Story Published:
Mar 17, 2008 at 8:53 AM PDT
Story Updated:
Mar 17, 2008 at 8:53 AM PDT
WEDNESDAY: Odds areyou get on the internet to look up information or buy goods and services. You probably have your favorite stops, the websites you always go to, but could there be websites you're missing out on? Today, KOMO TV's tech reporter Brian Westbrook shares his research on his favorite websites for everything from music to instant messaging.
The Best Websites:
Instant Messaging: Meebo.com
Handy for those that might have trouble with the traditional IM clients downloaded to your computer, perhaps banned by your company or school's network settings. Networks supported: MSN, AOL/ICQ, Yahoo, and GTalk/Jabber. Bonus points for registering: Ability to save chat logs, single sign-in, and customization.
Product Reviews: Buzzillions.com
Features to look for: Narrow search results by various criteria, compare brands, upload customer images. Unique: Buzzillions users have, for the most part, actually bought the product they're reviewing.
Music: Pandora.com
Pandora creates a radio station tailored to your tastes. By selecting songs and artists you like, the online service selects other music based on hundreds of criteria in the Music Genome Project. The service is free and doesn't require you to load a player -it works right in your browser. The more songs you review the better it predicts what else you might like.
Local Reviews: Yelp.com
Looking to check out that new neighborhood restaurant? Want to try a new night club? Want to share your review with friends and get their feedback? Social Networking meets local community reviews with Yelps slick interface, intuitive navigation and the ability to add darn near everything in your 'hood.
Electronic Products: Woot.com
Looking for a bargain? Don't really care what the bargain is? Look to woot! Woot offers exactly one product (most days) and each customer can buy up to three of this item each day. When the item is gone, it's gone... some products can sell out in hours or even minutes and are generally electronics or related gizmos.
Auction site: Etsy.com
Unlike Ebay, which sells anything
to anyone, Etsy focuses only on handmade products. One real benefit to this site, as opposed to buying from some of the larger mass-merchants, is that you can focus your search on those items made right in your area- perhaps you're limiting your carbon footprint or just want to support local artists. Another neat feature - search by color. How clever is this? The site offers the ability to pick a color and it will find
products that match that color.
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