How Much Do I Need?

You're doing some remodeling. First you'll paint the living room ceiling and walls. Then try your hand at laying carpet tiles. Then you're headed outdoors to reseed the lawn. The questions: How much paint will you need for the ceiling and walls? How many carpet tiles? How much grass seed? Calculate the answers at Calculate Materials, a part of the This Old House web site.

Days of Infamy

Just what it sounds like. It is a comparison of the two Days of Infamy. The first was December 7, 1941 and the second was September 11, 2001. The site takes both events and compares the aftermath. The role of the media and racism are compared. The differences are also explored.

Pollution: It's Everywhere!

You think your community is environmentally sound. Why not be sure? Check the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Where You Live. Just enter your Zipcode for a list of potential polluters and what kind of precautions they are or are not taking.

Is Your Flight On Time?

Recently we saw an entire airline shut down completely for one day, canceling over 2,000 flights. If only the passengers had checked with Flight Arrivals before heading out to the airport. You can look up arrival and departure times by specific airline and flight numbers, check for delays at individual airports, get weather reports and more.

Hindu Images

A supplier of news photos from the Hindu world. Hindu Images can be viewed as thumbnails or slightly larger to see details. If the photo is of significance the visitor can purchase the photo for use in publications. While I doubt that many readers of this blog are not interested in using these photos and/or paying for them, using the search tool at the site and typing "tsunami" will find over 80 photos, more than you'll see in your local newspaper and different than those you might find displayed on television.

Court Cases and Decisions

The Legal Information Institute Bulletin "is a Cornell Law School electronic journal. Its editorial board comprises second- and third-year law students, who are responsible for every aspect of the journal's management, from selecting decisions for commentary to researching, writing, editing, and producing the journal content in HTML. The 2004-05 bulletin will explore cases currently before the US Supreme Court. Bulletin content is available on this site and by (free) email subscription."

London Transportation

The London Transport Museum provides a terrific collection of photographs depicting the history of transportation in the city. The collection contains photos of staff, buses, trams, WWI, WWII, Shelters, and more.

Who and What Is Hot?

This is the time of year when the search engines start putting their most popular searches in order to present the top search lists. Here are some of the sites where you can find the top searches per search engine. The things "other" folks look for is always interesting. There's no particular order to this list. Also some of these lists may be very temporary so get out to see them soon. They will probably change URLs after the 1st of the year.

Lycos Top 100

WebSearch (About) top searches by month

Google 2004 Year-End ZeitGeist (top 10 and top 5 by categories) For an interesting look at popularity by month click on the link for Interactive ZeitGeist.

Google 2004 Year-End ZeitGeist Around the World (most popular searches by various categories in 16 countries around the world)

Yahoo Top Searches of 2004

AOL 2004 Search Scrap Book

If you know of others please feel free to post them in the comments section.

Math & Science Set to Music

Most scientific folk have heard the legendary Tom Lehrer's Elements song. But most don't know there is a universe of songs about math and science. At Math And Science Song Information, Viewable Everywhere (M.A.S.S.I.V.E.) you can find hundreds of songs (including Tom Lehrer's) about math and science. You can search this data base by performer, keyword, writer, or title. Each song has fields for album, performer, writer, lyrics, sound samples, and purchase info. An interesting approach to presenting math and science concepts but then Sesame Street has been doing it for decades.

Build A Calendar

A 12-sided paperweight with one month for each side. That's what you will find at 12-sided Calendar. And as the disclaimer goes, "Some construction is required." This calendar comes in a PDF format. The problem is the whole pattern doesn't fit on a single page unless you use at least A4 size paper. Since this isn't something that most folks have laying around the house you have to attempt plan 2. I managed to get the image on a regular sheet (8.5 x 11) of paper by going to the PDF Print dialog box and reducing the finished print size. That seemed to work. You'll need scissors and patience to complete this project. I managed to make all the folds and cuts but I couldn't figure out how to get the whole thing together without placing unsightly tape on the outside of the "cube."

There's also a second cube shaped (6-sided) construction that folds and refolds to get all 12 months. I had all I could do to get the 12 sided version folded and together. The cube shape is much more complicated.

CAVEAT: When I printed this on an inkjet printer all lines (solid and dotted) printed without a problem. When I printed the same file on an inkjet the dotted lines did not print. The solid lines are for cutting and the dotted lines are for folding. You may have to manually determine folding sites.

