Rentlord is a new, free online service designed primarily to make the lives of landlords easier. Rentlord makes it easy to instantly list your home as available on several of the biggest property rental websites, then to negotiate the paperwork step by step with your new tenants. Once your details are in the system, advertising your property to millions of people is as simple as flicking a switch. That’s bound to make your tenant search better.

Rentlord For Landlords

Advertising your house for rent is simple using Rentlord. You describe the house in basic terms, showing how many rooms and bathrooms are available and giving an exact postcode so that a Google Maps reference can be shown. When required, the house is then listed in some of the biggest UK property rental sites free of charge. All you need to do is flick a switch to say that it’s on the market.

Check out their introductory video.

Rentlord has worked with lawyers to write contracts that landlords can use safely, with records being stored in the Rentlord system so they can’t be misplaced or damaged. This makes it easy to start the tenancy agreement with your new tenant, but also to manage it down the track. Both parties have access to their contract records if necessary.

Rentlord For Tenants

As well as making it easy to start a tenancy with the landlord, Rentlord makes things extremely easy for tenants from then on. They offer an easy way to pay rent, connect utilities, pay bills and even split bills with other tenants. All the big UK utilities are easy to pay directly from the Rentlord site, and payments can be made for bills or to other tenants using PayPal. Email reminders can be sent to you and other tenants so that you never miss your rent or bill due dates again.

If there’s problems with the house, Rentlord makes it easy to contact your landlord and to hire contractors to fix things.

Rentlord For Sharehousing

If you’re renting a house and need to find a new person to share with, you can advertise for your new tenant via Rentlord. The advert will be seen on all the associated rental websites, then you can draw up your tenancy contract using pre-prepared forms on Rentlord. Rentlord keeps track of everything for you and makes everything as easy as possible for you.

Limitations Of Rentlord

Rentlord is currently limited to the UK only, but will soon expand to the US. Other users can sign up, but they’ll need to enter a UK postcode before they can make use of any of the services. Properties are only advertised in UK rental websites, so it’s clear as to why landlords would be limited to the UK. This is a little sad though, since the sharehousing facilities could potentially be useful to people worldwide, without needing to be in the UK.

Branching out into other countries would also involve Rentlord providing rental advertising and legal advice for these new markets. Each new country will certainly be a big step.

More Housing Services

There really aren’t any competing services to Rentlord. This one-stop portal for landlords and tenants is so far completely unique. There are some other great housing tools for landlords and tenants out there though:

• Test Landscaping Ideas For Your House With Showoff The Visualizer
• Create a House Floor Plan with FloorPlanner
• The 5 Most Significant Online Property Search Websites – Part 1
• Top 5 U.S. Apartment Search Engines

Would you use a service like Rentlord as a landlord or tenant? Why or why not?

Image Credit : Jameson42

Flying Connected also rents cell phones, laptops and notebooks, GPS devices, and other related products for people traveling in and out of New York City.

You can call or reserve the device you want to rent online, and Flying Connected will bring your rental to your hotel room or to the airport. The company says that all sensitive data will be cleared off the rental device and be restored to default factory settings. They will also show you how to remove data yourself, as well as how to use the features of the device.

The company says in its mission statement: “We keep our rates low because we really want as many people as possible to enjoy our services and stay connected when they travel“. For additional fees, you can also rent iPad accessories like an Apple Smart Cover, Camera Connection Kit, or car charger.

Flying Connected will also pick up your rented device , but you will be charged of course for late returns. The company says it will soon have the option for customers to purchase rented devices.

Source: Mashable

Maybe you ask your friends – or beg and plead?

Everyone knows that your first stop should be CraigsList regardless of where you live. I have found my last 3 apartments via CraigsList but this little gem called PadMapper makes it so much easier and more enjoyable! The site isn’t as cutting edge as it used to be (CraigsList that is) but it is very functional. How can we improve the quality of data that we grab from this site? Well I have a way for you!

