Then, you can make fun of everyone else because your list is vastly superior.

This is a neat idea, though- the site is called Ditto, and it’s a social entertainment guide on the Web, built through user-compiled lists.

To use it, you search through their lists (currently 857) to find a topic you’re interested in. Let’s say it’s “The Best Chick Flicks Ever.” You can get to the page either by searching for it in the Ditto site or just clicking the always-helpful tag cloud.

Once you’re on the list you want, you have many options. The first thing you see is the “list of lists”, the total top few pulled out of everyone’s list. (Chick flicks? While You Were Sleeping. Mamma Mia. Bed of Roses. BOOO.)

If you think your lists are far superior to these knuckleheads’, click “Add Your List Now!” You can create your own list, rate other people’s, bookmark the list, send it to someone else, or see other lists you might find interesting.

The more lists you see for a given topic, like “Best Prison Movies”, the better the list tends to be. Keep an eye out for topics with only one or two lists- they tend not to be as helpful.

I like the idea of this more than the execution, for a couple of reasons. The big one is you don’t get to start your own topic. Ditto’s rationale for this is that most people were creating “My Favorite…” lists, which kills the point of the site. In my opinion, though, a user-based site has to put up with the stupid users too. Lists with only one person will be ignored, and the site will function just fine.

It does, though, do a good job of finding you a game, movie, band, TV show, or funny moment (also known as “Debates.”) I like that it’s mostly based on a certain topic, genre or premise, rather than just “The 8,256 Best Movies Ever.”

If you’re looking for a good Friday night prison movie, chick flick, or TV show, check with Ditto. See what the world thinks you should check out.

Google is a part of your life. Don’t lie, you have a relationship.

To help you get the most out of that relationship, there’s a wonderful little site out there called Google Guide.

Google Guide is exactly what it sounds like- a huge repository of tips and tricks to make using Google a whole lot easier. The Guide is broken down into “Query Input”, “Understanding Results”, “Search Tools”, “Services” and “Developing a Website”.

To explain the number of useful things here would take forever, and it would also require copying and pasting the entire Guide.

Many people will know some (or most) (or all) of these tips, but Google Guide doesn’t want to waste your time. At the beginning of your journey through GG, click either “novices click here”, “Experts click here”, or “Teens click here.” Other than the interesting fact that somehow teens are totally separate from novices or experts, this is a great touch. It lets you weed out the stuff you probably already know, and only focus on the useful stuff.

The whole Guide will take forever to get through, but if you want to just get the basics down, Google Guide offers two cheat sheets- “Cheat Sheet” for Google searching, and “Calculator Cheat Sheet” for using Google’s built-in calculator.

You can search through the guide if there’s one particular thing you want to know. Otherwise, take a look around. There are links all over- to Google products, to a really enlightening FAQ, and to a ton of other stuff around the site and Web related to Google.

For all information about how to use Google’s search products better, don’t go to Google. Go to the Google Guide. This is one product Google needs to incorporate, because Nancy and Jerry over at GG do it incredibly well.

What cool tips do you know/did you discover for searching Google?

Mozilla’s Web browser, Firefox, has become the geek-industry standard for browsers. As best I can tell, anyone who notices their browser uses Firefox.

Firefox 3 has been out several months now, but many people haven’t upgraded. It’s a personal thing- some people like to wait for a while, for a few updates to come out, to make sure the product is stable, secure, and legit. For others, it’s not something they notice.

Now, however, the time to get Firefox 3 is approaching. Here are the two broadest reasons I could think of for why everyone should be on Firefox 3:

1. It’s better.

Firefox 3 handles add-ons (extensions, plugins, whatever you want to call them) better. It has the "Awesome Bar", which lets you search, find your history, and surf faster. Its performance is exponentially better. It’s more secure, handles your passwords better, and generally provides the best browsing experience of any browser I’ve ever used. Don’t believe me? Believe Lifehacker, Google, Digg, PC Magazine and millions of others.

