DIY Life – I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but AOL has recently emerged as a strong blog creator in practically every lifestyle field. DIY Life is no exception, and this blog constitutes an interesting and valuable resource for home improvement.

AOL’s DIY blog is neatly organized to allow you full access to its various sections: Kitchen & Bath, Know-How, Living Spaces, Outdoors, Crafts & Celebrations, and Experts (currently only featuring Eric Stromer).  Explore this cool blog and I’m sure you’ll be inspired to renovate at least one area in your home. This cool post on the unusual uses of Vodka in your home inspired me to start cleaning my jewelry…

blekko – This new search engine is boldly going where other search giants have gone before, with the mission of delivering a spam-free search experience. How do they do it? With slashtags. These slashtags are essentially your search’s focus keyword by which blekko organizes the accurate relevant results, all from trusted sources while leaving out all the irrelevant (and malware) ones. As TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington had written in his review on blekko back in July 2010, slashtags “like /news or /date or /amazon or /blogs, or any combination, make it very simple to quickly filter results to what you are looking for.”

In addition, users are invited to create their own slashtags and make these public so that, similarly to the ‘everyone’s-an-editor’ concept of Wikipedia, other users can later make use of these public slashtags for their own searches, and get curated, high quality results. See the video below to learn more.

I’ve included a screen shot of a blekko search I performed using the slashtags: /science /date to get a filtered list of relevant results, organized by date (from most recent to latest). This, for example, is a search you can’t do on Google. I invite you to try and search blekko using the ‘reday-made’ slashtags to begin with, and then if you’re interested, create your own user and slashtags for future searches by users.

Another feature blekko offers that is worth mentioning is their transparency graphs related to inbound traffic, SEO and other interesting analytical data that has always been free and open, but blekko is the first to make it all easily accessible in one page. Simply click on of the light gray words under each search result and a world of information will open before your eyes. See below the interview by Alexia Tsotsis of TechCrunch TV, talking to blekko CEO Rich Skrenta, to learn more.

Everything Mom – Being a mom who juggles family and work can be quite a challenge, even if there’s a caring husband or partner to help out whenever possible. First-time moms in particular can find the entire situation daunting, which is why Everything Mom is a delightful blessing.

According to their About Us page, Everything Mom has created “a place for busy moms to kick back for a few minutes, communicate, share and learn. Empowering and inspiring moms to be the happiest they can be while nurturing their families and selves.” Everything Mom truly is a comprehensive source for everything related to womanhood and motherhood. It’s a fun and inviting environment for mothers across the nation to interact, share and draw self empowerment. Get information on meal plans, pregnancy and ovulation, download useful printables for house (and kids) organization, and make use of many other resources. My favorite feature is creating your own listing on the site for free!

NabeWise – Thinking of moving into a new neighborhood? If you’re already familiar with the new location in terms of what the local community is like then you’re all set. But what happens if you want or need to relocate to a different state? How would you go about searching for the right neighborhood for you, especially if you don’t know anyone in the area? NabeWise was conceived precisely for this purpose, and it offers an innovative neighborhood ranking and research tool for the clueless ‘relocators’.

Whether you are a single woman moving from Chicago to New York City, or a married + children family relocating from San Francisco to Seattle, NabeWise is your best buddy for identifying the most suitable neighborhood for you. Based on their user community feedback, NabeWise offers bona fide information on local neighborhoods in major US cities (currently covering NYC, San Francisco, Boston, Seattle and Chicago, with more locations coming soon). Explore neighborhoods’ ranking (in terms of quality of life, character, people, and things to do), average rental costs, school statistics, local reviews and more.

NabeWise’s excellent use of visual content helps you taste better the currently distant neighborhood you are considering moving into. I don’t think there’s anything quite like it on the Web, and I am still a bit bewildered by the fact that NabeWise is a 100% free service! To see an example, see what searching for a Seattle neighborhood is like on NabeWise. The screen shot below is a glimpse of the NabeFinder, a dynamic neighborhood search map showing results according to set parameters (over 30 attributes to choose from).

VisualEconomics.com – Investments, loans, consumption expenditures and saving are financial terms we hear and read about everyday. But do we really understand what they mean? Excluding the professionals involved in the finance field, most laypersons often find it difficult to truly grasp the meaning behind published financial data, despite the increased accessibility we all have to related reports, numbers and information (thanks to the use of the Internet).

