Classic Clips

Have you ever trawled the web for funny clips and thought, there’s got to be a better way to sift through all this crap? Well you’ll be pleased to know that there is. www.classicshowbiz.blogspot.com gives you nothing but the best US TV clips. Perfect if you’re in need of a bit of light relief on a grey autumn day!

Finance Advice

When it comes to finances, some people are experts and others are complete dunces. If you’re one of the economically puzzled, take a look at getrichslowly.org/blog. Here you’ll find lively discussions and research on a whole host of economics issues, so you should come away feeling far more financial savvy.

Who What Wear

If you dream of looking as effortlessly hip as Kate Moss or Sienna Miller, check out whowhatweardaily.com. Creators Katherine Power and Hillary Kerr are gossip mag fetishists who realised that their addiction was all down to their love of checking out what the celebs were wearing the night before. Laid out in a blog format, this site is a never-ending stream of the most stylish shoes, must-have make-up and hippest hairstyles

Days Out Savings

If you’re planning on a day out in London or the south of England, check www.daysoutguide.co.uk, where you can find many 2 for 1 offers on tickets for attractions such as Madame Tussaud's, the London Dungeons and the London Aquarium. All you need to benefit from these offers is a valid railcard.

Nutritionally Sound

Nutriprofile.com is a free online service for anyone who wishes to improve their diet. You simply fill in a questionnaire, which takes about 20 minutes, and you get a report back within 24 hours telling you where you have deficiencies in your diet. And most of us could do with a little help it seems, as research has shown that on average, Brits only consume two and a half portions of fruit and veg a day.

What’s In A Brand?

A company is often only as successful as its brand. But what exactly does a brand mean? www.brandtags.net gets right to the heart of the matter.

Much in the same way as word association works, when you log on you’re asked to type the first word you think of when you see a famous brand logo.

Then another logo appears and so on. The fun part comes from trawling through the extensive list of brands to find out which words other people have used to describe them.

You’ve Got The Look

Women’s fashion and lifestyle magazine Look has unveiled its new website www.look.co.uk.

On first impressions you might think that the team gave the wardrobe such a thorough cleaning out that there isn’t much left to look at. But after a bit of browsing you’ll find there’s actually quite a lot of content to discover, from beauty and fashion tips to celebrity style.

The homepage features new fashion accessories in the ‘New Today’ section, which is updated daily and lets you purchase all items through the site.

Scream For Salad Cream

Salad cream, it’s one of those things you either love or hate. And if you belong to the former group, check out www.saladcream.com.

his bright and sunny site features a selection of online-exclusive video recipes in which celebrity chef Dan Green prepares a variety of dishes using the mayonnaise substitute.

These include spaghetti nicoise, beef steak wrap and roasted vegetable ciabatta, with the option to send in your own recipes if you think you can do tastier and win up to £30.

Mans Best friend

Its with a sad heart that I have to announce that my dog of seven years old had to be rather unexpectedly put to sleep this week and this in turn has caused a lot of family upset as 24hrs earlier the dog was fine as I walked her on her evening walk.

Unfortunately for the last 3 years she has been having the odd epileptic seizure and this was controlled by medication from the vet but this week she had a massive seizure and it just wouldn't stop no matter what the vets did and so she had to be put to sleep.

This has caused quite a lot of upset and meant a little time away from work

See here for more pics of her in the studio with me on the air http://ukradiojock.blogspot.com/2007/03/now-and-again-i-will-bring-my-dog-with.html

Eco-Shopping

There’s a real boom in green shopping at the moment and www.ecostaurus.com is a one-stop shop for environmentally-friendly products. It sells a variety of eco-items for the home and office as well as a selection of organic skincare products. Pick of the bunch has to be The Tumbleweed Pet Poo Converter, a worm farm that turns dog droppings into food for worms, whose ‘castings’ can then be converted into fertiliser for your garden. Or how about an eco-stapler, which works like a stapler but without using staples?

Weddings With A Difference

Planning a wedding is one of the most stressful things you can ever embark on, but www.somethingdifferentweddings.co.uk could make the process a lot easier. This site rolls a host of services and products into one handy place. Whether you’re in need of bridal fashion advice, need to hire a flash wedding car or you’re searching for a bespoke photographer, the site is a great source of ideas.

Site Launcher

This tool links your most frequently visited web pages to a simple hotkey launcher in Firefox.
Once downloaded, you can access a dashboard with links from the top of your browser window.

