There are days when just bouncing around the web, caroming off one link to another, provides just the most amazing glimpses down the small side roads that branch off the eight-lanes of concrete ribbon feel that the internet often takes on.

Sure, a search engine can Google you to the exact pinpoint location of the precise bit of information that you need, at just the right second that you need it. But sometimes, it is just amazing to cruise along with the top down as if it were the first decent weekend of spring weather, not looking to go anywhere in particular-but anxious to find that undiscovered gem of a spot that lies just around the next bend.

That feeling was strong for me today when, in the course of about thirty minutes, I hit three major discoveries that rated near instant bookmarks on my web browser for more detailed explanation at a later date. That being when I have more time and the weather outside is not so damn enticing. Here is a brief snapshot of each:

1. Smart Furniture – smartfurniture.com
My kind of furniture store. Modern office and home stuff from the usual suspects like Herman Miller, Kartell, Steelcase, etc. I probably won’t ever get to decorate my home or office in this stuff, but I love to look at it and dream. Some people love antiques, others of us like this stuff. These folks in Chattanooga, Tennessee seem cool and their website allows you to look at how you would personalize any piece that allows the choices of colors, fabrics, options. Nice.

2. Obsolete – An Encyclopedia of Once-Common Things obsoletethebook.com
Author Anna Grossman’s engaging blog goes along with her book of things that we all once couldn’t live without, but now have (for the most part) left behind with the march of progress through recent time. A tip of the hat to one of my daily read blogs Gizmodo.com for the link to this great find of an article about the death of the Rolodex, that circular car file that used to be perched atop the desk of any serious office. Any website with more than one article about Polaroid cameras would be worth an immediate spot on my bookmarks list, but then Ms. Grossman had to link me to an even more precious bit of online content nirvana.

3. Radio Shack Catalogs – radioshackcatalogs.com
To describe my lifetime of love for Radio Shack is to try to write my entire biography on the fly. This amazing archive of the printed artifacts of America’s radio/electronics/technology store that has a branch in nearly every town of any size and quite a few with nearly no size at all, is like looking through high school yearbooks that happen to cover about every year of my life. Understanding how “gadgets” have evolved from crystal radio sets to smartphones – and every iteration in between – is to understand to a great degree how the technological revolution superceded the industrial revolution in the USA.

I’m sure you have your own experiences in discovering those great places on the internet that speak to a particular interest, passion or whatever. Isn’t it just the most amazing thing to find them and wonder for that brief moment if someone had managed to read your mind to learn just how much you would want to find something “just like this”?

Mission Accomplished…times three.