I know that I have wished for a Google Maps type application within CraigsList to see my choices on a map with the ability to filter out the same stuff you can on CraigsList’s website like bedrooms, bathrooms and price.

This is exactly what PadMapper did – they mashed up CraigsList’s apartment listings with a Google Map. Now you can see all the available apartments in your area on a map!   Let’s take a look at the site:

When you first arrive at PadMapper you will see their slogan which explains it all ““ Making Apartment Hunting Suck Less! I love it! Simply start typing a city or address into the first field and you will be whisked away to a Google Map. You can set your criteria first but I will get back to that in a minute.

I started typing New York and I immediately had a United States Map on my screen. As I hit GO the map became localized to NYC.

There are a lot of listings here.  We would now want to filter out all the undesirable apartments for rent and narrow down our search.

We do this by clicking on the Filter Listings option at the bottom of the PadMapper bubble.

You can see that you can set Max/Min Rent price, number of bedrooms, maximum price per bedroom, maximum age of listing, keywords to be found in the listing or title, and if you are in NYC you can make sure you can get to work via the subway.

Wow! And still there are more options including pictures, sublets or no sublets and they also search Apartments.com (apparently).

After you get to narrow down your choices you can click on one of them and it will bring up a bubble with your selections options like the picture you see below:

Once you have the listing up you can email the owner directly, save to favorites in Google Maps, see a street view or report the listing. Oh and of course you can open the Craigslist listing with one click as well!

How do you find apartments for rent in this day and age?  Do you know of other sites that aggregate data on apartments from other sites?

If so, we would love to hear about it in the comments.

Whether you’re looking for a cheap mobile plan, the best bank account for your spending habits, the cheapest digicam store or a nearby gas station with lowest petrol prices — these sites have you covered.

(1) CarRentals.com – Compare Car Rental Rates

CarRentals.com is the biggest car rentals aggregator site that makes comparing car rental rates really easy. It searches for offers from different vendors and gives you a list of available cars sorted by the daily rental rates starting from the cheapest.



By default, results are sorted by price. However, you can also sort them by vendor, distance from your house, car type and vendor location.


(2) BillShrink.com – Compare Cell Phone Plans and Credit Cards

Are you sure you’re getting the best deal with your current cell phone plan? BillShrink.com is the place to find it out. Here, you can instantly compare over 100 mobile plans and find the best one for your usage habits. Fill in your preferences and it will return with the cheapest plan meeting those criterias. It only takes about 3-4 minutes.



The site also lets you compare credit cards.

(3) FindABetterBank – Compare Bank Accounts

Find A Better Bank helps you find an ideal bank account. Enter your zip code, indicate the features that are important to you and additional details to help them estimate yearly banking fees. Then, it will give you a detailed comparison of local banks, sorted from best to worst.



Moreover, when you find the ideal bank for your needs, you may check out what others have to say about it and its rating on MyBankTracer.

(4) GasBuddy – Compare Gas Prices

GasBuddy is a great money saver site for those who drive a lot. On this site, you can quickly check gas prices in your area and find the cheapest gas prices and stations. Just type in your zip code and you’ll get a list of gas pumps along with the gas price at each of them.



When it comes to gas prices, I highly recommend you check out PetroFix. This site allows you to hedge against future gas price increases and make sure you never overpay for gas.

(5) Compare Dimensions: Sizeasy / DisplayWars / TV Calculator

Sizeasy, DisplayWars and TV Calculator are 3 excellent sites that can help you a great deal when you are trying to visualize the dimensions for things like small electronic gadgets, mobile phone and TV screens.

I have used these tools countless times and highly recommend them to everyone. Sizeasy works great for smaller items like mobile phones. The other two focuses on TV screens and monitors.



(6) CompareMyFiles – Compare Text Files

CompareMyFiles is a simple online tool that lets you easily compare two text files online side by side. Very useful when you have slightly different versions of the same file and need to find the exact lines where they differ.



