Top 100 Directory

Top 20 Prediction Markets

dir100 — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 08:43:31 +0000

Everyone wishes they knew the future, and with prediction markets popping up everywhere, it is now far easier to get a good idea of where something is going - although we still don’t recommend betting on the basis of this information. We’ve gathered 20+ sites to help get you started predicting the future!

Financial

HedgeStreet.com - Predict not only the stock market, but higher power occurences like hurricanes that can impact the economy.

Jambaz.com - This service lets you predict the stock market, and the more you’re right, the more of a trusted member you become.

Motley Fool Caps - From the infamous Motley Fool, get together with other stock market aficionados and try to predict where the market is going.

PredictWallStreet.com - A simple prediction site where you enter a ticker symbol, press the red or green button, and see what the majority picks on that stock for the next day.

TheUpDown.com - Get together with other stock market enthusiasts and try to predict where the market is going.

WallStreetIdol.com - Predict the future of the stock market, manage your virtual portfolio and compete with others.

General

FantasyMoguls.com - See if you can run the film industry better than the people running the studios.

HSX.com - Hollywood Stock Exchange has been around for what seems like forever. It is a stock market based on movies as stocks and actor’s careers as bonds.

InTrade.com - A prediction/fantasy stock market about US politics.

MediaPredict.com - See if you can predict various aspects of the mass media such as TV shows, music, and movies.

NewsFutures.com - Try hand at predicting any of the future big news stories such as the capture of Osama Bin Laden.

Predictify.com - Predict future events, increase your reputation, and eventually get paid for your correct predictions.

TheWSX.com - The Washington Stock Exchange is a place where you can try to predict everything relates to US politics.

Trendio.com -Trade fake stocks as you predict vents from holidays, computer software, news, and more.

VoteKast.com - Try to predict big things like the election or the little things like which came first, the chicken or the egg.

Yahoo! Buzz Game - Precict future trends in technology and gadgets.

ZiiTrend.com - Join with other “Ziibos” and predict future events. The site will let you see how correct everyone was once the event passes.

Sports

OddsBreakers.com - Predictions and picks for the NFL, MLB, NBA, and more.

ProTrade.com - A fantasy sports “stock market” where you buy and sell teams and players, and attempt to predict their seasons.

SportsPoll.co.uk - A UK based sports prediction site for horse racing and football.

Xufe.com - Dedicated specifically to football (soccer). Try to predict the outcome of matches and see how the group ranks against the published odds. (via)

Top 12 Places To Get Free and Legal Music

dir100 — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 08:41:21 +0000

Music is nice, but free music is even better. With all the talk of DRM, lawsuits and the RIAA we tend to forget that there’s still a lot of completely free, legal music out there that just awaits to be taken. Today we bring you 12 top destinations for free and legal music on the net.

A. Music Blogs

Music blogs, are by far, the best source of legal and free music. Not only do you get to read up on the artist’s information, but you also get a taste of the artist’s work through a couple of free MP3s. There are tons of these blogs out there, and a few tools to search a good portion of them for MP3s as well. Here are some of my favorites, as well as a few extras.

Elbows

Elbows is a music blog lover’s dream. Not only does it aggregate posts from all sorts of music blogs, it also aggregates MP3s and free music from various music blogs, allowing the user to do a quick search for a certain song or artist. Elbows is one of the best ways to find new artists, music, and even download a song or two for free while there.

The Hype Machine

Similar to Elbows, The Hype Machine aggregates data, music, and posts from various music-centered blogs, making all of the information accessible on a single site. However, unlike Elbows, The Hype Machine is extremely focused on MP3s found on these blogs. The site shows the most popular songs/MP3s for a certain time period, as well as shows where to buy this music. Users can discover new music and new blogs through The Hype Machine. Even I found a few new artists I like, and got to listen to some of their tracks, legally.

MonkeyFilter MP3 Blog Listing

Need help finding some music blogs? The MonkeyFilter wiki has by far the biggest list of MP3 blogs on the net, organized by genre. I subscribe to most of these now, and expand my list of favorite artists daily. If you’re ever in need of some free and legal music, but don’t know where to go, this list is a big helper.

B. Commercial and Free

Usually, when talking about free music, people tend to talk about “no name” artists and unsigned bands. For some people, usually who love discovering new music, this is great. However, many prefer free versions of popular songs they already know.

SpiralFrog

In my opinion, SpiralFrog is the most innovative way free music has been distributed yet. On SpiralFrog, you’ll find all of your favorite songs and albums from your favorite (and popular) artists, for free. And it’s all downloadable. The catch? You have to listen to/watch an advertisement before downloading your song. But hey, for a song that’s normally purchasable on itunes for $.99, it’s definitely worth it. SpiralFrog is one of the best free music sites I’ve seen to date. (Unless you’re accessing it outside of the US; then it doesn’t work. Ed.)

