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Cybrargonians on the Net #13

By Terry Brainerd Chadwick, InfoQuest! Information Services

And now for something completely different. This issue is a bit of potpourri, a hodge podge of websites that I've found useful more for personal use than business, although I regularly use a number of them when I work at the public library.


Product Review Net
This site contains abstracts for reviews of products from the major consumer magazines. More than 25% of the abstracts link to full-text articles. The site also includes a list of Buying Guides on the Internet by product areas which include appliances, home improvement, vehicles, computers, food & drink, health & beauty, audio/visual, telecommunications, home office equipment, children, and miscellaneous.
http://www.productreviewnet.com/splash.html

CompareNet: The Interactive Buyer's Guide
This site allows you to compare one product to another, or one product to several products. You can choose the kinds of functions, features, and prices you want for a particular product and see what products fit your requirements. The broad categories include automotive, electronics, home & garden, home office, software & peripherals, sports & leisure, and services. Coverage in some areas, such as software & peripherals, was spotty at the time of this review.
http://www.compare.net/

Maps On Us
This is a "Map, Route and Yellow Pages Service." This is my favorite way to find hotels and restaurants in cities I am visiting. I can choose a central point, such as a conference site, and then search for all of the hotels surrounding it for a radius of miles that I determine. You get the answers in both list and map format with the closest businesses listed first. Of course this can also be used to find shoe repair shop, printing and copies businesses, and much more. The program will also plot your route for how to get to the business. Or you can plan a cross-state or cross-country trip and get a map that lets you choose the fastest route, shortest route, using or avoiding major highways, and you can choose an intermediate destination, too. This mapping service uses the Switchboard directory as its database.
http://www.MapsOnUs.com/

Switchboard
Most online phone directories require that you know at least the state of the person or business for whom you are looking. Switchboard, which is a product of American Business Information, requires only the last name of an individual or a portion of the name of the company.
http://www.switchboard.com/

Database America
This white pages directory has a reverse directory feature of allowing you to search by phone number.
http://adp.infousa.com/cgi-bin/abicgi/abicgi.pl?BAS_session={bas_session}&BAS_vendor=402&BAS_type=ADP&BAS_page=1&BAS_action=search

Currency Converter
OANDA sponsors this currency converter which can be searched in four languages and provides both current and past (back to 1990) exchange rates for more than 172 currencies.
http://www.oanda.com/converter/classic

Learn2.com - The Ability Utility
This site gives you instructions on how to do just about anything practical that you've wanted to know. The Top Ten includes how to make a compost pile, block out sounds in a room, clean your bathroom, whistle, make homemade paper, get a good facial shave, check out a used car, repair a scratched CD, pack for a business trip, and tie a necktie. And that's just for starters. You can search the site or browse through 13 topical categories.
http://www.learn2.com/

Today's Date and Calendars
This page shows today's date in a variety of calendar systems and has links to a wide variety of calendar and calendar conversion pages, including perpetual calendars and what happened in history on a particular day.
http://www.panix.com/~wlinden/calendar.shtml

Internet Movie Database
You can search this site by movie or TV title, by actor or actress, or by subject. The movies and TV pages list year, studio and producers, directors, cast, crew, music, and other credits. Actor pages list the productions, roles and often have some brief biographical information. The site also has entertainment news, movie events today (birthdays, marriages, deaths), box-office charts, Oscar winners, and related information.
http://us.imdb.com/

Daryl Cagle's Professional Cartoonist's Index
This site has links to editorial, syndicated cartoons, non-syndicated cartoons, cartoon news, and cartoonist organizations. You can see past panels of your favorite comics at this site -- most with a two week timelag. Comics include Cathy, Stone Soup, Adam, Beetle Bailey, Bizarro, Doonesbury, Dr. Katz, Mallard Fillmore, Rose is Rose, and many more.
http://www.cagle.com/main.asp

Ultimate Band List
You can find information about your favorite artist, radio stations, clubs & concerts, record labels, and more.
http://www.ubl.com/

International Lyrics Server
This is the best searchable collection of lyrics I've seen. You can search by album, artist, or song, and if you don't find what you are looking for you can add it to the Wanted list.
http://www.lyrics.ch/

Carol Gerten's Fine Art (CGFA) - A Virtual Art Museum
This site is an index of more than 950 artists, that includes brief biographies and more than 6000 samples of their artwork. You may search the site by keyword, an alphabetical index, by nationality, and time period. The Featured Artists section has better known artists with more examples of their work.
http://sunsite.unc.edu/cgfa/"http://sunsite.unc.edu/cgfa/

Blue Mountain Arts Greeting Cards
These electronic greeting cards are both musical and animated.
http://www.bluemountain.com/index.html

Great Outdoor Recreation Pages (GORP)
This site contains information and links to national parks, forests, wilderness, wildlife, hiking, biking, rafting, skiing, fishing, scuba/snorkeling, windsurfing, camping, climbing, birding, wildlife, and other outdoor activities.
http://www.gorp.com/

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Please send any suggestions or comments to tbchad@tbchad.com. Cybrargonians on the Net will be archived at: http://www.tbchad.com/cybrar/.

Copyright October 1998, Terry Brainerd Chadwick. Reproduction/distribution is allowable for non-profit purposes with the author's consent.

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