I’m visiting some close friends in Boulder, Colorado right now and one of them has turned me on to a web site that lets guys get great, unique hand-crafted gifts for their girlfriends.

Etsy.com provides a way for craftspeople across the country to get their wares out to a wider audience, which means anything bought on Etsy helps support actual people rather than some larger conglomerate that imports cheap items from overseas and marks them up to maximize profit. So not only do you get to find completely unique hand-made items, but you’re doing some good as well in supporting small-time artists and craftspeople.
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I’m moving tomorrow morning, and the first thing I did was to get on movers.com to get some quotes via the web. They offer a ton of different options for the type of move you want to make, from local to international.

They will ask your basic geographical information and for you phone number and email address. I decided to give my phone number–and they made sure to use it.

The next morning, I received about a dozen different phone calls from different moving companies in the LA area, all offering quotes. There was no doubt: I got about all of the information I needed by utilizing movers.com, perhaps more than I needed.
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SitOrSquat is the latest site that promises to find you a good place to do your business. Unlike the others, it actually has color coded markers that let you know if the toilet is open, closed, or if it isn’t known what the situation is.

I remember a Seinfeld episode where George Costanza pontificated on the best places in New York City to relieve yourself. As a former New Yorker, I remember having to sneak around sometimes during desperate moments (my favorite was a Subway restaurant where I got thrown out after sneaking into the employee bathroom). But if times are tough, it can be a real pain to find a toilet in Manhattan. Help is on the way, and it’s smartphone friendly.
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Now this is something I’ve been waiting for my whole life. Do you have a situation where protocol requires placing a phone call, but you really would prefer not having to talk to the person on the other end? For instance, perhaps you caught something “social” during a trip to Vegas a few weeks back and need to alert an ex-girlfriend?

This is where Slydial comes in: even if the person on the other end is present and willing to answer the phone, Slydial sends you straight to voicemail. So the other person thinks they dropped the call and you get off scot-free without having to confront a potentially awkward phone conversation.
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Microsoft’s new ad push is called the “Mojave Experiment,” and the point is this: due to bad word of mouth, people have poor thoughts about Windows Vista, but when they actually use it (under a different name, Mojave) they think it’s God’s gift to operating systems.

It is true that Vista (which I admit I also have a limited, but largely positive, experience with) gets railed on by a lot of people who aren’t sure why it’s so terrible. But there is a reason for this: when Vista was released and people upgraded their computers from XP, stuff quit working. Hardware, games, everything: kaput.
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Multiply is one of those social networks you don’t hear much about, drowned out by the loud buzz of MySpace and Facebook. But Multiply has slowly built a loyal and active user base, and is attempting to monetize by offering high-volume media storage that never expires and ad-free usage for $20 a year.

Attempting to be the “adult” alternative to the mega-sites out there, Multiply is drawing in a good number of users in their upper-20’s to mid-30’s. Assuming users of this age group are more likely to shell out for a premium service, Multiply’s answer to the monetization question is built on the back of this perceived loyalty and maturity.
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The countdown begins: TomCruise.com is launching on Monday morning.

Certainly, this is the biggest moment in the history of the Web. Forget Web 2.0, we now have Web Tom.0.

The page currently has a countdown clock on it, and nothing else, that glows strangely whenever the number ‘25′ ticks by on the seconds clock. Perhaps this represents the number of people left in the world who don’t think Tom is nuts.
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You heard it right: the potentially lucrative domain name “pizza.com” was sold in an auction for $2.6 million.

The man who owned the domain, Chris Clark of Maryland, paid $20 for it in 1994 and has maintained the site for the last 14 years at a price of $20 per year. Not a bad return on his investment.

His main regret is not registering more domain names when the web was just starting up in 1994.

Clark, the former owner of a consulting firm, hoped the site would get him deals with a big pizza maker, but he was unable to get any takers. He had been using the site for advertising over the last several years, but his interest was piqued when he saw that vodka.com sold for $3 million. So he put it up for auction on Sedo last month.
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Yahoo today launched Shine, a vertical site that will cater to women in the much desired 25-54 age bracket, a group Yahoo believes has been underserved by them, in spite of the 40 million monthly visitors they receive from the demographic.

The site will feature original and syndicated content from the likes of Time Inc, Conde Nast, Hearst, and Rodale. There are nine categories that the site features, including Fashion and Beauty, Parenting, and Astrology.

Unlike some of Yahoo’s other efforts, the site has a very blog-like feel to it, and it looks very clean. The site also aggregates content from some of Yahoo’s other ventures, like Food, Health, Tech, and Green.
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With an estimated 52 million children taking part in youth sports leagues, it was only a matter of time before a top social networking site for Little League, Pop Warner, and Soccer moms would spring up, and WePlay.com is looking to fill the void.

A look at the site offers different kinds of membership, for players, coaches, parents, and fans. Players will be able to communicate with teammates and share pictures and videos of the games, coaches do the same and perhaps lay out tactics and drills for the players, parents will be able to set up carpooling and rant at each other about Billy’s playing time, and fans will be able to give their encouragement.
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