If you work in an office with coworkers around you, then you surely have been in a situation where someone makes a bad joke that just falls flat. Wouldn’t you like to have a sound effect at your fingertips to give the joke teller a hard time and lighten the mood all at the same time? Look no further than instant crickets. This is another website which fills a very narrow niche by doing only one simple task. Turn up your speakers, click on the big green button, and pretend like you’re the funny sound effects guy from your favorite morning radio show.

There is no doubt about the huge influence Wal-Mart plays in the United States today. Some may argue that the retail giant benefits smaller communities by bringing jobs and affordable household goods into the area. Others would say that Wal-Mart stores are spreading across the country like a cancer, gobbling up corner stores and Mom ‘n Pop shops that once defined small towns. Whatever your view, it’s interesting to see the growth, starting with just a few locations in Arkansas in the 1960s to the more than 3,000 stores today.

In the vast world of the internet, it’s a good idea to find a niche. Do one thing, and do it well. That’s exactly what they’ve decided to do at the intentionally simple website How Old Is the Internet. At any given time it reports the current age of the internet, going back to the arbitrary moment in history which they have decided to use as the time of genesis. One can argue whether that time is accurate, but it’s clear that this is a good site to visit if you’d like to know the age of the internet.

If you have a problem with writing email while inebriated, there is a new Google Labs feature in beta which may be able to help you out: Mail Goggles. “When you enable Mail Goggles, it will check that you’re really sure you want to send that late night Friday email. And what better way to check than by making you solve a few simple math problems after you click send to verify you’re in the right state of mind? By default, Mail Goggles is only active late night on the weekend as that is the time you’re most likely to need it. Once enabled, you can adjust when it’s active in the General settings.” It’s a clever and funny little plug-in, but it seems like people who really need it have a bigger problem than sending ill-advised emails to coworkers and exes.

A blogger known as Sustainable Dave is saving all of his waste for an entire year to raise awareness about the amount of garbage each of us produces. I’m glad I don’t live in his house with all of the garbage piling up in the basement, but I do think it’s an interesting way to bring notoriety to a good cause. Dave describes the reason he started the project: “If we were all accountable for our waste, if we couldn’t simply make it disappear, we’d have to deal with some pretty ugly truths about the way we live. And in so doing, it would cause us to start making better decisions about what we buy, where we buy, and what’s left over when we are done with that purchase.” Follow his progress on the 365 days of trash blog.