(7) PriceGrabber – Compare Product Prices

PriceGrabber is one of the most popular price comparison sites in USA. Search for the product you want to buy and PriceGrabber will find all retailers selling the product and list them starting from the cheapest. The results can be also sorted by user ratings and reviews.



(8) Rentometer – Compare Rent Rates

On Rentometer, you can find out whether the amount you’re currently paying for your rent is a rip-off or a bargain. Rentomoeter compares the amount you pay to an average rate for similar apartments in the neighborhood. There is also a map view of nearby apartments including their rates.



(9) TicketsFTW / TicketPredator – Comparing Ticket Prices For Events

TicketsFTW and TicketPredator brings the best deals on sports, concert, and theater tickets and even sold-out shows. Simply search for the event you want to attend and see the where you can buy it at the lowest fare.



(10) GlassDoor – Compare Your Salary Against Others

GlassDoor lets you anonymously share your salary figure with others and in return, get full access to salaries of others. Simply post an anonymous salary of your own and in few minutes you will have access to salary figures in over 23,000 companies shared by real employees. This is one of the sites that you should definitely check before going for your next job interview.

There are a few other good comparison sites like ShipGooder, PrintingChoice or FrugalMechanic that were covered on MakeUseOf before but didn’t make the list. Check them out as well.

Did we miss any useful comparison sites? Lets us know in comments!

Top image credit: yan =]

Even worse; making phonecalls, setting up viewings, and dealing with the variety of potential landlords – an assortment of snakes and sleazebags most of the time.

Luckily, the magic of the Internet now simplifies the process of hunting for an apartment. The following top 5 apartment seacrh engines are sure to make your next move significantly easier than your last.

Rating the Top 5 Apartment Search Sites

How do you determine which apartment search sites are the top five? For me, it comes down to to three things – simplicity, features, and results. The site needs to be simple enough so that I can get in and out and do what I need to do without requiring a training course on how to navigate the website.

The website should also provide all of the features that an apartment hunter demands, such as the ability to visually tour apartments or filter search criteria. Most importantly, the site should return the largest number of results as possible.

The following websites meet those basic requirements, and some of them have a few nice bonus features as well.

According to RealEstateRama, the following were the top ten apartment hunting search engines based on the number of times visitors “checked availability” of an apartment on the website.

1. Rent.com
2. 4walls.net
3. ForRent.com
4. ApartmentGuide.com
5. Apartments.com
6. ApartmentShowcase.com
7. ApartmentHomeLiving.com
8. Move.com
9. MyNewPlace.com
10. ApartmentSearch.com

Popularity is one thing, but as MakeUseOf readers know, features and quality are often far more important than popularity.  With this in mind, I tested all ten websites, and have rated the top five apartment search websites based on design, features and ease of use.

#5 – Move.com

Starting off the countdown at number five, Move.com makes the cut with a clean and efficient design.

Move.com lets you search by price range as well as beds and baths, but in addition you can also search by property type as well as amenities and pet requirements. There are article listings under home finance, moving, and home & garden categories.

However, the overall focus of the website seems to be geared toward motivating people away from renting and into becoming a first time home buyer.  Two identical sections to the rental search are parallel searches for New Homes and Existing Homes.

The search results included 5 detailed photo listings coming up for Portland, Maine, and all listings including estimated rent prices.  The search here is focused on the specific town that you’re looking for, but you can heavily refine that search with the terms listed in the left menu bar.

#4 – ApartmentGuide.com

ApartmentGuide is a very simple, stripped down apartment search where you search by price, beds and baths, property name, or location.  The results come up in a clear photo format with a cool interactive map showing where each property is located.

While this site returned fewer results for Portland, Maine (3 vs. 5) than Move.com did, it is still ranked higher due to the fact that the site is devoted to only apartments, and because this website is one of the few apartment search sites that provides a truly interactive map where you can access the listings by clicking an icon within the map.

The site also performs an “intelligent” search for rentals within communities that surround the city you searched.

My favorite feature of the site, however, is the stylish slideshow that’s offered for every property.

