But what is call-gpt, really? And how does it stack up against Twilio’s own newer offerings like Twilio CustomerAI?

Let’s dive in.

The Backstory: Twilio’s Open-Source Gift to AI Devs

Twilio launched call-gpt under its twilio-labs umbrella—a GitHub org that experiments with bleeding-edge integrations and gives devs hands-on access to tools before they become polished products. The repo quickly gained traction, with nearly 500 GitHub stars and rising. It’s one of the most popular projects Twilio Labs has released.

At its core, call-gpt is a minimalist yet powerful integration between:

• Twilio Programmable Voice
• OpenAI’s ChatGPT API
• Deepgram for real-time transcription

By leveraging streaming responses, the system delivers low-latency, interruptible audio replies—creating a surprisingly natural phone experience with AI. While Twilio has been pushing commercial solutions like CustomerAI, this project feels like their “dogfooding” moment—testing the waters of LLMs in a public playground.

That said, unlike Twilio Studio—their visual builder—call-gpt gives developers raw code access. That means full control, easier customization, and smoother integration into your own tools.

And if you care about performance: deploy it to Fly.io’s Virginia region. You’ll get sub-second responses with less hiccuping—based on our own testing.

How It Works (Visually)

↓

↓

↓

↓

Modify the AI’s Personality

The real power of call-gpt is in gpt-service.js. This is where you define how your assistant sounds, thinks, and interacts.

Example snippet:

// On line ~18, in gpt-service.js

this.userContext = [

  

    role: "system",

    content: "You are a cheerful personal assistant for Megabyte Labs. Keep replies short, friendly, and helpful."

  ,

  

    role: "user",

    content: "Can I speak to someone about your open-source tools?"

  

];

Want it to be a receptionist? A sassy help desk agent? A poetry-reading chatbot? It’s all just a few lines of code away.

Why Not Use Twilio Studio?

Twilio Studio is great for quick bots and menus, but for real-time streaming conversations with ChatGPT—Studio can’t compete. By all means though, correct me if I am wrong in the comments!

Here’s why call-gpt wins:

Real-World Use Cases

🧑‍⚖️ Small Business Receptionist

Handle calls, take messages, and answer FAQs—all AI-powered and 24/7.

🧑‍💻 Solo Developer Inbox

Let callers leave voice messages, screen leads, or get info while you focus.

🎓 Voice-Driven AI Demos

Perfect for labs, students, or startups demoing LLM interactions over voice.

📞 Customer Data Integrator

Match the caller’s phone number to a CRM record and respond contextually.

Setup in Minutes

1. Fork the repo → https://github.com/twilio-labs/call-gpt
2. Rename config files:
   fly.toml.example → fly.toml
.env.example → .env
3. Populate .env with Twilio, OpenAI, and Deepgram keys
4. Upload your secrets to Fly.io: fly secrets import < .env
5. Customize services/gpt-service.js to fit your use case
6. Deploy it: fly deploy
7. Link your Twilio number to https://your-app.fly.dev/incoming

Feature Highlights

• Low-latency responses (~1s with Virginia region)
• Natural interruptions
• Memory within a conversation
• Tool and API calling support
• Recording + transcription support
• Backed by a trusted, public company (Twilio)

Try It Yourself

Call our demo line: (469) 694-3696
And talk to our AI assistant—powered by Twilio, OpenAI, and Deepgram.

Final Thoughts

When it comes to OpenAI phone integration, Twilio remains the king of telephony infrastructure. Combine that with OpenAI’s reasoning and Deepgram’s transcription, and you’ve got an incredibly powerful tool for individuals and businesses alike.

This setup is elegant, reliable, and surprisingly developer-friendly. It may not have the polished GUI of Twilio Studio or the enterprise integrations of CustomerAI—but in the hands of a creative dev, call-gpt could very well outperform both.

This blog is about slayers: Twilio, OpenAI, and Deepgram—a triple-threat stack for the voice-first AI future.

Stock tip? Twilio.
Casino pick? Red.
AI phone system? call-gpt, hands down.

Watch the setup video walkthrough (same as video shown at the beginning of the article)

1. Git

Git is the version control system that underpins GitHub. It’s essential for understanding the fundamentals of Git to fully utilize GitHub’s capabilities.

2. GitLab

GitLab is a web-based DevOps lifecycle tool that provides a Git repository manager. It offers features similar to GitHub, including issue tracking, CI/CD pipelines, and more.

3. Bitbucket

Bitbucket is another Git repository hosting service that offers both Git and Mercurial support. It provides features such as code collaboration, code search, and issue tracking.

4. SourceForge

SourceForge is one of the oldest repositories for open-source software. While it has evolved over the years, it remains a valuable resource for hosting and managing projects.

5. GitLab Pages

GitLab Pages allows you to host static websites directly from your GitLab repository. It’s an excellent choice for hosting documentation, project websites, or personal blogs.