Ruckus

Ruckus takes a step up from SpiralFrog by skipping the entire advertisement process altogether. Completely free, full albums, and no advertisements. The catch? You’ve got to be a college student with a .edu email. Ruckus was set up to stop music piracy at colleges, and I’m thinking it’s working.

We7

We7 is a bit similar to SpiralFrog, but with a few twists. We7 tends to focus on indie music more than artists signed to the Big Five. Somewhat like SpiralFrog, We7 puts advertisements into the beginning of their songs. However, users may download 20 songs per month without the advertising. Additional advertisement-free tracks are 20p a piece, which is a really good deal.

iLike

Although iLike doesn’t offer as many free MP3s and music as other competing sites may, iLike allows the user to stream tons and tons of music, most of it from popular artist. Of course, there’s the occasional free MP3, but don’t expect it too often. iLike is all about sharing music and playlists with friends, and some free music too.

C. Non Blog Non Commercial “No Name” Music

If you’re into underground, alternative, indie, post rock, and similar genres, but want to hear something a bit more homebrew, then these sites are perfect for you. The following sites are powered by user submitted content, and you probably won’t see any familiar names around here.

ArtistServer

Driven by user submitted and created music, ArtistServer is one of the best places to go for up and coming musicians. Artists write their news (usually music related) on hosted blogs, and top songs/artists make the front page’s music player. If you’re looking for homebrew music, you’ll find it here.

Jamendo

Similar to ArtistServer (but with a bit more professionalism kicked in), Jamendo is indie music gone social. Users search for music on Jamendo, share it with friends, and download what they like. Simply, JAmendo is an improved, beefed up version of ArtistServer.

iRate

Although iRate may seem like it’s P2P, it’s not. iRate consists of a desktop client, one which searches their entire database of submitted, and pretty much indie/homebrew music. If a song is selected, the client downloads it from the artist’s server, requiring minimal interaction with links and such. The user rates the tracks downloaded, and iRate, using that extensive database mentioned, tries to find similar music that you’ll like. And of course, it’s completely free and legal (and open source!).

D. Other

Archive.org

For a collection of public domain music, old 78 RPMs, and even some modern music created by artists similar to the ones on ArtistServer and Jamendo, Archive.org offers a huge range of free and legal music. From live classical music to music taken from old cylinder recordings, Archive.org is full of interesting artists and songs that are hard to find anywhere else.

iTunes

Even though iTunes mainly offers purchasable music, Apple throws on a couple of free songs a week, encouraging listeners to discover new music. To make things easier, iTSFreeDownloads shows the free songs for every week, as well as recently free TV Shows, Audiobooks, and more. iTSFreeDownloads is the quickest and easiest way to check on the latest free tracks on iTunes. (via)

Top 30 Free Graphics Programs

dir100 — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 07:00:47 +0000

There are a lot of excellent graphics programs on the market these days, but just because they come with a premium price tag doesn’t mean they are the only option. Take a look at this list of our favorite, and free, alternatives to some of those pricey programs.

Paint, Drawing and Graphics Programs

Gimp – Very powerful image manipulation program, great for photo retouching and image creation. There are other downloads, GTK and runtime environment for this program to work properly. This program currently runs on Linux, Windows (XP and Vista), Mac OSX, and some Unix based systems.

Ultimate Paint – Image creation and manipulation program for Windows systems. This is a pretty compact and fast running graphics program with plenty of features.

Skencil – An interactive vector drawing program for Unix and Linux operating systems built on the Python language. This program has tons of features like gradient fills, bezier curves and you can bend text along paths to name a few.

Pixia - Originally a Japanese only edition, Pixia is a very nice paint tool with full layers support and many other features. The English version website does lack information and support so you will likely need to search the web for information on learning to use this tool. This is currently a Windows only program and does support some drawing tablets.

InkScape – If you have been looking the free answer to Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw, IncScape is a great alternative. This is a full featured vector graphics editor. The website has a tons of information, tutorials and galleries of work created with the program, to give you a good idea of what you are getting involved with.

Paint.net – A free image and photo editing software for Windows based PC’s. This program was voted #19 out of the top 100 programs of 2007 by PC World. It has full support for layers and special effects, the tools are top notch and highly recommended by many users. There is a strong online community for support and frequent updates to the software. Comparable to Adobe Photoshop.

SmoothDraw NX – A freehand drawing tool designed for use with tablets. Several choices of brushes and pencil strokes for creating realistic drawings. Also auto smoothes lines if you are using a mouse to draw with.

ImageForge – An image editing and creation program for Windows systems. Although this program is a little rougher than some of the others it still has some nice features like easily creating 3D text, red-eye removal and you can easily create your own Windows screen savers.

