With gas prices the way they are, it’s easy to see why so many people are concerned about the cost of filling up their vehicles. I’m not that old, but even I remember when gas was well under one dollar per gallon. Nowadays you have to count the cost of driving anywhere, and when you actually leave the house, it makes sense to accomplish as much as possible so that you don’t have to hit the road again for one specific thing. I never used to track my gas mileage and costs, but now I’m beginning to think about heading down that path. FuelFrog will tell you how your money and miles are being used.

Using FuelFrog only takes a small amount of work, but the benefits are plentiful. You let the service know how many miles you traveled on your last tank, the price you paid, and how many gallons you added to your car. From here, FuelFrog will compile and display the details so that you can see how they change as time goes by. If you really want to save time then you can also use Twitter to input this data. In the end, the results will probably surprise you.

I was born in 1986 and did a lot of my growing up in the ’90s, and while I may not remember everything that happened in that famous decade due to my young age, I still remember quite a lot. On certain occasions I’ll get a random and instantaneous flashback to some event, product, or television show that had an impact on me, and I always get a kick out of this. My friends and I often talk about our not so distant pasts as if they were decades upon decades ago, but your past is your past, and it’s fun to relive it from time to time. Retroland will help you to remember some of the things that you either loved or loved to hate.

This social network will keep you entertained for quite a few hours. All you have to do is browse through some of the topics under the main categories to take a trip down memory lane. Not only are the topics listed, but they also contain full descriptions, and you can contribute your memories and photos for others to read and see while reading what others have already said and posted. The discussions are where it’s at, so groove on over to Retroland and start participating in them.

When you have something that you want to get rid of, what do you do? Do you at least try to give it away or sell it to someone, or do you just throw it straight in the trash? Unfortunately, a lot of people are quick to throw away items that really don’t need to be thrown away. Depending on what it is, you could probably sell it, but an even better option is to give it as a gift to someone who may be looking for something like what you have. This could be a friend, family member, or even someone from your community. One person’s junk really can be someone else’s treasure, and Freecycle understands this.

This site is composed of thousands of groups that contain millions of members from all over the world. The chances are that there’s a Freecycle group in your area, and you can participate by listing items that you’re looking to get rid of. By focusing on your community, you’ll have a better chance of finding someone who may want what you have and be willing to pick it up. As a member of the group, you could also find some things that you want, and it’s the giving and receiving that makes this service so special.

To me, one of the toughest decisions when it comes to having a child has to be connected to deciding on a name for the new addition to the family. It’s not a decision to be taken lightly because this name is intended to stick with the child for the rest of their life. A name means a lot, and all parents want to choose one that’s appropriate. Many times, the methods that expecting parents use to choose baby names are completely random, and they quite literally pull names out of thin air. This may work for some people, but others may opt to be more scientific and thorough in the way that they choose potential baby names, and Nymbler is the resource for them.

One of the nice things about Nymbler is that it works with your personal taste, and this means that it lets you choose some names that you like and then see what other suggestions it was able to come up with based off of the names that you provided. You can filter the results by boys and girls names and boys or girls names. Names that you like can be saved and sent to others through e-mail, and you can even block names that you don’t like from appearing as suggestions.

All of us are inquisitive by nature, and this inborn trait compels us to ask questions and learn about things that we’re interested in. While surfing the Internet, I’m sure that you’ve discovered people through blogs and Web sites that you’d like to be able to ask questions, but unfortunately, your form of contact may never actually get through to the subject of your interrogation. What to do, what to do? While you may not be able to successfully reach certain people on your own, anyone who’s interested in asking and answering questions can join Qwizzy.

This community is built around questions and providing answers to them by directly connecting you with the people that you want to hear from. Many times, the questions that you want to ask or answer are related to things that a lot of people wonder about, and this publicly available Q&A session can inform a lot of people all at one time. Not only does your input appear on Qwizzy, but it can also spread to other parts of the Internet through widgets and so on. Just like with blogging, you can begin to build up an audience of fans that are interested in what you have to say.

