Back in June, I listed several free online mnemonic sites. Recently, I found a mnemonic site with a social networking twist!

It's called Think-a-Link. At its most basic level, it's much like the other mnemonic sites I've mentioned (Yes, I've already added it here and here), with categories and a search feature to help you find specific mnemonics, or “links”, as they're called here.

However, Andy Salmon, AKA “Sir Link-a-Lot”, has taken the extra step of integrating social features into the site. Once you sign up for a free account, you can rank the links of other submitters on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the best), or submit your own.

Even if there's already a link for a particular thing to remember, you can submit your own link, and become a contender for the best-rated link for that fact. For example, let's say you want to remember that China's time zone is GMT plus 7 hours. At this writing, the top-rated link for that is to remember, "'Is the Great Wall of China one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World?'...'No.'" However, there are also 3 other contending links, here, here, and here.

I like the idea of having competing links for a given topic, because sometimes even the lower-rated links might be catchier for you personally. If something works great for others, that doesn't mean it will work great for you.

I created my own account on the site recently, and found it very easy to use. My first submission has already been added.

The intro video gives you a good idea of the site, but for sheer inspiration and creativity, it's hard to beat the video of the school presentation:



Note that the kids are able to come up with some impressive associations on the fly. To me, the Think-a-Link approach is what education should really be about – getting kids not only to learn more about the world, but improving their creativity so they can improve that world, as well.

Not only does the Think-a-Link site work well on its own, but it also works well with other tools I've discussed before. The links you learn there can help you learn with flashcards quicker, or do better on timed quizzes.

It's not hard to see that a little imagination can go a long way here. I like Think-a-Link because it has the same basic idea as Grey Matters: Not only can learning and fun go together, they should go together!