This edition of Friday Fun Links is continuing the week’s look at great Back to School websites for college students. In this list you’ll find links to some of the sites I really liked but just didn’t have time to write a full review on.

In fact, in putting this list together I realized how many great college sites there are and for that reason have decided to leave this as an open list, where I’ll be continually adding new sites. As always if you have any recommendations please leave them in the comments below.

Books

ecampus.com – buy and sell textbooks, supplies and more.

TextbooksRus.com – buy new and used books for cheap.

CampusBooks4Less.com – price comparison shopping for textbooks, finds the best prices online.

Chegg.com – save money by renting your textbooks and they’ll plant a tree for each book you rent.

School Loans

FAFSA – the official federal student aid website.

Finaid.org – loan information, applications, tools and forms all in one place.

SchoolLoans.com – compare all types of loans to find the right one for you.

School Loans Consolidation Guide – important information on consolidating your student loans.

Blogs

CollegeCandy.com – a college-aged blog aimed mostly at the girls.

Keg of Wisdom – humorous thoughts about life and college.

Kill Jill Goes to College – an interesting look at handling college life.

Pimp Dorm – how pimp is your dorm?

Surviving College Life – a guide to surviving college.

Online Magazines

College Humor – funny videos, funny pictures, funny links!

Miscellaneous

Campusfood.com – order food online and wait while it’s delivered from your favorite local restaurant directly to your dorm room.

Dormgear.net – dorm room accessories, decorations and party supplies.

Dorm-Life.com – an internet television show about life in the dorms.

Rate My Professors – write and read reviews of professors at your college.

Rentometer.com – check how your rent compares to other similar places nearby.

Lists from Other Sites

Campus Grotto Textbook Links – a dozen or so top places to shop for textbooks.

10 College Websites from DormDelicious.com – a general list of must use sites for the college student.

50 Notetaking Tools – a great collection of applications to help you take and organize class notes.

50 Mind Mapping Tools – a huge selection of brainstorming tools that can be useful for non-students as well.

Lifehacker Back to School Series – an awesome series of back to school posts on an awesome website for getting things done.

I’ll continue adding to this site as I find great additions. As always the comments are open for suggestions.

Every May this event draws a large crowd, including some very famous celebrities (check out this year’s list of Derby probables.), who spend the day watching races and soaking in the warm Louisville sun.

I’m a huge fan of the Kentucky Derby, and all the ridiculousness of the pomp and circumstance at Churchill Downs only adds to the intrigue. It kind of reminds me of the old college days when even the smallest reason was good enough to throw a party. Who am I to object?

Anyways, because of the excitement and tradition that follows the Kentucky Derby each year, I thought it would be fun to put together a Cool Zone list of some of the best Kentucky Derby sites. I’ve tried to organize them as best as possible, but there will be some unavoidable overlapping I’m sure.

As always, feel free to add any that I’ve missed to the comments.

General Derby Sites

KentuckyDerby.com – the official site for the world’s most famous horse race. Get up to the minute news and odds as well as the best advice for attending the race.

ChurchillDowns.com – the official site for the track that is home to the world’s most famous horse race. Includes info on other races at the track also.

KentuckyDerby.info – a slightly less official Derby site with some great content about the history and traditions that surround the race.

A cool trick that I found that will give you some bonus Kentucky Derby sites is to slightly change the URL for KentuckyDerby.com. When you go to the site it automatically puts “/2009″ at the end of the address in your browser window. If you change the year to one from the past it will bring you to that year’s official Derby page.

The trick works all the way back to the 1999 Kentucky Derby. I thought it was cool how different the site looks from year to year. All the race results are there as well as some of the talk leading up to and after the race. Not groundbreaking stuff, I know, but it’s worth taking a look if you have some time.

Kentucky Derby Traditions

My Old Kentucky Home – the site is pretty ugly and there’s not much to it, but it’s got the complete lyrics and plays the instrumental of the Kentucky Derby’s sentimental theme song. The song plays while the horse’s are led out to post and many in attendance sing along. The rest are buying beers.

KentuckyDerby.com Hat Parade – this link off the official derby page has a small collection of some of the flamboyant hats that are common on race day.

Mint Julep – every year nearly 120,000 mint juleps are served at Churchill Downs over the two days of the Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby. The Mint Julep Wikipedia page has more.

Kentucky Derby Wagering

Bet on the Kentucky Derby – this site has some content designated specifically for betting on the Kentucky Derby. If you can’t get down to Louisville and are interested in placing some off-track bets, this is the place to do it.

Horse Betting Explained – although this site is mostly about poker, I thought its horse betting guide was pretty good. There are other links to betting tips and track info there as well.

More Derby Links

Horse Racing Glossary – you don’t have to look like a fool at the track anymore! This page has a complete glossary of horse racing terms and what they mean. From now on you can step up to the betting counter with confidence.

Churchill Downs on Twitter – follow the Derby updates via the Churchill Downs Twitter feed. While you’re at it, Follow SiteRoast too!

Kentucky Derby Party Links – about 40 links to help you throw the best Kentucky Derby party ever!

If you’ve never watched the Kentucky Derby, I highly suggest you take a look on May 2nd. The sites I listed will help you get a grasp on all the Derby hype. Browse through some or all of them and you’ll see why so many people make such a big deal about it.

For those that never buy anything without first looking at customer reviews and then trying to find discounts and coupons, this comprehensive list of 70 cool shopping websites is for you. They are listed by these categories: general shopping, coupons & deals, price comparison, product finder, and product info.

There’s no way we can cover all the shopping sites that are out there, so please leave your favorites that we missed in the comments section.

 
General Shopping
These sites sell products themselves, from their own inventories. We tried to limit it to sites that sell a wide variety of items, and not those that specialize in one particular industry.