Brush Strokes – Free graphics editor, with support for many of the popular and common image formats. It isn’t as full featured as some of the other programs but it is a good choice for less technical or light users.

Project Dogwaffle – A painting and drawing program developed for the PC. Has a nice set of tools and very functional, although does lack features of some large programs.

Sodipodi – This is a vector based drawing program that operates on most Unix and Windows systems. It has a ton of features like out of center gradients, patterned lines, dynamic xml editor and you can easily create vertical text.

Karbon14 – Another nice, full featured vector based drawing program released under the GNU license. This program comes as part of the Koffice project which includes a whole suite of tools in KDE.

ArtWeaver – A freeware paint and drawing program for Windows designed to simulate natural brush tools and effects for artists used to working on canvas. It supports most common file formats, has the standard editing tools like found in many popular graphics programs and offers a few effects filters.

GimpShopdotnet – This is a modified version of Gimp, designed to work and feel more like Adobe Photoshop, allowing Photoshop users a comfortable free alternative.

ImageMagick – A nice command line program for editing and creating images. There are a whole bunch of useful features like shearing and transforming images, flip, mirror and rotate images and a whole lot more.

Animation and 3D Programs

Terragen – Create amazing scenery and photorealistic images with this program. This program comes with a lot of features including, terrain sculpting tools, water and cloud generators, realistic sunlight creation and so much more. Works with Windows and Mac OS systems.

Google SketchUp – A powerful 3D software that allows quickly build 3D models. The program is pretty easy to use and you can design and build everything from your dream house to a favorite skyscraper. Works on Windows and Mac systems.

Art of Illusion – An open-source 3D modeling and rendering studio written in Java and usable on most Java Virtual Machines. On the website you can find some comprehensive tutorials on creating a human figure, working with triangle meshes and more to give you a little better understanding of how to use this nice program.

Blender – A top of the line 3D graphics program available for most operating systems. This is a very powerful tool but does have a strong learning curve if you are not familiar with these types of programs. On the website you can find a bunch of great tutorials, galleries of previous work created with this application and a busy community to answer any questions you may have.

3D Canvas – A real-time 3D modeling and animation tool. Easily create 3D scenes with drag-and-drop controls. Customizable toolbars and interface and frame by frame animations are only the start of this programs features.

Graphix – An open source graphics editor built to edit and create both raster and vector images. Works one WINE and WinXP operating systems.

3D Plus – This program definitely lacks some of the features of other full scale 3D programs, but it is very ease to use and works well for small quick jobs. You can also purchase the extended version for $9.99.

Daz 3D – Calls itself a figure posing and animation tool, basically you can use pre-created people, animals, vehicles, scenes and more, to edit and manipulate them to create your own 3D and animated scenes. The program itself is free, however most of the additional add-ons will cost you money. With that said this is a very nice program to use for people of all skill levels and highly recommended by many.

Anim8or – A 3D modeling and animation program, that is available for download, but kind of a still in progress program. It does have its bugs but is a very nice program created by one person to handle what they wanted out of 3D software. Some of its features include, a built in 3D object browser, true-type font support, 3D modeler, jointed character editor and a bunch others.

Synfig – A very powerful, well developed 2D vector animation program. This program was designed for studio quality animations, why it was released under the GNU license for free, I have no idea, but I am glad it was. It is currently available for Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems.

BRL-CAD – A cross platform 3D modeling program that includes ray-tracing for rendering, interactive geometry editor and more. This program is not recommended for non-tech users.

MindsEye – A nice freeware 3D modeling and rendering suite for Linux users. Features include a multi-scene/user concept that allows multiple people to work on the same scenes or visa-versa, object oriented modeling, network support in the MindsEye kernal and more.

Maya Personal Learning Edition – Maya is an excellent, although expensive 3D graphics program. This is the free edition developed to give you the opportunity to learn and use the program before purchasing. This edition has most every feature available as in the standard version but it is for non-commercial use and your images will be watermarked among other things.

Miscellaneous Programs

Picasa – A free image editing program available in the Google Pack download. This is a very light program but does support red-eye removal, photo correction and most of the standard editing tools.

IcoFX – A freeware Windows program for creating icons with more than 40 different effects and custom filters.

Pixel Toolbox 1.1 – A nice suite of tools for creating desktop graphics on Windows systems. With the program you can create wallpaper tiles, icons and cursors to name a few. Easy to use interface and of course free to download.

ColorPic – A magnified color picker, designed to create color palettes of up to 16 colors at once. You can easily pick any color from the screen, colors shown in hex and decimal, adjust hue saturation and it works in Firefox, Internet Explorer, Photoshop and many other applications.

Favicon Generator – This is a very nice web-based favicon generator. You can easily and quickly convert your images to favicons for your website.