Calendars for Every Format

Microsoft Calendar Templates has 33 calendar templates (for 2005) available in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Front Page formats. Each one is different from all the others. Find the one you like best and go for it.

Ski Conditions Around the World

Planning a little ski vacation this weekend. Check the weather and ski conditions all over the world at On The Snow. Not only does this site provide snow/ski conditions for nearly every state in the United States but it also covers the snow country for Europe and even Southern Hemisphere countries.

Smithsonian TV

What is Smithsonian TV? It is Webcams and Live Events held at the Smithsonian, virtual tours of current exhibits. Explore the world of art, design, culture, history, science and technology by sharing the information presented by a wide range of speakers.

The Art of War

In the 6th century, Sun Tzu wrote The Art of War. In the 20th and 21st century, many of Sun Tzu's writings have been used to build empires, fight legal battles, and even the real world wars of today. Apparently it was even mentioned in a recent episode of the Sopranos and sales of the original shot up. Sonshi is a website that takes an: "Intelligent Approach to Competition."

The site boasts a free copy of The Art of War for reading, interviews and articles with Sun Tzu authors and scholars, reviews of various translations, an online forum covering not only strategies but each of the chapters, recent articles that refer to Sun Tzu.

The History of Virtual Reality

It started as early as the 1950s. At least the idea for virtual reality started back then. Visit Virtual Reality: History and follow the developmental history of this branch of computing that has made such a huge impact in our way of life: from movie entertainment to simulations of emergency and life threatening simulations.

Weblog Awards 2004

In early December over 366,000 weblog readers voted for the Best of in several dozen categories. The results are listed at Weblog 2004 Awards. Here you can find the winners of the Best Photo blog, Best Humor blog, Best Conservative blog, Best Liberal blog and a whole lot more.

Get Your Free Credit Report

Everyone is eligible to receive one copy per year of their own credit report. Where you live depends on when you apply for this free credit report. Go to AnnualCreditReport and find out when and how to receive it.

United States Census Information

The U.S. census information is updated, by law, every 10 years. Where can you get the results of this census? At the U.S. Census Bureau, of course.

The Chaucer Code

Chaucer is acclaimed as a great English author but most students and non students can't understand more than a couple of words. As for pronunciation? Forget about it. Well now there is a way for students to fix that. The Chaucer Metapage Audio Files contain audio files of professors reading segments of Chaucer's works.

Store Your Favorite Web Articles Online

It's called CiteULike. You register and get a free account. You can then store articles you find on the Internet. Not only that but you can share your favorite articles with others as they can share their favorites with you.

"CiteULike is a free service to help academics to share, store, and organise the academic papers they are reading. When you see a paper on the web that interests you, you can click one button and have it added to your personal library. CiteULike automatically extracts the citation details, so there's no need to type them in yourself. It all works from within your web browser. There's no need to install any special software."

Civil War Information

"The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System is a computerized database containing very basic facts about servicemen who served on both sides during the Civil War. The initial focus of the CWSS is the Names Index Project, a project to enter names and other basic information from 6.3 million soldier records in the National Archives. The facts about the soldiers were entered from records that are indexed to many millions of other documents about Union and Confederate Civil War soldiers maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration."

Last Minute Discounts

Here are two sites that promise access to discount info. Coupon Cabin provides direct access to coupons from online and brick & mortar retailers. Some of the coupons are for a percentage discount while others are specific to product. In most cases I was taken to the retailers site and then had to look for the discounts and coupons on my own. Not as friendly or quick as it might seem at first.

Current Codes provides those little secret codes you're frequently asked to fill in on mass market mailings. If you didn't get the mailing you can still get the discount because Current Codes prints the code. You order online, enter the store code, and your set to roll out with the product of your choice.

Weather on the Interstates

Open Interstate Forecast and you greeted with a simple U.S. map with various border lines around the country. Click inside the area closest to your location and get a map of the nearest interstates and the driving conditions. You can then pick just one Interstate and view weather conditions at various sites along its length. A slightly different approach to a weather site.

One of the Ultimate Genealogy Sites

Cyndi's List has links to thousands of genealogical resources. If your just beginning visit Cyndi's List Beginner section. It will get you started. If you're more advanced take a look at Cyndi's List Home page and work from there.