The plugin comes with some commonly used sites already hotkeyed, but you are free to change these if you want. Find out more at www.donesmart.com/sitelauncher

One Riot

www.oneriot.com is the site to look at. It’s a search engine that helps you find your way to all the content people are talking about daily.

Oneriot.com keeps the finger on the pulse of popular culture by trawling the links people post on Twitter, Digg and other social sharing sites.

You can search in the usual way, or if you just want to browse the current trends, take a look at the links underneath the search box.

The site also has some interesting applications under the Apps link, including search toolbars for your MySpace and Facebook account

Game Crawler

www.gamecrawler.co.uk is the site you want to look at. This handy site finds you the best bargains on video games by comparing the prices of thousands of titles.
Game Crawler covers a wide range of leading retailers, including Amazon, Game.co.uk and HMV.com. The presentation of results is clear and concise, so you can instantly see the biggest savings and where to find them, and then click straight through to the store to make your purchase. Game Crawler also offers a useful Price Watch tool, which emails you as soon as a game becomes available for a price you’re willing to pay.

Slow It Down

As you get older, life seems to speed up. But do you ever wonder what you really do with your time? www.wheredidthetimego.com attempts to answer this question. Simply type your details into this website and it’ll tell you exactly how much time you’ve wasted doing mundane yet essential tasks in your lifetime, like eating, sleeping and photocopying!

Speciality Foods

www.hardtofindfoods.co.uk offers a large range of speciality and gourmet foods that you probably won’t find on the shelves of your local supermarket. The list of foods includes products from around the world, and you can fill your cupboards with speciality herbs and spices, oils, vinegars, pickles and preservatives. So whatever you’re looking for, let this website find it for you!

Pozzitive

This promo site for production company Pozzitive Television describes itself as an “online encyclopaedia of British comedy”.

www.pozzitive.co.uk is the address. While it’s too focused on its own ‘talent’ to justify that claim, there’s still plenty of interesting content to browse.

This includes behind-the-scenes photos from Pozzitive TV shows like Coogan’s Run and Dinnerladies, extracts from radio programmes like the 99p Challenge and an online store selling DVDs and videos of popular series. Design-wise, the perpetually rolling photos and links prove distracting rather than enticing, but it’s worth a visit.

Lets with Pets

Take a look at www.letswithpets.org.uk and you will see that This brilliantly named website, launched by the Dogs Trust, hopes to encourage landlords to accept tenants with pets.

Lets with Pets provides a wealth of information on renting privately as an animal owner, such as explaining how to get a reference for your pet and a general guide to pet care. While it’s great that this attractive site caters for pet owners, landlords and letting agents, it’s a shame there’s no forum for these parties to connect with each other directly.

Job Blues

It’s Monday morning and there’s nothing worse than starting your week by dragging yourself back into a job you can’t stand. Whether it’s the work, the environment, your boss or the hours, log on to www.careershifters.org, and say it’s time for a change! Here you can find help, advice and job vacancies, and who knows, you could find that perfect job.

Feeling Fabulous

If you’re a bit down and in need of an emotional boost, why not check out www.feeling-fab.com. This site promises to make you feel fabulous by helping you ‘change your life in just eight minutes’. It may sound like a tall order, but for a one-off fee of £10, you’ll get 24 eight-minute audio tracks that attempt to inspire you to feel good about yourself. And to make you feel even better, £1 from each subscription will be donated to the charity of your choice.

Exist For Eternity

If you like the thought of leaving something behind when you finally shuffle off this mortal coil, then www.posterity.com is a website for you. On here you can store your photos, thoughts and writings for eternity, so your ancestors can find out all about your life. The site is free to join and will stay online forever, accessible by password for anyone that wants to take a look.

Tuned In

Are you convinced you’re a great singer but other people think you’re tone deaf? Find out once and for all at www.bored.com/musictests. This site allows you to compare different pieces of music, and will then tell you how tone deaf you are. But don’t get too upset with your score as even the best musicians rarely get more than 80% correct!

Colour Quiz

If you love personality quizzes you might want to check out www.colorquiz.com, which claims that the type of colours you go for reveals a lot about your personality. Simply click on the blocks of colour in your order of preference and a detailed anaylisis of your personality will appear – although how it can tell that from coloured blocks we’ll never know!

Perfect Pick-Ups!

