Best of Today's Web: Greatest Hits and Hidden Gems
We do the digging so you don't have to: 50-plus Web winners, from new and little-known sites to powerful features buried in your everyday bookmarks.
Kim Zetter
Greatest Hits
It's easy to take the perennial powerhouses for granted, but
not all of the Web's enduring workhorses are household names. These are the
trustworthy sites we return to time and again.
The E-Commerce Template
A list of the best Web sites must include Amazon. The site's continual improvement is the result of listening to customers' needs. Amazon's used marketplace is one of its best features. You can sometimes purchase used titles for less than half the price of new ones, though the Authors Guild objects to Amazon selling used books alongside new copies of the same title. Want to get rid of some old tomes? Amazon makes listing your goods and tracking sales easy. You get an e-mail once a book sells, and Amazon deducts a small commission before transferring the funds (including shipping costs) to your bank account. Beginning in November, Amazon shoppers can save time and shipping costs by picking up orders and returning items at Borders bookstores. And the company offers free shipping on orders over $99. This site does everything but turn the pages for you.
The Web's Wayback Machine
According to the founder of the Internet Archive, the average life span of a Web page is 100 days. But not here. The archive's Wayback Machine lets you surf through Web history for pages dating to the frontier days of 1996. Forget irritating "File not found" messages. The Wayback Machine has archived over 10 billion Web pages that otherwise would have been lost, encompassing the largest publicly accessible database in the world at 100 terabytes. (By comparison, the Library of Congress contains only about 20 terabytes of data.) The site's real gems are its special collections, such as the September 11 archive--a virtual time capsule containing hundreds of pages and television broadcasts--and the Prelinger Archives, which feature more than 900 digitized industrial, educational, and government films dating to 1903, including amateur films of the Golden Gate Bridge's construction and of the New York World's Fair of 1939. You can either view them (using Windows Media Player) or recode them for copying to a DVD recorder. Peabody and Sherman would be proud!
This Site Does Windows
Readers of David A. Karp's technical books (published by O'Reilly & Associates) will recognize the Annoyances.org name as a trusted source for Windows information. The site has a dull mariner-gray look, but its singular focus on Windows makes it highly useful. It identifies which version of the operating system your PC uses, and lets you filter articles that aren't relevant. Most of the information is geared toward experienced users, but beginners will appreciate the site's glossary and Windows Roadmap, which summarizes Windows' capabilities and examines the differences between versions. Discussion forums are conveniently linked to articles, letting you jump to stories related to the topics mentioned. There are also links to Microsoft patches, as well as to freeware and shareware utilities that will add new luster to your Windows.
Keep It to Yourself
Electronic Privacy Information Center
Superheroes may not exist in real life, but the Electronic Privacy Information Center does its part to fight for truth, justice, and your right to privacy. EPIC's site compiles news about recent privacy-related court cases and offers a Bill-Track feature that keeps you in the loop about legislation wending its way through Congress that could affect your privacy. Links give you access to downloads of popular privacy and security tools, such as cookie eliminators, snoop-proof e-mail, HTML filters, encryption programs, and firewalls. You can view a database of once-secret documents released under the Freedom of Information Act. Included are some recently released FBI files on the bureau's Carnivore initiative describing the plan for a keystroke-logging program known as Magic Lantern. Forewarned is forearmed.
"What Am I Bid?"
The EBay community may have hit a cynical low when HP shareholders put their Compaq merger votes up for bid, but the auction service still has no peer in popularity--46 million users--or content, which ranges from Sony Pictures' Spider-Man movie props to sports cars. What's that you say? You'd never buy a car on EBay? Well, the site was the largest independent automobile seller in the United States last year, moving $1 billion worth of cars and parts. And EBay now offers a one-month/1000-mile limited warranty on used autos. Two great new features on the site are the Buy It Now button (available on some 40 percent of auctions), which lets you bypass the bidding process and purchase items straightaway at a price preset by the seller, and the revised Sell Your Item form, which makes posting listings easier. If you can't find it here, it's probably not for sale.
Looking for Something?
There have long been many reasons to love Google: the site's easy-on-the-eyes interface, the spot-on search results, the absence of pop-up and banner advertisements, and the Usenet archives. Why are we gaga for Google? If you follow a link to a page that is gone from the Internet, clicking the Cached button next to each URL will let you view archived material you would have missed otherwise. The Catalog Search link on Google's advanced-search page allows you to view scanned pages from hundreds of mail-order catalogs, from Dell Home Systems to J.Crew. (You still have to call to purchase items, though.) Google's Phone Book feature lists addresses and phone numbers for businesses and individuals. The search engine extends its reach by including Adobe Acrobat PDF files as well as Microsoft Office, PostScript, and Lotus 1-2-3 files, all of which you can view in HTML format if you don't happen to have the correct application on your computer.
Yahoo's Got Mail, too
The brand that for many people is synonymous with the Web hasn't been resting on its laurels. For example, Yahoo's free Web-based e-mail program now lets you re-mark read messages as unread or flag them for follow-up action. This feature contributes to Yahoo Mail's advantage over Microsoft's competing Hotmail service. Yahoo also gives you 4MB of storage space (that's less than in the past, but you can get more by paying a small fee); Hotmail provides only a stingy 2MB. Another useful service on the site is the Yahoo Briefcase, which you can use to share up to 30MB of files with friends over the Internet, or to provide yourself with access to the files when you're away from your home or office computer. This is an e-mail service worth shouting about.
Literary Listening
Books on tape are a great way to catch up on your reading while doing other things. Audible.com converts such audiotapes into digital files for listening on MP3 players and other handheld devices. The site has more than 20,000 selections, including David McCollough's John Adams, Stephen Hawkings's The Universe in a Nutshell, John Grisham's The Summons, and articles from such publications as the New York Times, Scientific American, and Forbes. Also offered are speeches by Joseph Campbell, Sojourner Truth, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and others. A monthly subscription of $13 buys you one book a month, plus access to an audible newspaper, magazine, or radio program from the site's list. For $16, you get two books a month. Compare these prices with the $25 you would have to pay for Grisham's book at Amazon, or the $6 to $50 that the site itself charges nonsubscribers for the title. The message is loud and clear: Bookworms are sure to love Audible.com.