This feature alone is a valuable way to get a nice tour of a property well before you take the trip to check it out in person.

#3 – ApartmentHomeLiving.com

ApartmentHomeLiving is the sort of website that you’ll want to visit even if you’re not looking for an apartment.  The feel of the sight is light and airy, and the motto says it all, “Live for hot chocolate.”

The search results are nice photo listings pulled from the Apartments.com database, but they aren’t anything to call home about.  What makes this apartment search site stand out is obviously the content.  There are loads of great features and “answers” about everything to do with moving and apartment living.

In essence this site is like a “souped-up” version of Apartments.com, with a dash of fun thrown in.  In the search area, you can even find an apartment based on your personality!

#2 – Apartments.com

Often copied, but still one of the forerunners in the apartment search business, Apartments.com provides greater search features and a better site design than the majority of competitors.

From the very first page, you’ve got a large clickable map for easy one-click apartment searching.  Or if you prefer, you can search by typing the location, and also by a whole list of apartment characteristics like type of housing, beds and baths, whether it’s pet friendly, or the apartment and community amenities.

The listings are detailed, with the ability to save results to “favorites,” clear pricing, and many properties offer a “360 degree” tour.  Apartments.com is one of the few websites that lists private rental properties as well as large managed properties.  In the case of my search for Portland, Maine, the results returned included 8 managed and 2 private rentals.

The site also offers valuable content for renters including sections titled moving center, apartment living, manager center, and landlord resources.

#1 – Rent.com

Rent.com is, by far, the king of the apartment search domain. The site is clearly professionally designed, with a fast and easy initial page featuring a basic search.  Unfortunately, to use Rent.com you need to enter your email address.  However, I’ve used Rent.com for over three years and have never had a problem with spam through the site.

The power of Rent.com, and the main reason it remains the king of the hill is its extensive apartment database that includes not only managed apartment buildings, but also condos, townhouses and houses.

The bottom line is that Rent.com returns more results than any other site – for my test search for the small city of Portland, Maine, it returned 18 listings.

The listings include large, clear photos and photo galleries, lots of specific details about the apartments, and the price range is clearly displayed on every listing. The “moving center” section of the website offers renters help with transferring utilities and insurance, dealing with truck rentals and storage, and the millions of other details that renters have to worry about during a move.

The Bottom Line

What it ultimately comes down to when you need to decide which site you prefer to use really depends on what you need. If your primary concern is getting the most listings as possible, Rent.com is the first place you should go to. However, if you’re just interested in reading quality articles about moving, or finding advice about how to deal with the process, many of the other sites on this top 5 list fit the bill quite well.

Have you moved recently? If so, did you use any of the above top apartment seacrh engines to find an apartment? Any other ones? Offer your opinion in the comments section below.

Netflix was established in 1997 as the first completely online DVD rental service. Almost immediately they began massive amounts of web advertising to help get the word spread. They would house thousands of DVDs that users can rent via their Netflix website. All shipping expenses would be paid, after a small monthly fee. No late fees, no envelopes to worry about, and an incredibly easy website to create movie queues, rate them and reserve future releases. The ease and price of the service made it extremely popular almost immediately. Today it’s huge and continually growing. They now have hundreds of streaming movies to watch through your browser, and nearly every DVD and Blu-Ray disc ever.

With something as popular as Netflix, there are always going to be individuals out there trying to take advantage of the service in their own way. There have been both online and offline Windows Netflix apps that have come and gone as Netflix has upgraded their website. However on November 1st 2008, Netflix released their API to the public and we are already beginning to see web-based Netflix tools and iPhone Netflix apps being released.

Below are a couple of fun apps that have been hatched based upon that very API.

Feedflix

Feedflix is a Netflix analyzation tool that takes your account’s RSS Feed and breaks down how often you’re renting, and if you are truly getting your money’s worth.

As long as you are logged into your Netflix account through the present PC you are using, Feedflix can link up to your account and begin an analysis.

