Click to visit: W W W . S T U M B L E U P O N . C O M

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The fantastic draw of SU is that, once you’ve signed up as a free member, you can click a button on their toolbar (for Internet Explorer or Firefox) to find you random websites, blogs, pictures or videos across the web based on categories you’re interested in. Once you’re on a site you can use the toolbar once more to decide whether you like or dislike it, pass it on to someone else that uses SU and review it to give other members an idea why they’d want to go there too.

Alternatively you can add a website to SU on your own by manually navigating to the site you like and clicking the “Like this page!”. You can also use handy links and icons on many websites that will do the adding for you (in case you’re not using the toolbar) – for an example of this take a look at the icons below the “Share and Enjoy:” found below each post and page on this blog.

All websites, friends, types of sites you’re interested in and reviews you’ve added to your StumbleUpon are on a simple page that you can customize with a few details about yourself, avatar and a choice of colours so you can feel a bit more individual. In the spirit of SU, you can also go to random users’ pages from a link on yours or anyone else’s. You can also join groups based on popular themes where members can discuss websites in personal group-forums.

Overall, I’m a huge fan of StumbleUpon and I have found many fantastic websites through it (as well as adding quite a few I like so hopefully others will become aware of them if they weren’t already). In the future I hope to highlight some the sites found through there on this blog but until then go forth and Stumble!

[Edit - 10:57pm, 7th May 2008]
I just wanted to update to say that, although signing up gives you additional benefits, StumbleUpon has a demo so you can look through the huge list of sites on their website and access certain features without having an account. To try out the demo go to: http://www.stumbleupon.com/demo/

My goal for this blog is to post every week day whenever possible, however last week I fell slightly short of that due to illness. Over the weekend while I was recuperating, I wondered what my next update should be about when it came to me – why not post about medical sites giving advice to help those in the same situation I was in! I further decided that it should also be my first Quick Picks post.

Before I begin I would just like to state that the following websites are no substitute for visiting your doctor and should be used as a guide or supplement instead of as a replacement for a professional evaluation.

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Quick Picks #1: W W W . H E A L T H L I N E . C O M
Healthline is a very clean and clear medical website which is arranged in an easy to navigate way. It has the latest medical news right there on the front page, as well as pages you can visit to see health related articles, videos, reference books and its own “Community” so you can get what is relevant to you straight to your email. Of more interest to me though is the simple health topics and symptom search that are accessible by a scrolling video and drop down menu.

Quick Picks #2: W W W . W R O N G D I A G N O S I S . C O M
It’s easy to jump to the wrong conclusion about your health when you’re not feeling at your best, but Wrong Diagnosis helps get through that. Not only does it have top lists of common symptoms, common diseases and common misdiagnoses but it also has a huge array of forums for multitudes of subjects so you can ask your own question should you not find what you’re looking for on the site itself. In my opinion the best thing about this site is the tools it gives to its visitors, such as a multiple symptoms checker that lets you find several symptoms that you have and gives you answers based on these (as opposed to searching for individual symptoms separately).

Quick Picks #3: W W W . W E B M D . C O M
The main draw of WebMD to me is that on choosing on of the various “health center” sections available from the front page, you are greeted with a portal of information all about that one subject. Contained in each portal are articles, treatments, guides, introductory video, articles, a glossary and more besides. The main site also offers searches for medical professionals (if you live in North America), quiz assessments, news and top 12 lists.

Quick Picks #4: W W W . N L M . N I H . G O V / M E D L I N E P L U S /
As it states on the site; “A service of the U.S NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE and the NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF HEALTH”. Of course, this means its main audience are those living in the US (it offers a directory to find hospitals, doctors and other healthcare specialists) however, it has plenty to offer anyone that isn’t too. What I like the most about MedlinePlus is the Medical Encyclopedia that lets you search for “diseases, tests, symptoms, injuries, and surgeries” and then gives you the information you’d expect (such as causes and treatment) as well as illustrations that help to visualize the problem.

