WebThe internet is where you will find anything under the virtual sun. Yes, anything that can be saved electronically can be yours through the internet. When we say "anything that can be saved electronically" it includes every single one of the billions of files in the millions of servers in the internet. We have so much information in our hands, too much to be taken in one gulp. Too much information could confuse us, when we want something we are often at a loss as where to start looking for that little piece of information or file which is buried somewhere in the multitude of electronic data flooding the net. Most of us has Google to help us find what we want to find but it is good to know exactly where to go when you need to get something. I have been using the internet for years so I have my own list (not an actual list, but just a list in my head) that I think would be of help to some people.
Where would you go when you want to......find music, books, or videos?If you are looking for indie music, you can head to
Pitchfork, one of the first and the best indie music websites. If you want a social network whose reason for existence is music, then you can go to
Last.fm, you'll be hipped to several new bands there and discover new music. You can also go to
Metacritic.com if you want to read fresh criticism about mainstream films, DVD's, music, games, and TV. They have a wide selection and the reviews are written well.
As to books,
Amazon is still the best but you can have
Powell's too if you want a site that focuses primarily on books (Amazon is not only focusing on books) and offers quality reviews to old and new volumes.
Now, if you want to browse through an extensive list of free Business, Computer, Engineering and Trade magazines, white papers, downloads and podcasts, why not hit it with
Tradepub, there you will find the titles that best match your skills and interests; topics include management, marketing, operations, sales, and technology. Simply complete the application form and submit it. All are absolutely free to professionals who qualify.
... store and share stuffI use a lot of services to store and share my stuff, one of those is
Ziddu.com, a very good site where you can dump your files on and share it to friends. Every time someone downloads one of your files (wheter its an image, music, PDF, and anything) you earn. You will be paid through Paypal when your balance reaches $10.
Rapidshare is also a favorite of mine, I have gigabytes and gigabytes of files in their servers, and I have two years worth of Primium account from them. Probably that would tell you how good Rapidshare is.
Some more alternative sites where you can dump your digital stuff :
Drop.io, here you can have up to 100MB space for your images, music, videos, documents, and more. Drop.io is easy to use, simply set up a private space to drop any files by phone, email, web, widget or fax and then share them with whoever you want via a variety of outputs.
If you want a social network with a "file sharing" theme, you need to check out
Esnips, a place where you can store your content and access them later. What makes esnips good is that it is really a social network where you can discuss with member the stuff you store there.
...publish your stuffIf you are into photography and you would like to publish your images, you can use
Picasa, Google's answer to
Flickr. What if you want the world to know about the book you have just written and you do not know where to start "publishing" it? You can employ the help of Lulu, which will help you publish hardcopies of your book at a reasonable price.
When it comes to publishing your videos, we all know about Youtube, but there are also cool alternatives like
Vimeo, which allows you generous amount space for your large files.
If you want to publish your own music and videos, then you can go to
UnicornMedia, I have a
separate post for this beautiful site that gives a chance to unpublished artists (musicians and indie film makers) to have audience and to be promoted (and get that break you've been waiting for all your life).
...access private informationwell,
Searchsystems is one of the oldest and most reliable company that does the legwork of collecting all kinds of public records and sell access to them via the internet.
If you really want to dig dirt,
Glassdoor will indulge you. You can log in anonymously and write what you really think about the company you work for, tell all your gripes about your lousy boss, your rants about how you are recieving salary that is way below your worth, and stuff like this. Then after you write all of those stuff, it is only then that you will be able to access the "dirt' of your boss, his company, and your co-workers.
I am writing this post too long, more of this in Part 2 of this post.