Disability Information

DisabilityInfo is "...the federal government's disability-related information and resources. This easy-to-use Web portal is a directory of government Web links relevant to people with disabilities, their families, employers, service providers and other community members."

More Food

Leite's Culinaria is a place to find new recipes but also a bit of food history, and writings on food. I'm a meat and potatoes kind of guy myself but some of the pictures of the exotic foods make my mouth water and I know I would never order it off the menu. The site has a lot of depth. The recipes are not all exotic. Some are a bit more mainstream. That's because the recipes come from a large number of contributors to the site.

History of Mongols

Most of us think of the Mongols from around 1000-1500 CE as barbarian conquerors. We know them by names like Chinggis Khan and Khubilai Khan. But there were other sides to this culture and its people. Follow Mongols in World History at the Columbia University Asian Topics in World History site. Why were the Mongol conquests so successful? How did they influence China's Yuan dynasty? Study the nomadic way of life. It's all here.

Vinyl Audiophiles' Dream (Maybe) Data Base

Where can you find old vinyl records. You remember. Kinda like a giant floppy disk only made out of vinyl and 6" to 12" across. Where can you find these antiques? That's the question RecordStoreReview attempts to answer with its data base. The system starts with a reverse Country, State, City search from pull down boxes. After each selection the screen rewrites--irritating when running with a dial-up. Then there are only a few cities in each state, and only two or three stores in each city--at least the several that I tried. The entire state of Illinois has only one store listed in Evanston. Indiana has about a half dozen cities, Kentucky has 3 cities, and Tennessee has 4. While the listings are thin the reviews are thorough and complete. A true audiophile will not mind the quantity if they can find real quality goods.

Science Toys for Home and School

Science Toys provides instructions for creating dozens of science toys that teach and demonstrate scientific principles. Most of the toys can be made by using common household items. A great site for those parents and students participating in home schooling but also for the science teacher who is looking for a new and exciting way to capture her students sense of wonder and exploration.

Another Wi-Fi Hot Spot Finder

I've been running across a lot of Wi-Fi Hot Spot Finders lately. I'm not sure whether I've posted it or not. But I figure television does reruns so why can't my blog post an occasional duplicate? This one is called Wi-FiHotSpotList and when I tested it with a downtown Chicago address it came up with dozens of hot spots. Two tests in nearby suburbs showed only a couple spots. It will search for Hot Spots in 1, 2, 5, or 10 mile radius of the address you enter. I only tested Chicago spots because that's where I come from but it should cover the entire U.S.

Teaching and Learning Resource

Whether you are providing home schooling or if you are a teacher in a more traditional school setting, Dr. Labush's Links to Learning can be enlightening. The standards like math and science are covered along with less traditional materials such as Critical Thinking for Grades 2-6.

Leg Bone Connected to the Thigh Bone

Knee Replacement. What really happens? To get a good idea of what goes on in the operating room and even perform a virtual knee replacement surgery, visit Edheads--Virtual Knee Surgery. The site is educational and walks you through terminology, shows photos, and then allows you to actually perform a virtual operation with explanations all the way through. A neat educational tool but also interesting if you or someone close to you is having the surgery performed.

Would you like Presley or Costello with your Elvis?

Just when you can't think of what else Google can do, they think of a new twist on the search. The latest is Google Suggest. With the regular Google if you begin to type a term or phrase that you've typed before, Google will show you a drop down list of previous similar entries. With Google Select, a beta site, Google attempts to help you find the next word in a search by looking at ALL searches at Google and picking the ones that seem to be most popular. I tried this in IE 5 running Windows 98 and it didn't work as promised. However when I tried it with Firefox 1.0 it worked fine. It probably works in later versions of IE but these are the only two browsers I've tried it with.

Yahoo! Searches Videos

That's right. Yahoo! now has a video search. Yahoo! Search Video allows you to simply type in keywords and it finds related videos available on the Internet. Using the Advanced Search you can look for videos by type: AVI, MPEG, Quicktime, etc. specific top level domains, specific web site, and more.

Powers of 10

Placing our planet Earth in its proper perspective, Molecular Expressions takes us from millions of light years from Earth, down to the planet's surface in to a tree and then follows the submolecular scale downwards. From the furthest view to the most minute, every view is a lesser power of 10. An intriguing site and great for helping teachers show students just where we are in the universe.