Below is a graphical breakdown of my account. I haven’t been returning them as often as I should be, so at $1.55/movie it’s not bad, but I could be doing better. I should point out that this includes instant viewing as well.

Below are even more stats in regards to my account – how many rentals I’ve completed and much more.

This is just a small look at the main page too. There are so many other cool features built into FeedFlix, you could keep yourself entertained for hours. Here are some of those features:

• Email alerts - create alerts to remind yourself when you’ve been holding onto a title for too long.
• Popular title graphs and reports – see even more graphs and reports on popular titles presently at home, in the past two weeks or most awaited.
• Fun graphs and reports – see what day is the most popular to rent/return, how long users typically hold onto a movie, popular plans and average queue sizes.

The fun behind FeedFlix isn’t really what it’s all about. You really get much more then that. It forces you to get yourself motivated and get much more of your money’s worth on your account as well. Like I said, all that you need is any sort of Netflix account.

Qflip

Another fun product brought upon the release of the Netflix API is Qflip. A web app, supposedly built in 48 hours, that ‘rents randomly’. You put the faith in the internet to randomly select a movie for you, and put it at the top of your movie queue.

After connecting your account, as you do in FeedFlix, you first enter any one word to help select your random movie. Such action, awesome, sad or humorous.

Once you’ve entered your keyword, five completely random movies are selected based upon your likes and dislikes, but having nothing to do with your keyword. Once the five movies are selected, you can have friends, family or complete strangers vote on what movie to rent, based upon your word. Below were three of my five, for the word ‘Humor’…which would you vote for? tough call:

Voting lasts 24 hours, at which time the results are tabulated and a movie is selected and moved to the top of your queue. You can then have results e-mailed to you. Although there isn’t much to it, if you’re looking for something completely new and don’t like any of the recommendations, Qflip works perfect in this situation. Try it out, it’s simple and fun.

It’s good to see Netflix finally releasing their API. I can imagine along with the half dozen compatible iPhone apps that we’ve already seen, we are going to see several more web apps as well. For the amazing product that they have already given us, we are going to get so much more out of it with applications such as these.

Have any other Netflix apps you’d like to share? Have you tried either one of these products before? Please give us your feedback.

Yahoo Real Estate puts a different spin on things. Remember that Realtor.com is Realtor® controlled and Craigslist is totally uncontrolled, except by the community and system moderators. Yahoo on the other hand, has entered into agreements with real estate brokers to display listings as well as into agreements with local MLS’s to display their listings. So you end up with a pretty good representation of what is available from real estate professionals.

Yahoo also shows you what’s for rent and what homes are in foreclosure, which is a nice feature (although you generally have to register with a third party to see the property details on the foreclosures)

Here is the home page of Yahoo Real Estate:

To illustrate how to use the site, we’ll take a trip to Beverly Hills, California 90210 to see if we can find any homes in foreclosure at a bargain price:

As you can see we found two for under a million dollars! Let’s select the top one and see what we can learn about the property.

Hmmm”¦we get some detail, but not much. If we want more we have to register with a third party. Notice the parts highlighted in green?

If we click on the ‘Neighborhood’ button on the left side we will get some info about the weather, the neighborhood, schools and more.

As you can see, we can find homes to buy using the free tools at Realtor.com, Craigslist and Yahoo Real Estate, but none of these sites really helps with analyzing whether a particular home is a good buy. This is where our next site comes into play.

Trulia is one of those new sites in the real estate space that fills a definite niche. They do so by providing a number of different analytical tools as well as enlisting the real estate professional to answer questions. This works a lot like Yahoo Questions in that you can ask real estate questions and get answers from a professional that you can use along with Trulia’s analytics.

Here is the Trulia home page that I have started at Beverly Hills 90210:

Right away you’ll get some stats and the ability to ask questions. But let’s follow the property we found at Yahoo and see what we can learn at Trulia.

