Google maps + Web 2.0 goodness + SMS goodness = Whrrl. It’s pretty simple really, go somewhere, have fun there, come home, log into Whrrl, find it, and write a little review on it… I thought “Microsoft Streets” when I first saw it, being able to store all your reviews, and what not - but, there’s of course the Web 2.0 aspect. That’s right, social network. Really, folks, is there a better way of raving on about a pancake house, than with your Whrrl friends? … In short, the answer’s “No”. Features:

• Search for places
• Search for near by places
• Read reviews from others
• Befriend those others
• SMS Support
  • Send photos of a place from your phone
  • Checkout a place on your phone
  • Find places “near” somewhere
  • and… FAST
  • Seriously fast
• I’m still searching for the RSS Feed, but wouldn’t doubt it to exist… or soon will.

Honestly, the SMS features are literally the most bad ass features I’ve seen so far on any Web 2.0 site available, sorry Twitter. They have more SMS commands than you can shake a stick at… hell shake the whole damn forest at it, and you still won’t cover it. Here, try this:

1. Sign up
2. Don’t forget your mobile info
3. (Watch how quick the SMS gets sent to your phone)
4. Input the confirmation number
5. Reply to the Whrrl number with “starbuck near 5th and Market” or wherever you are…

Within a few seconds, you should have a list of the starbucks near you, with their phone number and address… very rad.

First off, I don’t normally condone the use of anything that starts with a lowercase “i”, but - since most people these days (that do exercise) exercise with an iPod, iStats is completely logical. In case you don’t have the ability to draw the conclusion from my hint… iStats is an exercise routine charting calendar profile thing-a-majig you can use to track your progress or digress - and you can share it with one and all via your own handy dandy little profile.

What can you track? Hell, everything…

• Starting weight
• Current weight
• Physical stats like height, location, etc
• What you’re exercising and how
  • Abs
  • Arms
  • Legs
  • Thumbs, etc
• Progression over time (presented in a fancy chart)

Simple really… Sign up, get off your ass, hit a gym, and then… run back to your computer to update your progress. See? You can motivate yourself to sit around whenever you’re not working out now!

In a world where YouTube pretty much owns the day when it comes to video online, Yuxt, in my opinion, has a better, cleaner interface for viewing, browsing, and cataloging videos. Now, this site isn’t for hosting videos, it is merely for viewing and saving, which makes it more like an aggregation application - in that you can search The YouTube, MySpace, Metacafe, and a few other sites. Why I like this site’s interface? I’m a sucker for Flash, that’s where I started with web development, and damn it, I like it… I don’t like it when it’s used to create ads that talk, or pop up and animate to annoy the shit out of me, but - clicking on those to charge a few cents, bucks, or whatever to whoever never hurt.

So

Yuxt… who could use it? Online video junkies that want to keep a list of the videos they like, and then… share with your buddies via an easy to remember link: http://yuxt.com/nrek/

You can add tags to videos, and place them into neat little containers - cleverly named “Collections”, and this site just sprouted not too long ago from the Web 2.0 tree, so be sure to contribute if you check it out… if you find it worthy enough for your time, that is (which you should, as people should support things that use Lightbox in neat ways.)

As a freelance graphics guy that does favors for friends almost daily, I can never get enough fonts… err Fawnts for that matter. Fawnt is a relatively new addition to the web world is LOADED with fonts. They boast over 10,000 in their catalog to be exact, and they’re adding more, no doubt. Now before you get excited about a site holding thousands of fonts, here’s a blurb from their about us, as a quick word of advice:

While all of the fonts we list are free, they might have restrictions. Some may be free for personal use, others for commercial. When you visit a font link make sure to browse the page for any fine print or usage terms.

That being said, just be sure to check the rights of the fonts they have listed, before you go doing professional/commercial work. You don’t want your clients getting sued now, do ya? I’ve had the luxery of working with trademarks, and registered copyright information, legalities and all that jazz… So, as a bit of even more advice - CYA, kiddies.

Other than that? This site is very straight forward, browse fonts, see fonts, check out the font creators (click through to their home page), and uh… oh yea! download fonts. Gotta love it, no fuss, no mess, no crazy social network about fonts, just… fonts! Ok, I’ve typed the word fonts enough.

Tired of bloat? How tired?… Looking to trim ALL the fat from a web page? How about you check out Voxlite. This slim video messaging site is so light weight, I’d have to do a WhoIs on the domain just to get some information about who’s responsible for this Flash interface. What’s it do? Sends video messages via the web… You can log in, if you create an account, and you can check out your activity. That about covers it.

Oh… and you can log out too.

This is 100% pure uncut Web 2.0 Goodness at it’s finest. I have a dream that someday all websites will be one button, and an image… but until then? Voxlite’s pretty damn close.