If your chat-up lines haven’t evolved past ‘do you come here often?’, it may be about time you got some help. Check out pickuphelp.com where a helpful list of pick-up lines can be found to come to your rescue. On the other hand, if chat-up lines aren’t your style, the website won’t fail to provide cringe-worthy content that’s guaranteed to give you a whole lunch break worth of entertainment!

Annoying Things

If for some reason you want to get on the wrong side of your friends, family and colleagues then it would be a good idea to look at bored.com/getannoyed. On this site there are thousands of ways to upset people, including becoming a mime, pushing all the elevator buttons and not wearing deodorant!

National Allotments Week

National Allotment Week begins today, and runs until 17th August. It’s a week to promote awareness and availability of allotments both locally and nationally, as well as showing the public and local authorities the strength of support and interest for the heritage of allotment culture. The National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners wants to encourage as many gardeners to support the drive as possible. To find out more visit www.nsalg.org.uk.

Junk Food

In this day and age where everyone is obsessed with healthy eating, admitting you like junk food once in a while can make you feel like a social outcast. But if you’re craving some naughty treats, check out www.junkfoodnews.net. Feast your eyes on the world’s largest smoothie, the longest hot dog in the world and a car made completely from cheddar cheese!

Organically Good

If you’re into organic produce, check out www.organicgarden.com, where you can find out information on how to grow your own or where to buy it. It gives practical advice for small-scale producers of organic foods, and even tasty recipes on what to do with all the fruit and veg you will harvest.

Backwards Talk

If you’ve ever wanted to know what the world sounds like backwards, try out www.talkbackwards.com. Here you can enter music tracks to see if there are subliminal messages hidden inside the lyrics when played backwards, or what amusing word occurs when your name is spelt the wrong way round. You can even upload your own voice to hear what you sound like when talking backwards.

Nagging Notes

www.passiveaggressivenotes.com is a site dedicated to all those ‘helpful’ notes, busybody emails and stroppy memos sent to ‘all’ in the workplace. From notes asking people not to use all the teabags, or emails about keeping desks tidy, they should raise a knowing smile in everyone who’s ever worked in an office or lived in communal housing. You can also submit your own example passive aggressive notes to make everyone else smile!

Dig Holes

Have you ever wondered where you would end up if you dug a tremendously huge hole through the centre if the earth? Well you can find out if you visit bored.com/digholes. Find any location on the planet and the website will calculate where you would end up. It’s wishful thinking, but it would certainly make Australia much easier to visit!

Food Fun

If you’ve got a taste for fine food (or you’re desperately bored) take a look at judgemylunch.com where you can view an array of some of the finest and some of the foulest food, and judge for yourself on a ranking system that goes from ‘yuk’ to ‘yum’. But be warned, the content of the website could make you very hungry!

TV Take

www.lowculture.co.uk is a British website that offers a different take on what’s happening on telly. From reality and talent shows like ‘X-Factor’ and ‘Big Brother’ to entertainment series like ‘Heroes’ and ‘Doctor Who’, this site offers a unique spin on proceedings. The message board also has various categories for users to participate in, including soaps and movie culture.

Park Life

It’s often said that being green begins in the home, but if you’re concerned about the state of the green spaces around your home, then go to www.greenstat.org.uk. This is an online forum allowing residents of areas across the UK the opportunity to comment on the state of their local park, and puts pressure on the authorities to do something about it.

Celebed Out

If you like watching how the mighty are fallen, and the glow of celebrity can quickly be tarnished, head over to www.avenue11.com. This entertainment website keeps abreast of celebrity ups and downs with an up-to-date news and gossip section, in addition to movies and music, where you can watch all the latest celeb clips and interviews.

Slow It Down

As you get older, life seems to speed up. But do you ever wonder what you really do with your time?

www.wheredidthetimego.com attempts to answer this question. Simply type your details into this website and it’ll tell you exactly how much time you’ve wasted doing mundane yet essential tasks in your lifetime, like eating, sleeping and photocopying!

Speciality Foods

www.hardtofindfoods.co.uk offers a large range of speciality and gourmet foods that you probably won’t find on the shelves of your local supermarket.

The list of foods includes products from around the world, and you can fill your cupboards with speciality herbs and spices, oils, vinegars, pickles and preservatives. So whatever you’re looking for, let this website find it for you!

Crazy Hobbies

www.mycrazyhobby.com is about one man’s unusual penchant for street signs and traffic lights. His extensive collection has been acquired legally from online auctions, at antique stores and flea markets, and once in a while, a highway department offers him old and disused signs and lights. So if you’ve ever wanted to see a massive collection of old street signs and traffic lights, then this is the site for you!

