If you’re wondering which movies to check out in the theaters, which books are worth paying full price for, or which TV shows are worth DVR’ing, then you usually have two options. You could scour the internet looking for reviews posted by anonymous users who may or may not have tastes that are similar to your own, or you could use ShowYouLikeIt to find out what your friends on Facebook are ‘liking’ right now.

Learn what your closest allies are watching on the web and impress your friends with your stellar taste in music, movies, or fashion by connecting your Facebook account to the ShowYouLikeIt app. You can decide whether to make your ShowYouLikeIt information public or private, however you’ll have to choose the public option if you want to get full use out of the app. ShowYouLikeIt will immediate pull information about all your Facebook ‘likes’ into its database. You can then scroll through a list of the ‘most trendy’ music, movies, people, sports, books, games, groups, and places to get more ideas of which ‘likes’ you should add to your own Facebook profile page. Click on a ‘trendy’ movie, for example, and you’ll see a list of all of your Facebook friends who’ve also ‘liked’ the film. Click on a particular friend’s photo icon, and you can see all the other films that he or she has ‘liked’ as well. Change up the filters on the left-hand side of the main ShowYouLikeIt page to get deeper into the web-app’s data: ShowYouLikeIt lets you filter ‘likes’ by timeframe, gender, age, language, or keyword. Using this search feature, you can see the trendiest ‘likes’ of the week or the month.

Assuming you’ve set your ShowYouLikeIt profile to public, you can use the app as a social network unto itself. Follow the likes of certain friends, and gain insight into what people in your age group are interested in right now. For heavy Facebook users who aren’t afraid to publicize their interests to a larger audience, ShowYouLikeIt is worth checking out.

Practical Uses:

• Find out which books your Facebook friends are enjoying
• Learn more about the interests of your online customers
• See which movies have garnered the most ‘likes’ over time
• Follow certain friends who have excellent taste in music to get more ideas of what tunes to download

Insider Tips:

• Users must connect to Facebook, but they can decide whether to make their profiles public or private
• Data can be filtered by age, gender, language, date range, or keyword
• Users can follow other ‘likes’
• People who use ShowYouLikeIt can add descriptions to their profiles on the site

What we liked:

• ShowYouLikeIt is a fun way to show off your great taste in music or movies
• ShowYouLikeIt is really easy to navigate
• Facebook users can get started using ShowYouLikeIt with just a few simple clicks
• People can get ideas of what books to buy based on what other people like

What we didn’t like:

• Users can only follow the ‘likes’ of people they’re already friends with on Facebook

Alternatives:

• None

Company Info:

• Launched: 2011
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: Belgium
• Web site: http://www.showyoulike.it

Costs:

• Free

Rating:

• 4 out of 5 (great)

Vidyard is a classier, more professional alternative to YouTube for businesses that regularly post videos to their websites and other online properties. In very little time, a person with virtually no technical skills can upload a video to Vidyard that online visitors can watch with no buffering, no delays, and no outside advertisements located strategically nearby.

Vidyard offers a number of plans and pricing options, however most people who aren’t sure where to start will probably want to begin with a free trial. Visit the dashboard page and click “Add Video” to get started building a custom library. You can add videos to Vidyard by uploading them from your computer or by selecting them on YouTube. Click on the video that you want to use, wait for it to upload, and then choose the splash screen that best reflects the message you’re trying to convey. With Vidyard, you can choose a skin for the player, select the size of the screen, and pick a player color that matches the look of your existing business site. Decide whether to enable comments or promote viral sharing and then click “save.” Vidyard gives you three options for embedding the video on your site. You can link to a publically available sharing page, which visitors can click on to watch your clip. You can insert the video directly into your own website with an inline embed, or you can use the lightbox embed feature to play the video in a lightbox that floats above the rest of the content on your site.

The real genius of Vidyard is that it’s ad-free and it’s cheap. Businesses without a lot of dough can post videos on their websites that look completely branded and professional, and they can use real-time analytics tools to see who is watching those videos and how long they continued watching before clicking off. These are features that few other video hosting tools can provide at such a low cost.