Have you ever tried to explain how to do something on the computer to someone remotely and wished that you could just show them what they needed to do? There are solutions that exist to actually connect you to someone else’s computer so that you can literally perform the procedure yourself, but another way in which things can be explained and demonstrated is through screencasts. You’ve surely seen a few of these computer video presentations online, but you can also easily create them yourself. I’ve used expensive software to do this in the past, however, all that you need to get started is provided on the Internet for free through Screencast-O-Matic.

This online service enables you to create a screencast straight from your browser, and for anyone with basic needs, Screencast-O-Matic will prove to be sufficient. Just select the size of the area that you want to record, include some real-time narration, add notes of interest to specific parts of the recorded screencast in order to assist with navigation, and then either download the screencast as a QuickTime movie or upload it to the site so that it can be seen and shared by everyone.

I always enjoy visiting new places, and it’s fun to tell others about the adventures that took place on various trips. In most cases, travelers wait until they get home or get connected to the Internet at a hotel or other establishment on the road to share the stories, tips, and media that they have accumulated from their travels, but by the time this information gets out there, the moments have already passed, and the information is quickly becoming dated. Thanks to Flagr, you can share this data online at a later time or right away with text messaging on your mobile phone.

The immediacy and up-to-date nature of the service make it a special tool to look into. When you find a cool place, flag it on the map, write a description, upload photos, and embed any video that you may have recorded while you were there. You can also create custom maps and then place them on your Web site in order to share them with others. One map has even built a community out of documenting decent public restrooms. Hey, when you gotta go, you gotta go. Ultimately, you’ll be able to use Flagr to find and document new places and keep up with your friends.

Since I do all of my work on computers and work from my home office, you’d probably assume that I don’t get very much exercise, and you’d be correct. I’m still staying fairly slim, but that certainly doesn’t mean that I don’t need exercise. I’ve never been very big into exercising, and that makes it hard for me to think about establishing a regular routine. No matter what my excuses may be, they’re not good enough, and I need to get in shape. If you also need some motivation, then you may be interested in checking out introPLAY.

Instead of just working out and instantly forgetting what you did, introPLAY enables you to track your workouts. This can allow you to set goals for yourself and help you to see how you’ve done over a period of time. By connecting with other members in an introLEAGUE, you can even get competitive, and this could encourage you to keep up with your exercise habits. You’re not alone in your quest to become more active, and introPLAY proves that.

Traveling means different things to different people. For some of us, we’re just trying to get from one location to the other, and this is usually the case with business travelers who are so preoccupied with what they have to accomplish that they can’t even enjoy the journey. However, others make an effort to enjoy every moment of their trips, and they immerse themselves in what each area has to offer so that they can truly experience it. If you’re a traveler who enjoys stepping away from your familiar surroundings, then you might want to take a look at GlobeTrip.

Traveling within the United Sates is one thing, but GlobeTrip has an international presence, and almost all of the content that you’ll find here will be related to countries outside of the United States, which is great. You can plan on finding other travelers, watching video guides, seeing photos, and reading travel journals. I’d love to visit more countries in the future, and GlobeTrip is giving me a taste of what I can expect once I get to them.

For some reason, human beings are obsessed with lists. We like to have things ranked and displayed for our reading pleasure. Just look at Digg. Some of the most popular submissions are lists, and it doesn’t mater if they’re detailing the best of something, the worst of something, or anything else for that matter. If we see a list, we’ll read it even if we don’t care about the subject. Instead of just reading lists, you can also create and rank them over at Onzilist.

Usually lists focus on the top ten items, but Onzilist gives you eleven entries for any given topic. Apparently that extra one really makes a difference. Who knew? Anyway, you’ll find a number of lists that have already been created, and you can rank them however you’d like. By enabling people to reorder lists that have already been created, Onzilist can show us a global average of the data instead of just one person’s viewpoint of how the list should be organized. This is helpful for research because the way other people rank certain lists may surprise you.

When I look up into the sky, I have no idea what I’m looking at. I’ve never owned a telescope, and I’m just not into astronomy as much as much as some people are. Outer space is truly amazing, and I’m not saying that I don’t have any interest in it, but I have to admit that I don’t know very much about the specific constellations and so on. For someone like me, it helps to be able to discover and learn about what’s going on above my head easily, and Google Sky enables me to navigate the universe at my own pace.