6. Travis CI

Travis CI is a continuous integration service that integrates seamlessly with GitHub. It automates the testing and deployment of your projects, helping you maintain code quality.

7. Codecov

Codecov provides code coverage metrics for your GitHub projects. It helps you ensure that your tests are comprehensive and that your code is well-tested.

8. Codacy

Codacy analyzes your GitHub repositories and provides automated code reviews. It helps you identify issues, enforce coding standards, and improve overall code quality.

9. Snyk

Snyk helps you find and fix vulnerabilities in your GitHub projects. It scans your dependencies for security issues and provides actionable insights to secure your code.

10. Bugzilla

Bugzilla is a bug tracking system that integrates with GitHub. It allows you to report, track, and manage bugs and issues throughout the development lifecycle.

11. SonarQube

SonarQube is a platform for continuous inspection of code quality. It provides static code analysis, code coverage, and other metrics to help you maintain high-quality code.

12. ZenHub

ZenHub is a project management tool that integrates directly with GitHub. It adds features such as Kanban boards, epics, and sprint planning to enhance your project management workflow.

13. Octokit

Octokit is a set of client libraries for the GitHub API. It simplifies interacting with GitHub programmatically, allowing you to automate tasks and build custom tools.

14. GitExplorer

GitExplorer helps you find the right Git commands for your needs. It provides a simple interface for exploring and discovering Git commands based on your requirements.

These 14 websites complement GitHub’s functionality and provide additional tools and services to enhance your development workflow. Whether you’re looking for project management solutions, code quality analysis, or CI/CD automation, there’s something for everyone in this list.

Do you have any favorite GitHub-related websites that aren’t on this list? Let us know in the comments!

Contests2Win Is a Great and Fun Site For Winning

On the off chance that you are enthused about taking an interest in various challenges and amusements, and still change over your wins in bringing home a couple of treats, at that point Contests2Win is the place to be. You appreciate while you play, and win credits as you appreciate. Shopping mobile phones, adornments, CDs and loads of other in-house treats while you play is to be sure an energizing background.

DGreetings is a Great Site for Sending Greeting Cards for All Occassions

Create and kept up by Compare Infobase Limited, Dgreetings is a mainstream site committed to praise the various events which shape an indispensable piece of our lives. Send free e-cards to your friends and family, companions, family, and partners amid the merry season.  Discover novel blessing thoughts and get them on the web. Dgreetings is likewise accessible in French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and different dialects.

Funtoosh is the Best Entertainment Site in India

Funtoosh is a site devoted to every one of the general population out there who love to have a fabulous time and acknowledge geniality.  Chuckle your heart out on the well known jokes, SMS jokes, shayaris and clever pictures.  Likewise, the visual clippings are certain to stimulate your clever bone. Funtoosh additionally offers a changed scope of backdrops and diversions.

Hungama Is the Best India Film Site

Created by Virtual Marketing India Private Limited, Hungama is a chief amusement site that permits the film buffs to appreciate the promos, sees and surveys of happening motion pictures. By recovering Hungama Cyber Points, you remain to win motion picture tickets and other Hungama treats and sweepstakes. The site offers cool fragments on diversions and music.

India Games is For the Gamers

For all the nerds out there, India Games is the best place for recreation games.  Once enrolled, you get the opportunity to download and play an extensive variety of new and energizing portable diversions. The class incorporates activity, methodology, dashing, arcade, games, Hollywood and Bollywood diversions. Buy them online at India Games.

Lage Raho is one of the Best Entertainment Sites in India for Comedy

Lage Raho is a site that has been devoted to the individuals who appreciate jokes and kid’s shows. There are jokes on each conceivable classification. The various entertaining toons are certain to stimulate your interesting bones. On the off chance that you have a joke to share or a container to submit, do it here at Lage Raho. Chuckle while you surf!

Apniisp is one of the Best Entertainment Sites in India for Music

Apnissp essentially manages music. Music as we as a whole know has an overall interest independent of prejudice, communalism etc.  You can download Indian and Pakistani music from this site.   Apart from music, this webpage likewise gives certain different free motion picture backdrops, day by day horoscope, MP3 versatile ring tones, and a chat room. This site is colossal in India and Pakistan.

Ebolly is one of the Best Entertainment Sites in India for Bollywood Movie News

Ebolly concentrates on the Hindi film industry prominently known as the Bollywood.  It accompanies all the most recent Bollywood news, big name interviews, and Bollywood events.  It likewise has a pundits corner where learned motion picture commentators break down a pending film and talks about its benefits and bad marks.

Santabanta is one of the Best Entertainment Sites in India for Celebrity News

Maybe the most established webpage on Indian excitement, Santabanta is currently thought to be one of the best entertainment sites in India.  Santabanta has music reviews, Celebrity rumors, VIP backdrops, e cards, free screen savers, photographs, and web based amusements like Sudoku.  The most fascinating part of this site is that you can send SMS.