FastStone Image Viewer – A full featured image browser, converter and editor. There are many features including, red-eye removal, cropping, emailing photos, color adjustments and more. Program supports all major file formats and is compatible with Windows systems.

Icon Studio 1.2 – A free, simple to use icon editor and creator. You can create icons in multiple sizes and color depths, flip, rotate, import from EXE and more. (via)

Top 30 Tools For The Amateur Writer

dir100 — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 06:51:26 +0000

On November 1st, brave souls everywhere will embark on a month long endeavor to write a story of at least 50,000 words. We’ve gathered 30+ tools to help those folks who want to try their hand at it.

Collaborative Writing

Coventi.com - A site offering several different packages, with the cheapest being free for the personal user.

Google Docs - Part of the Google suite of products, which enables you to invite others to work with you on a document.

Glypho.com - Put down the basic idea of your story, get a plot and character suggestions.

Novlet.com - Collaborative writing where you write just a couple of paragraphs at a time.

Portrayl.com - A site that lets you write one chapter at a time, and when done, release it as a PDF. You can also allow others to write a chapter if you want.

SynchroEdit.com - A browser-based editor that allows multiple users to edit the same document at the same. Will indicate who’s doing with with colors.

WideWORD.net - Create a secure document online and then pick who can look at it and participate.

Writeboard.com - A collaborative writing system by the folks at 37 Signals.

Writewith.com - Upload your documents and work with others on it together online.

Zoho Writer - A free online word processor from Zoho.

Dictionaries & Thesauruses

Alternative Dictionaries - Sometimes we all need to bend the rules some, and this site gives you definitions of various slang words.

Cambridge Dictionaries - Multiple dictionaries and references from Cambridge press.

Dictionary.com - Based on the Roget’s Dictionary. Also gives you quick access to thesaurus.com.

Dictionary.hm - An AJAX powered dictionary that pops up the definitions as you type.

Merriam-Webster.com - The online version of the well known print dictionary.

The American Heritage Dictionary - Over 90,000 words, a full print version of a dictionary put online.

UrbanDictionary.com - Multiple slang definitions of just about every word you may encounter in every day conversation.

Word.sc - A user-edited dictionary that lets you vote on definitions and upload photos of the word.

YourDictionary.com - Gives you the definition and suggest idioms.

Grammar & Tips

Bartleby.com - A collection of books in the public domain, broken down by category. Has a large election of books on language usage.

EnglishForums.com - Stumped by a tricky grammar moment? Join these forums to get advice from others who love the language.

Guide to Grammar & Writing - Gives tips on grammar from the word level up to essay paper length.

WordNet - Simple in appearance, WordNet is a huge lexicon of the language.

World Wide Words - Articles on word usage Lexicographer, turns of phrase, weird words, and more.

Plotting & Writing Tips

BlockbusterPlots.com - Get numerous free tips on how to construct a sensible plot for any story.

Character Questionnaires - Every good author will tell you that you need to know your characters before you write. This will help you interview them.

Freytag’s Pyramid - From ReadWriteThink, it explains the concept of “Freytag’s Pyramid” which is the basis of how any plot should be structured.

The “Basic” Plots in Literature - Describes the theories behind all of the known basic plots, and the schools of thought for each list.

Tips for plotting for every type of character - A lengthy list of stupid archetype characteristics for just about every type of character.

Word Processors

ajaxWrite - An AJAX based online word processor that runs in Firefox. Looks like Microsoft Word so you have a familiar interface.

Nevercode Docs - A downloadable word processor that allows you to store your documents online so they are accessible anywhere.

ThinkFree.com - Looks almost exactly like Microsoft Office and offers 1GB of free online storage. (via)

Top 350 Social Networking Sites

dir100 — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 06:40:03 +0000

One of the main topics here at Mashable has always been social networking. In the past several years, some networks have thrived, some vanished, while hundreds of new ones appeared. It has become a huge area to follow, and this article illustrates this well: a collection of over 350 social networking sites, all of which were covered in one way or another here at Mashable. We hope to have created an extensive and useful resource for anyone interested in social networking. Enjoy.

Books

Americabookshelf.com - One of the largest book exchange clubs across the US.

BooksConnect - A book sharing community site connecting readers, authors, publishers, librarians and booksellers.

BookCrossing.com - A community of users from over 130 countries who exchange books with each other at public places like cafes, parks etc.

Bookhopper.co.uk - Free community for UK residents to share used books with each other.

Bookins.com - Book sharing website that enables members to exchange used books with each other in real time.

BookMooch.com - An interesting concept where users can exchange books with others through points. Users gain points when they give books to others.

Booksalescout.com - Online community of users allowing them to sell books in the US.

Bookswim.com - Book borrowing service with free shipping for registered website.

ConnectViaBooks - A social networking site connecting book lovers and enabling them to discover other similar interests.

GoodReads - GoodReads is a book reader’s community enabling members to review, share books they have been reading.

