As seen in my post, Because I Can, here is what I'm grateful for, today:

Today, April 7, Day 14, I'm grateful for the Internets and all of it's splendor.

The list is FAR too long to actually list them all, however, here are some the most important, life changing parts of the internet (this, of course, being a family safe list), in my opinion.

• E-Bay - I recently gave in, after much peer presure, and purchased myself an X-Box 360.  My biggest deturrant has always been the cost associated the console, however, once the pressure got hard enough I thought I'd see what I could find.  Thanks to the world's most popular auction website I found one, plus a wireless controller, for an amount that didn't entirely break the bank.  E-Bay has brought many changes to the world of person to person sales: it has made internet selling easy and almost garunteed if you follow it's best practices; it has made the weekend garage sale an every day (quite literally) occurance; it has also spawned many brick-and-mortar stores that afford people who are afraid to sell things themselves online the opportunity to do so.
  
• Google - It's hard to argue that any company has had more effect on how the internet is used.  From mail, calendar and business applications to their flagship search application (which includes topical searches for blogs, images, news and many more) Google has revolutionized every aspect of using the internet.  They even have their own video sharing site - YouTube, eat your heart out (ok, maybe the video sharing site is lacking).  And for all you MAC/Apple Fan Boys, I am a Google Fan Boy.
  
• Evite - I don't have quite the praise for Evite that I do for Google, but Evite was the first (that I knew of) publicly available internet event planning system.
  
• Wikipedia - No one said everything you read on the internet is perfect, and this site has had more than it's share of mis-information; however, if you are looking to learn something quick this is a great place to start.  START being the key.  I have, on many-a-night, been watching a historical fiction on TV (most recently The Tudors on Showtime) and found myself skimming Wikipedia's database for more information.  I do sugges,t however, if you're using this for any fact-finding you find other sources; this user-driven content is not always the most accurate.
  
• Craigs List - Craigs list, too, has been around for quite some time.  It, like E-Bay, has brought the garage sale to the internet, however, it's lack of restrictions has given it as many negatives as it has positives.  Oh, if you're a regular Craigs List user, I suggest ListPic.com: a site that displays Craigs List results using their photographs ... a very cool site to use.
• IMDB - The Internet Movie Database.  Want to know what actor was in what movie and who co-starred in it?  How about some reviews?  Maybe photographs from the movies.  How about Television shows?  The list goes on, and this site has all the data you could need on your favorite star, or starlet.

Read the complete post at http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/jayleasktech/~3/285920381/being-grateful-day-14.aspx