The ultimate airfare search engine

If you are like me, when you are getting ready to book a flight online, you just don't pick your favorite airline and book the tickets - you comparison shop. Well this process is not only incredibly tedious, but completely ineffective. I say this now because I have finally found a great web site and resource for searching for the lowest airfare - domestic or international.

Mobissimo.com scours 173 sites directly for the dates and specifications you are looking for in a flight. They look at all the major airlines, travel agent sites, you name it. If you only want a non-stop flight, you can specify that, you can look for just a one-way fare or trips with multiple stops. This site really is ingenious and works. What's funny now is that airlines now usually offer their lowest rates directly on their web site, taking out middle men like Orbitz.com and Travelocity.com.

Besides an airfare search, you can also do the same for hotels and rental cars. I suggest you add this one to your bookmarks because it will win you over the first time it helps you save $100+ on tickets :)

Linking in

Finally, a MySpace for professionals. LinkedIn is a great networking tool for all of us getting ready to finally leave school and make a real paycheck. I first heard about this site during a marketing seminar I recently attended and it appears this site draws many professionals from the communications and public relations industries.

LinkedIn is much more discriminating than MySpace in that you won't find any 12 year-old Justin Timberlake fans or annoying spammers here. In order to link to another colleague, you not only have to get their permission, but also have to input their email address even before the invitation is sent to them. I found this a tad frustrating at first since I don't keep everyone's emails at hand, but now that I think about it - think it's a nice safeguard and effective way to keep the site legit and truly professional.

The real benefit is that once you start linking to others, you increase your network- reminiscent of the whole six degrees of Kevin Bacon. It's a very interesting concept, and free for the basic, no frills membership. I think it's pretty cool to see which people your people know through their people :)

Free Music For All (at least those with a .edu email)

Sure iTunes is great, but why not get music for free legally? I have found the digital music jackpot in a site called Ruckus. All of you reading this should be eligible to start downloading now because you meet the single requirement, having a valid .edu email address.

With access to over 2.1 million songs (and we are talking from the newest to rare, rare finds) and blazing download speeds, Ruckus is a gem. Of course, there are a couple caveats. One is that you have to download the Ruckus player to your computer. There are some banner ads on the bottom, but nothing too intrusive. Mac compatibility is an issue as well, you would need to be able to run Windows Boot Camp on your Mac to get around this. And the last disclaimer, all of the songs are under DRM (digital rights management). This means that you can't do much with the songs except listen to them on your computer via the Ruckus player or Windows Media Player.

Despite these hangups, this service is excellent, speedy and reliable. I have found some songs I've been looking for forever, so I thought some of you might like to give it a try.

To Do's

I wanted to share a very cool site I found this weekend as I was struggling to keep my "To Do's" in order for my upcoming wedding in May. Ta-da Lists is a free service that keeps track of any and all of your to do lists on one of their servers. All you have to do is take a minute to make an account and then you can start creating a list in no time.

What's even cooler is that you can share the list with anyone you want and give them access to edit it. This was perfect for me because I could share my wedding to do's with my fiance and Mom to let them know what I needed help with. Anyways - it's a great little site and best of all, free.