Teach Parents Tech – Don’t we all have at least one member in the family who has given up all efforts to learn how to make the most out of the Web? My 86 year-old grandma uses her PC offline to play solitaire, and online to read the news -she visits over 10 major news sites per day!- and receive emails, as long as these are text-only, basic messages without any attachments or links. On numerous different occasions I have tried tempting her to learn the wonders of the Web, but she would always reply with the same aphoristic claim: “Honey, I’m too old for that.”

My relentless efforts of Web-pushing (including creating for my grandma an All My Faves mini user showcasing all the news and health sites she reads obsessively every day) fail to lure my granny into deeper levels of Web exploration and interaction. It seems she’s dead set on keeping it as basic as possible, and even that, she says, is way too much. Seen as my grandma’s case is a familiar one among seniors, baby boomers and individuals with a low-tech life approach, it was wonderful to discover Google’s recent initiative, Teach Parents Tech, helping to eradicate the strong technophobia pandemic among older people.

Beautifully designed and super-easy to use, Teach Parents Tech is a two-part process; first is the form (shown above) you, the experienced Web users fills out, checking the boxes next to the online actions you wish your parents/grandparents/aunts & uncles would learn. Once you hit Preview you will be taken to a new page structured in a letter format including how-to videos corresponding to the issues you checked in the form. Next all you have to do is provide your and the recipient’s email addresses, and you’re good to go.

For my grandma I picked the two how-to videos below (how to copy & paste, and how to change the PC’s desktop background, respectively). The Teach Parents Tech project is outstanding in both its concept and execution, and I highly recommend using it for the technophobes in your family. This is a keeper!

I wonder how long it would take for my grandma to learn how to use Google Reader. On second thought, I think I’ll just take it one baby step at a time…

YouTube Rewind – Every year YouTube recaps the most viral, influential and most viewed videos online. This year, under the Rewind title, YouTube nicely showcases the videos that made the most buzz on the Web in 2010. You can choose between the Most Watched Videos of the Year, Most Watched Music Videos, or explore the Fastest Rising Search Terms (kind of like Google Trends for YouTube).

I loved the visual video-based time line display of  the “moments that defined 2010” (shown below). YouTube also wants you to join the discussion, so just below the time line you’ll see log in options via Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Log in and join the conversation. Another interesting feature I found here on YouTube Rewind is YouTube Trends (looks like someone read my thoughts…). Enjoy!

Moment Garden – Sites celebrating your new baby’s birth and first years in life aren’t a digital novelty. Excited parents and 1st time parents-to-be can make use of an abundance of baby related resources online that combine photos, videos, family newsletters and invitations.

Moment Garden is playing in the same overall baby celebration field, only in national rather than little league. According to the website’s About,  Moment Garden is about collecting, documenting and sharing special moments with loved ones, capturing that “something you can re-live everyday. Something that celebrates your child’s life and keeps your family and friends updated of everything that’s happening.

How does Moment Garden compare to the other baby-childhood visual documenters out there? Decide for yourself.

Why Did You Buy Me That? – We’ve all been there before; a nicely wrapped box with your name on it makes its way to your end of the table, you open it up and find out it’s…. your least favorite thing in the world or the ugliest thing you have ever seen. Let us celebrate that awkward gift receiving moment that unites all people across the universe -bad gifts- with Why Did You Buy Me That.

Do you have a horrible gift you received from your in-law and have no idea what to do with it? Submit it here. To get you in the mood of the things you’ll find on this cool Weekly Blog winner, see the two photos below.

And my favorite…

Google Hotpot – If you’re already familiar with Foursquare, the Google Hotpot service offers the same underlining service concept -social networking with friends based on geo-location and business ratings- only it does it much, much better. Google has exceeded Foursquare’s service in every possible way, thanks to a large scale combination of the various Google tools; maps and street view, altitude, and search (including images, user reviews, related articles and loads more ) all come into play to offer an ultra geo-location service.

