If you’re like most college students, the Internet is a part of your daily life. It’s a constant source of breaking news, upcoming events, entertainment and communication. As a result, the Internet is constantly changing and updating. Over the semester, you may have racked up frequent flier miles to your favorite websites, but when you begin to tire of Twitter and find your interest in Facebook fading, try checking out these innovative alternatives:
flavors.me (www.flavors.me)
Simple yet effective, flavors.me allows you to create a free, personalized webpage with plenty of great features. Stay organized by gathering all of your online profiles into one central location (there’s over 30 choices, from Facebook and Flickr to Twitter and Tumblr). Then make it your own by customizing the background image, layout, text, fonts and more.
Uwall (www.uwall.tv)
Quite literally a “wall of sound,” Uwall presents visitors with a scrolling grid of popular artists and bands from different genres. Not in the mood to browse? Search exactly what you’re looking for. The site will compile an automatic playlist of songs from that artist, as well as popular covers and acoustic variations. In addition, it will save you time by filtering out the miscellaneous clips, interviews and commentaries that are included in a YouTube search.
Foodily (www.foodily.com)
Go beyond the borders of a cookbook with the Internet’s largest recipe network. This easy-to-use search engine allows you to sort recipes by the foods that you love most (and leave out those you can’t stand!). Foodily then pulls results from both top cooking websites and little-known food blogs and lets you compare detailed photos, ingredient lists and cooking times side-by-side in a colorful layout.
Pilot Handwriting (www.pilothandwriting.com)
Looking for a change from Times and Tahoma? Try a unique tool that allows you to turn your handwriting into a digital font. After filling out a printed template and scanning or snapping a quick picture, you can edit your font and use it to write and send emails from the website. As of now, however, the font can’t be saved to your computer; while this significantly limits the use, there’s no denying the concept is awesome.
Fubiz (http://en.fubiz.net)
A self-proclaimed “daily dose of inspiration,” this blog keeps users up-to-date on innovative and impressive technology, inventions, graphic design, photography, advertising videos, music… you get the picture. The “mosaic” option from the top menu is the best way to quickly scan for items that grab your attention, or try sorting through the different creative categories.
Myfav.es (www.myfav.es)
Build your own colorful, app-style homepage that allows you to access your favorite websites quickly and easily. Myfav.es lists hundreds of popular websites to choose from (and the ability to create an icon for those you can’t find), as well as different background and layout options. Set it as your browser’s homepage, and your favorite pages will be displayed each time you open a new window.
I Can’t Find My Phone (www.ican’tfindmyphone.com)
We’ve all done it. Our phone has gone missing somewhere under a stack of papers, a pile of clothes or somewhere in the depths of your purse. No need to track down a friend to call you – New York designer Dave Dawson has created a website that does just that. Simply enter your telephone number, and a call will be made to your phone for free… now let’s just hope it’s not on silent!
When It Drops (www.whenitdrops.com)
Save yourself a Google search and go straight to this comprehensive collection of new releases. When It Drops doesn’t just track the release dates of upcoming movies and music – it also tells you which video games, books and DVDs are coming out, up to two weeks away. Hovering over a particular item will give you the links to purchase tickets, watch the trailer or buy the item from Amazon.