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

If you own a business, or are in charge of the legal aspect of things for a business, there’s a website that might be able to help you out…and for free!  LawPivot.com is a question and answer site, similar to Quora, except that this site is focused on business legal issues.  And since everyone knows hiring a lawyer (even for a small issue) can be expensive, this site can help ‘treps and others save lots of money.

The process is pretty simple and straightforward.  There are two options; you can either ask a confidential question or a public question.  If you ask a confidential question, LawPivot will suggest relevant lawyers to answer your questions and then you can send your questions to those lawyers or others that you hand-select.  If you ask a public question the LawPivot community lawyers will answer your question in a public forum where others will be able to benefit as well.

I think it’s a great idea for a site that will definitely be able to save business owners lots of money while also helping to find a good lawyer if the issue is a more complex one.  As always I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

If you’ve ever tried to keep up with the endless number of blog posts, articles, video clips, etc. that are out there on the web, you know it can be a daunting task.  I’m sure there are many like me who try but often are just unable to keep up with the flood of information that is published on a daily basis.  Instapaper tries to address this issue in a simple and straightforward way.  First create an account, second click the “Read Later” button when you come across something you’d like to read at a later time, and third come back to read the article, blog post, etc. when you have time.  It’s a simple process and their website speaks to that simplicity.  They also have apps for the iPhone and iPad ($4.99/app).

With Instapaper you can now read that article, watch that video, or read that interesting blog post, when you have the time to do so.  For those who use this site or one with a similar service, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

Going back to the early days of the web, and even still today, a popular place to ask questions and get answers were and still are forums.  Simple, straightforward, and usually niche specific, forums allow users to post questions and get answers.  But that’s pretty much it.  Not to mention the issue of SPAM.  Luckily there are a couple of sites out there that are trying to revitalize the world of Q&A  (see my previous post on Quora).  Recently I came across a new site in this niche called Namesake that looks very promising.  Namesake initially caught my attention because, number one I think they selected a great name and number two the design, usability, look and feel, and colors used on their site look very professional and work really well.

This site is still in its early stages so there’s not a ton of questions and answers or conversations yet, but I’m sure that will change as it begins to catch on with more and more people.  I think this site has a ton of potential and I’m excited to see what the future holds in store for them.  I recommend joining and checking the site out for yourself…and then come back and leave a comment and let us know what you think!

With the economy slowly chugging along it may not seem like the best time to buy a house, but it actually is (at least for those who are in the financial position to do so).  However because of the large number of houses on the market, many potential buyers are quickly realizing that finding the right house is a very time consuming process.  That’s where Redfin.com can help out.  This site helps to make gathering important information about a particular house easier.  Redfin also offers brokerage services, which is something that none of their competitors can say.

Launched in February 2006, Redfin provides quite a bit of data as well as maps, of houses located within the geographic areas they currently serve (which includes most major metropolitan areas in the U.S.).  This data includes basic information like square footage, number of bedrooms, bathrooms, etc., but also things like how much you can expect to pay in property taxes.

If you’re looking to do some research for that next (or first) house you might want to pay a visit to Redfin.  They just might have the information you’re looking for!

Have you ever dreamed of being a well-renowned writer known all over the world for your excellent insight and vivid descriptions?  Maybe long desired to be an editor-in-chief of a prestigious newspaper?  Or fantasized about owning your own newspaper?   Now you can do all three!  Well, kind of.  A new website called Paper.li (still in alpha) organizes links you share on Twitter and/or Facebook into an easy to read newspaper style format.

Personal newspapers like this one from Brian Solis can include pictures, videos, as well as your own twitter feed.  Paper.li segments the links you’ve shared into different categories such as:  business, art & entertainment, politics, technology, etc, and then through proprietary means, surfaces the day’s most relevant articles and constructs your personal newspapers front page.  Another cool feature is that you can login and edit the titles of any article you want (that editor-in-chief dream just became reality!).  Also all of your previous “editions” are archived for you and can be accessed from your front page.

So what are you waiting for?  Get started and who knows maybe someday you can give William Randolph Hearst a run for his money (hey you gotta dream big right?).

If you’re like most people, you sometimes have questions that the search engines are, at least at this point in time, unable to answer.  That’s where a new site called Quora comes in.  Quora is a Q&A site that has been able to attract participation from a lot of well-known and highly respected individuals across many disciplines.  They’ve joined the site to contribute to the community; to help answer questions that many people have been asking, and of course last but not least, to boost their personal or company’s brand awareness.  This is of course impossible to avoid, but I don’t think it’s a bad thing.  Having that accountability looks to be helping to reduce spam, which is always an issue on these types of sites.  However I’m sure to Quora and its members (btw it’s free to join) as long as the answers are open, honest, and genuine, the self-interestedness and spam that has plagued other sites will be able to be avoided here.

