and the PlayStation Portable to your keyboard, the instructions tell you what to brush off and what areas to avoid. There is an extensive listing on how to clean floors, from marble and wood to laminate, and ways to trim the nails of your pet dog.
32. GameFAQs
www.gamefaqs.com
Playing games on the PC or console is simple enough but beating the game as well as getting all the hidden secrets is another matter.
There are various game websites and even tip books on how to do just that, but GameFAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) lists the secrets of just about every game made.
33. Howcast
www.howcast.com
There is your mother’s method of folding your T-shirts and there is the Howcast way.
In fact, there is the Howcast way for a great many things, from trimming your own bangs, dealing with a flirtatious boss, painting a wall to choosing the bra that accentuates your breasts.
34. How Stuff Works
www.howstuffworks.com
From the interesting to the quirky, How Stuff Works strips off the spin and lays the truth for visitors. With categories ranging from electronics and food to history and people, the site offers basic information on anything and everything.
Mobile sites
35. Wapedia
www.wapedia.mobi/en/
There is Wikipedia when you need to find out what a lamprey eel is.
However, if you are not at the desk, a better bet would be Wapedia, which you can surf on your mobile phone.
36. Netvibes
http://m.netvibes.com/
Tapping out the addresses of websites on your mobile phone’s little keypad can be a pain. The alternative - scrolling through a long list of bookmarks - is equally tedious.
With Netvibes, you get a start page that you can customise to display links, feeds and the latest content from your favourite news sites, blogs and even your inbox.
37. Skweezer
www.skweezer.com
Prevent text clutter on the mobile phone screen with Skweezer.
The online mobile app squeezes information on websites onto tiny screens, even if they are not optimised for that.
All about style
38. Red Carpet Fashion Awards
www.redcarpetfashionawards.com
From movie premieres, TV appearances to award shows, this site keeps tabs on the Who’s Who of Tinseltown as well as where their fashion inspiration comes from.
39. AskMen.com
www.askmen.com
Those who readily believe that men do not know anything have not really attempted to ask the men anything. Even if you did, most of the answers may have come from this site. Modelled after men’s magazines, expect a slant towards the testosterone-heavy audience.
Topics revolve around beer, women, cars, pictures of women and, well, you get the picture.
40. The Cool Hunter
www.thecoolhunter.net
Providing a peek into the design world, this site highlights items with a certain polish to them.
From ingenious table designs and curtains to radios and fancy hotels, The Cool Hunter is a showcase of things that you do not see every day.
Conversions
41. Online Conversion
www.onlineconversion.com
From simple time clocks and cooking measurements to complex conversion of joules and newtons, Online Conversion does all the math for you.
Reviews
42. Metacritic
www.metacritic.com
On Metacritic, you can read the reviews of movies, music, DVD releases and video games.
If you find the reviews familiar, it is because Metacritic does not commission any of them. The site collates all credible reviews written about a particular new title, then lists and links them conveniently on one page.
Bookworms
43. Internet Sacred Text Archive
www.sacred-texts.com
From Christianity to Taoism, Confucianism to Zoroastrianism and Atlantis to UFOs, the Internet Sacred Text Archive hosts a collection of free electronic books covering religion, mythology and legends, folklore and the occult.
These are not your modern fiction either, as the site offers scans of the original books - where possible - with some dating back to the 1800s.
44. Project Gutenberg
www.gutenberg.org
When it comes to free electronic books, there is no greater resource than Project Gutenberg. While Google Book Search (books.google.com) attempts to bring more electronic books to the masses, including free ones and those for sale, this site is all about books in the public domain.
45. Gocomics.com
www.gocomics.com
One of the joys of reading newspapers is the comic strips where readers can have a few laughs.
From the popular Calvin and Hobbes, classic Dick Tracy to the under-appreciated Heathcliff, comic strips are updated daily and the free service lets you organise your online comic collection from the website.
46. DailyLit
www.dailylit.com
It is ironic that most of us spend the bulk of our daily hours reading e-mail messages but not books. DailyLit comes to the rescue. It offers free public domain books in little chapters.
The premise is simple: pick a book title and choose to have the site e-mail you the chapters in instalments.
Travel
47. SeatGuru
www.seatguru.com
It provides seat maps of all makes and models of planes from some 80 different airlines.
Although it is a United States-based website, airlines popular with travellers here, such as Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific and China Airlines are all represented.
Getting a good seat is especially crucial for long flights. You can check the seat plans before selecting where you want to sit to make sure you do not choose one with limited recline or reduced legroom due to life-vest boxes.
48. Oanda.com
www.oanda.com
Unlike other currency converters you can find on the Internet, Oanda does not just convert a single amount.
It has an FxCheatSheet feature, which lets you create a currency conversion table that lists the conversions for smaller amounts from one to 10 to big amounts up to a few hundred dollars.
It is wallet-sized too, so you can print it, cut it out and take it with you.
49. Tripadvisor
www.tripadvisor.com
Tripadvisor is the most comprehensive travel site with reviews of hotels around the world submitted by regular travellers.
50. Gothere
www.gothere.sg
What makes Gothere different is the fact that it was created by Singaporeans for Singaporeans.
You can use the service to find out how to get to, say, Tuas Avenue 1 by car, bus or the MRT.
Gothere.com takes into account all factors that make transportation unique in Singapore such as fluctuating Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) charges and taxi surcharges.
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