PaperBackSwap.com - Users can share books amongst each other and only pay for the delivery charges.

Pazap.com - A book trade engine for students to buy and sell old books.

Read It Swap It - A free service that allows users to exchange books with others.

Revish - Revish is another community for book lovers, letting them review their favorite books, group up, or simply tell the world what they’re currently reading.

Shelfari - Shelfari is a popular social networking service for book lovers.

Socialbib - Book swapping network between students.

Business Networking & Professionals

AdvisorGarage - It is an online directory of advisers who are willing to assist budding entrepreneurs.

ArtBreak - ArtBreak is an artist community for sharing and selling artwork.

Blogtronix - Blogtronix promotes corporate social networking, enterprise 2.0 and wikis.

Commutal - Commutal is an online sharing platform for businesses to create media rooms, participate in domestic groups and share event happenings with each other.

CompanyLoop - An online co-working community for global businesses.

ConnectBeam - Connectbeam offers social networking specially designed for corporate users.

Decorati - An interior designer community enabling users to post items for sale and for exchange.

DoMyStuff - A good site for working professionals looking to find online assistants.

Doostang - An invite only career community for professionals.

Fast Pitch - It is a quickly growing business networking community in corporate world. Its online provides users with a one-stop shop network to market their business.

iKarma Inc. - iKarma is a specialist in providing customer feedback for organizations and professionals.

ImageKind - ImageKind is a community and marketplace for professional artists.

Jambo - Jambo lets you connect with your neighborhood friends.

Jigsaw - An online business card networking directory for users to establish contacts with each other. Each business card is listed with an email id and a contact number.

Konnects - Konnects enables members to create their own professional networking communities.

Lawyrs - A professional social networking community for lawyers.

Linkedin - LinkedIn is a professional social networking website for business users, one of the most popular such sites out there. Some aspects of it are free, but many are paid.

mediabistro.com - mediabistro.com is for professionals in content or creative industry.

Pairup.com - Pairup connects business travelers assisting them to travel together.

Ryze.com - A site for establishing new connections and growing networks. Connections for jobs, building career and making sales.

Spoke.com - Spoke offers access to business network of over 40 million people worldwide.

Visible Path - Visible Path helps organizations to integrate social networking into their existing tools.

WebCrossing Neighbors - It provides a private label social network with personal spaces and user groups.

XING - XING is a networking directory of business contacts powering relationships between business professionals allowing users to connect with each other.

Family

Amiglia - A family networking service enabling users to connect to family members by publishing and sharing family trees, photos etc.

CafeMom - CafeMom is a social networking site for mothers to connect and share thoughts with each other.

Cingo - Cingo users connect with each other to organize their family life.

CommonGate - A social networking platform that enables users to create their own social network for their friends, family or organization.

Family 2.0 - Family 2.0 helps you create your own family social network, you can add family members, send personalized emails and create event alerts.

Famiva - A premier social network to connect with family members and relatives in a secure environment.

Famster - A private secure social network for family members.

Geni.com - An exciting social networking site enabling members to create their Family tree. Although it’s a relatively new site, it has grown tremendously fast, and has hundreds of thousands of users.

Genoom - Genoom creates a meeting place for its site users. They can create a family network by inviting their relatives and discover their past memories.

Kincafe - An ideal social network for families to connect with their beloved ones.

Kinzin - Kinzin is an online meeting place for families to share family events, photos, stories and recipes.

MayasMoM - A family networking site for parents.

Minti - A collaborative parenting site.

MomJunction - MomJunction allows mothers to find reliable answers to questions, create private spaces with friends and build communities.

MothersClick - MothersClick connects mothers in a neighborhood with each and provides parenting advice to them.

myfamily.com - An excellent way to connect with your family members.

OneGreatFamily.com - An online shared database with combined knowledge and data at a single place.

OurStory.com - OurStory enables users to share stories of their families with others.

Parentography - A social network offering advice and advice for families.

The Family Post - A sharing network for communication with family members.

Friends

43 Things - A tagging based social networking site. Users create accounts and list a number of goals or hopes and these are parsed based on similarity to goals of other users.

Amitize.com - Amitize is a worldwide friendship network.

aSmallWorld - aSmallWorld is a private online community designed for individuals who would like to connect, re-connect to share similar thoughts with each other.

Badoo.Com - Badoo is a dynamic multi-lingual social networking site with innovative photo and video features that allows its users worldwide to gain an instant mass audience and interact both locally and globally.

Bebo - Bebo is a hugely popular site (especially in the UK), and similar in philosophy to MySpace. It allows users to communicate with their friends in multiple ways including blogging, sending messages and posting pictures.

Eons - An online gathering place for the elderly; most of the users are over the age of 50 years.

