Top Sites for a Well-Rounded Life
IT’S ALWAYS USEFUL to learn of some truly worthy Web sites out there. Though it’s an ever – changing – and growing – list, here are some of my favorites. I’ve tried to skip the ones you undoubtedly already know about, like Amazon.com, even though I am an Amazon addict.
Sure, there are plenty of sites that let you send electronic cards (go to www.4-evercards.com to learn where just about all of them are), but what if you want to send a last-minute paper card and can’t get to the store? Try www.angoracards.com/ freecards/index.html, a small Web site operated by Alan and Angel Weber. Angora Cards also has electronic postcards and wallpaper.
Ready for a vacation that offers something more involved than just viewing great scenery or laying on the beach? Take a look at www. shawguides.com. It offers more than 3,600 “learning vacations” and creative career programs worldwide. Subjects include arts and crafts, cooking, golf, photography, language, writing and tennis.
Need to learn how to do something you’re unfamiliar with? Rush to www.ehow.com. At last I learned how to tie a proper clove hitch knot. This site has 16 centers – really categories – that can help you find the answers you need to just about anything you want to get a better grasp on.
Think sweeps are dead? Not on the Internet. Check out www.treeloot.com. In no time at all I succeeded in finding a prize on the site’s clickable money tree. To win my stuffed monkey all I had to do was fill out a “tips survey” that led with this paragraph: “All of the information below will be used to target advertising to your interests.” Evidently, honesty pays, as Virtumundo, the company that created this site, also has Dr. Homepage and CarHunt.
Being an animation nut, I fell in love with www.animationlibrary.com. There are more than 4,000 animations, mostly pretty primitive but fun, that you can use almost at will (but not commercially). You can change backgrounds, add music, create cards and insert them in documents.
For those moments when you’re looking for edgy entertainment, have plenty of download time (or a fast hookup) and want to appear especially on top of things at the next party or meeting, tune into www.atomfilms.com. These are very short films, some winners of awards at prestigious film festivals and made by such famous folks as George Lucas. Just watching the home page without actually downloading anything is plenty entertaining.
A laugh a minute is yours on www.modernhumorist.com; the home page changes regularly. When I last visited it listed General Barry McCaffrey’s Gulf War Blunders, including such missteps as killing Private Ryan. The table of contents includes such goodies as “Corrections the Scientologist Made Us Run” and “Mother’s Day Cards You Wish You Had The Guts To Send.”
Dilbert fans, rejoice. You can watch Dilbert in 3-D on www.dotcomix.com; choose from a variety of quickie cartoons, from “Cat Throw” to “Cubicle Warrior.”
For music lovers who want to discover new artists (and who doesn’t?), look to www.launch .com, where you can “listen, watch, read and interact” with just a click.
An unusually attractive site, www.uselessknowledge.com, is anything but useless. A quick look will give you a funny quote or fact, teach you how to pronounce a word, unscramble a trivia question (by holding your mouse over scrambled letters – a great effect as they come together), or note the important historical events associated with the date you visit the site.
If you want to know more about a particular state in the U.S., it may be easier than you thought. Click on www.piperinfo.com/state/ index.cfm. This site breaks each state out, provides the names of government officials, resources and much more. In minutes I was able to take it down to a level where I found a list of local green markets.
If you feel (as I do) that the news we’re fed could be a tad biased, you might want to check out some public opinion polls. Try www.pollingreport.com. Polls come from a variety of sources (Princeton University and The Wall Street Journal are just two examples), so you have a chance at getting more well-rounded info than your local newspaper or TV station may provide.
On the strictly business side, if you want to make a career move, give www.vault.com a shot. It’s considered by some to be better than Hot Jobs and Monster. When I viewed the site, there were 197,682 jobs posted by 30,184 employers.
If you’re looking for data on a company, most of us know about Company Sleuth, Hoovers, Thomas Register and Edgar, but www.corporateinformation.com was a new one for me. It lists more than 350,000 company profiles. As of this writing, the service is free.
Want a firm’s annual report super fast? You can’t do better than www.reportgallery.com. Each listing has a clickable annual report link as well as a “snapshot” that gives you a paragraph about the company and indicates the number of brokers recommending the stock, earnings estimates, etc.
Need a brilliant quote for a speech or business presentation? Turn to www.quoteland.com. It’s extraordinarily well organized to help and inspire you.
For general information, www.refdesk.com offers lists of just about anything you could ever want. A collection of site listings, it can be overwhelming at first, but handy if you know what you want but aren’t sure where to start looking.
Not interested in lists, but want the foremost in search engines? Turn to www.nuevaschool.org/ ~debbie/library/research/adviceengine (yes, you need the whole address) for an explanation of the search engines that work best for certain needs. The search page is broken into two columns: “Information Need” and “Search Strategy.” Information is given on the particular strengths of each of the engines; my current favorite is www.google.com. Nuevaschool’s library site stretches its use beyond search engines by informing visitors about statistical data, hot topics, maps and more.
Don’t trust my recommendations? Then let me throw in this one: www.gomez.com, supposedly the place to help you find the best e-commerce sites.