Practical Uses:

• Impress clients by posting a reel of all the press your business has gotten
• Create a how-to video to show new subscribers how to use your website
• Find out who is watching the videos you post on your blog
• Post tutorials and videos on a company intranet for new employees to view

Insider Tips:

• Design unique player skins to match the look of your current website
• Developers can access their clients’ Vidyard pages without any login required
• Add chapters to longer videos to help with viewer navigation
• Videos that come from YouTube will be watermarked

What we liked:

• Businesses can post videos that are completely unbranded
• Geographic reporting tools show where people are located when they watch your videos
• Vidyard offers a number of pricing options for companies of varying sizes
• Users can easily upload their own videos or select other people’s videos from YouTube

What we didn’t like:

• Vidyard doesn’t offer the tools to monetize videos, which some competing video hosting platforms offer

Alternatives:

• Brightcove – http://www.brightcove.com
• Kaltura – http://corp.kaltura.com
• Wistia – http://wistia.com

Company Info:

• Launched: August 2011
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: Waterloo, Canada, and Mountain View, California
• Founded by: Michael Litt, Edward Wu, and Devon Galloway
• Web site: https://secure.vidyard.com

Costs:

• Short plan is free
• Grande plan is $20/month
• Venti plan is $50/month
• Call for unlimited plan pricing

ClubDivot is an app that’s been designed especially for golfers. From scheduling tee times and staying updated on country club news, to learning the details of more than 18,000 courses around the country, ClubDivot is the perfect solution for any avid golfer who is looking to stay organized.

Sign up for ClubDivot by entering your name, location, and an email address. You can also enter your USGA GHIN number to have all your latest scores and current handicap updated on the site automatically. If you’re looking for new golf buddies to play with, then start a club on the ClubDivot site. Give your club a name, enter your current location, and start inviting friends and colleagues to join. Next you’ll want to schedule a tee time at your favorite course. Choose which of your groups you’d like to play with – assuming you belong to multiple groups – and your selected friends will be immediately notified when your tee time is confirmed. When you use ClubDivot, you don’t have to worry about sending out emails or making a handful of phone calls each time you want to play a round of golf with the guys.

As useful as ClubDivot is for golfers, the web app is even more helpful to club managers and owners. Managers can organize schedules and calendars with ClubDivot, and they can even communicate with members through the web-application. Course overview pages can be used as marketing tools by adding additional information about the amenities, fees, and ratings of any given course.

Practical Uses:

• Schedule a golf outing with your friends
• Find new people to play with at your country club
• Coordinate with coworkers to find a tee time that works for everyone
• Learn about the courses in your town to get a leg up on other golfers

Insider Tips:

• ClubDivot can be used by golfers or club managers
• USGA GHIN data will automatically update on the ClubDivot site
• Users can join multiple groups, and they can select which groups to invite to certain outings
• Weather information is available on the right hand side of each club page

What we liked:

• ClubDivot is a useful scheduling tool
• Avid golfers can use ClubDivot to meet likeminded people
• Users can create separate groups for their colleagues and non-work buddies
• ClubDivot’s course database already has information about 18,000+ courses

What we didn’t like:

• Users can schedule tee times online with their friends, but they’ll still need to call the courses for actual tee time reservations.
• ClubDivot faces competition from a number of similar web-apps for golfers

Alternatives:

• FullForesome – http://fullforesome.com
• Imagine Golf Club – http://www.imaginegolfclub.com
• TeeTimes.net – http://www.teetimes.net

Company Info:

• Launched: March 2011 (Beta)
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: Menlo Park, California
• Founded by: Amber Goodenough and Eric Goodenough
• Web site: http://www.clubdivot.com

Costs:

• Free plan
• Birdie plan is $19/month or $199/year
• Birdie plan is $29/month or $319/year

FlipSnack is a tool that anyone can use to turn basic online publications into stylish, digital flipbooks. If you’re looking for ways to make a boring publication seem more interesting or to help a cute story you wrote go viral, FlipSnack just might be the answer. In minutes, you can turn any PDF document into a Flash-based flipbook that can be casually read just like a paper-based magazine or book.

When you use FlipSnack, you can create a flipbook in just three steps. The first step is to upload your document – remembering that FlipSnack accepts PDF documents that are up to 500 pages or 100 MB long – and to give your document a title. The title you choose is important, because it will be used as the title for your new flipbook. Next up is to choose a template. If none of the templates seems right, don’t worry. FlipSnack templates are completely customizable, so you can pick and choose which elements you want by changing the colors, size, and buttons placement until everything looks just right. Finally, it’s time to click “Publish” and see your finished product.

One of the nice things about flipbooks is that they are easy to share. Just grab the embed code for your newly published book and post it wherever you want – a blog, a website, a Facebook page, or maybe all of the above. Up to 25,000 people can view your flipbook each day and you can make changes to your published flipbook at any time. All free FlipSnack flipbooks come with a watermark, however you can get rid of the watermark by paying for an upgraded account and purchasing the watermark-free embed code.