Plus you have the comparisons with Yahoo Answers :

You will still have to register with a third party to get the details of the home such as its address, but Trulia starts to give more details on pricing as you can see from the graph. For even more analytics, just click on the “More Charts and Data” button :

That gives us a pretty good idea of what the values are and what the area is like, but there is one more place to check to be sure that we have a handle on the values before we call our agent to start the purchase ball rolling, and that would be Zillow.

Zillow uses public information from tax rolls as well as input from homeowners and real estate professionals to produce what they call a “zestimate” or their opinion of the property’s value. In many cases they are dead wrong, but in many other cases they are surprisingly accurate. Which you will experience is hard to say, but if they are significantly off of what you see on Trulia, then Zillow may be wrong. They are very accurate with tract homes that are similar to each other, but have the most difficulty with custom homes. That should not be held against them as even real estate professionals and appraisers find it hard to determine accurate values on custom homes.

Here is what you find at Zillow:

If you search for our Elderidge Drive example you get this:

Taking our 90210 example, you can see that they show every parcel on Elderidge Drive with a price. This is the “zestimate” that I mentioned. Since I don’t have the address of the Elderidge Drive house, (I didn’t want to register with RealtyTrac), I can’t be sure which parcel is the right one. But judging from the prices on that street, my guess is that this would be a good home to investigate. The homes are priced significantly higher that what is being asked by the bank to pay off the existing loan.

So, by using the free tools that are available, I can search for homes for sale, for rent and in foreclosure. I can compare neighborhoods, schools, amenities and I can see whether something is a good buy or not. All of this before I have to ever speak to a human being!

If you are even thinking about jumping into the US real estate market to take advantage of the incredible deals that are available, you’ll want to use the tools that we have talked about in this series of articles. You’ll be informed to make the decision that’s right for you and you’ll feel more comfortable with offers that you make.

If you have other free tools that you like, let us know about them in the comments!

(By) Jerry Kidd is a California Real Estate Broker, blogger, educator and author of Realty Tech Bytes

1- Compare Product Prices with PriceGrabber

I’ve tried many comparison shopping sites and can confirm that PriceGrabber is one of the best ones. Simply search for the product you want to buy and PriceGrabber will list all available retailers starting from the cheapest. If you’re not clear about what exactly you want to purchase, then you can browse products by categories and filter them further by specs, features and brand. Products can also be sorted by user ratings and reviews.

2- Compare Banks with FindaBetterBank

Looking for a new bank account? Wondering how your current bank account stands against account offerings from other banks in the area? Find A Better Bank is the one and only tool you need. It’s very thorough and can help you locate the best bank account for your needs in a matter of minutes.

So how it works?

Enter your zip code, indicate the features that are important to you and provide additional details to help them estimate yearly banking fees. Done. Now you have a detailed comparison of nearby banks, sorted from best to worst.

3- Compare Cell Phone Contracts with BillShrink

There are so many cell phone contracts out there that it’s almost impossible to find out whether you’re getting a good deal. BillShrink is a new service that can help you with this. This handy website first asks you about your usage preferences and requirements (i.e. average daily talk time, whether you need data plan, SMS usage etc.). Then it compares over 100 mobile plans and finds the best plan for your needs. I am quite surprised that we haven’t seen something like this earlier.

The whole procedure takes about 3-4 minutes. Read more …

4 -Compare your Rent with RentoMeter

RentoMeter is a web based rent comparison service. Here you can find out whether the amount you’re currently paying for your rent is a rip-off or a bargain deal. Rentomoeter compares the amount you pay to an average rate for the similar apartments in the neighborhood area. It will also give you a mapview of nearby apartments including their rates. Check out the RentoMeter in action here.

5- Compare Budget Airlines with SkyScanner

One of the few budget flight search engines that can actually find you the best ticket. I tested it both in Europe and Asia and can confrim that it actually WORKS! It’s also the only budget airline search tool I am aware of that works for inter-continental flights. SkyScanner only searches among budget airlines so you won’t see any pricey tickets here.

