Technobabble: One singular cyber sensation

You want to expand your horizons -- but not too much. You don't have a lot of time. You like to keep things simple.

That's where these websites come in. They specialize in making one -- and only one -- recommendation each day in their particular area of expertise. It could be a cool website to bookmark, a nifty book to read, whatever.

If you're not interested in the daily topic, just return tomorrow. Maybe you'll make a swell discovery then. Better yet, these websites don't even require a visit. Sign up for free, and they'll send you their daily picks by e-mail or RSS feed.

Here are a half-dozen websites that just might make your day -- in a singular way.

VERY SHORT LIST

www.veryshortlist.com

Very Short List's team of editors (including Spy magazine cofounder Kurt Andersen) point readers toward "excellent ... entertainment and media that haven't been hyped to within an inch of their lives," the site explains. The daily picks include books, CDs, DVDs, websites -- anything that consumers of culture might find interesting. If you're really pressed for time, the recommendations contain highlighted passages that get to the meat of the matter.

Recent gem: Planet Hiltron (www. planethiltron.com) is an ingenious site where celebrity images are digitally altered to make them look like average Joes and Jos, which usually entails seamlessly pasting their mugs into photos from everyday life.

Madonna looking like a librarian? A plain Jennifer Garner and balding Ben Affleck as pudgy, beer-swilling partyers? Larry King as a doting grandma -- really? Seeing is believing.

YAHOO! PICKS

picks.yahoo.com

The depth and breadth of Yahoo's daily website finds are amazing. Not every site is worth adding to your bookmarks, but all merit at least a visit. Some are wacky and off the beaten trail, such as Fridgewatcher (www.fridgewatcher.com), which peeks inside folks' refrigerators; others are practical and overlooked, such as the financial adviser Get Rich Slowly (www.getrichslowly.org/blog). All get a breezy writeup with lots of linked examples.

Recent gem: The photoblog Last Night's Garbage (www.lastnightsgarbage.com) documents the vast amount of trash strewn on the streets of New York City. The accompanying text riffs on the image, such as a blob of guacamole on the ground running with a recipe for the dip -- along with a link to a photo of discarded tortilla chips.

GOOGLETUBE VIDEO OF THE DAY

gvod.blogspot.com

Michael Martine wades through the many submissions posted at YouTube and other video-sharing sites and spotlights one fetching clip. Most tend toward the funny side of life, such as an elephant burping or church bloopers. Martine had been updating the site every day since 2005, but he said by e-mail that he recently switched to less frequent postings. No problem; just troll the archive each day.

Recent gem: A happy guy holds up his pug for all the world to see, but watch his face when the skittish pup decides to take a wee.

GIVEAWAY OF THE DAY

www.giveawayoftheday.com

Giveaway of the Day is the only site today whose offerings don't originate with an editorial decision. Each day the site gives away one PC program that typically would cost money to buy. The catch? The software must be downloaded, installed and activated during its given 24-hour period. The recommendation aspect actually comes from the site's vocal users, who post comments on the download page saying whether the program is any good and, better, suggesting freeware alternatives.

Recent gem: "Access Boss," which normally sells for $30, lets you control how much time your kids or employees spend on the computer and automatically logs them off once the limit has been reached. It received an 84 percent approval rating on its giveaway day.

DAILY DOSE

www.powells.com/features/dailydose.html

If it's Powell's, we're talking about books. In its Daily Dose, the Oregon-based bookstore's site asks customers to recommend a book on any subject and explain why it's worth reading. The person whose pick is selected each day gets a $20 credit, and you get a suggestion for your next read. It's win-win.

Recent gem: "Better Than Homemade," a behind-the-scenes look at packaged foods, "is a great book for anyone who remembers Kool-Aid Man bursting through walls or who has ever wondered what is in Spam," says guest reviewer Jennifer Short, who now can buy several cans of Spam with her $20 prize.

WORD OF THE DAY

www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/mwwod.pl

There are plenty of word-of-the-day websites, but are any more authoritative than Merriam-Webster's? Not only do the famous dictionary folks give you a daily word to expand your vocabulary -- along with an audio pronunciation and sample sentence -- but they also provide trivia about its background so that you can further amaze and annoy your friends when you surreptitiously drop it into conversation. (Ha, I used "surreptitiously.")

Recent gem: "Warison," which means a bugle call to attack, gained that definition after Sir Walter Scott misused the word in his 1805 poem "The Lay of the Last Minstrel." He could have used Word of the Day.

Randy A. Salas • 612-673-4542