CHOICES, CHOICES: Flavorpill tells you what's going on
Flavorpill
www.flavorpill.net
Music, art, fashion and other carefully selected event highlights in five cities: New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London and Chicago. Type in your email address to get the weekly newsletter for the urban mecca of your choice, and you'll always know just what to do with your free time.
Cancer Care
Cancer Nutrition Info
www.cancernutritioninfo.com
"Scientifically sound" nutrition advice for people living with cancer, created by cancer nutrition specialist and epidemiologist Suzanne Dixon. The site's mission is to review and interpret the latest research; it has no corporate ties, doesn't sell anything or push any special program. Some content is free, but to access the rest—including a searchable database of referenced articles, recipes and clinical trial information—you must pay $15 a year.
Digital Photography
Flickr
flickr.com
This public showroom for personal pics just might be the fastest-growing social network on the Web, and it's completely addictive. You upload your images and assign each an identifying tag; these tags help other members find your stuff, and you theirs. You can join groups and create new ones, post comments about particular images and designate favorites. Free membership is limited to 20 megabytes worth of uploads per month. Turn Pro and pay $25 a year for a host of other perks.
Fashion
ZooZoom
www.zoozoom.com
Impressively-designed 'zine featuring high-quality, full-screen photos of beautiful models in designer clothes. Musicians and artists are also featured, along with more serious works of photojournalism.
Food
Food 411
www.food411.com
A huge, searchable directory of food-related websites, primarily where to buy stuff online, whether you need particular items for cooking or serving (meat, cheese, nuts) or complete meals delivered to your door. The main menu on the home page is essentially a list of lists, but it's comprehensive and fairly well-organized—the Food Reads section, for example, is divided into magazines, books, blogs and recipe sites. The Organic Foods page, under Healthwise, has 19 links.
Home Improvement
CNET Digital Home DIY
digitalhome.cnet.com
Interactive video tutorials teach non-geeks how to upgrade to high-definition TV, set up a wireless home network or stream digital music from a computer to another room in the house. The "convince me" pages offer reasons why you should take on a particular job in the first place-which comes in handy if you've got a skeptical spouse with veto power. Visitors are invited to vote on which projects CNET's experts should tackle next.
Longevity
The Living to 100 Life Expectancy Calculator
www.livingto100.com
Take this quiz to find out how long you will live. You'll also get a full dose of health and nutrition advice based on your answers to the questions. Affiliated with the not-for-profit Alliance for Aging Research.
Pets
Dogster
www.dogster.com
It was only a matter of time before someone created a Friendster for dogs, and this one is too goofy to resist. The site is easy to use—each pup gets a home page, complete with profile, photos and links to all his pals. (What's hard is explaining yourself to the not-so-crazy-about-canines crowd.) Special tool buttons to give a treat, invite friendship, send a message or read a diary.
Social Networking
I-Neighbors
www.ineighbors.org
The brainchild of a group of students and teachers from MIT, I-Neighbors offers a free and easy way for residents of a given community to exchange information (and maybe even bond). Search by zip code to see if anybody's already created a home page for your neighborhood; if not, you can create your own. It takes just a few minutes to register, and your profile can be as vague or specific as you like. Provide an email address to be included in the directory and to receive group emails. You can add events to the calendar, recommend cleaning ladies and handymen, upload photos, even contact elected officials (see GovLink). Of course, whether a neighborhood thrives or dies depends on the participation of its members. Is yours a ghost town? The site provides a ready-to-print flyer for posting at the gym or corner deli to help advertise the link and drum up interest.