Top Gadgets on the Web: Free Tools to Make Things Easier

MapQuest.com provides free address searches, finely detailed maps, and more. You can enter two addresses and MapQuest will generate driving directions to get there. I recall reading a statistic a while back that some one in ten thousand or so details on MapQuest driving directions were wrong, so it is probably safe to say that MapQuest is highly accurate. They occasionally add new services; recently they added multiple-stop trip driving directions. That is, where you go to a location, then another location, then another location, and then go back home (or to the starting location). Very nice service, and it's free.

PrivatePhone.com is a free service provided by NetZero. They provide you with a free-of-charge phone number that you can distribute as your own, which can receive calls and voice messages. They advertise it as having many different uses, and rightly so; just a few that I've found include using it to sign up for free stuff on the web (but that's a different article.), getting to know people that you meet on the internet better, while still preserving your privacy, or simply using it as a place to receive funny messages from your friends. It, like MapQuest, is free, and is very, very nice.

YouTube.com is an excellent video hosting and viewing site; it was recently purchased by Google for a large sum of money. YouTube has all sorts of videos on it: music, anime, original music videos, tutorials, stunt videos, and more. YouTube has thousands of unique and interesting videos on it. You can browse freely, and upload your own. Oftentimes, you can find foreign music on YouTube that might not have hit your country yet. One seeking to get a heads-up on soon-to-come trends and bands might want to check out YouTube to view who's stepping up on the international stage.

I have also found such videos as one describing how to make a tazer out of a simple, innocent disposable camera. There are a variety of such videos on YouTube. A do-it-yourselfer might enjoy some of the provided content.

Earth.google.com is Google's relatively new Google Earth tool. Google Earth allows you to use the images collected by various satellites floating just outside the Earth's atmosphere to zoom in on any location on Earth. You can use it in coordination with such services as MapQuest to thoroughly plot out a drive or journey somewhere. Google Earth can be used to find such locations of interest as your school, your home, your workplace, or friends' houses. It's always interesting looking at your humble abode from miles and miles above sea level.

Tools like these are slowly revolutionizing the way we use the internet in coordination with our daily lives. In years to come, be sure to watch yourself and observe how much you rely on the world wide web for vital information. It may be interesting.