Practical Uses:

• Create a flipbook with images of your baby’s first year
• Turn your research thesis into a share-able flipbook that people will want to read
• Make a catalog that shows off all your best items for sale on Etsy
• Write an office manual that new employees can review before starting work

Insider Tips:

• To view FlipSnack, people must use JavaScript enabled browsers and the latest Flash player
• Users must pay for the watermark-free embed code
• Uploaded PDF files must be under 500 pages and 100 MB
• Flipbooks can be viewed 25,000 times a day before the book will turn into a static image

What we liked:

• FlipSnack flipbooks are completely free for most users
• People can use flipbooks to share family photos with friends online
• Flipbooks are an excellent way for small retailers to show off products
• Users can fix errors and re-publish their books whenever they want

What we didn’t like:

• Free flipbooks can’t have any more than 15 pages

Alternatives:

• Calameo – http://www.calameo.com
• Issuu – http://issuu.com
• Publisha – http://www.publisha.com

Company Info:

• Launched: 2011 (Beta)
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: Troy, Michigan
• Founded by: Smartketer LLC
• Web site: http://www.flipsnack.com

Costs:

• Free version
• VIP membership is $24/month

When it Drops is a helpful web-app that can make anyone feel like a Hollywood insider. Rather than scouring the web looking for release details for all the latest albums and films, When it Drops brings that information right to the inboxes of all its users. Of course, When it Drops doesn’t just track the release dates of music albums and movies. The comprehensive application also lets its users know when their soon-to-be favorite books, video games, and DVDs are being released, too.

Whether you’re making weekend plans with your girlfriends, planning a date night with your wife, or deciding which book to buy before embarking on an upcoming trip, check in with When it Drops first to find out everything you need to know about what’s coming out that week. Although When it Drops showcases the most popular new releases in each category on its homepage, you can find information about lesser-known titles by clicking “See More” under any category represented on the site. Hovering over a particular movie brings up all the necessary links to watch the trailer or buy tickets online, while the latest book releases and DVDs can be purchased via direct links to Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

For users who can’t be bothered to check out When it Drops once each week, the site also offers a Tumblr blog that showcases the top picks in each category and a continually updated RSS feed. It’s also possible to look ahead up to two weeks into the future on When it Drops to see which films, DVDs, albums, games, and books are coming out later that month.

Record executives and radio DJs may have controlled what made it onto record store shelves in the past, but a web-app called thesixtyone is helping its users decide for themselves what they want to listen to now. With a goal of helping young artists get discovered, thesixtyone has created a way for music lovers to listen to songs by musicians they’ve never heard of before and download those that seem worth listening to again.

If you’re sick of the music on the radio and tired of the tunes you’ve downloaded onto your iPod, it might be time to give thesixtyone a try. Head over to the site – www.thesixtyone.com – and click on the word “ready” to begin. Immediately, a song will begin playing by an artist you’ve most likely never heard of before. If you like the tune, then keep listening and add the song to your playlist. If you hate the song, there’s no hard feelings. Just click the arrow on the right-hand side of the page to start listening to another song by an undiscovered artist. When you find a song you actually enjoy, download it to your hard drive and import it onto your iPod. Musicians who sell their songs on thesixtyone are paid directly without having to give a cut of the proceeds to their record companies or distributors.

Thesixtyone isn’t just a service that allows people to listen to music and sell their songs on the web, either. The web-app also offers an interactive gaming element that lets users recommend songs they like and earn points when other users download or recommend those very same songs. Users can also comment on songs, make friends through the site, and complete “quests” or journeys just for fun. For music aficionados who enjoy being on the cusp of new music trends, thesixtyone is a great web-app.

For avid book lovers everywhere, Any New Books? is an application that shouldn’t be missed. The notification service lets users know when new books are being released in the categories they enjoy most. But rather than flooding its subscribers’ inboxes with hundreds of book each week, Any New Books? actually employs human editors to pick and choose the best of each week’s new releases in dozens of different categories.

When you sign up for Any New Books?, you’ll be asked to select a handful of your favorite book genres. Although Any New Books? recommends new users select four or five categories at most, the actual number of you select is up to you. From that point, you wait. New book notification emails are sent to users on Wednesdays or Thursdays, depending on the category, and you can expect to receive a separate email for each genre you selected. When your book recommendation email finally arrives, you can open it up to find a list of new releases and staff recommendations. Alongside a photo of the cover of each book, you’ll find all the necessary information, such as the author, ISBN, and estimated price. Click on the title of any book that looks interesting to find out more, or purchase is through Amazon.com.

For people who use Kindle, Any New Books? is especially helpful. The application will notify users who’ve selected Kindle as a preferred genre of all the latest digital releases that they might be interested in. Any New Books? also makes it easy to share book recommendations with friends via Twitter or Facebook. For serious readers who hate missing out on the latest releases, using Any New Books? is a sure-fire way to stay in the loop and ahead of your friends.

