Most full featured music players these days offer some sort of built in lyric retrieval. However, I suspect there’s still a good proportion of casual users who aren’t keyed in to these features. This is where LyricWiki comes in. Just pop open your browser and plug in the song you’re looking for. Actually, I recommend searching first for the artist, then the song. Seems to work quicker that way. Of course you can also browse by one of several categories, such as Album, Genre or Label. Otherwise LyricWiki seems geared toward doing essentially one thing and doing it well, something I always appreciate in a product or service. Consequently, there are a lot of so-called lyric sites out there, but from personal experience I can tell you they often try to give you more than you bargained for – some could even be considered unsafe sites to visit. But so far, LyricWiki has proven itself a safe and reliable source for lyrics. Great job guys.
LyricWiki
Songfacts
Have you ever been listening to a song and thought, “what on earth did they just say?” or “I wonder what this song is about…”? Well now, thanks to Songfacts, you can find out. What is it? A searchable wiki-style database ‘compiled by Radio Professionals, Music Enthusiasts, and visitors.’ It’s also a great resource for quickly discovering the story behind the music. Type in an artist or song title and you’ll usually get one to several pages of results. For a quicker search I recommend looking first for the artist, then the song in question. Once you arrive at the landing page find out what sort of background information has made its way into the database…and discover something you probably didn’t know about a favorite song. Know something that isn’t posted yet? Even better; you can sign up and share your knowledge with the world.
Songfacts doesn’t stop there, offering special categories: like songs featuring famous so and so or music video cameo, songs written by, or songs inspired by. Many of the songs also include an embedded YouTube video or lyric sheet. Fancy yourself a music buff? Then try putting your knowledge to the test with the Song Fallacies Trivia Challenge. This is another great resource, well excecuted with a lot of potential.
Readability
Many website operators rely on advertising for a portion (if not all) of their income, and rightly so; it isn’t easy making [honest] money online these days. But the seemingly inevitable side-effect of ad sponsored websites is increasingly cluttered up pages, often to the point where the original content becomes obscured. And this is the dilemma that the folks at Arc90 Labs, and others, have identified – that website operators need to find a balance between ad-driven revenue and user friendly web pages. For those websites that can’t seem to find that sweet spot Arc90 has come up with a marvelous solution. Readability isn’t so much a website or web page unto itself. Rather, it’s a ‘bookmarklet’ that alters web pages you’re already viewing…when you choose to use it that is. The development team has already done a great job explaining how it works so I’ll cut right to what it does. Let’s assume you’ve already taken one or two minutes to set up the bookmarklet (trust me, it’s very easy) and you’re trying to read an article on a particularly busy web page. Click on the Readability bookmarklet and within a few seconds the entire web article reappears, cleanly formatted, with nice large font, soothing background and altogether much more readable. The beautiful thing is you never have to leave the webpage, and by simply clicking a button (nestled right within the page itself) you’ll be quickly returned to the original page. It’s really something that has to be seen to be fully appreciated. And a wonderful side effect of Readability is that printing out text articles now makes them look just as good on paper, while probably saving a good deal of ink and paper in the process. A huge thanks to the Arc90 team for this outstanding solution to one of the web’s great annoyances.
If you’d like to find out more about how Readibility came to be, you can visit the official experiment page.
NaDa
Every once in a while a product comes along that is so revolutionary, so amazing, so brilliant…that it defies words. And so, I’m simply going to direct your attention to the official homepage of NaDa and suggest that you buckle your seatbelt and prepare to wonder how you ever got by without it…
Clusty Search
Use any of the top search engines and they all have one thing in common, the first page of results is generated by an internal ranking engine – based on what it thinks you’re looking for. It’s not a bad method really, assuming your inquiry is phrased properly. But sometimes it’s helpful to start with a broader topic and narrow it down from there. If this sounds like a better way of getting at information then allow me to introduce Clusty. As the name suggests this search engine is all about clusters. The first page of results appears just as they would with any other search engine, only with Clusty you can easily filter your results for better context. For example, if I type “Global Warming” I can easily use the cluster bar on the left to filter for global temperatures, causes of global warming, facts about climate change, and some of the more popular proposed solutions to the problem. And I can do this without having to start a new search for each sub-topic. In the business world this is often referred to as the ‘drill down’ approach. To me, it’s a much more intuitive way of organizing hundreds of pages of search results. After just a minute or two of using Clusty you’ll see just how much you can cut down on search time and wearisome scanning of so many irrelevant pages.
