MeFi Projects

Match with the perfect chocolate for you by building your taste profile. With more varieties of candy out there than ever, this tool will help you discover a new favorite just in time for Halloween.
posted by beeker on Oct 25, 2023 - 1 comment

You bookmark interesting pages to check out later. But the more you bookmark, the harder it gets to find and revisit them -- if you even remember to do it. Wander surprises you with a random page that you bookmarked once upon a time. Get back to the places you love, not just the places that hook you. [more inside]
posted by ogami on Aug 6, 2023 - 0 comments

I wrote some code to get comprehensive place listings from Google Maps, and then I also wrote this article about it, and how Robert Ballard's search for the Titanic helped me find restaurants in Chattanooga.
posted by samuelfullerth on Aug 10, 2020 - 0 comments

Hello! The (5 min) youtube video (with speaker notes linked in the description) is an executive summary of my final project for a class called Organizing Information. The project was to design an index for a collection of existing work. I chose podcast episodes within the Radiotopia network. An index is an organized list of terms that link to all the items that have that term (like this on metafilter). Indexes (1) allow users to find all of the items connected by a term in one place and (2) describe items by considering their "aboutness" --- a concept that can be quite the rabbit hole! [more inside]
posted by CMcG on Aug 5, 2019 - 1 comment

I like to play the ukulele everyday. I know a bunch of chords but not all of them. I wanted to have a tool that searches song books based on which chords I already know, so I could discover new songs and navigate my books better. Click the chord diagrams you know, and it displays a directory of all the songs you can play with those chords. [more inside]
posted by a complicated history on Feb 8, 2018 - 2 comments

I've spent the past 18 months or so slogging away at apprecs.com, an app search engine that can detect review manipulation. You can see the worst offenders here. I posted this back when this was iOS-only, and I'd like to share some major new features I've added. [more inside]
posted by hodgebodge on Oct 20, 2016 - 2 comments

While developing mobile apps, I realized how rife the App Store is with rating/review manipulation. So, I created apprecs.com, a facade for the store that allows you to filter out many of the fake, coerced, or otherwise manipulated reviews. You can also filter by other criteria such as how recently the app was last updated and age/gender of the typical user. What do you think? I'm getting started on adding Android (Google Play) support today. [more inside]
posted by hodgebodge on Apr 19, 2016 - 9 comments

Ever read a web page and think, "I would like to read a book about that – for free!" Well, if you live in the greater Boston area, you can highlight some text on a web page then click this one weird old button to get a relevant book. [more inside]
posted by ignignokt on Mar 23, 2016 - 5 comments

I've written a little web service that lets you search Google Image Search from Slack. I've found it to be a good companion to giphy. Here's the code and instructions to set it up. [more inside]
posted by ignignokt on Sep 30, 2015 - 0 comments

Nuggety is a tool to explore and search websites directly. [more inside]
posted by lubujackson on Nov 12, 2013 - 0 comments

Nearly a million domains expire every day. Firesign Branding allows you to search and register these expiring domains. With drops from 5 different sources including GoDaddy, Snapnames and Domain Monster, you are sure to be able to find a great domain for any keyword you want.
posted by jstubblefield on Jul 20, 2013 - 0 comments

Costumemuse is an amusing way to come up with costume idea. It is a search engine of costume ideas. So if you're looking for inspiration for a movie themed costume or you want to see how many different variations of a Poison Ivy costume are possible it's the place to go. [more inside]
posted by aTrumpetandaDream on Jun 13, 2012 - 3 comments

I just finished the excellent CS101 course at Udacity, which promised I'd learn to build a search engine in seven weeks. I was skeptical, but sure enough, I did! This very simple search engine is based on the code I learned in class, and searches the Udacity course materials. While building it, I also learned to use the Bottle web framework and Google App Engine. I kept a blog with lots of details here. The next round of classes starts tomorrow, so I thought I'd post this here and encourage anyone interested in learning to build their own to sign up.
posted by ecmendenhall on Apr 15, 2012 - 3 comments

with a mecha-spider marionette. [more inside]
posted by gusandrews on Jan 17, 2012 - 0 comments

Finding an apartment is hard work. There's a million things to keep track of for every place you find, and things get doubly complicated if you're trying to find a place with a roommate or significant other. FivePad is a powerful little tool to help you keep track of an apartment search, from websites to landlords to roommates. [more inside]
posted by zrail on Nov 17, 2011 - 5 comments

A little while back I thought that it would be nice to be able to post things online that couldn't be indexed by search engines. So, I put together a simple site that takes text, renders it to an image, and allows you to link to it. The idea is that this could be used for things like email addresses (to avoid spam) or writings by political dissidents (to avoid detection by oppressive governments). Enjoy!
posted by tom_r on Sep 28, 2011 - 8 comments

Perform searches quickly and easily visit sites with a few keystrokes, from any browser. A public list is there to get you started, but it's more useful if you login and customize your own set of searches and direct links. [more inside]
posted by jaden on Feb 7, 2011 - 0 comments

Generates random band names and albums w/covers. Integration with Facebook and Google Image Search. (Possibly NSFW) [more inside]
posted by BoatMeme on Feb 1, 2011 - 0 comments

I have been working for 18 months amassing the largest database of sober living homes in the US, and have launched a nationwide search engine site that allows people who are exiting treatment for alcohol or drug abuse to easily find a cool house to go live at and just chill while they pull their lives back together. What is unique and hopefully really makes a difference to people who are scared of taking this important step (so they can deal with "the outside world" while living with a bunch of other people going through the same trip) is that the site allows the 75% of houses without websites to put in lots of pictures, descriptions, amenities and other stuff. I really hope it makes a difference for people who are having problems and want to find a home! Please spread the word, especially to anybody who owns a house and wants to show it off. The annual cost amounts to about .50cents a day, or $189, where just ONE referral will pay the fee. We also offer a blog with other resources at Sober Living and Halfway Houses. Type "search for sober livings" to see how you'd rank in Google with us!
posted by sobersearchparty on Dec 5, 2010 - 0 comments

A richly faceted and deeply hyperlinked browser for all of the as-yet released Afghan War Diaries from Wikileaks. Allows you to search by type, category, number of casualties, and many other parameters. Within each document, uncommon phrases that are shared among multiple documents are linked together, allowing you to go down the rabbit hole where you might not have otherwise thought to. My hope is that this will allow reporters, researchers, and the general public to better understand the scope and nature of the US war in Afghanistan, and the contents of this important archive. Source code available.
posted by yourcelf on Aug 1, 2010 - 1 comment

A search engine and aggregator for all cooking related videos. All comments and feedback appreciated!
posted by blastomatic on Jul 16, 2010 - 5 comments