Quick Picks #5: W W W . N E T D O C T O R . C O . U K
The final quick pick for this post is for a UK-based website called NetDoctor.co.uk. It has a lot of features that the others do such as news, articles, health assessments, health centres and forums for members to talk about their medical issues but it also has some nice benefits for those living in the UK too. Firstly, there’s the ability to search for hospitals, doctors and even support groups as well as an online pharmacy. My favourite feature that I think anyone can appreciate is their Ask The Doctor section which has an archive full of questions based on various common issues that a professional has taken the time to answer.

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Of course, I couldn’t possibly mention all the great things about each website but I hope to have at least helped highlight some of the things that stand out and are worth visiting for. Stay tuned for more Quick Picks in the future!

Click to visit: W W W . D I G I T A L S P Y . CO . U K

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It’s midweek and it feels like the right time to highlight one of my favourite websites that I tend to visit every other day or so.

Digital Spy is a British entertainment website that has up to date information on anything from soaps to showbiz, cult shows to gaming, movies to music and everything inbetween. It covers such a wide spectrum that I find I don’t really need to search around for the latest media news because DS will have it covered – and usually they do.

It’s not all articles though; there are also plenty of pictures, features, interviews, videos, a tv guide and forums to browse as well as RSS feeds for each section should you like your news to come to you.

It does cover many US shows, celebrities and network news, however, to get the most out of the website it’s best to be from, or have an interest in, the UK. Overall it’s a wonderfully entertaining and informative website that I can’t help but recommend.

Click to visit: W W W . B R O W S E H A P P Y . C O M

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For a long time Internet Explorer has been the browser of choice for many Windows users because it comes pre-installed and supported. That doesn’t mean that it’s the best or that you don’t have any other options, but what you need to know is why you should change at all.

Many years ago IE was considered unsafe to use and didn’t offer the features that its lesser known competitors did. However, times have changed and the gaps aren’t as wide as they once where… but there are still plenty of reasons to switch browsers, some of which are mentioned on Browse Happy.

The website focuses on a few different browsers and explains what features they have over IE such as security, speed and tabbed browsing (the latter available with IE 7) – mainly I think it’s worth visiting just to read the different user experiences as their opinions tend to be less biased than the site is overall.

To finish, it’s a nice website with useful links that’s set out in a clean and simple manner. For those of you with IE and have never experienced anything else, I recommend having a look at Browse Happy to see if there’s anything you’re missing out on.

On a personal note I believe everyone should use whatever they feel the most comfortable with, whether that be Firefox, Opera, or even Internet Explorer. I used to use IE myself but now use a FF based browser that is customized to my needs.

Click to visit: W W W . W I K I H O W . C O M

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Although this is the first wiki to get attention on this blog, it probably won’t be the last. For anyone that doesn’t know what one is, it is usually a large collection of pages that visitors help update with new information. wikiHow’s purpose is to be an extensive how-to manual.

Today is 22nd April Earth Day so I thought it quite fitting that I found a page on wikiHow that gives some great advice on how we all can celebrate Earth Day. It includes a snippet about the history regarding Earth Day and some useful general suggestions of how we can do our part.

The page linked to, as well as many others, also contain links to other pages about similar content – this page in particular links to pages with more details on recycling and buying a carbon offset, for example). At the bottom of each page you will also find links that go to external websites such as official, or useful, sites for further reading.

All in all wikiHow is one of my favourite of all the wiki family. There is something that everyone can relate to because of the variety of topics that everyone has contributed to. You can find a how-to on anything from moving to New York to using a stethoscope… and everything else in-between! If you’ve thought of a topic that hasn’t had the how-to treatment yet, or simply want to expand on a page already written, the internet is waiting for you.

I should note that, as with all wiki websites out there, as anyone can update pages it does mean that anyone can accidentally or purposely misinform others. This is unfortunate as it tends to spoil it for the rest, however, normally it doesn’t take long before errors are recognised and rectified.