Google Trends

Google Trends provides access the usage trends/statistics of the Google search engine. It has two features that I use regularly. First, you can type a search term into the entry box to see search statistics related to that term. For example, searching for "boston red sox" produces this statistics page. You can view search trends over time and you can see how news events affects the statistics. Another interesting feature that I use regularly is "Today's Hot Trends," which is on the GT front page. This feature displays some of the day's most popular search terms, but it weeds out those terms that are regularly popular, leaving only those terms that have recently become much more active than usual. This feature is helpful because it provides a window into the constantly changing tides of pop culture and world news.

Bespin

Mozilla's Bespin is an interface through which web developers can work together on the same project from different machines in different locations. It supports HTML, Java, and CSS, and it stores the code for each group's project in the cloud, allowing any of the group's registered users to access and edit the code using any web browser, on any computer, from any location. At least, that's the goal; the Bespin project is still in development (likely a collaborative development, at that).

Down for everyone?

This simple website has one purpose: to tell you if a website is really down, or if the problem is just you and your network/computer/incompetence.  I use the site frequently, having too many moments of incompetence to even list.  

Fortunately, the clean interface is easy to use--I simply type in the troublesome URL and press "or just me?"  If the URL is really broken, the site gets excited, showing the message: "It's not just you! [URL] looks down from here!"  But if the URL is truly broken, the site reads "It's just you."

Yea, I get that a lot.