Facebook.com - Facebook is a social networking phenomenon connection people with their friends, family and other users with similar interests.

Faceparty - A UK based community social networking website. It started for youngsters but has now risen to popularity among all age groups.

Flingr - Flingr allows users to connect with all categories of friends – colleagues, college mates and school buddies.

Friendster - It is a popular global social network for finding new friends and developing friendships as well as searching old friends.

hi5 - Hi5 is a prominent social networking service in India with over 40 million users. However, Hi5 has recently experienced an upsurge beyond India and has shown increasing popularity in EU too.

Lovento - Lovento allows you to discover news friends and also find information about latest events.

Multiply.com - Multiply is a social networking website providing easy way to share digital media which includes photos, videos and music.

Mycool - Mycool enables members to find and share their interests with special groups.

MySpace.com - MySpace is an interactive social networking website consisting of personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music and videos. It’s currently the biggest social networking site out there, and while it might not be the most advanced one, the users seem to love its simplicity.

NetFriendships.com - A comprehensive social networking site enabling users to make new online friends and discover old ones.

Netlog - A social community of more than 20 million young Europeans.

Orkut - Orkut is a social networking service owned by Google. It enables users to meet new friends and create communities.

Passado - Passado is Europe’s no.1 re-union website connecting members with friends from school to workplace.

Piczo - Piczo offers safe social networking environment to youngster around the world. Piczo users can design their personal website with photos, videos etc. and share it with their friends.

Plazes - A social networking website for connecting with local users.

Pownce.com - Pownce is a mix of social networking and microblogging. It enables users to send messages, files, events and links with each other.

ProfileHeaven.com - A UK based social networking site for teenagers.

reunion.com - A leading online service for discovering old friends, classmates and family members.

Vox.com - Vox is a social blogging service where users share their ideas, photos, videos with family and friends.

Xanga - Xanga is one of the biggest social networking platforms with features of sharing photos, photos and videos.

XuQa - An online college social networking site with poker gaming features.

Hobbies & Interests

ActionProfiles.com - It is social networking community for sports and action. The features of the website are profiles of users with photographs and videos, reviews of products and job discussion boards.

Arts community - Arts community provides a dynamic community experience by providing extensive listing of exhibitions, events and openings.

BeGreen - BeGreen is a community that aims to generate environmental awareness for users.

beRecruited - beRecruited is a dedicated online community for sportpersons and coaches.

BottleTalk - BottleTalk is a wine lover’s community making it easy for members to share their drinking experiences.

CarGurus - An automobile community website enabling users to post car reviews, photos and share opinions.

Change - Change is a nonprofit social networking website that connects like minded users and allows them to exchange information.

ChangingThePresent - A nonprofit fund raising community with membership of over 400 nonprofits.

ChickAdvisor - ChickAdvisor is a sharing community for women users.

CircleUp - CircleUp is one of the best community website connecting users to groups, clubs for knowledge sharing, information exchange.

Coastr - Coastr connects beer lovers with each other.

ColShare - ColShare is a community for people who have hobby of collecting items like coins, stamps etc.

coRank - A rating community for users to share interesting information on internet.

DailyStrength - A huge community of over 500 groups dealing with health issues and various medical challenges.

Dundoo - Dundoo enables users to create image collages out of social networking profile. A big amount of ads on the site somewhat diminishes the overall impression.

Flixster - Flixster is a community for movie lovers.

FuelEmpire - FuelEmpire brings automobile enthusiasts together at one place.

GirlSense - A community for girls to promote their fashion designs & creations.

Greenvoice - An online networking platform for people who are conscious about the environment, who want to inform each other on environmental issues and create a difference.

iYomu - iYomu is an adult social networking website and it allows users to search for site members who have similar interests or for business needs.

Motortopia - Motortopia is community for automobile lovers. It consists of passionate lovers of bikes, planes, cars and boats etc.

MyCatSpace - MyCatSpace is a community for lovers of cats passionate to share experiences of their cats with others.

MyDogSpace - MyDogSpace users can share their dog pictures, write blog posts about dogs and communicate with other dog lovers, all in a very lovely community.

Uniteddogs - A social networking website for dog owners. The dog owners can creae profiles of their dogs, create blogs and share their thoughts.

vSocial - vSocial is a video based social networking platform allowing content owners, site operators to deliver the message online with video.

Media (Photo, Video & Audio)

Buzdeo - Buzdeo provides secure video sharing service with friends and family.

Fotki - A photo sharing service enabling users to connect with friends.

Fotolog - A big online photo sharing community.

Music

Asoboo - Asoboo is a sharing network for cultural artists from around the world.

BandChemistry - A network for musicians uniting music bands all over.

BandWagon - BandWagon is a music community website for music fans to manage their web pages, profiles, videos and music.

CrackSpace - A common place for fans of hip-hop music.