Caffeine Curse

With subsections like Death by Caffeine and How Many of Your Favourite Caffeinated Drinks Would It Take To Kill You, you get the impression that the creators of www.energy fiend.com don’t sit around sipping frothy cappuccinos all day.

In fact, you might even be right to assume that they’re decidedly anti-caffeine. If you too believe that caffeinated drinks are evil, then check out this site for some like-minded information.

All Cures

If you’re a bit of a hypochondriac or just can’t be bothered going down the local chemist, log on to www.allcures.com, which is the UK’s first online pharmacy.

There are lots of big brands and a wide range of products available, as well as toiletries, beauty and alternative medicine. You can even arrange to have your prescription delivered to your door for no extra cost.

Turn Tricks

If you’re a bit strapped for cash and fancy doing something a bit unusual to raise some funds, www.youwhores.com is the site for you.

Don’t worry, you’re not expected to turn tricks, instead you can advertise what you are willing to do and the price you are willing to do it for. Sub-sections of things you can buy and sell include art, advice and the slightly more elusive category, anything. Everyone has their price – what’s yours?!

Death Becomes Her

www.mydeath.net is a slightly morbid website where you’re encouraged to think of your funeral as a celebration instead of a time for sorrow.

Here you can plan your ‘final party’ in as much detail as you want, and you can decide whether you want to be buried or cremated, at sea or inland, or at the crematorium up the road or even on a funeral pyre on the banks of the Ganges.

Professional Producer

If you’re ready to make the leap from bedroom music producer to a professional, then visit www.homestudiotips.com.

This site gives you a good opportunity to start recording like a professional and upgrade your skills.

You can join a network of musician and producers who will give you all the information you need, and may be able to answer all your production questions.

Maths Help

If you’re no whiz kid when it comes to maths, www.maths-help.co.uk is here to help. You can email your maths problems to the site and someone will email you back in a couple of days. You can also visit the knowledge bank to see past queries and answers. This basic site is updated every week and has even won an academic excellence award

Best Bars

Whether you’re going on a two-week jaunt or travelling around the world for a year, www.worldsbestbars.com is a site you should take a look at. Each time you go to a new place this site can lead you to the best place to grab a beer.

You can search places by alphabetical order, and many bars and pubs also have customer reviews. There are also features like Top 5 Cocktails and Bar of the Month, although as this could be anywhere in the world, the chances of you actually getting to it aren’t great!

Weighed Up

www.weirdconvertor.com is a great site if you’ve ever wondered how much you weigh in terms of potatoes. This site converts height and weight into completely unrelated items, so check it out to discover how many human eyeballs Jennifer Aniston weighs, or how many male polar bears would be heavier than a mid-size car.

More Radio stuff

Its been a busy week for me sorting out website reviews as well as putting some stuff together for my production library and making up a few demos as well as doing a bit of taxi driving. This blog seems to be attarcting the attention of lots of people who are interested in my website review of the day and just a reminder that this is also open to other radio stations. If you are a radio presenter and looking for a website review of the day then please feel free to use any that are posted on this blog.

As for other radio stuff, I have not been doing much in the way of presenting but have been involved in a bit of background work producing sweepers and idents for a few stations. The other thing I have been doing is trying to keep up with the live music scene so if you are a musicianm and yopu have a gig in Cumbria then please email me and let me know and we can get it promoted here for you. Best of all , its all FREE of charge and lots of people read this blog.

I still have some airchecks and snippets from my shows on various radio stations and will eventually get round to uploaidng them onto my youtube site.

If you want to see videos of guests in the studio with me then check out www.youtube.com/billclarkontheradio

Below is a short video demo I`ve done.

FinderMonkey

People-search services offer a quick and easy means of tracking someone down online. www.findermonkey.co.uk differs from most sites in several ways:

it’s UK-specific, it searches land registry documents to find details of property ownership and employs trained staff rather than algorithms to conduct each search.

FinderMonkey is straightforward to use, with the different search types (people, land, buildings and companies) presented in a clear manner.

However, this handy service comes at a price – it costs £4.50 to trace one person and £29.99 to conduct a property search

Funny Junk

If you’re the type of person that appreciates toilet humour and likes long lunch breaks, take a look at funnyjunk.com.

This website provides a whole archive of dark and silly pictures, videos and games to be played with. It’s fun and entertaining, and will definitely make a pleasant change from solitaire!

