You might think that the internet needs another social media website about as much as it needs another blog with photos of cute cats. But, unlike cat photo blogs, social media websites keep evolving. Remember when Friendster, MySpace and Classmates.com were at the fore of online social media? Technology and website functionality gets better over time. And once you start to look at some of the more creative social media start-ups, you start to see how many things the established social media sites aren’t doing well — or at all.
With that in mind, here are three new and growing social media websites that Spot Cool Stuff believes could make it big over the next year:
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Imagine that you’re cleaning out the back recesses of your kitchen pantry and discover there a you-don’t-know-how-old can of Haggis, a can of tomato paste, a half-eaten box of orzo pasta, a bag of Funyuns† and a container of orange-flavored dessert syrup. What can you do with them? Well, you could throw them all away. Or you could take a photo and post it on the cool Tumblr blog Cook Your Cupboard. There you’ll get advice from cooks — some expert, some very much not — on creative dishes you can prepare with your pantry finds.
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If you are reading this post, we presume you are single and likely nervous about entering the world of online dating. To you we say: Go for it!
Think of it this way: If you were looking for a job, you’d conduct at least part of your search online, no? When shopping for a creative gift, checking out tomorrow’s weather forecast or looking for a used car you’d search online. So why not when looking for a boyfriend or girlfriend?
Meeting mates online is not going mainstream. It is mainstream. Of all the people who got married in the United States in 2010, 1 out of every 6 met online. (It’s probably more than that in 2012). More than twice as many marriages occurred between people who met on an online dating site than between those who met in bars, clubs and social events combined! And such online dating success spans across demographic groups—targeted niche sites like eHarmony senior online dating have hugely helped singles get back into the dating game later in life.
So, go for it! And start by choosing the online dating site that will work best for you.
There are literally thousands of dating websites to choose from. They break down into roughly two groups: general dating websites, those joined by a relatively large and diverse cross section of people, and niche dating websites, geared towards a specific audience.
You can see our picks for the best niche dating websites clicking to this review. In this post we’ll look at the general websites. Spot Cool Stuff has tried out dozens of them. Below is our description of the ones we like best. Check out the full reviews or, if you are the impatient sort, skip ahead to our conclusions:
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Spot Cool Stuff loves websites that are both simple and ingenious. On Tumblr, perhaps no blog exemplifies those two characteristics more than FILMography. The site features photos of hands holding — other photos. The photo being held is a black and white screenshot of a scene from a movie. And the place that photo is held is the exact spot that movie scene was shot from!
The end result: a cool overlay of a movie scene with its real life location.
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On most dating websites — including virtually all the most popular ones like Match.com or eHarmony — users find who they might want to go out with and then try to arrange a date with that person. But there’s one dating website that flips that notion around: HowAboutWe.
As in, how about we . . . try riding a tandem bicycle together. How about we . . . run around the city “one upping” each other on random acts of kindness. How about we . . . make a mixed tape from both of our music . . . totally gorge on chocolates all day while visiting different candy stores . . . go to my house and watch me play Halo for 17 consecutive hours . . . bike along the lakefront and have a progressive picnic at each beach . . . try skydiving . . . take in an opera . . . go avenge my father’s death . . . buy the craziest hats we can find and walk around town ignoring the stares . . . take a drive with no destination in mind . . . go to trivia night at a local bar . . . go blueberry picking. How about we . . . attend the Air Guitar Championships.
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Fans of Spot Cool Stuff’s architecture posts—especially those who wish we’d be able to publish them more frequently—would do well to check out Open Buildings.
The goal of the Open Buildings website: collect as much information as possible about the world’s cool architecture.
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