Cave of Letters

PBS broadcast a recent NOVA episode called Ancient Refuge in the Holy Land. This is the web site that corresponds to that program. Documents found in the Cave of Letters provide clues to a Jewish uprising against the Romans. There are additional media clips from the producer and discoverer of the cave. Transcripts, as well as videos, are available. There is also a teacher's guide available at the site.

Mecca for genealogists

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the ultimate source for many genealogists. At the Software Download section of the site you can actually download software, in a variety of languages, that let you track your genealogical information. The program is free but measured in the megabytes in size so a broadband connection is preferred.

Holiday Printables and Patterns

Better Homes and Gardens has a web site with Printables and Patterns for the holidays. Stencils, coloring book pictures, and more can be found here. Unfortunately so can popups. I was accessing the site over a dialup with an older browser and was using a separate pop-up stopper. The stopper was helpless against BH&G's popups. Not only that but when I tried to close the popups before the Printable and Pattern site was fully loaded, the site would stop loading and I would have to refresh the site and sit through the complete popup load which was considerable on dialup. It's probably just an irritation on broadband but on a dialup it was more tedious than I wanted to get.

Getting Older Sure Beats the Alternative

One of the perks of getting older are Senior discounts. The problem is not all establishments post the fact they have discounts available. Also some companies start senior discounts at 65, while others begin as early as 50. Wouldn't it be nice to have a data base of places in your neighborhood that have these discounts? Well, of course I have that site for you and it's called SeniorDiscounts--catchy name, don't you think. It covers restaurants, museums, movies, golf courses, medical/pharmacy, auto services, and a whole lot more.

State Court Information

At the National Center for State Courts you can find "...state court information on the topic of public access to court records." Each state is a little different in the information they request. Some charge a fee while others provide information at no charge.

How to Do Just About Anything

By using either a subject index/drill down search or a focused Google search you can use eHow to find out how to do just about anything. I found a couple of items it didn't know how to do, but those were far outnumbered by those things it did know how to do.

Research Help from North of the Border

"The University of Saskatchewan Library has negotiated access to 15,458 full text electronic journals for use by University faculty, staff and students." You can browse in many ways: alphabetical by title, publisher, search for words in the journal title or ISSN.

Ellis Island--genealogy

If you think you may have had relatives processed through Ellis Island during their immigration you may be able to find a record of it here. The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation (SOLEIF) claims to have immigration/processing records of over 25 million immigrants as they passed through the island on their way to the promised land. There is a registration process with different levels of financial investment from free to sustaining member. The higher the financial investment the more services and benefits available. A great place for the serious family tree caretaker.

Free!

It's the one word that's certain to get everyone's attention. In this case it's FreewareFiles, your free software source. They have freeware in all major computer software categories: Games, Internet Tools, Programming Tools, Utilities, Themes & Screensavers, and more.

Get Your Patents, While They're Fresh and New

To track new patents and technologies go to FreshPatents. The site provides "...the latest published US patent applications each week BEFORE the USPTO decision to grant/deny. FREE innovative services like keyword monitoring, RSS feeds and browse by location."

The Universe of Digital Media

I'm not sure of the relationship between the name GoFish! and what the site does--searches for digital media, but it seems to do it very well. In their own words: "GoFish provides web search engines and heavily trafficked websites an immediate and comprehensive way to integrate digital media search results into their sites."

Homeless

We see the homeless every day. Some are in the malls, others in alleys or side street, while others have taken semi-permanent residence on a local park bench. At Homeless, a site sponsored by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, surfers can discover what to do if they're homeless, or what they can do to help reduce the problem. Lots of information on a tough topic.

My Hometown

Not just my hometown but your hometown as well. A lot of hometowns are listed here. And what listings they are. You can look up a town by city/town/state, zipcode, county/state, or area code. Once your town is identified, the fun begins. Listings of jobs, parks, movies, TV listings, maps, aerial photos, current weather and more. The Hometown Locator claims to have this type of data on over 42,500 U.S. cities.

Neither snow nor rain nor heat...

We've all heard those lines before. They refer to the United States Postal Service. While we've all complained about misdirected letters or late deliveries the USPS has any amazingly successful track record. In The Line of Duty is a collection of memorable stories of the service. Many focus on the September 11 tragedy while others display courage on the part of postal employees.

