Top 4 Websites and Tools of the Week (Nov26th, 2010)

With the inclusion of social networking platforms in our everyday internet usage trends, our web usage is directed to certain spots because of which we normally lose track of some interesting websites and tools that are available on the internet. Some of these tools are pretty much fascinating and bring ease of usage for us. May it be the docks in our browser or other web tools, once downloaded and running on our machines they can help us in using the internet in an effective way and save our time. So this week, the websites and tools we are bringing for you are either FREE or they are easy to setup. All users can be benefited from them without even spending a cent. So, let’s have a look at these amazing tools and websites:

Google Chrome Add-on: Site Launcher

All computer users are very much familiar with the icons on their desktops, launchers and the docks as well. Moreover, it is a general trend that users type the complete URL in their web browsers to go to a certain website. But if you are anxious to bring the elegance of the amazing launchers to your web browsers then you must check out Site Launcher. This particular extension of Google’s web browser Chrome allows users to organize their favorite websites seamlessly and quickly.

Just like any other Google Chrome extension, this add-on sits on your Google Chrome’s address bar in a very conspicuous manner. The users just have to press CTRL + Space Bar to open the web launcher and then they can click on any icon or press a particular shortcut to open any kind of website. Adding shortcuts is pretty convenient as starting the launcher and taping on “Shortcut Current Page”. Moreover, users can also add shortcuts to open their website without ever going to the Site Launcher panel. For example, if you want to go to Facebook then you just need to press CTRL + Space to open the Facebook.

The Site Launcher control panel is very versatile and users can add and edit websites from the panel. The real fun of this app is when you start using them regularly. Unlike Google Chrome’s bookmark bar you don’t have to open the Site Launcher all the time. So, Site Launcher is indeed a fun filled application and a very nifty tool for all the people who use browsers frequently.

Send Me a Story: Get Interesting News Articles via Email

Normally, the newspaper that we get daily contains amazing articles which are very much interesting. But in this digital era, one doesn’t have time to go through all the newspapers and skim through all the articles. So that is where “Send Me a Story” website jumps in; this web service tries to bring in attention to those exciting newspaper articles that one failed to read. Send Me a Story is basically a free web service that sends users attractive articles from newspapers weekly. These articles can either be about the past issues or the current issues. Moreover, the site’s functioning is also very simple; you are just required to enter your e-mail address and click on the Subscribe Button and on every Saturday an amazing article will be emailed to you. Moreover, the service can also send articles straightforwardly either to your Kindle or Instapaper app. The articles appear in totally in text format with no clutter and ads with them. All the selected articles are from various magazine and international newspapers like New York Times, The Atlantic and Vanity Fair. You can access this amazing web service from the following link. [SendMeAStory]

Braineos: Interactive Way of Studying

Well, Braineos is an interesting and an amazing web service that enables users to carry out their studies using Brain cards and Flash games. So, if you are preparing for your SAT exams and looking for ways to cram SAT vocabulary words or learn dates for a history exam then Braineos is answer to all these problems. Flash cards are a wonderful thing if you want to learn something quickly and with an ease. What Braineos does is that it offers you Flash cards and games making study a fun filled endeavor. It is a free web service and users can start off by just signing in through their Facebook, Yahoo or Google account. After signing-up, users can create a deck of flash cards by naming the particular deck and then adding on their checklist items. Now with your deck up and running, user can play one of the games on the website that will eventually help in remembering the items that are available on the custom deck. All the players can make this memorization thing more fun by asking their friends to join-in. You can check out Braineos by going to the following link. [Braineos]

Direction Map: Create Interactive Maps with Streets

Normally, we try to find our way through a map and mostly we are unable to decide on the exact route we should take, in order to reach to our destination. The perfect mean to clarify directions to anyone is through a map which has the route already marked and outlined. Direction Map offers exactly this kind of service; it is a free web service that allows users to create a map with all the directions clearly outlined on it. It lets users create maps by just entering some info including the start and end of journey and few other outlined options. Users can also choose the measurement option; it can be either in meters or imperial units. Users can also add Google Street view animation wherever they think suitable. The most amazing thing about this map is that it is very much embeddable in the blogs and websites. You can check out this amazing web service by following this link. [Direction Map]