(1) Couch Surfing / Hospitality Club – These two are completely independent communities, however the idea behind both projects is very similar, thus they share spot #1. Check out video below for a quick intro.

Couch Surfing

Sign up for Couch Surfing if you would like to meet and interact with people around the world. The motivation of this community is to share whatever you have with others – your expertise, a bit of company, dinner, a cup of tea or your couch or guest bed. As a member you can set up a profile in which you write about yourself and describe what you have to offer. People interested in meeting you or surfing your couch can contact you through your profile. Within the community you can join groups for special interests, for example to hear about meetings or get togethers in your area. Once you met someone through the site you can leave a reference on their profile and become their friend. I have been a member of Couch Surfing for almost two years, hosted several dozen people, gave them a tour through my city, had meals and went out with them. I was hosted by two people and I can tell you, it’s such an incredible feeling to be welcome and treated like family by a stranger far away from home. The only negative experiences I made were with people who didn’t show up or canceled last minute. Other than that everyone was at least nice, but most people I met were awesome.

Hospitality Club

Now that you know about Couch Surfing, there is not much left to say about Hospitality Club. It’s the same, but different. Many avid Couch Surfers are also members of Hospitality Club and vice versa. I like to keep it simple and decided for the site that looked cooler and seemed more easy to use. For example Hospitality Club urges guests to share their personal information including passport number with their hosts and encourages hosts to check the passport of arriving guests. While this is a good precaution, it somehow turned me off. I’m not a control freak, I like to be a bit naive and trust in common sense and humanity. Couch Surfing just seemed more like I would fit in there.

(2) FreeCycle

The Freecycle Networkâ„¢ is a nonprofit movement, dedicated to the free exchange of anything people want to part with. Furniture, electronic devices, toys, clothes, anything. It’s subdivided into individual local groups, located across the globe. These groups are basically Yahoo Groups that are utilizing the eMail list feature. You may post OFFERED as well as WANTED items to the public list and anyone who is interested or can help out will contact you directly. The groups are moderated by local volunteers. To sign up search for your community or browse all existing groups. If you find that there is no group in your area, you can start one and add it to the Freecycle Networkâ„¢. Currently the network consists of 4,233 groups with a total of 4,444,000 members.

(3) FON

FON is the world’s largest WiFi community. FON members, also known as Foneros, share their WiFi connection with others for free. In return, when they leave their home base, they can use the WiFi connection provided by other Foneros for free. If you do not wish to share your WiFi for free, you could even make a little money. However, this would exclude you from using FON Spots for free.

With FON Maps you can check whether or not a FON Spot is available in your area. The image below shows a random selection from a residential area in Germany’s capital Berlin. Every yellow face represents one available access point.



(4) GeoCaching

GeoCaching is the modern form of treasure hunting using the internet, geographical data and a GPS device (although you could manage to do it without the gadget). You can hide a treasure (cache) yourself, then log onto the site and share the location. Or you can look for caches hidden in your area and begin searching for them.

(5) BookCrossing

BookCrossing has been around for a long time. It’s an adventure for people who love to read and share. Share your favorite book with a lucky stranger. Sign up with BookCrossing, receive an ID and printout explaining what BookCrossing is, paste it in your book and then set it free – anywhere. You can leave the book on a bench in a park or lay it on someone’s care in the parking lot or drop it in a mailbox. If you’re lucky the recipient will log into the BookCrossing website, report the book with the ID they found inside and leave a comment about how they liked it.

(6) PostCrossing

PostCrossing may sound like BookCrossing, but the two have little more than a similar name in common. PostCrossing is about receiving postcards from around the world. Signing up requires sharing your postal address. The next step is to request an address and mail this person a postcard. To verify that your postcard was sent and received, the recipient will submit the ID you noted onto your card to the site. Next you’re in the queue to receiving a postcard from a random stranger somewhere on this planet. I’ve tried it, it really works!

Isn’t it amazing what possibilities the internet has opened up and how we can connect through it? What are your thoughts on these communities and which pages did I miss? Please share!