Database for Antique Cars

The Old Car Manual Project is a site where owners of older cars can go to seek out hard-to-find info on their classic vehicles. Owners manuals, accessories, repair info is here for the finding. As stated in its title, this is an ongoing project. Materials are compiled by volunteers scanning their rare auto documents and sending them to the project. Once there they make their way to the general public.

Discount Shopping

With the holidays already upon us, JumpOnDeals seems like an appropriate reference site. Save yourself the trouble of looking through the Sunday advertising supplements, the junk email penny savers. Go to JumpOnDeals instead. They have information about sales that are currently in effect. Some require access codes and they have them. Definitely the site for the frugal gift buyer.

Search Engine for Programmers

You're a programmer working in PHP and need to create a bubble sort. Rather than reinvent the wheel, go to Koders, the source code search engine. The home page is quite plain, ala Google. Pick the language, even the license/s you're operating with. Type in your search criteria and you have links to the code you want. A long time ago I used to do some programming and this sure would have been a nice search engine to have.

Vocabulary Building Can be Fun

Five games are the heart of Learning Vocabulary Can Be Fun. WordSearch, Crossword, Hangman, Quiz, Match Game. The idea is to learn vocabulary in various categories like animals, astronomy, baseball and more. The words are very easy, which suggest it might be geared for the very young reader. The Hangman game is no Wheel of Fortune. You have seven chances to get the right letters. That's a lot when you have an answer with several words and 20-30 letters like in WOF. But what if you have a four-letter word that's an animal? Now seven guesses don't seem like all that many. I've tried the WordSearch and Hangman and they're both fun. Hangman uses a metaphor of a mouse stealing cheese from a sleeping (?) cat.

Missouri Soldiers Genealogy

"The Missouri State Archives holds nearly 1½ million pages that document the service of Missourians in domestic and foreign wars between 1812 and World War I. These military records primarily consist of individual service cards, but the extensive collection also includes muster rolls, special orders, reports, and more." Many of the records will even show home street addresses as well.

I Love History

I like history a whole bunch. I'm not crazy about the stuff they taught in school under the broad titles of World History or U.S. History. The kind of history I like are those little incidents that don't make the front page. As a matter of fact they usually show up near the back page. These are the kind of historical stories that appear at the World History Blog. There's also the front page stuff but I prefer the back page. Posts nearly every day.

Crafty Things for the Holidays

The Holiday Crafter has craft ideas for all during the winter holiday season: Chanukkah Candle Lamp, snowman Topiary, Personalized Glass Ornaments, and more. The site also has holiday recipes: Chanukkah Cheese Cake, Katowes Cake, and Jelly Bean Fudge(?). If that's not enough there are links to other craft sites as well.

Go Figure

Nick Hobson has created an educational and entertaining web site called Nick's Mathematical Puzzles.

"The puzzles presented here are selected for the deceptive simplicity of their statement, or the elegance of their solution. They range over geometry, probability, number theory, algebra, calculus, trigonometry, and logic. All require a certain ingenuity, but usually only pre-college math. " says the home page.

Google Scholar--The Blog

As many of you probably know, Google has just expanded its search area into the realm of online academic journals and the like. Not much time passed before someone set up a blog. TJ Sondermann has developed a blog similar to this one, but much more focused. The focus of course is Google Scholar. There are links to online information/articles about this academic spinoff of Google. For more information about Google Scholar visit On Google Scholar.

Check Your Symptoms

WebMD has a section of the site known as Check Your Symptoms. It's not the place you go to for a little muscle soreness or minor injury. The advice tends to be very general in nature and the reader is constantly told if they have any serious concerns to seek the opinion of a medical doctor. It can provide some sound counsel and suggestions on how to handle some of those questionable trouble spots many of us have as our bodies age. One thing I didn't like is that when I ran a trial diagnosis I kept getting pop-up pages attempting to recruit me for the WebMD weight loss program. Make sure you have pop-up stoppers turned on when approaching this site.

Oregon and World War I

The Oregon State Archives have set up this online exhibit detailing Oregon's involvement in World War I. The site is divided into several sections: Oregon's life and military history before the war, experiences of the war from soldiers, sailors, and marines, changes brought about on the homefront caused by the war, and Oregon's ultimate return to peacetime. It may not be your state but it provides some insight into the effects, both direct and indirect, that war has on a people. A truly unique historical experience.