So give it a shot, if you’ve tried other Q&A site like Yahoo Answers, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the types of questions and answers that are being exchanged on Quora.  And who knows, maybe the answer to that question you’ve had has already been answered.  If not, Quora is a great place to start.

I’ve blogged about many websites since I started this blog back in August of 2008 but I have to say, this site is the only one that’s ever given me goosebumps.  I don’t know what it is about the site, maybe it’s the fact that the seemingly far-fetched futuristic sci-fi movies from the not too distant past seemed to be coming true before my eyes.  I know that probably seems overly dramatic, but after you check out the site I think you’ll understand my initial reaction.

The site is called Qwiki (pronounced quick-ee) which I think is catchy, memorable, and very apropos.  Essentially the site is a Wiki (similar to Wikipedia) but instead of having to read a lengthy scholarly article, Qwiki provides an experience that is similar to watching a video, but better.  Qwiki provides an engaging experience, that I think will revolutionize the way we consume information.

To begin using Qwiki simply type in a query that you wish to learn more about, and hit enter.  A female sounding computer generated voice will quickly begin speaking, and describing in detail whatever it is that you queried.  So for example if you type in “Apple Inc” Qwiki will quickly load the information and begin showing you a montage of relevant pictures, accompanied by the female voice, and the text of what is being spoken so you can following along if you’d like (I’m guessing this was also done for the hearing impaired).

I’ll tell you what; words don’t do the Qwiki experience justice.  You’ve got to see and experience it for yourself.  It’s such a great site that I was waiting for them to enter into their Beta but couldn’t wait any longer to share with you guys.  So even though the site is currently still in Alpha, you should submit your email address to join because trust me, it’s totally worth it.

In an industry dominated so completely by one company (Google) it would seem to be very unlikely that any company, especially a start up, would be able to compete.  I mean even though Bing has dropped $100 million in advertising alone, they still haven’t been able to take away any market share from Google.  Nonetheless Blekko.com (still in beta) has decided to challenge the Mountain View behemoth that is Google.

There are several features that set Blekko apart from other search engines, the biggest being what they call “slashtags”.  This is basically a new way of searching that allows users to filter their results right there in the search query box.  For example let’s say I want to do a search on “Facebook” but I’m research online marketing strategies and would like to read some tech blogs that talk about marketing on Facebook.  I would simply type “Facebook /techblogs” and hit search.  Doing this search will return very relevant results such as Mashable, TechCrunch, and Wired.  And if users want to they can further filter by date, by simply clicking on or entering into the search box “/date”.  The other cool feature to note is a link under each result labeled “seo”.  Clicking on this will reveal lots of interesting/helpful information.

Only time will tell if Blekko will be able to compete with the big boys, but they do offer some very cool features which I think many users would find helpful.  What do you think; would you switch from your search engine of choice to give Blekko a shot?

This social bookmarking website has elements taken from other similar sites (Digg, Reddit, Fark, etc.) while at the same time mixing in some newer social sharing features (Facebook, Twitter).  The design on the category pages is very clean and puts the focus on each story that users have “spotted”, which I like.  The homepage is a tad bit cluttered, but is still engaging enough for people to find a story of interest.  The ‘Livestream’ feature that runs along the right-hand side of the site is a really good idea that balances out the ‘Top Picks’ and ‘Editor’s Picks’, so that way users can have an unfiltered stream of info to choose from as well.

All in all, I think this site has what it takes to be added to the short list of social bookmarking sites that constantly fights for our attention.  There are so many funny, weird, crazy, and interesting stories out there…why not let Spotery.com do the work for you!

If you answered yes to both of these questions then boy have I got the site for you. If you only answered yes to the first question, I think this site might change your mind about the second one. MyDunkTank is a site with a very cool and philanthropic purpose (which I think is very cool and much needed) that lets people create a list of “dares” that they are willing to do for money that will then go to a charitable organization. The “dare” which receives the most donations from family, friends, and fellow DunkTankers, wins! And by wins I mean that’s the dare that has to be done. Pretty interesting concept, right?

To give you an idea of some of the “dares” currently running there’s one for Dare to be Aware of Spina Bifida, which so far has raised $4,563, with the top dare coming from an older lady who will assume a Lady Gaga identity at an official Spina Bifida event. I hope they post pictures after the event. Actually I think that would be a good idea. It would be another incentive for first time visitors to the site to donate and then to come back to the site.

This website is a little different than most that I usually share however whenever I get a chance to give back I try to do my best to do just that. And I thought what better way to give back than to share with my readers.

P.S. Would love to hear in the comments about any “dares” that were undertaken!