15 Minutes

Andy Warhol once said that one day, everyone would have their 15 minutes of fame. And if you’re dying to have yours, why not pay a visit to www.15minutesonline.com?

The site acts as a media agency for people that want to appear on talk shows, newspaper and magazine features, and as walk-ons for film and TV. For a small annual fee you get your own website to use as a promotional tool and put you in touch with different media.

Helen Of Troy

If you’re a fan of everyone from M.I.A to KT Tunstall, head over to countertopwritings.blogspot.com, and read up on the very best female music around.

This well-written bi-weekly blog offers reviews on new music releases and gigs, as well as opinions, comments and predictions on everything from feminist rockers to folksy singer-songwriters.

World Stats

If you’re a fan of up-to-date general knowledge and statistics, check out www.worldometers.info. This fascinating site has real-time world statistics, where you can watch as the global population increases by the second. You can also watch the numbers of people dying and being born each day increase, and also see how many tonnes of CO2 emissions are being pumped into the air on a daily basis.

Excuses, Excuses

Although you’ve probably just come back from your summer holiday, you’re sure to want some more time off soon.

But if you have no holiday allowance left, or you’ve run out of excuses for a day off work, head over to excuselist.com.

Here you can view an excuse for every occasion, ranging from days off work to getting out of an unanticipated date, very handy if you’re no good at saying ‘no’!

Celeb Shock

Gossip blog sites like Perez Hilton and Pop Bitch are well known the internet world over, with their bitchy take on the lives of celebrities. But there are lesser-known sites out there that offer even more salacious gossip and Hollywood news. Check www.breathoffreshink.com for shocking photos, online polls and all the stories about the lives of the A-listers.

Try Thai

If you fancy cooking up a storm for friends and family tonight, but aren’t sure what to make, take a look at www.easy-thaifood.com for inspiration.

From tasty Pad Thai to delicious green chicken curry, all the recipes are easy to create in your own kitchen and serve four. But be warned -although not all Thai dishes are hot, chillies are essential to Thai cuisine, so you may want to adapt them slightly if you prefer something milder!

Love Poems

If you want to pen an ode to a loved one, or get some romantic inspiration, head over to www.love-poems.name.

On this site you’ll find a collection of traditional and modern love poems written by some of the world’s greatest poets. Guaranteed to charm even the most embittered cynic (maybe), it’s an essential site for anyone in the first flush of love. Well it worked for Mr Big in Sex and the City!

World’s Worst Work

If you’re fed up with your job, or just plain sick of working – take a look at www.worst-jobs.com to cheer yourself up. After reading about some of the truly awful jobs that are out there, you’ll probably begin to think you’re lucky to have the job you do!

Teenage Kicks

www.teenfront.co.uk is a great site for teenagers and is packed with everything you could want including a chat room, games arcade, music, games and film news and reviews. There’s also links so you can get access to other teen websites, and interactive elements like quizzes and polls. As well as this, there’s a list of five different things to do every day and hundreds of prizes are up for grabs each week.

Time For A Change

If you’re considering making some life-changing decisions in the near future, why not pay a visit to www.freshties.com.

This site lets you chat to other people and get advice on a range of things from career moves to parenting and travelling. It’s free to use, you need to register to join, and you can also create a blog on the site to tell other members what you are up to.

End Of The Net

Have you ever wondered what the end of the internet would look like? Well you can see for yourself at www.mdesmond.com/end-of-the-internet. Just make sure you turn off the lights while you’re there.

Lie To Me

Have you had enough reality for today? Then take a look at uncyclopedia.org. This spoof wikipedia-style encyclopedia is a collection of false entries, where nothing is true. This hilarious website is a great way to idle away an afternoon.

What’s The Weather Like?

www.weather.com is the king of the weather websites. This reliable source has more information than you could possibly imagine you might need, including pollen counts to surf forecasts.

Home Videos

Watching home movies can get a bit boring after a while. So if you want yours to stand out from the rest of the crowd’s go to www.flipclips.com. This animated website will turn your home videos into flipbooks. This means you can carry them around with you to show to all your friends.

Website review of the day

The website review of the day feature is still going strong and used on a few radio stations (AM, FM and Internet based) that I have struck deals with so if you want your website reviewing on this blog then get in touch with me with the web address and a description about it.

If its reviewed then it will appear in this blog (allow time as there's so many and a backlog from people who have emailed) and once its in this blog then radio stations will lift it from the blog and use it in their programming so you never know whos`s gonna hear about it or read it.

