Pandora and The Big Picture

There are a lot of cool things you can find online - not all of them are really that useful though. Here are a couple that have some real value.

www.pandora.com

Let's you type in the music you like (or song you like for that matter), and recommends artists/songs that have similar style or musical qualities of what you like.

So, I just tried this and it is pretty damn cool. I have a slight obsession with the Counting Crows. I have been forever changed by the 1994 Mr. Jones... and now I still love the whiny sleepless sounds of Adam Duritz.

Anyway, I simply typed in "Counting Crows". The first song that came up was a Counting Crows song - I think they do this to ensure that they got your query right. Next song is called "Every Waking Moment" by Box Set. I like. I really like. Now of course I will have to check out the other songs by Box Set before I decide to download from iTunes - Or, wait - you can actually buy it on Pandora.com from Amazon or iTunes. Genius! Wonder what kind of business model they have going with Amazon. And you can even add songs to your favorites and rate them. Finally, good recommendations for music....


The Big Picture @ news.cnet.com

This is truly an innovative tool. News stories are visually interconnected with other news stories (color-coded in black), companies (color-coded in red) and topics (color-coded in green). You can navigate around the "Big Picture" of any article and see how it relates to other things going on in the world of Technology News. I can't wait until this tool is used not only on Cnet, but on other information sites as well. Check out this article on the "Big Picture":

http://news.com.com/2104-1012_3-5973440.html?tag=st.bp