VisualEconomics is here to simplify our understanding of the financial market by offering down-to-earth content and explanations of some of the most complicated economic concepts and implications. Although VisualEconomics includes an abundance of break down information on various financial terms, it is their infographics section that truly makes them shine. Think of it as the cumbersome world of financial concepts, simplified. The infographic “How Much Americans Spend on Shopping” is but one example of the VisualEconomics magic. Enjoy and learn.

Strange Maps – Created by the map connoisseur Frank Jacobs, the Strange Maps blog has been around since 2006. Frank “collects and comments on all kinds of intriguing maps—real, fictional, and what-if ones,” transforming the world of maps from a dry information tool to serving as an insightful and intriguing source of information and ideas.

Strange Maps is the Weekly Blogs winner, which is why it was included in last week’s Weekly Fave lineup. Visiting the Big Think’s blog will make you think entirely different on what maps are and how people use them to convey messages and meanings. Start with the fascinating post on “Planet Berlin” (click on the photo below) and you will start looking differently at maps.

AMDM – This amazing Adobe Museum of Digital Media is a whimsical cyberspace presenting “the good the bad and the ugly”  of how we explore digital media, and in turn, how it influences our society in this day and age.  Describing the AMDM in words would be futile. Therefore, I invite you to dive in, see the museum’s curator Tom Eccles’ introduction to this space, and start exploring the museum’s first exhibition “Valley” (second screen shot below).

Baby Name Wizard – When a new baby is on the way, naming him or her can be a daunting task; you want the name to have a deeper meaning, to make an impression, to reflect a noticeable quality or family tradition. If you are seeking for a little bit of creativity and inspiration than merely relying on the names of deceased relatives, Baby Name Wizard is here.

The Baby Name Wizard offers a comprehensive source for everything related to baby naming. You can simply search for names alphabetically, but I suggest digging deeper into the site; explore the NameVoyager, a colossal graphed database of the history and popularity of thousands of names (see screen shot below); check out the Namipedia, a name encyclopedia, and my favorite; the NameMapper, showing names’ popularity by state and year. Look at the lower screen shot for an example, using my favorite name for girls, Mia.

The Baby Name Wizard truly is a great resource to consult if you’re expecting a child. It sure makes things much easier and gives you one less thing to stress about.

FriendShuffle – Where do you go to find out what your social network friends are into? For the most part, Facebook and Twitter, right? Well, now there’s a super-cool way to explore what your friends like, thanks to FriendShuffle.

Explore what your friends found interesting and admirable in a visual and direct way without any interruption of a middleman. Connect with either your Twitter or Facebook log in info, and hit the Shuffle button on the top right corner. This way you’ll not only be able to see what rocked your friends’ boat, but you will also be able to ‘like’ it as well, and expose the rest of your social network to interesting items and content. The concept is simple yet unique, and the execution is totally rewarding! See the screen shot below to see what one of my Facebook friends liked.

We Feel Fine – This most unusually creative and heart-warming project is brought to us by Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar, two amazingly creative and intelligent guys who decided to create a project where random sentences, statements and aphorisms are aggregated into one colorful and playful site. The result is truly amazing and awe-inspiring, and as Jonathan and Sep describe it, We Feel Fine is “a database of several million human feelings, increasing by 15,000 – 20,000 new feelings per day.”

To see an example, look at the screen shot below, although the project is very easy to explore; once the page has finished loading, simply click on a random dot and see what happens.

Gather – This site offers a totally different approach to staying up to date with what’s going on in the world and in our life. It is “the place where millions and millions of people come for fresh perspective on what’s happening now. Gather members can share their own views and join in conversation with others who share their interests.” Thanks to their broad network of talented freelance writers and dedicated members, Gather offers great content for over 15,000 (!) groups.

See this cool gardening group I found on Gather. I think I’ll join this group to get some much needed tips on how to keep my plants alive and well…

SodaHead – This online dialogue hub is described as “a dynamic discussion community where you can discover, debate and discuss issues that get you fired up.” Explore users’ submitted questions and discussions in various topics (news and politics, entertainment, science, lifestyle and humor), or start your own thread.

SodaHead is a nice break from the various Q&A sites out there. As you will see in the screen shot below, its look & feel, the added features and the large user community make it an appealing go-to site for all those curious and support-seeking souls out there.