Zeus of the ‘NetReviews of the Coolest Sites on the Net

Let’s face it the quality of traditional radio is on the decline, and has been for quite some time.  Consumers who are starved for decent music that’s free, don’t have many options these days.  But one website has emerged that offers a wide range of artist and songs, get this, for FREE.  Crazy idea, I know.  Pandora.com lets users create their own stations based on preferences and previous song selections.  The layout takes some getting used to, but after using it a few times becomes fairly easy to navigate.

Users can listen to music without creating an account, but in order to create a new station, an account must first be created.  Creating a station is as simple as typing in a favorite artist and letting Pandora do the rest.  Songs from the selected favorite artist as well as songs from that artist’s genre are then played via a traditional radio format (minus the annoying commercials).

Due to their licensing agreements, songs cannot be replayed or re-winded (just like the radio), but they can be paused or skipped.  However, only 6 “skips” are allowed per hour, per station.  With all these features offered completely free to users, Pandora.com has a unique business model that stands head and shoulders above the competition.  Say bye bye to FM and hello to personalized, commercial free internet radio.

French Maid Costume

With a little over a month to go, the rush will soon be on to find that perfect Halloween costume.  For all the ladies out there who are looking for a sexy or provocative costume, 3wishes.com is the perfect site (there is also a small men’s section, for fellas looking to get dressed up this year as well).  With hundreds and hundreds of costumes to choose from, there is certainly something for everyone.

Costumes are conveniently divided up into categories such as: cheerleaders, french maid, nurse, and school girl, among many others.  Within each category there is a picture of a model wearing the costume, along with the name and description, the price, sizes available, and if it is currently in stock.

3wishes.com however is not just a Halloween costume website; they offer a wide selection of products for women, including various styles of stockings, shoes & boots, lingerie, as well as bras and panties.  With free shipping included on all orders, and excellent customer service, 3wishes.com offers many choices to bring the ladies back time and again, as well as those fellas who want to surprise their significant other with something special.

Fark.com Homepage

This unique site offers it’s users a sarcastic spoof on the “news” of the day.  Users submit links to stories they find throughout the internet, from top websites like cnn.com or nytimes.com, down to smaller niche blogs.  The submitter then writes a brief description (usually less than 30 words) along with the link.  If the submitter’s link is deemed worthy enough, it will be included on the fark.com homepage.  There is a paid option as well, for $5 a month users can view every single link submitted, and those can be viewed at totalfark.com.

Fark is broken up into several categories, the main category ‘Not News’, followed by seven subcategories: Sports, Business, Geek, Showbiz, Politics, Music, and Video.  Each category is broken down by date, showing the links in chronological order from the last week.

The site is completely free to use, however if users want to submit links to stories they find, they first have to create an account.  Fark has been around since 1999, and its concept and entertainment value have only gotten better over time.  For the most random news stories, there’s only one place to go, and that’s Fark.com.

After creating a free account with Mygazines.com, users are allowed to view all of the thousands of magazines that have been uploaded by other users.  It works like this: a user who has an account with Mygazines uploads a PDF scanned version of a particular magazine, let’s say Entrepreneur magazine.  Once it is uploaded, other users can then view that issue of Entrepreneur.  Very basic concept, similar to many music or file sharing sites.

One of the really cool features of this site is the ability to ‘flip through’ a magazine almost as if you were holding a real copy of it.  Once a user selects a magazines and issue they want to look at, a new window will open up displaying the cover of the scanned magazine.  In that new window the user has the ability to flip through the pages by either using the mouse or the arrow keys as well as zoom in and out on a particular page.

While still in the beta phase, Mygazines.com definitely has room to grow and expand.  There are a limited number of magazines on the site right now, but once this site catches on, most likely many more will be uploaded and available to view.  The major road block to success will be the issue of displaying copyrighted materials.  Hopefully Mygazines.com can get together with the various publishers and make it work.

If you never thought it was possible, Hulu.com is out to prove you wrong. With hundreds of commercial free TV shows from networks such as NBC and Comedy Central, as well as hundreds of full length movies, Hulu is set to challenge YouTube’s reign as online video king.

A very modern looking and easy to use site, Hulu was launched in March 2008 as a joint venture between NBC Universal and News Corp. That backing gives the site a competitive advantage over most other online video sites that have run into legal issues by displaying copyrighted material. Hulu shows uninterrupted ad-supported programs including such TV shows as Saturday Night Live, and Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show.

There are also thousands of movie titles to choose from on Hulu, although only about 200 or so full length movies to date, which include such box office hits as: Men in Black, Jerry Maguire, and The Fifth Element, to more recent hits like, Underworld: Evolution and When a Stranger Calls. The only caveat being, before you can watch any movie, you have to first create an account (which takes all of about 5 seconds).

This free to use site is poised for rapid growth and is sure to be bookmarked by the thousands (although hulu.com is pretty easy to remember). Hulu is just one more option that brings us a step closer towards the inevitable decline of cable and satellite TV. With Hulu leading the way, the future of watching TV shows, movies, and video clips online looks much brighter.

There are a ton of interesting websites out there just waiting to be discovered. This blog will showcase those sites that stand out from the millions, offering something unique to the world. To learn more about what each post will entail, and the choice of the name of this blog, please visit the about section.

If you’re ready, buckle up and come along for the ride!