Leave details in the comments section or email me direct

Peeping Toms

If you’ve ever wondered how much your friends’ homes are worth, or are thinking of buying or selling a house, check out www.zoopla.com.

This voyeuristic new property site lets you search for value estimates on more than 26 million UK homes. Figures are based on factors like recent sale prices and property characteristics, and are accompanied by useful local details like crime and council tax rates.

You can submit and request further information about specific properties and areas, and even sell your home through the site for free.

Let It Shine

Is green tea the solution to all your problems? What hilarious mistake will Britney Spears make next? Find the answers to these questions and more at http://shine.yahoo.com, a new site for women that addresses the shocking lack of celebrity gossip and diet tips on the web!

On The Radio

Just an update to let you know that I`m not doing much radio work on the air at the moment but I am still doing bits behind the scenes in the way of production and some other stuff that I don`t want to go into as its a very competitive market out there.

If you want to download any of my audio clips, wind up phone calls, interviews and airchecks then you will find thewm all by clicking on the AUDIO link above or by clicking here

Only Two Clicks

With millions of websites available online, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. So if there’s only a few pages you visit each day, you need www.only2clicks.com.

Only2Clicks lets you create a home page that links to all your favourite websites so you don’t have to waste time typing in long addresses.

Other Inbox

www.otherinbox.com looks at e-mails coming into your inbox, and creates rules to filter the useful from the trash.

This means e-mails do not need to be sorted manually, which makes the whole process of getting to relevant messages quicker and cleaner.

The service currently only works with Gmail accounts, but the site states other popular mail clients such as Outlook and Outlook Express, will be included in the future.

The free service is in beta and currently looks back 30 days - you can upgrade to the premium version for around $20 (£13) a year.

GOMlab

GOM is a Windows only player, but it works like a treat on that operating system without the need to find and install codecs for most file formats.

Download it from here www.gomlab.com/eng/

It can often play incomplete or damaged AVI files by using special algorithms that skip the damaged frames.

The software gives you one-click access to the control panel to tweak your playback settings - I especially like the Easy Browser option for searching your PC for files to play.

Walk It

The summer is finally here, so there’s no better time to strap on your walking shoes and take a stroll in the fresh air.

But if you don’t know where to start, take a look at walkit.com. This excellent online route-planning site for pedestrians lets you type in any two points in a British city and you’ll get a walking route map.

Each route also includes an estimate of the number of calories the walker will burn, a journey time and the amount of carbon saved by not travelling by taxi, car or bus.

Dress To Impress

You might not be a celebrity, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t dress like one. www.designersales.co.uk holds five fashion sales each year with more than 100 different labels offering discounts.

Heatwave

With the current temperatures in the UK reaching an all time high this year, the Department of Health has advised people to keep their homes as cool as possible and remembering the needs of friends, relatives and neighbours who could be at risk is essential.

"Windows should be kept shaded and closed when the temperature is hotter outside than inside.

"People with respiratory problems should stay inside during the hottest part of the day," a DoH spokesman said.

Other advice in the government's heatwave plan includes to drink cold drinks like water or fruit juice regularly and avoid tea, coffee and alcohol.

Help the Aged and Age Concern welcomed the advice.

A spokesman said: "Older people, especially those on medication, can often find coping with the heat particularly difficult."

More info here www.dh.gov.uk/en/News/Recentstories/DH_101575

and also here

www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_099015

Kidzui

www.kidzui.com limits the web to a little under a million pages that have been pre-screened for suitable use by children.

There are web sites, images, videos, games and a whole lot more - all dressed up in a colourful and child-friendly interface.

The software contains certain reporting tools so parents can see what their children have been up to - more tools are available in a paid-for account version.

RuckU

Rugby fans now have their very own social network in the form of the cheekily-named Rucku at www.rucku.com

This ‘virtual clubhouse’ gives you several ways to interact with other members, who include such famous names as Will Carling and Austin Healey.

As well as commenting on people’s profiles, you can create and join groups, upload photos and videos, chat in the forums and post short Twitter-like updates called ‘sledges’.

Happily, all these features fit together seamlessly and the site has a fun and friendly feel, with lots of content and discussions to browse.

Highlights range from a compilation of Welsh tries to a thread about man-bags.

Essential Fatty Acids

If you’ve been desperately trawling the net in search of Essential Fatty Acid EFA information, you’ll be relieved to hear that www.omega4.co.uk is where you’ll find them.