This clustering method has been implemented with other categories as well. Image searches let you easily sort by things like size, name and type. Click the Wikipedia button to focus solely on related Wikipedia articles, or do the same for blog posts to see what bloggers are saying on a given topic. For easier reading you can even adjust the font size on the fly at the click of a button.
Based on Vivisimo’s proven search platform Clusty pulls from multiple engines, giving you top results from across the web. And in my view it does a great job transforming internet searches from a massive shotgun approach to something far more focused and intuitive…even if it isn’t what everyone else is using.
Notable Websites
Like most people I’ve got literally hundreds of websites bookmarked in my “favorites” folder, but these are the ones that stand out as the most fun, useful or just downright interesting of the bunch. Browse through the existing collection, or check back in from time to time for the latest additions.
To visit a featured website look for the blue text link or simply click on the image.
Click HERE if you don’t see the websites below
Avvo
It’s difficult to find good legal advice without actually talking to an attorney…as it probably should be. Except that sometimes you may only be doing initial research, or looking for a simple answer to a basic legal question. For these types of inquiries it helps to go where qualified experts can lend a hand, without a lot of digging and hassle. Avvo is an ‘expert site’ with a focus on legal matters. Users can post a question, or browse through a growing database of competent answers to previously asked questions. You’ll find similar information at other sites no doubt but it’s nice to see a place dedicated to what can often be a tricky area of knowledge. In addition to the Answers & Advice section Avvo features helpful Legal Guides, written by actual licensed attorneys (who receive rankings based on their level of contribution to the site – along with various other factors). If you find a contributor who’s feedback was especially helpful click on their name to visit their profile page to learn more about them. Avvo also offers a helpful Lawyer Search tool, letting you filter by practice area such as Business, Foreclosure, Immigration, Tax law and many others.
The entire presention of this site is clean & organized, and does a great job bringing lawyers and laypersons together. For this reason it’s earned a permanent place in my ‘experts’ folder. For more information on what Avvo is about I recommend taking a look at their Mission Statement.
MiceAge
Disney lovers who haven’t paid a visit to MiceAge may want to check it out. This news centric all-things-Disney fan site focuses on providing the latest updates on everyone’s favorite theme parks. The site features regular columns from a handful of contributors, each with their own style of writing and areas of focus. Kevin Yee, for instance, tends to look at the business side of things, offering his own take and insider perspective. Andy Castro brings us the weekly Dateline Disneyland, a photo blog and weekly round-up that’s always an enjoyable read. The photos are simply amazing. Other notables include Al Lutz, Steve DeGaetano, Sue Kruse, David Michael and Werner Weiss of Yesterland. Community is, without a doubt, the main focus here with active and lively forums, comments on articles and even in-person community events.
WDWLIVE
Fans of the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World don’t have far to travel for a daily Disney fix. This fantastic unofficial fan site focuses on photos, wallpapers and Disney music and does a great job with all three. Check in daily for the featured photo, or begin a virtual journey into the park by following related links. Multiple resolutions are supported for any you’d like to use as a Wallpaper image. For a deeper dive into the Magic Kingdom the video section offers standard and high resolution clips of various attractions. Probably my most favorite feature is the WDWLIVE radio station (hosted at Live365.com). It’s a hand picked selection of Disney tunes, ranging from classic songs to actual in-park audio…and makes for a great companion while browsing the photo gallery.
Magical Kingdoms
If you’ve ever done a search along the lines of ‘Disney Park Guides’ or ‘Disneyland Trip Planning’ then you’ve no doubt seen the results, a gajillion sites dedicated to Disney vacations ranging from simple blogs to the gargantuan Disney Vacations website. Magical Kingdoms is one among many but the reason I’ve chosen to feature it here is that, despite it being a ‘for profit’ website, there’s an abundance of enjoyable content all presented in a nicely organized fashion. Here are but a few of the highlights: Park Guides with helpful trip planning tips, ride information and trivia, attraction closures and plenty of photos and other extras. For example, they even offer a guide on how to use FASTPASS so you can save time in the queue. Several major parks are featured, including Disneyland, Magic Kingdom (Walt Disney World), Disneyland Paris and Disneyland Hong Kong. Look up information on nearby hotels, or pop over to the Animation section where you can browse through the list of animated films, each complete with fun trivia, featured songs and even lyrics. You can also browse the Community section to read reviews from other users and their own park adventures.
Whether you’re planning a trip to a Disney Park or simply in the mood to meander through photos & tidbits, Magical Kingdoms has you well covered.
