 | May 6th, 2008 - by Marcelo Calbucci |
Thanks to your handy
Countdown Widget you know that Mother's Day is just around the corner. Of course you'd love to trek out for some nice overpriced roses or a sappy card for mom, but what with monitoring your Facebook, Myspace, and Bebo accounts, you're not really in a position to take time off.
If you are looking for a Mother's Day gift that won't cramp your Second Lifestyle, here's a guide to parlaying your favorite social networks into totally legit Mother's Day gifts that will make mom melt.
Family Reunion
Introduce Mom to the excitement of social networks for herself with
Sampa.com. Sampa.com is a family-oriented website that automatically connects family, extended family, and a close circle of friends with simplicity and safety.
With easy-to-use templates and posting options, Mom can have a blast chronicling family milestones and getting in on the social networking trend in a way that's fun snd stress-free.
Story Time
Recall the ultimate mother-child bonding experience when you make mom a Shelfari shelf of your favorite childhood bedtime stories.
Add sentimental tags like "the one you read me when I wouldn't stop crying" or "the one we'd recite together word for word." She'll be over the moon quicker than you can say "Goodnight creatures everywhere."
Getting Home in Time for Dinner
You know how moms worry! For Mother's Day, give her peace of mind when you add Whereaboutz, the Facebook app that uses Google maps to display, you guessed it, your whereabouts.
The best part is the SMS functionality, which allows tech-phobic moms to view your location right from their cell phones as they push their cart in the grocery store. For the Helicopter Mom, there's no better gift than Whereaboutz.
A Trip Down Memory Lane
Use geotagging to make a Zoomr map of places where you and your mom have been together. Amp up the sentiment by creating descriptive tags like " 'our' sushi place" and "the ski camp with the dreamy instructor."
Your mom will love this techie travelogue of your special times together.
Bragging Rights
Making mom a Flickr photo album is child's play. Show momma what a mature young adult you are when you hook her up with the handy plugin Slickr.
Slickr uses Flickr pictures as a feed to create family picture screensavers, so she can show off your adorable mugs to her colleagues and houseguests without having to resort to anything so overt as a forward. We can just hear the choruses of "Look what my son made me for Mother's Day" now!
Home Videos
Home movies are the heart of any good Mother's Day gift, so do it in exportable style when you make it on MotionBox. Not only does this site include sophisticated features like the ability to send just a clip or highlight, these elegant movies are also easily exportable to mom's mp3 player or laptop.
Once she's breaking a sweat on the Stairmaster to your four- year-old rendition of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" you'll know you've achieved a place in the Mother's Day Gifts Hall of Fame.
Family Hootenanny
In honor of Mother's Day, hook mom up with a convenient platform for her favorite hobby: planning family get-togethers. Like a less dictatorial Evite, Planypus lets you post potential plans in a more casual, conversational way.
Because the messages can be delivered back and forth by email, SMS, RSS or online homepages and calendaring tools, Planypus works great for both your text-savvy sister, your geek brother, and your mom who won't stop driving you crazy trying to learn how to use her BlueTooth headset.
Misty Watercolored Memories
This next gift idea is the Gen-Y equivalent of the classic handprint-in-the paint Mother's Day card. Like ComicLife and RockYou combined, Bubbleshare lets you give mom a killer slideshow of pictures with bubble captions, holiday themes, audio captions and video captions. So creative and cute!