Moob - A dedicated community of hip-hop fans.

MOG - An online community powering site members to discover music and music lovers.

Mobile

CrackBerry - A community dedicated to BlackBerry users.

Dodgeball - A New York based service facilitating social interactions through mobile phones.

Friendstribe.com - A mobile phone based social networking site.

GotZapp - A mobile social network for sharing images, audio and graphics with your friends’ mobile phones.

Groovr - An ultimate mobile social networking site for staying connected with friends. It is compatible with iPhone.

Jaiku - Jaiku is essentially a microblogging service with an SMS gateway, very similar to Twitter. They’ve recently been acquired by Google.

Loopt - Loopt is a cool mobile based friend locator website. It uses GPS to show its users the location of friends by updating maps on mobile handset.

Mixxer - Mixxer enables users to content on their mobile with site members.

Mobango - A mobile community service powering users to search for user generated music content, videos and other data.

Mozes - Mozes enables members to connect & socialize with each other through mobile phones.

Partysync - Partysync helps users to interact with people using mobiles.

Peepsnation - Peepsnation allows users with similar interests to connect with each other on location basis.

Rabble - A location based social networking service for mobile phone users.

Socialight - Socialight is a mobile based social networking site where users share their travel experiences with other mobile users.

Wattpad - A mobile phone social networking platform allowing users to discover, read and share their stories with each others.

Shopping

3LUXE - A community generated product research site.

AgentB - A common place to find out the best shopping deals on internet.

bringsome.com - A global goods delivery platform enabling community members to assist each other with access to best items from across the world.

boxedup.com - Boxedup.com users add their favorite products to their list and share it with others.

CoWorkersAds - An online marketplace listing allowing site members to discover and sell items among coworkers community.

iliketotallyloveit.com - A user generated marketplace where users submit cool products.

MyItThings.com - A user generated magazine for shopping.

MyStore.com - A social market place for buyers and sellers.

Productwiki.com - ProductWiki is a common place for users to share information about consumer products.

RedFlagDeals.com - RedFlagDeals.com is Canada’s most popular shopping community which offers huge discounts to site users.

Sale Grab - SaleGrab is a social shopping site for best sales and discount deals.

Shoppero - Shoppero offers profit sharing to site users for writing product reviews.

Smashing Darling - A collaborative market place connecting buyers and sellers at one place.

Students

AlumWire - AlumWire has been created to assist college students, alumni with professional opportunities.

B4Class - A social network for high school and college students.

Campusbug - A college student social networking website.

CampusRank - CampusRank members select and rate their old school friends and group them into various categories.

College.com - An online community for college students.

CollegeMedium.com - A student classifieds website for buying and selling items, jobs search etc.

College Tonight - A great place to meet fellow college students and alumni.

DormItem.com - A local classifieds listings for schools in various cities.

Graduates.com - A social networking site assisting graduate school students to stay in touch post completion of course.

Half.com - A leading student market place for buying and selling textbooks at discounted prices.

iHipo - An international community for college students and business professionals looking for networking opportunities.

LocalSchools - A networking site connecting students with local US colleges and universities.

Pazap.com - A student trading site for buying and selling on-campus books with other students.

Quizilla - Quizilla is a social network for young teens.

RateMyProfessor.com - RateMyProfessor connects students aspiring to study similar courses by assisting each other.

Student.com - Student.com is a big online community for college students, high school students and teens with around 1,000,000 members.

Studentbid.com - Studentbid.com is a student market place for sales and purchase of items without any fees.

StudentSN.com - A social network allowing users to create home pages with contact information, personal information and photo albums.

Uloop.com - Uloop allows students to trade textbooks, promote community events and do host of other activities.

Travel & Locals

Amicoz.com - Amicoz is slightly different from conventional social networking sites; it doesn’t have some of the common features found on socnets. It is dedicated to assist users in sharing their travel experiences, nothing more, nothing less.

Citizenbay - Citizenbay is a user community for discovering local information.

CityTherapy - CityTherapy is an easy way to find and share places of interest (restaurant, bars) in Europe.

CouchSurfing - A global travel network connecting travelers with local communities.

fatdoor.com - A fun and an interactive way to connect with the folks from your neighborhood online.

Going.com - A fun way to interact with people locally.

iloho - An online travel community with similarity to social bookmarking services like digg.

MatchActivity - A site connecting people on the basis of their activities. Users can find things to do and join people in their area.

Matador - A travel based social network with an integrated blogging service.

myTripbook.com - myTripbook.com is a place for people who want to share their travel experiences through photos, videos and blogging with others.

OurFaves - OurFaves is a community of urban savvy folks who enjoy the Toronto city and find out cool places to hang out at.

Outside.in - A nice way to explore local communities to keep track with neighborhood news.

Rummble - Rummble enables users to discover as well as share places of interest in your neighborhood.