Amazon.com - the internet shopping king. Great prices, great product selection, and excellent customer service will keep Amazon on top for a long, long time.

        BONUS SITE: Jangle.net-helps sort through the products on Amazon to find the best deal for you.

Overstock.com - plenty of high quality products at low, low prices.

Smartbargains.com - offers home and bath products, men’s and women’s clothing, jewelry and shoes.

Like.com - another shoes, clothing and jewelry site.

Woot.com - gadget-selling website with a twist. Only one item is sold per day. Once it’s sold out, it’s gone and you’ll have to go back the next day for a new product.

Fingerhut.com - a little bit of everything at fair prices.

Coupons & Deals
The sites listed here scour the web looking for coupons, discount codes and special sales and deals. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of these types of sites but the ones listed below are our favorites. Here they are, in no particular order…

Ebates.com - pays users cash back for shopping through their site. Shop like normal, but start at Ebates.com. See our review of Ebates.com

SearchAllDeals.com – scans more than 60 coupons & deals sites to find the best online deals available.

BigBigSavings.com – well layed-out site offering some pretty good deals.

CouponHeaven.com – wide selection of deals with options to search by brand or category.

CouponSurfer.com – coupons on all types of products including groceries and medicines. Requires a free membership. 

CurrentCodes.com – up to date codes and coupons to dozens of popular shopping sites. Search by category or store name.

eCoupons.com - finds coupons and offers cash back at specific stores.

FatWallet.com – earn cash back, find coupons and compare prices. A community forum helps with your shopping related questions.

Keycode.com – displays lists of the top-ten hot offers, new offers and expiring offers.

More cool shopping sites:

Naughtycodes.com – offers up-to-date discount codes at hundreds of popular shopping sites.

RetailMeNot.com – boasts coupons for more than 13,000 stores and provides add-ons, gadgets and widgets for the super shopaholics.

Coupons.com – mostly grocery related coupons and discounts.

DealHunting.com – coupons and codes to a very wide variety of popular and specialty stores.

DealofDay.com – we found some unbelievable deals, but beware of stuff listed on the freebies page.

DealCatcher.com – homepage highlights great deals on specific products, beware of impulse purchases.

Boddit.com - finds deals on specific products as listed on other coupon sites. 

Slickdeals.net – get deals on products and coupons at stores.

BensBargains.net – technology related deals and discounts.

DealsOfAmerica.com – good prices on predominantly tech products. Some not-so-common-but-cool items.

CouponCabin.com – keep track of your favorite coupons and stores.

PocketDeal.com – search coupons for your favorite items or download DealAlert Shopping Assistant and let it notify you when your product is on sale.

GoNicoFish.com – browse through the top ten catches of the day or search your specific store or category.

StealDeals.net – quality list of great deals.

GotApex.com – tells total coupons by store and highlights expiring deals. 

Dealighted.com – user posted sales and discounts.

CouponChief.com – new coupons, updated daily.

CouponCraze.com – new deals listed everyday.

Wow-Coupons.com – up-to-date printable coupons to major retailers.

DealTaker.com – email and toolbar updates; free shipping coupons and discounts.

MyShopSpace.com – searches over 4,000 merchants for the best prices.

Price Comparisons
These sites find the lowest prices available on the web for whatever product you want to buy.

Google.com/Products – formerly Froogle, the king of the internet takes on shopping.

shopping.yahoo.com – very expansive price comparison site.

shopping.msn.com – great deals, great products and shopping advice to boot.

shopping.aol.com – make lists of your favorite items and watch for sales and discounts on them.

shopping.com – offers user reviews on products; compares prices at many reputable stores across the web.

shopper.cnet.com – technology related shopping with product reviews and more.

DealTime.com – finds prices at plenty of sites, though some may not be the most secure. Offers user reviews of each site as well.

Nextag.com – very simple but effective price comparison site.

BizRate.com - very detailed and easy to navigate.

PriceGrabber.com – create buying lists, sell your items, or receive alerts when a product’s price drops.

Shopzilla.com - we like checking out the “curiously sought-after” items.

Pronto.com – big user participation site.

Epinions.com – sister company of Shopping.com.

Calibex.com – extremely extensive selection of products. Lists many items not found on other sites.

Become.com – shopping research and buying guides on demand. Price comparisons, too.

Pricerunner.com – coupons, rebates, and buying guides.

mySimon.com – shows product ratings and lists the three stores with the best prices.

Pricewatch.com – technology comparison site with a bonus news feed.

Retrevo.com – different but fun price comparison site.

Mpire.com – shop new or watch ebay auctions right from this site.

PriceSCAN.com – comparisons, reviews, and a shopping blog.

Hawkee.com – the web’s shopping social network.

ActiveShopper.com – informative product descriptions and downloadable shopping toolbar.

PriceComparison.com – a little bit of everything; codes, reviews and news.

spotcost.com – price comparisons on books, music, movies and electronics.

PriceAnt.com – compare prices and find deals at one location.

SecretPrices.com – homepage lists the most recent deals on the web.

StreetPrices.com – sticky note the items you want to save and view them again later.

Smarter.com – user uploaded videos contain product reviews.

myTriggers.com – easily navigated and product dense.

Everyprice.com – flashy design, quality content.

Product Finders
Based on a general search, these sites find your product and list related items as well.

TheFind.com – save your favorites, search by store type (malls, boutiques, dept. store) and see if the product is available at a store near you.

Product Information
These sites excell at offering product information and buying guides.

Comparethebrands.com – provides extensive product reviews and research.

ShopWiki.com – very informative and helpful; wide selection of informatiion.

And there you have it…70 of our favorite shopping websites. If we missed your favorites, please add them to the comments.