Many of us are familiar with Google Maps, and Google Sky uses the same interface, so as crazy as it may sound, you’ll feel comfortable navigating the far reaches of the universe. I’ve always been intimidated by tools like this, but Google Sky even made me feel like I knew what I was doing. Even with the supplemental content that is provided, I can’t help but feel like Google could have done a better job with this, but at least it’s accessible.

I took guitar lessons for almost two years when I was ten-years-old, and even though it’s been quite some time since that happened, I still remember most of what I was taught. If I would have been left to figure out how to play the guitar on my own, I probably wouldn’t have made very much progress, but having a teacher really benefited me. I took the instruction that I received and made it work for me while I played in a band with some of my friends and continued to learn what I could about the guitar. While I may not play nearly as much as I used to, it’s nice to know that I could pick up one of my guitars and play some music if I wanted to. If you’re interested in signing up for some local lessons, check out TakeLessons.

You’ll find instructors for a number of different lessons, but the focus seems to be placed on music. You can search for what you want in your area, and if there’s not an instructor in your town, there’s probably one nearby. TakeLessons works with the instructors and verifies them for your protection, so if you find an instructor that has an open spot in their schedule for a lesson at a price that you can afford, go for it. Teachers who want to reach more students can look into working with TakeLessons in a couple of different ways.

Blogging is a global phenomenon, and people from every corner of the globe have taken part in it. If you think reading blogs by people that are close to you geographically is interesting, then you should try reading blogs written by people from other countries because you can really get an interesting perspective from them. Many times we don’t think about the specific location where a blogger is writing to us from, but maybe we should. This helps to complete the picture, and it can be fascinating information to know. VerveEarth will show you blogs from all over the world on a map that you can interact with.

This is a fun way to look for new blogs, and you can add your blog to the map if you wish to do so. There aren’t very many blogs listed on VerveEarth at this time, but try searching through what’s available either directly or through the categories. When you find a blog that you want to check out, you can get a summary of its latest content and link to the posts directly. This may not be the most effective way to find new blogs, but it’s unique, and I hope more bloggers will begin to geographically list themselves.

A couple of years ago I had the strong desire to write a screenplay, and I finally took the time to do it. It was a big project, but I enjoyed the process immensely. I was convinced that I was going to sell it when a number of the producers that I sent it to responded favorably to my work, but alas, it still hasn’t been picked up. Other things have taken priority in my life, but I haven’t given up on the screenplay, and I hope to have some more time to work on it in the near future. In fact, I’d love to write another one sometime soon. Screenwriters have a number of different options when it comes to screenwriting tools, and Zhura is another tool worth investigating.

Whether you’ve written a screenplay before or not, Zhura provides a solution that can help you. You can work on your screenplay by yourself, with a select group, or with the world. This is a great tool for groups because it keeps track of the changes and shows you who did what. Writing a screenplay can be an intense experience, and even though you may not be in the same room with your collaborators, Zhura will certainly make you feel like you are.

When we’re in the mood for an entertaining distraction on the Internet, many of us turn to online games or video to fill that need, and while that’s great and all, I can’t help but wonder what happened to comics. Sure, you’ll still find comics in the newspaper and there are plenty of them online, but they just don’t seem to be as popular as they once were. One of the reasons for this may be because besides reading a comic, you really can’t participate in them very often, and in a world where almost everything can be produced and edited by the community, that’s a big deal. With that said, Bitstrips is developing a comic creation tool that has spread like wildfire through the blogosphere.

You don’t have to be artistic to use Bitstrips and create great comics, and that’s one of the wonderful things about the service. If you can use a mouse (not the furry rodent), then you can create characters, scenes, and comics with ease. Unlike other comic creation tools that provide you with very basic controls, Bitstrips really does give you the power to create what you want and share it with your friends. Watch out YouTube, there’s another distraction in town.