TravBuddy - TravBuddy is a cool site for sharing travel experiences, finding new travel friends or reading travel reviews of fellow friends.

Travellerspoint - An international meeting point for worldwide travelers.

TravelTogether - A travel based social networking service enabling users to share travel plans, travel deals and experiences.

tribe.net - Tribe.net is one of the easiest ways to connect with people for finding a restaurant, a killer apartment, a gentle dentist or a hiking friend.

TripUp - A travel community site for finding travel information and planning for trips.

Triporama- Triporama provides an easy way to plan and collaborate on group trips.

VibeAgent - VibeAgent is a site about hotel reviews, travel meta-search and social networking.

WAYN - A social networking website uniting world wide travelers.

WeExplore - WeExplore provides an online platform for volunteers and travelers from all over the globe.

Wikitravel - Wikitravel is dedicated project for creating a trusted, up-to-date travel guide. It has over 16,641 travel destination guides maintained and written by Wikitravellers from around the world.

Zoodango - Zoodango is a website enabling users to connect with urban professionals either online or face-to-face at local venues. (via)

Top 30 Blog Directories

dir100 — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 06:23:34 +0000

One of the easy attainable promotional tools for blogs are blog directories. Like all directories, they won’t bring you instant fame and thousands of visitors, but they’re still a valuable resource which should not be overlooked. We’ve gathered together 30+ free and paid directories to help you get started.

Free Directories

Blog-Search.com - Directory of over 14,000 blogs, also offers a free newsletter with tips for web masters.

Blogarama.com - Over 63,000 blogs and counting. It shows you how many times people have visited your site, while visitors can leave reviews for the individual sites.

BlogBunch.com - Simple and straightforward site with numerous categories.

BlogCatalog.com - There’s no indication of how many blogs are listed in this directory, but they encourage interaction amongst bloggers and readers.

BlogCode.com - Unique site that lets visitors find blogs with similar topics.

BlogExplosion.com - Get your blog reviewed by fellow bloggers, will also allow you to post a banner and give you stats. 59,000+ blogs in the directory.

Blogflux.com - Over 93,000 blogs in their system. Besides being a directory, BlogFlux offers numerous free tools for webmasters and blog owners.

Bloggernity.com - A plain, straightforward blog directory of over 46,000 sites.

BlogHop.com - When you join with the other 29,000+ blogs listed here, you tag your site with keywords so surfers can find blogs that match their interests.

BlogHub.com - A directory of over 35,000 blogs and a community for talking about all things related to blogging.

BlogListing.net - Free submission except for featured listings.

BlogRankings.com - 10,000+ blogs separated by categories and having an updated list of recently pinged sites.

BlogToplist.com - An old style directory that ranks blogs based on an “in/out” system, but is free to use.

Britblog.com - As the name would suggest, a directory of blogs from Great Britain.

Findingblog.com - Over 2400 blogs are included in this site. A good place to get yourself noticed if marketed correctly.

GeekySpeaky.com - A small blog directory that requires only a reciprocal text link.

GetBlogs.com - Over 11,000 blogs split over 190 categories.

GlobeOfBlogs.com - Nearly 61,000 blogs and counting. The site seems to be friendly to the non-English speaking crowd.

IBlogBusiness.com - A directory of over 2500 business-themed blogs.

LSBlogs.com - A directory that lists more than blogs: it also accepts submissions of blog hosts, tools and related sites.

MyBlog2U.com - Free submission directory with over 2,000 sites listed.

JoeAnt.com - Sites at JoeAnt are indexed by category and by region of the world.

QuickBlogDirectory.com - Another small directory requiring only a reciprocal text link.

SportsBlogs.com - A directory dedicated to sports blogs of all types.

TheWeblogReview.com - A unique directory where your site is categorized and reviewed by the staff first.

WeBlogAlot.com - Allows you to add your RSS feed or a ping.

Paid Directories

AliveDirectory.com - All submissions are manually checked, offers annual and permanent pricing options.

AvivaDirectory.com - A smallish directory at only a little over 750 blogs, but well organized and easy to look at.

Best Of The Web Blogs - This particular directory charges for review, and it does not guarantee your admission, making it a bit more of an elite source for blogs.

Bloggeries.com - Reasonably priced as low as $9.99.

BlogUniverse.com - Submission options as low as $4.99.

Business.com - A directory for business sites in just about every industry.

Site-Sift.com - Entry levels for just about every budget.

Umdum.com - Offers Express and Sponsored listings, all sites are reviewed for quality.

UncoverTheNet.com - The cheapest solution only gets your site name listed; the site is huge and covers a lot of blogs.

Yahoo Directory - It’s a big name directory, but quite expensive to get listed in. You are definitely paying for a “brand name” with this one, but it might be worth it. (via)

Top 100 Directory

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