The site aims to remove the ‘mystique of Omega’ while explaining its many health benefits. There are also case studies to support its claims and a team of experts is on hand to answer your queries by email or phone.

Anyone for Bingo

www.bingohideout.co.uk is a social networking site for online bingo fans. Create a profile, connect with friends, and enjoy a host of great features to keep bingo buffs occupied between games.

You can browse and submit reviews of bingo websites, chat about bingo-related topics in the forums, and read all the latest bingo news stories. Bingo Hideout gives you £100 worth of free bingo bonuses when you sign up, as well as access to competitions and special offers.

I Kid You Not

If you are sucked in by random prank emails or urban legends you can now log onto www.snopes.com and see how much truth there is in the story.

The site gives you the origins of the stories and confirms once and for all if they are true or false.

Pet Club UK

Animal lovers will adore this regroomed pet site as www.petclubuk.com features a wealth of advice and information about our furry, feathery and scaly friends – from dealing with overweight dogs to caring for fish.

There’s also an online store, which sells a wide range of pet products and offers free delivery on orders over £29.99. But it’s the community aspect that justifies Pet Club UK’s name – register for free to share photos of their pets, chat in the many forums and get discounts on every purchase.

I particularly like the site’s simple, colourful design, whose background changes to show a different animal every time you click a tab.

Breathing Earth

At www.breathingearth.net you will find a lovely simulation of the aspects of the life-cycle on Earth, including global birth and death rates, as well as CO2 emissions.

I love the organic sound effect that accompanies the visuals. And having the birth and death rates pointed out in such an obvious way really was quite shocking to me.

It indicates an exploding population, with the continuous counter on the site showing births going up at twice the rate of deaths. Given global concerns about CO2 emissions, the figure underneath those is somewhat worrying too.

You can find out the details for individual countries by hovering the mouse over them.

The aim of this site is to raise awareness of environmental issues. You can find out at the bottom of the site about the data's origin and how you can make a difference to the planet.

Summer Solstice

Tomorrow is the summer solstice, which means it’s the longest day of the year. And if you want to celebrate the day in style, visit www.new-age.co.uk.

This site tells you the exact time the sun rises and falls today and where to go to see it in all its glory. There’s also a gallery of stunning photographs taken at the summer solstice at Stonehenge over the past five years.

Grumble Text

Take a look at www.grumbletext.co.uk if you have a problem with premium rate calls, maybe or anything else to do with telecoms mobiles, texts etc. Have a grumble about it here and see what others say

Restyle Me

Inviting people to rate your fashion sense sounds like asking for trouble, but www.restyleme.com provides an effective means of doing so. Simply upload a photo of yourself for other users to judge, while you do likewise to their pictures.

The fun part comes from the ability to highlight specific elements that you like or dislike in a person’s style - from hair, clothes and makeup to teeth and tattoos - and post comments on his or her page.

Online Office

It’s impossible to take your office with you everywhere you go, but when you need the basics visit www.zoho.com. This is an online suite of free business programmes, with everything from word processing and presentation software to tools for creating databases. This helpful site will mean that you’ll never miss a deadline again.

Test Your Breath

If you’re about to go on a hot date, you’ll want to make sure your breath is minty fresh. So all you need to do is go to www.testyourbreath.ca and type in the last meal you ate. The online breathalyser will tell you how offensive your breath is before you leave the house

Money Exchange

If you’re just about to head off for your summer holidays, take a look at moneyfacts.co.uk. This site will check the exchange rate of your chosen destination and help you get the best available deal. It will also make sure you don’t get stung by massive commission rates.

Burger Tycoon

If you think flipping burgers is easy, try running the fast food company that makes them at addictinggames.com/burgertycoon.html.

In this simulation game you run the company from growing fodder to the boardroom with the aim of making the company a success.

Guess The Age

If you’ve ever embarrassed yourself by wildly over or underestimating someone’s age, then train your skills at www.ageproject.specialsnowflake.com. People upload their photos and you guess their age. It all goes to prove that age really is just a number.

Wildlife On Film

www.wildfilmhistory.org is an indispensable website that brings together 100 years of capturing nature’s great and small creatures on film in one handy location.

With a mountain of films, photos and oral histories, it could take almost another 100 years to trawl through all the content on this website. Delve into the oral histories to learn more about the lives of the filmmakers, but most of all make sure you watch some of the brilliant wildlife footage from yesteryear.

