Cool Web Specialty Sites! Online NOW!

It is late at night and you are watching an X-Files marathon on the Sci-Fi channel. The commercials are frequent, and are for products that are so simple or specific that the pitchman seems like a carnival barker. You are intrigued, and not just because you should have gone to bed three hours ago. There may even be times when you say to yourself, “I could really use that specialty cookware, or sonic fish lure, or folding bicycle, or (insert some really obscure or fascinating product here).

BEGIN FAKE WEBSITE COMMERCIAL
“Hello out there!”

“Are you sick of posting URLs in emails only to have it break when sent causing the recipient to have to cut and paste it back together?”

“Have you ever wanted to convert files without the need to download software?”

“Want to know how to say, “You have beautiful eyes in more than eight different languages?”

“Well are these services are available for absolutely free on the internet. Don’t delay, surf by now and take advantage of these mind boggling offers.”

END COMMERCIAL

One thing I do love about the web is the untold helpful web sites that let you do all of the above and more for free. How do these sites make money when their services are free? With volume! Of traffic that is. Advertising and donations for the most part fuel these specialized sites. If the service is good, even if it is small, it can generate enough users to make it a practical business. Many of these companies get bought up into larger services or products, but many are just helpful tools for everyday tasks.

Here are the web sites that provide the services mentioned above.

www.tinyurl.com (helpful as an alternative to sending those ridiculously long links in email.)

www.zamzar.com (I used this just yesterday to convert a couple of files to PDF)

http://world.altavista.com/tr (Esto es un Web site muy fresco para la traducción rápida de la frase.)

If you know if any other site that is quick and does a specialized service, send the URL my way and I'll check it out. Hurry! This offer won't last much longer!