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

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!

For those who still like to purchase things in an actual brick-and-mortar store, this site will make the process a little bit easier.  Basically Milo.com is a local shopping inventory search engine.  So let’s say you are looking for a particular pair of Nike tennis shoes.  You can go to Milo and search on ‘Nike tennis shoes’ and it will return the results for all of the stores in your area that currently have Nike tennis shoes in stock.  If you want to expand the area of your search you can, and you can also filter by price, rating, whether or not it’s on sale, and by particular store (e.g. Nordstroms).  This site seems like a real time saver, so it might be a good idea to pull up Milo first before wasting time (and gas) driving around town.

What do you guys think, does this site fill a need that’s not being met?  Next time you’re going to head to the store to buy something, would you first pay a visit to Milo?

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!

You’re probably thinking to yourself, how can any site possibly compete with Google?  Unfortunately the answer as of right now is that none can.  Or at least none can if they use them same format of ten blue links.  A new visual search engine called Spezify hopes to take some searches (a.k.a. a few bananas) away from the 800lbs Google gorilla.  The question is can they do it?

The thing I like most about this site is the user interface.  It’s quite intuitive and easy to use, which is extremely important if you want a large majority of the public to be using your site.  I like the fact that you can scroll down or up, right or left.  To me it tends to lead to a more engaging experience versus the traditional ten blue links.  Users can also filter the results to show only images, text, video clips, music, or tweets.  My main concern with the site however is the relevancy of the results it returns.  In my opinion Google is the most widely used search engine in the world because it consistently returns the most relevant results for user’s queries.  I think this will be Spezify’s biggest challenge.

Overall I see Spezify being used for more leisurely searches versus searches with a need for a specific answer or solution to a problem.  That being said it’s still a fun site to use.  If you have some free time and are looking to find some interesting websites (since you’re read this I’m guessing you probably are) go over and check out Spezify.  Then come back and leave a comment and let us know what you thought!

If you’re like me and love to try new foods then you might find this site interesting.  It’s a combination of Yelp and Foursquare in that the focus is on restaurants and users can earn points and badges.  However instead of multiple reviews/descriptions this site makes food the star (as it should be).  Foodspotting allows users (aka Foodspotters) to either upload or email pictures of the food they’ve tried at various local restaurants.  From there the community can nominate (known as “noms”) the foods they’ve tried and liked the best.  Users can earn points and keep running lists of foods ‘spotted’, ‘nommed’, and ‘wanted’, of course in addition to earning badges such as ‘Seafood’, ‘Dessert’, and ‘Sushi’.

They also have a very cool (and free) iPhone app that perfectly replicates the website experience.  I think an app like this is absolutely necessary for a website in this niche and they definitely hit the nail on the head.  If you have an iPhone I highly recommend downloading the app (just go to the App Store and search ‘foodspotting’).  So what do you guys think, next time you’re hungry but don’t know where to go would you consider checking out Foodspotting?

You might have already heard about this site but I thought I’d share it with those who might not have (or for those who have and weren’t sure what it was all about).  Foursquare is for use on mobile devices (specifically smart phones like the iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Palm, etc.) but can also be used via text message for those users on non-smart phones within the U.S.  After downloading the Foursquare app onto your phone (completely free) you can begin to ‘check-in’ at different locations.  The check-in process is based on your location (using GPS) and is pretty simple; all you need to do is select your correct location from the list.  If for some reason the business/location is not listed you can add it and then check-in.  You can also leave a short message, 140 characters or less, describing your experience.  Sounds interesting.

The question is why would anyone use this?  To address this issue, Foursquare has created a game style format with points and badges where you can login in at the end of each month and see your stats.  The ultimate goal behind this is to become “mayor” of a certain business location (your local Starbucks for example) which is achieved by checking in at a particular location more times than any other fellow Foursquarer.  Once you are mayor of that location you unlock the mayor’s badge and in some instances can receive a discount off of purchases ($1 off purchases at Starbucks) simply for being mayor of that location.

I think there’s a lot of potential in this new geo check-in arena but Foursquare is dealing with quite a few competitors at the moment and some pretty formidable ones at that (Yelp).  It will be interesting to see how it all unfolds over the next 6-12 months.  What do you think, would you use a service like this?

Hope everyone had a happy New Years!  I have a feeling 2010 is going to be a good year.  But of course many things, mainly the economy, still has a ways to go.  And unfortunately whenever the economy goes south, crime rates usually increases as a result, and 2009 was no different.  So if you’ve ever wondered what crimes (and how many) have occurred in your city or neighborhood, you may want to check out this cool site.  The site is called CrimeMapping and according to them their goal is to “provide the public with valuable information about recent crime activity in their neighborhood.”  Seems simple enough, but it’s actually quite an ambitious task.

Using a GIS platform to display the crimes on a map, the site right now has information from roughly 100 cities mapped out (the map itself is pretty cool) from all across the U.S.  They use easy to decipher symbols for each of the various crime categories, like Arson, Burglary, Vandalism, etc., so you can quickly tell what crimes were committed at a particular location.  The overall look and feel of the website is really sleek and the navigation and map itself is very intuitive, which I like a lot.  I think CrimeMapping has the potential to be a very powerful resource for the public.  So what do you guys think, would you use this site?

This self-described “computational knowledge engine” can give detailed information on any number of (objective) queries, and can do so just as quickly as any search engine out there today.  The difference is however that instead of ten blue links, users receive the information, or answer, they were looking for.  This sites name, WolframAlpha.com, may be obscure but I believe in the next decade it will be anything but.

The potential uses for this type of technology are limitless.  I think this site and its technology is the first step towards the ultimate goal of ambient findability.  Forty years from now when we look back at the early days of the information age and technology boom, I think that WolframAlpha will be on the short list of important technological advances that changed the course of history.

This site definitely fits the category of a cool website. Now it doesn’t hurt either that I’m a big trance/house/dance fan (which is what the two default videos and playlists are set to). However this site, called Ibizaah! (a fitting name) would still be cool even without those default settings just because of its simplicity. The sites creator Miguel Hernandez said he created the site because he “was annoyed at having to switch between windows when trying to keep the music going at a party.” Problem solved.

Ibizaah not only plays trance and house music but using the ‘Search Videos…’ will play any music video on YouTube. So say you wanted a Pop music mix you could have Beyonce and Shakira’s ‘Beautiful Liar’ on the left and Britney Spears ‘Toxic’ on the right playing simultaneously. How cool is that.

Did I forget to mention this site is free? Yeah it’s completely free to use. So next time you’re throwing a party at your pad, impress your friends and be your own deejay!

Just wanted to write a quick post to let everyone know that you can follow me on both Twitter and Facebook to receive updates of all my latest posts.  If you follow or friend me you will also get tweets and updates with links to cool websites I come across that don’t make it onto the blog, but are still cool or interesting and that I think are worth passing along!

If you would like to suggest a site that you have come across or that you started and run yourself, feel free to email me at admin@zeusofthenet.com or send me a tweet @ZeusoftheNet.  Look forward to the suggestions!