Lookin’ Italian

For lovers of Italian cuisine and wine, www.italyabroad.com is a worth a visit. Set up by two food and wine loving Italians living in the UK the site sources Italian favourites like olive oil, artichokes and wine from Italian artisans. The attractive design makes it easy to navigate, with a clear menu system offering instant access to areas like Events, Restaurants and Recipes.

Raffle Tickets

If you’ve bought more raffle tickets that you care to remember over the years, but you still haven’t won anything, then check out www.raffle.it.


Unlike a traditional raffle, where a random number is drawn, here the lowest unique number is declared the winner. Every time you play you are rewarded with a voucher, which could be for a discount on your next purchase at certain high street retailers, or even a product itself.

The results of each raffle are posted on the site as soon as the winner has been confirmed.

Park Life

National Parks are large areas of land in England, Wales and Scotland, that since 1949 have been protected as beautiful areas for the benefit of the nation.

They contain many of the UK’s most breathtaking landscapes. There are 14 to chose from and www.nationalparks.gov.uk could help you decide which is your favourite.

Game On

Got a spare half hour to kill while the boss is out? Log on to www.bestarcade.com and choose from over 3000 video games. Choose from a range of categories including ‘platform’, ‘shoot ‘em up’, ‘brainteasers’ and ‘racing’.

Keep Calm

If you’re off on your summer hols soon, the last thing you want is to be feeling stressed before you go. So do something that helps you relax, be it mediation, reading or walking. Visit www.relaxationforliving.co.uk for some ideas on how to keep calm.

Going Dotty

www.games1.org/games/worms.swf is an odd little game that will remind you of a simpler time. The aim of the game is to make sure that two black dots don’t crash into each other. And if you think that sounds easy, give it a try.

Easy As ABC

Even young children now are finding it difficult to resist the lure of the computer, but it need not be a bad thing. Encourage your kids to read more by visiting www.lovereading4kids.co.uk. The site allows you to download and print off opening extracts of hundreds of children’s books, and encourages kids to discover new authors through their recommendation service.

Bright Spark

You can’t move on the internet for sites about the supernatural, but if you don’t subscribe to that world view, there’s now a home for you too.

If the prospect of ghosts and gods sounds like hogwash, head for www.the-brights.net. There you’ll find a movement of like-minded people who believe in nothing but science and evolution. So if you’re an atheist, humanist, or just a skeptic, check it out.

Baking Mad

If you like cake you are going to love this site www.bakingmad.com

From the very opening page the design is delicious. There are plenty of mouth-watering illustrations, and with a menubar across the top it is a real dream to navigate.

Check out the recipes drop-down menu first for the staples, then why not sift for ideas under baking ideas. Here you will find suggestions for particular occasions, such as morning coffee treats and winter warmers.

All the recipes are really easy to follow, with step-by-step instructions and plenty of pictures to illustrate.

And because cakes are not traditionally considered a healthy food, if you want to know all about nutrition then browse through the sections under health.

Think U Know

Any parent whose child goes online will no doubt have worried about who they might meet and talk to in cyberspace. Think you know who you are talking to online? Think U Know is a site set up by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre in the UK, but its advice is relevant wherever you are. Find it at www.thinkuknow.co.uk

First of all, I love the design of the site. It has impact without being over-dramatic and it loads really quickly, especially the video on the opening page, which is well worth a look for any teenager who is new to online communities.

Parents should be aware that it is very frank and open about the potential dangers, so make sure you are around to offer support if they are disturbed by it. But perhaps better they be disturbed by the potential than fall into any traps.

Laid out in easily accessible chunks, covering all sorts of subjects like mobiles, podcasting, chatting and the like, the site teaches that the internet can be great fun, but also teaches children to recognise the signs of grooming and abuse. And if they should come across trouble, there is an easy way to seek support and report an abuser to the UK police - just use the Report Abuse tab at the top. Here you will also find sections aimed at parents and teachers.

All in all, a very good website.

Skoool

Education is important the world over but it can also be very different the world over. What I particularly like about www.skoool.com is that it recognises and caters for these differences with dedicated sections accessible from the opening page.

Regions covered at the moment are Ireland, the UK, Thailand, Sweden and Turkey. Just click on the relevant button to enter the country-specific site.

Once inside the site, everything is very self-explanatory and nicely designed. There are games, study tools and plenty for the teacher and parent too. Scan the tabs across the top with your mouse pointer to reveal dropdown menus, and explore in your own time.