Free Napkin

Next let's surf over to , a site suggestion sent via e-mail from an anonymous reader. FreeNapkin turns out to be an eBay for free stuff. That is, you take pictures of unwanted junque in your garage and post the pics here, and the first FreeNapkin member to "claim" the item wins. The claimant pays the shipping on the item, or picks it up in person (the site filters the donations by city so you know what free stuff is nearby). People have given away everything from dogs to farm equipment on FreeNapkin. Without my having actually donated anything on the site (hmm, maybe my 401K...), I can only say that it appears to work well, based on the number of listings. FreeNapkin is no marvel of fancy Web design, but it gets bonus points for hitting squarely on the need to conserve and recycle in tough economic times. On the other hand, it loses points because the names and contact information of the site's proprietors are nowhere to be found--a bad sign.

Verdict: FreeNapkin may not get huge this year; but as word spreads about this "eBay of Free," the site could see steadily mounting membership in the next few years.

Open Proxy Network

Reader George7777 says that he finds to be useful. "A lot of people are having troubles accessing certain Web sites because some countries are blocking everything," he writes. "It shouldn't be this way; information is free." So how does Open Proxy Network help? The site provides a list of links to various anonymous proxy sites, such as . These "proxy sites" provide a generic IP address that you can use while surfing, enabling you to venture into places on the Web where your normal IP address could not gain admittance. So if you're at school or in a public library, or even at some places of business, and you just have to visit FilthyWasteofTime.com and do some research, one of the free proxies listed at Open Proxy Network will let you browse there anonymously.