The end result is an all-you-could-possibly-need geo-location service, aimed mostly at the wine & dine aspect of entertainment (search restaurants, diners, cafes, etc.). You can see the screen shot below of the restaurant search I did, ending up with the Spotted Pig, a British restaurant in the West Village neighborhood of NYC. You will see how one page includes all the basic information (phone number, map and driving directions, menu), BUT there are also photos of the restaurant and its dishes (including a street-view), actual reviews of former guests of the restaurant, a list of related places and more formal, critic-based restaurant reviews.

I didn’t stop at the Hotpot’s eating-related business search and looked for cool museums to visit in San Francisco. Did Google Hotpot live up to my expectation? Oh yeah.

Just think of this service’s extreme usefulness in the mobile context. You could search for practically any kind of business or entertainment venue near you in real-time, in a matter of minutes, see what bistros your friends have been to and recommend others to visit as well, how to get there, even what to order. As expected, this is another phenomenal service by Google.

Primetime in No Time – What seems like a commendable attempt to be a cross between Hulu, primetime TV and YouTube, Yahoo TV’s Primetime in No Time offers short recaps of TV’s best and worst moments, aired the day before when most families sat in front of the tube to watch their favorite primetime show.

If this is Yahoo’s effort to close the gap with Hulu, we’re dealing with a predestined, futile battle with the later being the obvious winner. Although the funny in-between narration on the Primetime in No Time videos is cute, it would take much more of Yahoo to offer a solid comeptition to other services currently offered online by the likes of Hulu, CastTV, and soon by Netflix as well.

Forgotten Bookmarks – The anonymous person behind this unique and engaging blog explains what Forgotten Bookmarks is about: “I work at a rare and used bookstore, and I buy books from people everyday. These are the personal, funny, heartbreaking and weird things I find in those books.”

Here is but one example of the oddities found in books people used to own. In this case it’s an old Palmolive Soap ad found in The Bounty Trilogy by Charles Nordhoff and James Normal Hall. Published by Little, Brown, 1962.

As Good As Gold – You are co-starring in this action packed movie trailer, right next to Benicio Del Toro and the lovely Caroline Correa, directed by Bryan Singer. What is the movie about? Oh, just Magnum Gold ice cream…

Upload a photo of yourself or use your webcam to make the experience complete, and see yourself in this cute trailer alongside Hollywood’s hottest stars. Enjoy.

M Thru F – This hilarious blog was a Weekly Blog winner and thus scored the Weekly Fave spot last week. Prepare yourself for prolonged enjoyment as you explore the posts in this funny as hell work fail blog by Cheezburger. Turns out some of life’s funniest moments happen at the office, as you can see below.

Late Night – Experience music videos like never before with this exciting Late Night gem by Doritos. Although Rihanna is the most prominent star here, her video is not the only one worth exploring. Be sure to watch the others offered here, of bands from London, Sao Paulo, Brazil and other locations – you won’t be disappointed. The first screen shot is of the Late Night home screen, the second of the lovely 360 degree video by a cute Brazilian band. Simply play the video, click your mouse on any point on the screen and drag it to any direction. This way you will grasp the concept of an all-angle music video.

FaveOne – This website is ridiculously simple, but also a whole lot of fun and interesting. The entire concept of this site is about offering you two options for a given hypothetical situation and you choose the one you favor. Once you’re done you are presented with the number of votes each of the two options has received thus far, and then another ‘this one or that one’ scenario comes up. Simple enough, isn’t it?

Although it is so simple it hurts, FaveOne is beautifully designed and has a solid call-to-action that is all but intrusive. Great site, great concept and great feeling of choice! Today’s choice is between flying on a plane and driving a car. I picked the latter.

false.jp – All I’m going to say about this site is that it’s very similar to the various Chrome experiments circulating the Web every now and then. I have provided two screen shots below, but if you hover your mouse over the upper left portion of your screen, you’ll get many more awesome options to explore. Enjoy!