Bollywoodworld is one of the Best Entertainment Sites in India for All Things Bollywood

However another website which is completely centered around the Hindi film industry, Bollywoodworld offers themost recent rumors and news on Bollywood.

Bollywood is one of the Best Entertainment Sites in India for Motion Picture Trailers and Interviews

Like most other diversion destinations on the Hindi film industry, Bollywood offers its watchers motion picture trailers, motion picture sneak peaks and Hollywood news.

The Chive is Probably the Best Website on the Internet

The #1 best place to find the funniest videos on the internet is theChive. This website has the best funniest videos of funny babies doing ridiculously cute things, animals gone wild, and hilarious video fails.  You can easily spend all day going through their library of videos.  If that wasn’t enough, they even have a ChiveTV network!  You can watch funny videos on your computer or on the TV.

Cracked Has Funniest Videos in the World

Cracked is a website run by a team of hilarious comedians who write and produce the funniest videos in the world on a daily basis.  This website will post videos that are comedic skits or monologues from brilliant comedians.  They will post videos making fun of superheroes, funny fake commercials, or funny social commentary like this video.  If you liked Mad Magazine growing up, you’ll love this website.

Break is The Best Source for User Generated Funniest Videos in the World

The website, Break, is a user generated content website that houses some of the funniest videos in the world. You will want to take a break at work to watch the crazy videos that users will upload to the website.  There are hundred of hilarious videos like this video of a house cat trying to get a drink of water.

eBaums World is Great for Funny Videos

The website eBaums World has a treasure trove of videos that will have you in stitches.  The videos are rated by the users as well so you can quickly find the most popular and most funny videos on the website.  There are videos such as what happens when you text and walk and hockey goons going crazy on the ice!

Funny or Die will Kill You With Laughter

Funny Or Die is a comedy video website that combines user-generated content with original, exclusive content. The site contains videos from famous celebrities like Will Ferrell or David Letterman or up and coming comedians you have yet to hear of.  Even better, the audience gets to vote on the most hilarious videos. You decide what is funny and what deserves to die!

Funny Or Die was created by the guys at Gary Sanchez Productions (Will Ferrell, Adam McKay and Chris Henchy).  Originally, Michael Kvamme, an aspiring young comedian, came up with a concept for a new kind of comedy site and told his dad, Mark Kvamme of Sequoia Capital to write a check. Randy Adams, a Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur, signed on to handle design and implementation. Pretty auspicious beginnings for a simple funny video website. You will find that most of the funniest videos in the world, were created right on this site!

Do You Want Fries with That Cheezburger!

Cheezburger is a great website for all sorts of funny videos.  This website was originally known for its hilarious cat memes on its site, I Can Haz Cheezburger.  Now it is a absolute giant in the website comedy world. You must get all your funny videos here.

CollegeHumor Makes the Funniest Videos in the World

CollegeHumor makes and publishes their own short comedy videos.  These videos are easily the most funniest videos in the world. The videos on here are some of the most shared and liked videos across all social media platforms. People simply love the CollegeHumor videos!

The Onion Has Funny Videos for Educated People

The Onion is like the National Lampoon comedy group from the seventies.  They are great at making hilarious and satirical videos about commonplace and political subjects.  These are some of the smartest and funniest videos in the world!

9Gag Will Leave You In Stiches

9GAG is an online platform and social media website. Users upload and share “user-generated content” or other content from external social media websites.   Now it is extremely popular. There are  millions of users all over different social media platforms all over the world watching these videos.

AV Club is A Hilarious Site for Funny Videos

AV Club creates their own content.  This website has great interviews of very funny people talking about their latest movie or TV show as well as funny commentary!

The Creator’s Role

Creators have quite a bit of freedom when it comes to setting up their pages and campaigns. Each creator can set up multiple aspects of their campaign to cater to their specific audience.

• Intro video: The intro video explains why the creator has chosen Patreon as the platform for their art         and what they hope to accomplish.
• Main Page: This includes any information the creator wants to include about themselves and their               campaign.
• Tier rewards: These are rewards for users that change depending on how much money the user has           decided to pledge. Tier’s typically begin at $1 and can stretch up to $100 and more. Users get rewards             like sketches, Skype calls with creators, access to music files, and more.
• Patron-only posts: These are typically included in the first tier or for free. This is the main way for             creators to communicate with backers.

The Patron’s Role

Supporters, called “patrons” on Patreon, are the real lifeblood of the best crowdfunding site. They keep the creators going through recurring monthly contributions. Patrons can sign up to give a set amount per month and cancel their donations any time they want. It gives creators a sense of stability that they wouldn’t otherwise have through other crowdfunding sites.

Some creators make a lot of money and even have up to 10,000 patrons pledging each month. YouTube channels are increasingly becoming funded by Patreon campaigns because of their usefulness. Worldwide estimates in 2015 put crowdfunding gross (across multiple websites) at$34 billion.

