If you haven't seen Grand Central, it's a service that provides you with one phone number that rings all of your various phone lines.  This means never having to change your phone number, no matter where you receive your calls.  Turns out Google just acquired Grand Central for $50 million…

What does this mean? Well, we can only speculate, but it could have a huge impact in several areas for Google. First, imagine having a single, always-on, always-ready, forever available, telephone number that is tied to every phone number you currently have. By signing up, you will have simplified your life and that of anybody else who tries to contact you.

Grand Central acquired by Google for $50 million? | Googling Google | ZDNet.com

If you haven't yet gotten to know Wikipedia, you should!  Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that ordinary people all around the world are contributing to every single day.  Follow the link below to a great times article on the site.

Wikipedia, as nearly everyone knows by now, is a six-year-old global online encyclopedia in 250 languages that can be added to or edited by anyone.

Wikipedia - Computers and the Internet - Encyclopedias - News and News Media - New York Times

If you're a wine fanatic like me, or even just interested in learning a bit more about the wine world, here are some excellent sites on the web that you'll appreciate. If you're a beginner, remember- wine is fun, relax!

• Wine Library TV - A daily video segment where the incredibly entertaining Gary Vaynerchuk tastes wine. His sense of humor and non-snobbish approach to wine make this site a must-see.
• Corkd.com - A site that helps you keep track of your favorite wines, and see what wines your friends are drinking.
• Wine-Searcher.com - Looking for that particular wine that you just have to buy? Wine searcher will tell you where to find it.
• Wine Enthusiast - The ultimate source for buying anything having to do with wine. (except for the wine itself)
• Cellar Tracker - Like Corkd, this site lets you read reviews by other wine fans on the web, as well as keep track of your own collection of tasting notes.
• Wine Pages' Guide to Wine Regions - A great reference if you enjoy traveling to various wine regions.
• Robert Parker's Vintage Chart - Good for determining whether that bottle of expensive wine is "ready to drink."

There are so many more resources available for wine lovers on the web beyond these links. Start to poke around and you are bound to find some gems. If you do, let me know!

Google is a company that never ceases to amaze me.  Now, instead of just offering overhead satellite images within Google Maps, you can see a 360 degree view of what it would look like if you were standing on that street.  This new feature is only available right now in major urban areas such as New York and San Francisco.

If you're curious how they did it, I've been told that specially equipped vans have been driving around cities worldwide for a while now, preparing for such a feature.  The vans have 360 degree cameras strapped to the top, and take an image periodically as the van drives down the street.  You can even see the people standing on the sidewalk when the Van drove by… I smell a challenging new variation on Where's Waldo…

If you love Google Earth, you'll have to check out this new feature in Google Maps.

Google Maps - Street View Demo

From Codswallop:

Running a business for yourself means you have to be inventive and always on the lookout for a new and better way to get things done. Innovation junkies, take note: the Internet has a lot to offer. From invoicing to marketing, these are tools that freelancers need to know about.

Codswallop » The Freelancer's Toolset: 100 Web Apps for Everything You Will Possibly Need

Interesting article in the Times about websites for those of us who try and remain socially conscious in this world of greed and corruption.

Sites for the Socially Conscious - New York Times

If you hunt around the web these days, you're bound to come across hundreds of websites that are focused on informing consumers and keeping the big businesses honest.  The web is an extremely empowering resource for the mass of consumers around the globe, and one of my favorite sites, The Consumerist, is a great example of this.

Consumerist: Shoppers Bite Back

…but they do now.  Quizlet is a new site that lets you enter a data set, and it will help you memorize.  It's a little more savvy then typical paper flash cards, as it will constantly mix up the list and quiz you in different ways which they claim will help in the learning process.  I, for one, am buying in to it (even though it's free).

Quizlet - The End of Flashcards

Norad Tracks Santa 2006

Happy Holidays to all!

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