Website Wonder

Website Wonder
Amazon. eBay. Wikipedia. The BBC. YouTube. Everyone’s got their favourite websites. But every month more and more websites are created. Here some of my favourites.

Befunky.com lets you edit and add special effects to photos. You can create amazing cartoon images of these, or turn videos into animation. It’s very simple to use and great fun. And when you’ve finished making your funny image, you can send it on to friends.

BooksInMyPhone.com lets users download books to their mobile phones. All the works sre free and legal. The website has got an impressive list of titles including classics such as Anna Karenina, Moby Dick and Sense and Sensibility. But would you really have the patience to read Moby Dick on your mobile?

Whatshouldireadnext.com is another great website for books fans. The ideas is that you type in the name of the book you’re reading and the site suggests other books that you might enjoy.

Worldtaximeter.com lets you calculate how much a taxi journey should cost in nearly 40 cities worlwide. For example, a ride from Paddington Station to Victoria Station in London at 4.00am should cost £12. Eight hours later, it’ll only cost you £10, which is useful information if you’re thinking of catching a taxi. But do you think taxi drivers know about it?

Urbandictionary.com is an unusual but fun site. It’s basically a dictionary of slang written by users. It’s constantly growing, reflecting the creation of new words and phrases. For example, “diarrhoea of the mous” (a play on words on the phrase “verbal diarrhoea” or “diarrhoea of the mouth”) is a phrase used to describe rambling contributions on the internet. For example, “The bloggers was obviously suffering from a severe case of diarrhoea of the mouse and went on and on for several pages.”

Wordnik.com is similar, although slightly more mainstream. It contains lists of contributors’ favourite words with definitions and the pronunciation. There are thousands of really unusual words on the site, including “soucouyant”, a word from West Indian Creole meaning “a night witch who sucks people’s blood and can turn into a flying ball of fire.” Visit the site and discover what “mobocrazy” is, and why to avoid putting your money in a “Zombie Bank.”

Scribd.com, a site full of stories, jokes, books, lists, articles, letters, and other documents. Anyone can upload a document that they’d like to share with the world. It’s like YouTube for texts.