What Are Creators Making?

Creators have a lot of freedom when setting up their accounts; there are even some creators who create several types of art. There really isn’t a limit to what you can create as long as you get people to back your ideas.

Here are a few creators you should check out if you have the time:

• Extra Credits: This account focuses on releases videos about video games, history, and the process of         content creation. Their videos are hand drawn and lighthearted in nature.
• Ross Tran: Also known as Ross Draws, this creator creates beautiful illustrations and videos about his         artistic method.
• Crash Course: This account is dedicated to creating educational videos on a wide variety of topics.               They create videos about history, philosophy, games, literature, and more.
• Nataly Dawn: Her husband is the CEO and co-founder of Patreon, but she’s not on this list                             because of her connections. Dawn is a fantastic musician in her own right. Check her out!

Maybe you’re trying to find the right platform to sell yourself as an artist. Perhaps Patreon is the platform you’ve been looking for and it’s finally time to launch your career! It’s the best crowdfunding site for artists trying out a new way to live.

That Dragon, Cancer – $5

This one is special and first on the list because it genuinely touched me on an emotional level; more than almost all other games have managed to do. That Dragon, Cancer is about a family coping with their son’s death at the cruel hands of cancer; his name was Joel. This work of art is one of the reasons I love gaming so much. It may not be perfect, but the message is pure gold. It’s tough to categorize it as one of the top 10 iOS games of this year because it’s so drastically different from the others. Go experience it!

Pokemon GO – Free

It’s impossible not to include Pokemon GO on this list. Sure, many people feel like the game wasn’t as intuitive and content heavy as it should have been, but you can’t deny the phenomenon that it caused. The app legitimately got people to get up and exercise. That’s not all, “Pokemon GO” itself was the most searched term in the world for 2016. The game has died down in popularity, but updates keep coming out for the loyal fan base.

Batman – The Telltale Series – $15

Telltale Games has been on a roll lately with all the games they’ve been churning out. They’re handling a ridiculous amount of IPs and I’m starting to wonder if they’ve put too much on their metaphorical plate. Even so, Batman – The Telltale Series, Telltale’s take on the dark knight, is a great game. It’s a narrative driven adventure game where you’re put in charge of Batman as he solves- well, you’ll have to play for yourself and find out.

Galaxy on Fire 3 – Manticore – Free

Galaxy on Fire 3: Manticore takes you to space as a rookie pilot thrust into a position you’re not ready for. Will you sink or swim? The gameplay and level of customization, as well as the leveling up system, make this a game worthy of your time. It definitely belongs on this top 10 iOS games list.

Banner Saga 2 – $5

Banner Saga is back with its intense story and tactical gameplay. I won’t go too much into the game, but I’d definitely recommend you play the first entry before you sink your time into Banner Saga 2. They’re both fantastic games with deeply emotional narratives.

Severed – $7

Go into this game blind. I won’t say anything except that it’s not like anything that you’ve ever played before in terms of style and substance.

Mobius Final Fantasy – Free

Final Fantasy is a strong franchise even in 2016, despite various setbacks and lackluster sales of previous entries. Mobius Final Fantasy thinks itself a full final fantasy game, but for mobile devices. Sure, you can buy classic Final Fantasy titles on iOS, but this is a whole new title built just for mobile. Get it if you’re looking for a great RPG on your phone.

Prune – $4

I love games that try different things, even if everyone might not appreciate them. Prune is an artsy game that I would categorize as “classy.” Your job is to grow a tree around obstacles by pruning branches and making sure the blossoms come into bloom. It’s a simple idea that is beautiful to behold.

VOEZ – Free

VOEZ might not have mass appeal like most games on this list, but what it certainly does have is style. This rhythm game provides beautiful tracks for you to tap along to. Some of the songs give off a Vocaloid-like vibe, so it might not be for everyone. At least give it a try; you might find yourself enjoying the game.

Super Mario Run –  $10

Super Mario Run is Mario’s long awaited debut on mobile devices. This game is Nintendo at it’s heart, but still a new take on the franchise. The real draw is replaying levels and beating your friends’ high scores. For now, he’s only available on iOS, which is a huge draw for Apple.

That’s our list of the top 10 iOS games launched in 2016. Did we miss some of your favorites? Make sure to comment below with some games you think deserve to be on the list!

What Is Reddit, Exactly?

Reddit is part forum, part social media site, part news outlet, part pictures, and part community full of opinionated neckbeards. The basic concept is that anyone can upload almost anything to a variety of categories named “subreddits.” Other users “upvote” or “downvote” what they consider to be good posts. These posts will either skyrocket in popularity or sink to the bottom of obscurity based on the number of votes they receive. The twist is that a post will only appear in the popular section for 24 hours. Content in posts is either hosted on reddit itself or through other websites, especially imgur.

