Blocked in China is a great website that allows users to find out if any website is blocked in China, or whether the error you are receiving is due to some ISP problem.

Just visit the website’s main page, enter the URL of the website you wish to test in the field provided and click on the Test button. The service will find out if the website you are trying to access is blocked or not.

Features

• Simple and easy to use.
• Test if the specific website is blocked in China or not.
• Similar tools: BlockedInIran and Whatblocked.

Check out Blocked in China @ www.blockedinchina.net

Google Politics & Elections is a simple to use web app that provides you with the 2012 US election stats. You are provided with a map that you can zoom into to view its respective voting stats. Color codes provide a quick way to see who has the majority in a particular area. Apart from the region-view you can get news on various candidates and political issues relevant to the 2012 elections. A “Trends Dashboard” lets you view candidate information such as their YouTube videos and search traffic.

Features:

•  A user-friendly web service.
• Does not require any registration.
• Provides information on 2012 US elections.
• Provides stats, video links, news results, etc.

Check out Google Politics & Elections @ http://google.com/elections/ed/us/results (By Umar from AllThatIsApple)

Google+ is now catering to politicians too. The network has a webpage up that highlights the features available for politcians. The most basic feature of course is sharing updates by your status message and your constituents showing their support by +1-ing your post. Status messages can also be used to gather opinions (see image above), making them act as online polls.

The feature of sorting people into circles on Google+ lets you tailor messages for specific groups, without filling up the feed of your other contacts. The virtual meeting option lets you conduct a high-quality video chat that supports up to 10 users. And then of course there is the option to upload pictures of political events to keep your constituents updated.

Features:

• A user-friendly web service and social network.
• Helps politicians reach out to the general public.
• Lets you share updates with people.
• Lets you conduct group video chat.
• Lets you share pictures with others.
• Similar tools: PolitickerUSA, NewsCaplet, Ruck.us and Broadcastr.

Check out “Google+ for Politics” @ www.google.com/+/learnmore/politics/index.html (by MOin from Thumb Press)

Cartoon News is a smartphone app that is compatible with Android devices. Sized at nearly half a MB, the app requires your phone to run Android version 1.5 or later. The app gathers the top political cartoons from the web and presents them in an appealing interface. The cartoons you like can be instantly shared with friends via texting, social networks, or email.

In case you are looking for cartoons on a particular subject, you can browse them according to trending topics or search cartoons by naming a category and/or the artist. Cartoons you like can be bookmarked to read later.

Features:

• A user-friendly phone app.
• Compatible with Android devices.
• Delivers top political cartoons to your phone.
• Lets you easily share cartoons.
• Lets you bookmark cartoons.

Check out Cartoon News @ https://market.android.com/details?id=com.cartoonstock.news (By Umar from AllThatIsApple)

Using Politicker USA, you can view the Twitter updates of all politicians ranging from Barack Obama to Kelly Ayotte. Politicians appear as thumbnails with their relevant updates displayed on the homepage. You can click on a politician’s image to be taken to their Twitter profile. The filtering option lets you view updates from particular politicians. A tag cloud is also displayed to indicate party trends as well as politicians trends.

Features:

• A user-friendly web service.
• Lets you track Twitter updates of politicians.
• Covers Democrats and Republicans.
• Generates tag clouds to indicate politics trends.

Check out Politicker USA @ http://www.politickerusa.com (By Umar from AllThatIsApple)

In Iran, local authorities have blocked access to many websites, including many social networks, sites with women rights and more. If you are living in Iran, it would be wise to check if the link is blocked or not. Thanks to BlockedinIran, users can easily check if any website is blocked in Iran or not. All they have to do is enter the URL of the website in the URL box and click Test. The service will then inform you if the website is blocked or not.

Features:

• Simple and easy to use.
• Check if any website is blocked in Iran or not.
• Similar site: Whatblocked.

Check out Blocked in Iran @ www.blockediniran.com (by Hammad from TechnicallyDigital)

It wants to connect politically like-minded people and help spread individual political ideas in the US where – according to the founders of the startup – the two party system is broken and doesn’t work any more.

The site has all the ingredients (read news feed, sharing etc) of a social network and wants to create a community of people who will come together for social and political causes, when needed.

Features

• Social site that connects politically like minded people.
• Has news feed, sharing features.
• Similar tools: Influence Tracker, Public.Perpetually, Poligraft, WhiteHouseApp, Legistalker and In Quotes.

Check out Ruck.us @ www.ruck.us (By Abhijeet from GT Mobiles)

The Vault is the FBI’s effort to make its public documents more accessible. The documents have been scanned and put up on the site as PDF files that can be viewed in the site’s own interface. You can search for documents by name or browse through them categorically.

Clicking on a category displays the titles of the contained documents along with a brief summary.

Clicking on the document title opens it up in the site’s e-reader.

The site contains more than 2,000 records that have been scanned. For researchers and people who want to know more about certain events, The Vault will serve as an invaluable resource.

Features:

• A user-friendly web service.
• Lets you access FBI’s documents under FOIA.
• Contains over 2,000 documents.
• Documents can be searched via name or category.
• Documents can be read in the site’s own e-reader.
• Also read related article: 5 smoking-hot US Government Websites Worth Looking At.

Check out FBI The Vault @ www.vault.fbi.gov (by MOin from ThumbPress)

WorldAtProtest is a simple site that collects protest-related articles from numerous news sources. You can look for protests by setting a time period through a slider available at the bottom of the map displayed on the site. Clicking on a protest area then pops up a semi-transparent window with details of reported protest news. You can choose to change the map colors and select your news sources through the site’s options for the map.

The maps on the site can be zoomed in and out and also downloaded as a JPG file.

Features:

• A user-friendly website.
• Shows protest news reports from around the world.
• Lets you select the time period through a slider.
• You can select map colors and news sources.
• Maps can be zoomed in/out.
• Maps can be downloaded as JPG files.

Check out WorldAtProtest @ www.worldatprotest.com (via RedFerret) (by MOin from ThumbPress)

The website currently has over 1,300 documentaries that you can watch, read a description about, post comments on and share with your friends. While watching a documentary, it also displays a list of related/similar documentaries that you may like. You can also subscribe to receive information about new documentaries via email. The site has over 30 documentaries on 9/11 alone.

Features:

• Watch tons of free documentaries online.
• Documentaries from 24 different categories.
• Everything from Art and Entertainment to politics and philosophy.
• Post comments and share with friends.
• Watch related documentaries.
• No registration required.
• Similar sites: Sprdword, Documentary Heaven and TopDocumentaryFilms.
• You can also check out The Best Places To Watch Documentary Movies Online.

Visit FreeDocumemtaryTV @ www.freedocumentary.tv