2. Mozilla is ending support for Firefox 2.

It’s Mozilla’s policy to end support for a browser 6 months after that browser is outdated. For Firefox, that means that in mid-December, Firefox 2 will no longer be supported by Firefox. That means no more security and stability updates, and no new features for Firefox 2. Meanwhile, Firefox 3 just continues to get better.

Firefox 3.1 is about to be released, bringing with it faster performance, better music listening and video watching, "tab tearing" that allows you to pull a tab out of a window and into its own, among other improvements.

Now is the time to get Firefox 3. If you’re on FF2, upgrade, and if you’re on another browser, give Firefox a shot. You’ll wonder how you ever used another browser.

I don’t know about you, but different types of days have me listening to different music. Sunny Days get poppy, fun, upbeat music, while rainy days are a mix of "I hate my life" music and "everything is terrible" music.

YouLicense is both a music player and a music-licensing service (hence the name), but for my own purposes all I care about is the little-known online music player that knows the feeling of the weather. They offer music listening, but with a twist- your music choice can made based on the weather outside, your style or your mood.

When you first get to the site, your Weather options are Autumn Chill, Sunny, Rainy Winter, Spring, Freezing, and Hot and Sweaty. Pick one, and you’re off to listening to music.

If you don’t want to go by the weather, choose your style, or your mood. However you want to get started, pick something and let YouLicense tailor music to exactly what you want to hear.

For the most part, I liked the music choice. I don’t know about anyone else, but for me the music was all stuff I’d never heard of, which I always enjoy. YouLicense does a great job of playing the music that fits the mood you looked for, right off the bat.

I went with "Action-Adventure" for my style, and here’s what I got. If you so desire, take a listen:

Once the player opens (in a new window- check your popup settings), you can see the playlist, skip around it, embed the playlist (a nice touch), and read about the artists you’re listening to. Information is pulled from every artist, and you can learn about what you’re listening to as well as get a link to the artist’s website.

If you want to get into customizing a little more, create a free account with YouLicense. Then you can rate songs, create playlists, and let YouLicense learn more about your music taste.

With or without an account, if you’re looking for some great background music and the occasional song to blow your mind and introduce you to someone new and awesome, YouLicense is a great one to check out.

Where do you listen to music online? What would make a killer online music app?

This is one of those sites you never really think about until you use it. Then, suddenly, you can’t live without it.

Joongel calls itself "Internet, the Easy Way." In reality, it’s a way to search a number of the most popular sites in any given category, and to do a lot of web-scouring all in one place.

When you search Joongel, you specify two things: the query (whatever you’re searching for) and the category (you choose from a drop-down menu). Once you click "search" you get results from 10 of the most highly regarded sites within the category you chose.

For instance: let’s say you’re searching videos for monkeys. Maybe you just love videos of monkeys. Type "Monkeys" into the bar, select "Videos" from the Category list, and hit search. You get to choose between videos about monkeys, and how-to monkey videos. (I’m not sure what those are…)

Joongel then loads searches for YouTube, AOL Video, MySpace, Yahoo Video, Google Video, MSN Video, Dailymotion, Veoh, Metacafe, and Blinkx. With one click, you can switch between all the different sites and find all the videos about monkeys that you could ever want or need.

The categories are plentiful (everything from Shopping to Health to Q&A), the sites are smartly chosen, and the site generally works really well. I’m starting to use it as a research tool, because it allows me to search a bunch of different places all at once, and not have to deal with opening and closing tabs, navigating between engines, and all the other insanity.

One other nice touch- if you choose "general search" as the category for the search, you get a basic Google search returned to you. It’s a small thing, and definitely not what Joongel is for, but it’s a nice feature.

For Firefox and Internet Explorer users, Joongel provides plugins for the search bar. What this means is that you can add a shortcut to a Joongel search in a given category, and search there in one click.

Joongel is very Web 2.0, giving heavy emphasis to user-based sites. They’re crowdsourcing your search results, and it makes your  searches both more focused and more fruitful.