Becoming Part of the Community

Once you’re signed up for reddit, you’ll have to go through the complicated process of posting. It’s actually not that tough when it comes down to it. The most difficult part is probably finding the right subreddit to place your post in because of the strict posting rules. Now sit back and wait for all the negative comments and downvotes to pour in. It does happen that way sometimes, so don’t be discouraged if your post isn’t a hit. This site doesn’t have the best user content for no reason.

Examples of Best User Content

Here are some of my favorite reddit posts that I hope you enjoy as well.

• Corgi Dog Outsmarting a Human
• Fisherman Trying to Pull Shark Back Into the Sea
• Virtual Reality Gaming Booth at Tokyo Game Show
• President of Israel and Pokemon GO
• User Publishes Book Based On Reddit Writing Prompt
• Chris Pratt AMA
• Bizarre Things You Caught Yourself Doing by Accident

Bill Gates even shows up on reddit occasionally, with words of wisdom and Santa-like capabilities. Maybe it’s time to start your journey into the untamed beast that is reddit. Let us know what your favorite posts are in the comments!

Game Informer

Game Informer is one of the few websites that still publishes a monthly physical magazine. You can expect news, reviews, opinion pieces, and exclusive interviews with game developers on this website. Game Informer is classy and to the point on most topics. They don’t rely on click bait titles and possess an air of professionalism that few other websites do. You can also purchase a year of their magazine digitally, available on almost all platforms.

Kotaku

Kotaku is definitely more Japanese-focused than any of the other websites on this list. You will also notice that they don’t hold back when it comes to opinions, opinions they hold very strongly. I would say Kotaku’s charm comes from the fact that it’s chaotic fun. They have features about Japan, art posts, and cosplay articles, along with other stranger posts. Make them part of your daily routine if you’re looking for a little bit of color in your video game coverage.

Kinda Funny Games

Kinda Funny is a project out of the minds of Greg Miller, Colin Moriarty, Tim Gettys, and Nick Scarpino. A mostly Patreon-funded endeavor, Kinda Funny is more of a video series than anything else. The personality driven video podcast focuses on love life, gaming, movies, politics, and more. Kinda Funny Games is the group’s attempt to cover what they see as important in the world of video games. They tend to favor Playstation over other platforms, but they don’t count out other platforms. Support this group on Patreon if you fall in love with their “buddy buddy” take on gaming.

Gamasutra

Gamasutra focuses almost exclusively on the news of making and marketing of videos games. This is a great website to keep your eyes on if you’re hoping to work in the gaming industry one day. They even have a jobs section where game developers post job openings. They have a lot of articles written by people who have worked in the gaming industry, so there’s plenty to learn. You can even contribute to their blog if you’ve had your own experiences with the gaming industry.

Destructoid

Destructoid may seem like your typical gaming news site until you actually start reading it. Sure, it covers most of the same game news that other sites do, but there’s room for its own take on things. They’re a loud voice in a sea of video game critics. They also feature a vocal community and awesome robot mascot. What’s not to love?

Gamespot

Gamespot is a little straightforward in its news coverage and review methods, but that doesn’t stop it from being a fantastic gaming news site. They have plenty of video content and even the occasional giveaway for users. Check them out for nonstop video game coverage.

IGN

IGN features articles about games, movies, TV shows, and even comics. They’re one of the most popular gaming news sites and have been around for a long time. Many writers who began at IGN have gone on to work at gaming companies and other writing publications. Greg Miller of Kinda Funny actually began at IGN as a writer. IGN posts so many articles that you might need to pick a specific subcategory to follow, like PS4 or TV.

r/ Gaming (Reddit)

Now this one is a little bit different than the others on this list. r/ gaming isn’t really about video game news, but more about game screenshots, GIFs, and memes. All posts are created by users and ranked by popularity. The content is constantly being updated based on what the community thinks is interesting or funny. Visit this subreddit for a breather from all the opinionated journalism you’ll find on the other gaming news sites.

Nintendo Everything

Nintendo Everything is all about Mario and friends, if you couldn’t guess based on the site name. They post every single piece of Nintendo news you could think up. They cover not only game news, but company and developer news as well. Of all the gaming news sites, this one is really only for the most hardcore Nintendo fans, as they post a ridiculous amount of articles.

In 1997, they registered the domain google.com and the company began operations in 1998. What makes Google the best search engine in the world is its PageRank method that controls search results. Google also also uses many of its services such as Google Local and Google Maps to provide effective search results.

How Google Works

This search engine is an extremely powerful tool. Without tools like Google, it would be very difficult to find all the information you are looking for when you browse the internet. Google uses a unique algorithm, the particulars are top secret.

This makes stand out from its competitors and is by far the best search engine on the web. It is not easy to break into the Google’s system.

In addition, the search engine also uses automated software known as crawlers or spiders just like many other search engines, Google has a huge number of keywords. What makes this search engine topnotch is how it ranks its search results, which then determines how which order to display the results on the results page.