Let’s face it, we’re all busy, and it’s only going to get worse before it gets better. I remember the days as a kid when I had an open schedule and could pretty much do whatever I wanted to do whenever I wanted to do it. Things change with time, and that open schedule is now history. Being busy isn’t always a bad thing, and it can be a lot easier to deal with if you have an established way to manage your crazy schedule. Appointments become a way of life, and people and clients that think your time is freely available will have to learn to schedule appointments with you. If you need a solution that can help you with appointments, just check out Scheduly.

What’s great about Scheduly is that you just set your schedule and the service will know when you’re available so that it can offer those time slots to the public. Not only will your Scheduly business page make it easy for others to schedule appointments with you, but you can also embed a scheduling widget on your own Web site. With this service, you’ll be able to easily keep track of your clients and appointments and alleviate some stress.

When we watch a video online, we have certain expectations about what the experience will be like. Usually we can only watch one thing at a time because we can only watch the video in one window, and in addition to that, the experience is hardly ever interactive in any way. In most situations this is not a problem at all, and online video has certainly done its job in terms of grabbing our attention and keeping us hooked. Of course, there is more than can be done with video on the Web, and the platform that VIDDIX provides mixes your videos with the Web in interesting and useful ways.

Once you’ve recorded a video, you then upload it to VIDDIX and use the extra panel that they provide to display other elements alongside your original video. For example, whether you want to display additional text, a link, some pictures, another video, or even a form, you can do all of that and more with VIDDIX. Watch a few of the videos to see how this additional panel looks and works, and as you’ll notice, this is definitely an international service.

I’m one of the least qualified people around to give anyone advice on painting since I have no experience or artistic ability to speak of, but on the Internet, I can pretend that I know what I’m doing. There are plenty of services that provide people like me with the tools that we need to become digital artists of sorts, and what’s really cool is that you can sometimes collaborate with people online and learn from what they do while they do it. WebCanvas may be more of an area for graffiti than anything else, but this collaborative painting is open to artists that are both skilled and unskilled.

Anyone can go on WebCanvas, specify a location, and start using the tools to create art. Like I alluded to, saying that a lot of what is on here is art is a bit of a stretch, but at the same time, if you’re willing to find them, some people have created some incredible works of art. The service is live, so if others are painting near you, you’ll see their work and they’ll see yours. As much as you may want to, just try not to erase what others have created. No, seriously. WebCanvas is like a worldwide art project, and you’re invited.

As human beings, we have become addicted to our cell phones, and when we’re not talking on them, we’re probably customizing them. You may have the same phone as hundreds of thousands of other people, but by the time that you’re done customizing it, that fact probably won’t even be recognizable. One of the things that we especially like to customize on our phones is the ringtone. In fact, you probably even have a few that you switch between or use for different people. Instead of just purchasing ringtones, you can also create your own with audio files that you already have, and Audiko offers a simple way to do this online.

When you arrive at the site you can search for ringtones that have already been created by the community, and there are some great ones that you can download. Of course, you probably came here to make your own, so upload the song or enter the URL (Audiko can also extract the audio from YouTube videos), select the part of the audio that you want to use for the ringtone, and then download it. Your ringtone will automatically become available for others to download and use, and those of you that have iPhones will be glad to know that you can download the ringtones in a special format for Apple’s mobile device.

When online video first started to become popular, we tolerated watching videos that weren’t exactly of the highest quality, but thanks to advanced technology, we’re now starting to expect that high-definition video should be delivered to us online, and anything less than that just isn’t good enough. Of course, if you’re like me, you probably never record videos that look amazing. The devices that I use to record video aren’t even close to being high-definition, so I usually end up with video files that look grainy and blocky. However, all is not lost because FixMyMovie can take your videos and clean them up for you.

You can’t exactly expect this service to miraculously make your videos look amazing, but it does do a great job cleaning them up. Check out the samples on the main page to get an idea of what you can expect. Needless to say, you’ll probably see some pretty big improvements. Once FixMyMovie has received your video and enhanced it, they’ll post the cleaned up version for you to watch, download, and share just like you would with the original file. When it comes to video, a little bit of polish can go a long way.