Curious to hear what other people thought of a movie before shelling out $12 for a ticket at the local cineplex? You could open up the newspaper to read what a professional reviewer thought of it, or check out the reviews online to find out what strangers had to say. Or you could use fflick to find out what your friends and favorite celebrities thought of all the latest movies showing in a theater near you. The application scours the Twitter feeds of all your friends to find any mentions of recent films, then delivers those mini reviews right to your computer screen.

You don’t have to create an account with fflick to start using the site, although your movie recommendations will be much more tailored if you do choose to sign in through Twitter. Without a Twitter login, fflick will show you all the reviews posted by top celebrities. If you’ve ever wondered what Kim Kardashian, John Mayer, or Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had to say about a film, then fflick is the place to check those reviews out. When you decide to take the next step and connect via a Twitter account, the application will search through the feeds of the people you follow for mentions of any movies. That list of mini-movie reviews will then show up in chronological order, with the most recent tweet appearing at the top.

If you come across a particular tweet that seems intriguing, fflick will let you re-tweet or reply to it with the click of a button. So if you want to find out more from a friend who posted that she recently saw Eat, Pray, Love, you can reply in a tweet and ask her about it in a snap. Overall, fflick is an interesting new app that utilizes the power of Twitter to help people decide which movies are worth checking out.

Wishing you could stay in a luxury hotel on your next vacation, but weary of paying $900 a night for a room with a garden view? Off & Away is a site that you’ll want to check out. The online auction house lets users bid on luxury hotel getaways in posh locales all over the world. More than just a basic discount travel website, Off & Away helps users score bargain basement prices on five-star hotel rooms that are up to 90% off the regular rates. The flash-sale auctions held on the site feature prices that start at $0 with no reserve and go up in $0.10 or $0.25 increments for 24 to 48 hours.

To start competing in Off & Away auctions, you’ll have to buy a pack of bids. Bids cost $1 each, and come in packets of 10, 25, 50 or 100. The next step is finding a hotel in a location you’d like to visit. When you’ve found an auction that looks interesting, make sure to view the number of nights and room availability to make sure it fits within your travel schedule. If everything looks good, then you’re ready to bid. Off & Away charges for each bid to ensure you’re serious about the auction, and lets you buy more bids to use in the auction at any time. Once the time left in an auction falls below two minutes, the clock will increase an additional 30 seconds each time a new bid comes in. If you’re the winner when the clock reaches zero, you have 24 hours to select your dates and book your room before the offer becomes invalid.

Just because you don’t win an auction, doesn’t mean you have to forfeit the bids you already purchased. Off & Away will apply your used bids towards the price of a room at one of its 50,000 partner hotels, just as long as you make the booking within seven days of the original auction. For travelers who have champagne tastes on a beer budget, Off & Away offers amazing hotel deals that you won’t be able to get anywhere else.

Whether you’re looking for the best date-night restaurant in Paris, the best food cart in Portland, or just some general information about the evolutionary purpose of having dreams, you can find your answers on Quora. The question and answer service lets users post questions about any topic imaginable and receive responses from real-world experts within a matter of minutes. For people who would rather read about their favorite topics than write about them, the service also allows users to “follow” certain subjects to see instantly whenever new questions have been asked or conversations have been updated.

When you sign up with Quora, you can create a new profile or instantly link up with your preexisting Facebook or Twitter account. The application will then let you “follow” any number of preset topics, such as Food, Startups, Sports, or Travel. If you don’t see a topic that looks interesting enough on the main page, then just type in a subject that seems fun to you and start following that. Once you’ve signed up to follow certain topics, you’ll be presented with a page full of questions that are tailored to meet your interests. When you come across a question that seems intriguing, click on it to see all the responses that question has gotten so far. The answers that users have submitted are ranked based on the number of “votes” each answer has received, with the best answers showing up at the top of the page. You can leave comments underneath any answer, and vote whether the answer was helpful or not. You can also click on any author’s avatar to find out more about the person who’s opinions you’re reading and follow that user directly to receive notices whenever he or she has added new content.

If you have got something of your own to add to the site, just click “Add Question” at the top of any page and start typing away. You can answer other people’s questions by going to the bottom of the question page, or you can mark the page as “Answer Later” and add in your response when you have more free time. Any answer you give can be left anonymously if you wish to remain private, or you can choose to monitor particularly interesting questions to find out when new answers have been added. Thanks to its high caliber of expert users, you can get thoughtful responses to questions about nearly any topic under the sun when you use Quora.