Tips and Tricks

Google is a great tool, but many people don’t take full advantage of its full power. There are plenty of secrets that aren’t really so secret if you take the time to learn them. Here are just a few ways you can make your searching more streamlined:

• Exact phrase: Insert quotation marks at the beginning and end of a search phrase in order to look up the exact phrase. Example: “several words” will look up places online where that phrase appears together.
• Look up by file type: Include filetype: and then the 3 letter abbreviation at the end of your search to find specific files. Example: wordsworth filetype:pdf.
• Get definitions: Include “define:” followed by a word in order to look up its definition. Example: define: osmosis.
• Address search: Type in an address and search. A map will come up where you can look for directions and see a street view, among other things.

You can check out Google’s full guide for a list of tips and tricks that are useful for improving your search results.

Google is king of the Internet for good reason. Even though some scandals and controversies do pop up with the company from time to time, the website is still worth your time. Google really is the best search engine you have at your disposal.

Introducing the Best Cash Back Shopping Service

Ebates is a cash back service that pays its users to click through their website when making purchases. The site offers cash back for over 2,000 stores. The site even offers cash back at discount stores like eBay, Amazon, and Wal-Mart.

The site’s popular too. TechCrunch reports that, “In 2013, 2.5 million members spent over $2.2 billion shopping through Ebates.” This popularity led Rakuten, the Japanese eCommerce giant, to purchasing Ebates for $1 billion in 2014.

Most stores in Ebates arsenal offer a flat-rate cash back. You get a single pre-defined percentage back of your purchase total. Other stores like eBay offer a different percentage of cash back depending on the category you purchase from. You will be able to see a breakdown when you search for eBay on the Ebates website.

The site also combines coupon deals with cashback to make the deals even sweeter. When navigating to the HP page on Ebates, you will see a whopping promotional cash back amount of 15% (at the time of writing this) along with all the different coupons they are currently offering. Stacking the 15% cashback, along with a coupon and a cash back credit card can lead to some serious savings.

How Does Ebates Compare with Other Cash Back Providers?

There are many, many different cash back websites. Ebates may be the most well known. They even have TV commercials. We are also calling it the best cash back shopping service. But does it offer the best cash back rates? It does sometimes.

Ebates is good but it might be worth checking out other sites especially if you plan on making a large purchase and 1% difference cash back matters to you. We found this comparison grid which might be helpful. The grid shows that Ebates offers competitive cash back rates and sometimes offers the best cash back rates.

So What Makes Ebates the Best Cash Back Shopping Service?

Ebates separates themselves from the competition. On top of offering competitive cash back rates, they offer browser extensions for Safari, Chrome, and Firefox. The extensions will notify you when cash back is possible and allow you to turn on cash back shopping with a single click. They also have an Android and iPhone app.

Their credit card is another thing that separates them from the competition. Using the card lets you get an additional 3% cash back on qualifying purchases.  The additional cash back does not apply to things like airfare and hotel deals. The credit card gives a minimum of 1% cash back on all purchases.

Ebates can credit some of their success to their referral offer. You can make $60 by referring three family members and friends. Please note, Ebates would still be on The Best Sites even if their referral offer did not exist.

Don’t forget to check out SlickDeals for hot deals! Happy shopping!

One way you can get around giving up your personal e-mail address is to use a disposable e-mail service. There are handfuls of these services available across the web. They even have software you can install on your own server to run your own disposable e-mail service. However, to save a bit of time, it is important to use the best disposable e-mail service.

Mailinator: The Best Disposable E-Mail Service

Mailinator is easily the best disposable e-mail service. Although their interface is ridden with spammy upsells to their premium service, they offer the best disposable e-mail service. Mailinator allows you to select any e-mail address with the mailinator.com domain (e.g. example@mailinator.com). They also offer 100s of other domains to choose from. They don’t publish the whole list but you can see one at a time, dynamically populated on the home page.

Once you select an e-mail on the home page, you are brought to your disposable inbox. If you send your disposable e-mail address a test message, it will show up automatically in your inbox on Mailinator without having to refresh the page. Your test message will be automatically deleted after a couple hours. Most competing services work in the same way.

But What Makes Mailinator the Best Disposable E-Mail Service?

Mailinator seperates itself from the rest of the pack by offering advanced features. For starters, you can select the exact e-mail address you want to use each time. Many other services do not offer this feature (e.g. ThrowAwayMail.com). It is useful for cases where you forgot your password to a site or any occasion where you have to use the same inbox on two different occasions.

They also offer integration features. You can grab the RSS of e-mail box. You can also integrate Mailinator with Slack.

Their paid plan might appeal to some. It is primarily for e-mail testers. With the plan, you will be able to use the service on a custom domain, keep the e-mails saved, and use their API.