The Pew Research Center

If you listen to the news at all, one organizations name keeps popping up regularly. That the Pew Research Center. If you're like me, sometimes you get frustrated because the news broadcaster is trying to cut the details down and you want the next level of info. Now you can visit the site and gain access to many of the reports and studies you hear about on TV and radio.

Visual Timeline for Rock & Roll

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame sponsors the visual Timeline. The site also has links to the Hall of Fame itself but this particular part of the site deals with the timeline that stretches back to the 1920s and continues to the present. Interesting view of history by viewing the musical history.

Preparing for the South Pacific

While the South Pacific Organizer is obviously promoting the author's guidebooks, it is also filled with a wealth of details to help the South Pacific traveler make his/her way around. Suggested destination, maps, local news, phone directories and other tourist info are all linked at this site.

Southern Nevada Before Las Vegas Came to Town

Maps of Southern Nevada and Las Vegas are available here. The maps are historical in nature. Maps come from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Library and date back to the 17th century. While the entire collection is not available online, the selected maps were chosen to provide the best overall historic view of the area and its development.

Talking Search Engine

The name of the search engine is Speegle. Currently, there are 3 voices--2 male, 1 female. It works like any other keyword search. You type in your query, wait a moment and a screen pops up with your results. Except along with the visual results you get a vocalized reader. The reader simply reads the citation, sans URL. To make a selection you can click on the hyperlink on screen or type the number given to each link. Navigation within the engine can also be done via use of the keyboard. Has potential for visually impaired. It comes from the UK and occasionally foreign words are mangled.

Mandeville Special Collections Library

I am a sucker when it comes to libraries. When on vacation if we pass through a town with a library, I'm likely to find some reason to stop and visit. Every library is unique and has its own personality. The Mandeville Special Collections Library has a lot of personality. These archives support UCSD instructional and research programs. Special collections dealing with Spanish Civil War, Baja California, Dr. Seuss and more reside here. The materials are circulated but with a photographic ID, plus filling out a registration form, you may have supervised access to the information here.

Resources for Vegans

I'm a meat-eating kind of guy. But I realize there are some out there that prefer chlorophyll over animal food. I must admit I do kind of like the title of the site: Happy Cow's Global Guide to Vegetarian Restaurants & Health Food Stores. There are links to everything Vegan: Health, Organizations, Resources, Travel, Spirituality, Cookbooks, Famous Vegetarians, and more.

Another Wi-Fire HotSpot Locator Data Base

It was just a short while back that we entered a free wire fire data base locator site. Well now we have another one. JiWire boasts over 70,000 hotspots, nearly 50,000 locations, in 92 countries. I was very impressed with the scope of its data. If you're using Wi-Fire, check it out.

History of the Chip

No! Not the potato chip. The computer chip. The Chip History Center's purpose is "...to help strengthen the industry’s infrastructure by providing an archive of videos and reports that document the industry’s history and its development. Its coverage ranges from business to manufacturing aspects. There are three main sections: Documents, Videos, and Equipment Landmarks." Special focus computer history web site.

Yahoo! News

Most of my friends are used to hearing me talk about the great features available from Google. But now it's time for something totally different. Let's go looking at Yahoo!

I didn't know that Yahoo! had a photo and illustration finder much like Google. It appears to work along the same lines as Google. A click on the thumbnail will take you to a split screen. Image solo on top and a copy of the website below. Warnings are posted for most images stating they may be copyright protected. But it appears that final responsibility to find out lies in the hands of the user.

Yahoo! Shortcuts provide quick methods for finding popular info on the Internet. Where can you get cheap gas for your car? Yahoo! Shortcuts has a small data entry bar for this very item. Follow the format data entry instructions and go directly to the list of cheapest gas stations in your area. There are dozens of these quick shortcuts on one web site. Very similar to Soople (Google oriented shortcut site) but apparently sponsored by Yahoo!, unlike Soople.

The Professionals' Data Base

Imagine a data base of all the professional people in the country. Ziggs, currently in Beta testing, is supposed to be that data base. It works pretty good if you are looking for high profile types like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. But when you look for lesser folk it's pretty much hit or miss. I tried it with people that I know and with only one exception it came up empty. It's a work in progress however and promises to be an interesting tool as soon as it gets more data. Ziggs encourages professionals to submit their own profiles for listing in the data base. A promising new site with a long way to go before being totally functional but worth keeping in site.