Miles Mendoza's Website of the Day ... and more!

Friday Quick Links

>> World Car Free Day
>> Walkit.com
Tomorrow is World Car Free Day – so a good time to remind people about this excellent walking route planner. It currently covers London, Birmingham and Edinburgh with the rest of the UK to follow by late 2008.
>> Read Miles’ original review

>> Rugby World Cup on Five Live
>> Five Live: Drop Kick Rugby Trivia Game
Choose which country you compete as to determine the difficulty of the questions you encounter in Five Live’s new animated rugby trivia game.

>> How to activate the secret Flight Simulator feature in Google Earth
>> Marco’s Blog: Google Earth Flight Simulator >> Download Google Earth
>> Read Miles’ original Google Earth Review

Video Clip of the week: Virtuoso Scratching Demonstration

Win while you search

>> Wabbadabba: How it works
>> Sign up to search and win
This is nice. Wabbadabba is a new search engine powered by Yahoo! (so your search results here are exactly the same as if you search directly through Yahoo!). But by searching via Wabbadabba, all users are eligible for to receive a prize ranging from Amazon vouchers to TVs. Up to 15 prizes are awarded every day (at random time intervals) and you can recommend the site to friends and receive the same prizes as they win.

Personalised Bob Dylan Video Messages (plus Rugby Tips)

>> Send a Bob Dylan video message
To promote the release of the forthcoming Dylan: His Greatest Songs compilation, this site gives all Dylan lovers the chance to create a customised version of the iconic Subterranean Homesick Blues video. Simply type in your choice of message to have your words appear on Bob’s giant cue cards. When you’re happy with the results, you can send the video to a friend.

Also mentioned today:
>> VideoJug: Rugby explained on video
We introduced you to this excellent video site last year. The site offers short clips which teach you the kind essential life skills they don’t always teach you at school, like how to get a perfect wet shave or tie a Windsor knot.
Ahead of the Rugby World Cup they have assembled a series of survival tips for both die hard fans and oval-ball novices. Find out how to avoid a tackle or brush up on related subjects like how to get served quickly at the bar. See also:
>> Rugby For The Girls
>> Rugby World Cup: Official site
>> Rugby World Cup on BBC Sport

How to protect your privacy on Facebook

I haven't talked about Facebook that much on air, but I can't remember when I last found a site quite so addictive! Usually most of my peers have got better things to do with their time than mess around on the web, but Facebook seems to be the site which has changed all that, persuading loads of 40-somethings (as well as teens and twenty-somethings) that the web can as entertaining as it is useful.
But many Facebook memebers dont realise that their profile pages may be visible even to complete strangers, exposing them to the risk of identity theft.
There's a really useful piece in today's Telegraph which explains how to protect your privacy on Facebook - It's well worth a read:

>> Telegraph.co.uk: How to prevent online exposure

Homework tips on video

>> BBC Back Page: Homework tips on video – By parents, for parents
There’s some degree of new-school anxiety at Website of the Day towers as Henry started at his new secondary school this week, which requires an epic commute (as well as a fetching royal blue blazer).
So I was hunting down back-to-school links and unearthed this nifty new experimental service from the Beeb.
Backpage has been created as a kind-of mini YouTube aimed specifically at parents of primary school kids as a place to find and share video tips to help their children with Maths and English homework.
There already seems to be a good sense of community on the site, with lots of parents rating existing video clips and leaving encouraging comments. You can search tips by subject, school age-group, or user rating.

(NB The About The Project page points out that this is a prototype site and that the video tips may not be accessible at all times)

Greener Offers

>> Greener Offers
We’ve talked about charity shopping portals before on the programme, but Greener Offers is one of a new breed of shopping sites which lets you offset your carbon emissions while you’re doing your online shopping.
Think of a shopping portal as an online equivalent to Bluewater or an Arndale Centre. You find a large range of familiar retailers under one virtual roof, and if you’re not sure which site to visit to buy a particular item, you can shop by category.
If you already shop online from sites like Amazon, Toys R Us, Next, Wickes, Dixons, Expedia or Eurostar, you can still make your purchase from your chosen site (and at no extra cost to you). But if you access that site by following a link from Greener Offers, you’ll ensure that your chosen retailer pays a commission which gets passed on to an organisation called Climate Care to spend on CO2 reduction.
On average, every £75 you spend offsets 1 tonne of carbon dioxide emissions.

Mobile Internet Links

I’m a fairly recent convert to mobile internet having got myself a fancy new mobile with a bigger screen and a slidey-outy keyboard. But already I’ve found a number of mobile-friendly sites to be lifesavers while on the move, offering useful advice and information in a format that is optimised for a small screen and fast loading times. These are just a few of my essential mobile bookmarks

>> Google for mobiles
http://www.google.co.uk/mobile/
or go directly to http://mobile.google.co.uk on your mobile browser
Not just the search engine but Googlemail, Calendar, and driving directions optimised for your handset.

>> Yell Mobile
http://www.yellmobile.com
or go directly to http://mobile.yell.com on your mobile browser
Yellow Pages in your back pocket

>> Transport Direct
http://www.transportdirect.info/TransportDirect/en/TDOnTheMove/TDOnTheMove.aspx
or go directly to http://mobile.transportdirect.info/ on your mobile browser
>> National Rail
http://www.www.nationalrail.co.uk/
or go directly to http://wap.nationalrail.co.uk/ on your mobile browser
Public transport route-planing, Timetables, prices and real time arrivals information

>> BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/help/3304673.stm
Text NEWS to 81010 or go directly to http://www.bbc.co.uk/news on your mobile browser

>> Wapedia
http://wapedia.org
or go directly to http://pda.wapedia.mobi/en/ on your mobile browser