This review features another music website for those who haven’t fallen in love yet. The website: The Hype Machine. The genre: electronic mash-ups (for the most part). It is arguably the best music blog aggregator. What exactly is that? It is a website that collects music that is currently being talked about on their hand-picked list of 701 music blogs.^{Hype Machine About}

How They Filter Dope Electronic Mash-Ups

After the music is aggregated, the music is put to a vote. Users are presented with the option of liking music by clicking on a heart icon next to the track. The tracks that are loved the most are then featured on their popular list.

You have to be logged in to heart a track. Once you are logged in, the tracks you heart are saved to your favorites list. They also have a few other features like the ability to add friends, your listen history, and your obsessions list. The obsessions list is a pretty neat feature. It ends up being a list of tracks you listen to constantly. Check out my obsessions list. Better yet, check out my favorites sorted by number of hearts.

My Favorite Song I Found on The Hype Machine

The Hype Machine gives due credit to the music blogs that it is powered by. Underneath each track, you will see a description from one of the music blogs the song was featured on as well as a link to a list of all the music blogs that featured the song.

What if I Want to Download the Music?

An extension for Firefox allows you to directly download HypeM tracks. If being able to download songs using Chrome interests you then you can look into scripts from userscripts.org. Install it into Chrome by using the Tampermonkey extension for Chrome. Update: Userscripts.org is down and there are really no good alternatives at the moment. Sorry Chrome!

Oh yeah. The Hype Machine is on SoundCloud and Spotify too. We also made a 8tracks list featuring songs with 10k+ likes.

Home Page For The World’s Business Leaders

If people are going to trust you for your business ability, then you must have experience and authority in the business world. Forbes comes from a long line of business experience. The financial columnist for the Hearst papers, B.C. Forbes, partnered with Walter Drey. Mr. Drey was the general manager of the Magazine of Wall Street. They founded Forbes Magazine on September 15, 1917.^Wikipedia  With all the experience gained with publishing Forbes Magazine, Forbes.com debuted in 1996. If over 100 years in the field of reporting on business isn’t experience, then I don’t know what is!

Fast Forward to 2016.

Forbes.com reaches more than 27 million unique visitors each month. With that many people visiting your website each month you have to offer something people want or need. The best business website has content that covers different topics, or channels, that affect business people.

Business articles are as varied as, “how the weather will affect the farming sector,” to, “which company is investing millions of dollars in programmatic TV advertising.” Other channels include Investing, Technology, Entrepreneurs, Opinions, and Leadership. In each channel, there are massive amounts of content for you to read.

There’s a list for that.

Interested in who the richest person in the world is? How about America’s Best Small Companies? Maybe you’re looking for the annual 30 Under 30 featuring the young entrepreneurs, creative leaders, and brightest stars under 30 years of age. If you are wanting to find a list covering the rich, companies, people, places, sports, and education Forbes.com has it.

More than Words.

Forbes not only has all the written content a business person would need, but they also have video as well. Sorted video categories are: recommended, featured, most popular, and the latest. 4 Essential Tips To Becoming A Better Leader, How To Write Better Emails, and Malala Yousafzai’s Lifelong Campaign For Girls’ Education are popular videos that are available on Forbes.com.

Navigation and Design.

Navigating Forbes is a straight forward process. There is a menu that when activated pops up on the left side of the website. Once activated the menu displays the different channels. There is also a horizontal menu along the top of the website for getting new posts and trending news quickly.

The design of the website is like that of any other online magazines. There isn’t anything that will wow a visitor. The design does carry across all devices nicely without any major issues. The biggest problem with the Forbes design is the sheer amount of ads. These ads come in the form of images and auto play videos.  There is a way you can get around the ads, but it will take some work.

Starting your day with the Best Business Website.

With all the information on the best business website, it is easy to see how it is the home page for the world’s business leaders. One can easily start their day by getting caught up on the business news all while eating their breakfast. One quick look at the menu at the top of the home page and they can find the newest and most popular articles. You can also find any one of the lists on the website or even watch one of the latest videos.

Experience, discussing many topics that pertain to business people, and annual list all make Forbes.com the best business website. When it’s time to learn and read about business visit Forbes.com.

The sad part is many of their websites are simply too stupid to waste your time on. Lucky for you, I went through every single website on BoredButton.com and found 5 awesome websites. If you’re in the mood for some silly but entertaining websites, then you’re in the right spot.

5 Awesome Websites I Found at BoredButton.com

1. Higher Lower Game

In Higher Lower Game, you are asked which of two phrases has more search traffic. The game keeps track of your current score and high score. They also have an iPhone app.

2. Crazy Card Trick

Crazy Card Trick is a game that predicts what card you chose. Drop a comment and let us know how long it takes you to figure it out.

3. Slither

Slither is a snake game where you play against other players in real-time. It’s quite addictive. The trick is to make other snakes run into you and then eat their energy when they die.

4. Bees Bees Bees

In this episode, Oprah has gone mad and releases bees on her audience.

5. Random Goat

Cute, funny videos of goats. Just click the screen to go to the next video.

Content. The King.

If you’re looking for information then obviously for Entrepreneur to be the best entrepreneur website they need to have content. Entrepreneur has an incredible amount of content for business owners, and that is what keeps readers coming back. If you need to brush up on your leadership skills, Entrepreneur has you covered with their Leadership section.

Do you and your business need help making sense out of the ever-changing social media landscape? Head over to the Social Media section and dive into the sub-section of your favorite social media platform.

Growth Strategies, Marketing, Technology, Finance, Entrepreneurs, Starting a Business, Franchises, and more are all sections you can explore on the best entrepreneur website. Just click your preferred section and you get article after article sharing tips, advice, and how-to’s from some of the best in the business world.

Speaking of how-to articles, Entrepreneur claims they are the one-stop-shop for all the latest tips and strategies from leading industry experts. Since this is the best entrepreneur website, I would have to agree.

Want to learn how to become a millionaire? Let the 7 Shark Tank stars share their tips on how to make it happen. If you’re trying to find some freelance work another how-to article on Entrepreneur shows you seven freelance sites. The information in this section alone makes Entrepreneur stand out and shine as the best entrepreneur website.

Franchise 500.

Are you an entrepreneur that wants to get into a franchise?  Entrepreneur is a must read due to their annual Franchise 500 list. The 37th Annual Franchise 500 ranking reveals the impact of the newest trends and the industries poised for growth.

With the Franchise 500, all companies are judged by the same criteria: objective, quantifiable measures of a franchise operation. Of these criteria, Entrepreneur states that the most important factors include financial strength and stability, growth rate and size of the system.

Just because a franchise is on the list does not mean Entrepreneur recommends the franchise. The Franchise 500 is simply a tool that enables an entrepreneur to compare franchise operations. Entrepreneur doesn’t just stop with the Franchise 500. The Franchise Buying Guide, Business Opportunities, and Franchises News & Topics are all available for you to take in while making your franchise decision.

Eye Candy.

Entrepreneur has great written content. But if the written word is not your cup of tea take a look at their video content! All you have to do is head over to their Video section, which is sorted by category. Once there, watch the videos that interest you and gain some knowledge!

Navigation and Design.

Another reason Entrepreneur is the best entrepreneur website is the ease of navigation. One click to open the menu gets you to the topic you want quickly. If you want to dive deeper into a section  you just click on the subsection you wish. Even though there are vast amounts of content, it is not difficult to sort through and find what you need. One issue, however, is that the menu has a tendency to close quickly if you move your mouse or finger off of the menu.

The design of the website on your desktop, tablet, or smartphone matches across all devices without issues. The design is clean with a classic color scheme of black and white. Images seem to resize appropriately across all devices. Unless your cousin is a professional web designer, it definitely doesn’t look like their blog now!

Content + Navigation + Design = Best Entrepreneur Website.

There are some great websites out there for entrepreneurs like For Entrepreneurs from David Skok. But Entrepreneur combines content with easy navigation and beautiful design to make it the best.

If you’re a budding entrepreneur or a veteran business owner, and you haven’t visited the best entrepreneur website then you’re missing out. Don’t just take my word for it, visit Entrepreneur yourself. Go ahead. I’ll wait.

Right around the same time he introduced me to the website, he also gave me a warning:

SlickDeals will make you spend money, not save money.

This warning was 100% correct. I immediately began charging up my cards with purchases of things I had no use for, like a pool water filter for instance. I don’t even have a pool. I was just addicted to buying ridiculously low-priced items from SlickDeals.

How Does SlickDeals Work?

The site relies primarily on user generated content. Once deals are submitted, registered users can give each deal or coupon a thumbs up or a thumbs down. Based on the ratings, SlickDeals shows a rating out of 5 thumbs ups. In this way, SlickDeals shows you the best of the best deals.

On the home page, you’ll see the editor’s picks of posts with a lot of good ratings and comments. The slickest of those sell out quickly. You can then browse by category or scroll through Popular Deals (deals with a lot of ratings and comments) or Hot Deals (which are posts on the rise).

SlickDeals has a lot of features that make its’ power users feel at home. For example, they offer the ability to subscribe to RSS feeds for deals of your choice. You can do a search for something you are looking for and then subscribe to that RSS to get deals on that item as soon as they come out.

What Makes SlickDeals the Best Deals Forum?

Their community is the largest deal-finding community on the internet. Their global Alexa rank is in the top 500 globally and their US rank is in the top 100.^Alexa This makes SlickDeals one of the most visited websites on the internet.

Other websites simply can not compete with SlickDeals. Their community is just too large and powerful. One deal forum called FatWallet.com seperates itself from SlickDeals by also offering a cash-back program. However, they are fading out and referring new users to Ebates instead (another cash back website). Some users might prefer Ebates instead of SlickDeals since it offers both coupons and cash back. However, to really get the best deals, you should use a combination of SlickDeals and Ebates.