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WEATHER
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) conducts research and gathers data about
the global oceans, atmosphere, space, and sun, and applies this knowledge to
science and service that touch the lives of all Americans.
NOAA warns of dangerous weather, charts our seas and
skies, guides our use and protection of ocean and coastal resources, and
conducts research to improve our understanding and stewardship of the
environment which sustains us all.
A Commerce Department agency, NOAA provides these
services through five major organizations: the National Weather Service, the National Ocean Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service, the National Environmental Satellite,
Data and Information Service, and NOAA Research;
and numerous special program units. In addition, NOAA research and operational
activities are supported by the Nation's seventh uniformed service, the NOAA Corps, a commissioned officer corps
of men and women who operate NOAA ships and aircraft, and serve in scientific
and administrative posts.
Intellicast
Intellicast.com provides extensive specialized
weather information to help plan all outdoor and weather sensitive activities,
whether golfing, sailing, hiking, skiing or relaxing at the beach. Drawing on
the meteorological knowledge of its staff, Intellicast.com now provides over
250,000 pages of detailed weather information. Intellicast now provides more
free, accurate and up to date weather information on the Internet than ever
before. With millions of visitors monthly, Intellicast.com is one of the largest
and most successful sites on the web.
AccuWeather
AccuWeather is the easiest way to get the most
customized and accurate weather information for every location on Earth. You
can have instant access to current conditions, 15-Day forecasts, satellites,
real-time local doppler
radar plus much more - all on one place, just one click away.
“Find detailed weather forecasting
and news at AccuWeather.com.
A ton of Doppler radar images show the weather in action. Select your state,
and the site gives you a static image or an animation for your area. AccuWeather can also provide hour-by-hour forecasts over
three days and up to a year's worth of historical data. You can sign up to
receive e-mail weather updates and storm alerts, or you can download a desktop
application that provides current weather information and displays a personal
radar screen. Free (though limited) weather info is available for handheld users.
PDAers with a wireless connection who cough up $3 a
month can receive a healthy subset of AccuWeather
services, such as hourly forecasts, 15-day outlooks, warnings of severe weather
conditions, and more.” Review by PC World
FINANCES
Bloomberg.com
Our vision is clear and constant — to provide our
viewers and customers with accurate business and financial information
whenever, wherever and however they need it. We are committed to covering the
news where it's breaking, as its breaking. By integrating all of our media
products, we're able to deliver news that is factual in content, first in
reporting, fastest in delivery, final as a definitive source and future as a
way to view and understand today's events in the context of tomorrow.
All of our media products — television, radio,
Internet and magazines — are fueled by the power of Bloomberg News®.
With more than 1,600 reporters and editors in news
bureaus around the globe, we provide the world with the most comprehensive,
accurate and up-to-date coverage of business and financial news available.
Bloomberg News reports on markets, economies,
companies, politics, sports, entertainment and more,
generating more than 4,000 news stories daily, all of which are
instantly available to the Bloomberg Professional® service and its users. More
than 350 leading newspapers worldwide depend on Bloomberg News as a key source
for business news stories.
“Whether
you're a financial newbie looking for advice on managing your 401(k) or a
veteran trader looking for the latest financial news, you'll find what you need
at Bloomberg.com. Highlights include streaming video from Bloomberg TV, free
tutorials, and interactive planning tools that include mortgage and retirement
calculators.” Matthew P. Graven,
PC Magazine Online web site review
Internal Revenue
Service
Provide
Many forms and publications are
available on this site.
“Though the
IRS is usually synonymous with the terms frightening, intimidating, and
uncooperative, its Web site accomplishes the complete opposite. Information for
personal and business users is plentiful, and tax forms are easy to find and download.
This site is an absolute must every April and throughout the year.” Douglas
Borenstein PC Magazine Online web site review
Motley Fool
The company is committed to using its voice to help
those with money as well as those without it. The company's "Foolanthropy" program invites readers to nominate the
charities to which they'd like to contribute. Since 1997, The Motley Fool
and its community have raised close to two million dollars for many charities
across the nation.
In the year 2000, the Fool took advantage of the
interactivity of the Internet and began offering online seminars to help
individuals get in-depth knowledge on a particular subject. The Fool also began
offering in-depth company-specific research reports on the companies most
widely owned by members of its community.
“Who
would have guessed that learning about money could be so much fun? The Motley
Fool site is dedicated to teaching individuals about all things financial. It's
loaded with articles and commentary that cover everything from new tax laws to
fixing your credit rating. What really differentiates it from other financial
sites is the amusing, almost personal tone of the articles.” Matthew P.
Graven, PC Magazine Online web site review
Annual Report Service
http://www.annualreportservice.com/
The largest FREE directory of
online annual reports available on the web. Create a user
profile to view the thousands of online annual reports or 10-K
presentations. Your name and address may be forwarded to the company you
review. The company may choose to send you additional financial information. We
do not sell mailing lists to any third party. Please read the privacy
policy.
Use the search box to select a company by Stock
Symbol. Companies may also be selected alphabetically by name, state or
industry. Annual report information obtained FAST and FREE.
“It’s a great place to start research because it does
so much of the work for you.” The New York Times
NEWS
CNN.COM
CNN.com
is among the world's leaders in online news and information delivery. Staffed
24 hours, seven days a week by a dedicated staff in CNN's world headquarters in
“News
giant CNN offers up-to-the-minute information as well as extras (for a fee)
like video, e-mail news alerts, and special reports. You can even get news on
your cell phone via CNNtoGO, or listen to CNN Radio
online 24/7.” By Mike Kobrin of PC Magazine
Online
The New York Times on
the Web
“She
may be over 150 and a Gray Lady, but The New York
Times on the Web is au courant, with all the news that's fit to scroll, updated
regularly. Registration is required but free, as are articles going back seven
days. You'll find extras like videos and an RSS feed, and you don't need gloves
to read this version.” By Gary Berlineof PC
Magazine Online
BBC News
Innovative, progressive and pioneering - the
British Broadcasting Corporation has proved a powerful force in the 20th
century - providing entertainment, education and information, and captivating
millions of viewers and listeners at home and abroad.
The arrival of digital technology and the Internet
during this decade marked a new era in broadcasting. For the viewer, digital
television offered more channels and wider interactivity; for the listener,
digital radio provided CD-quality sound and flexibility of service. BBC Online,
an Internet service which did not exist at the beginning of the 90s, was one of
the leading websites in
“Do you long to read news
about the Asia-Pacific region in Burmese? BBC News gives you a variety of
options to personalize your info consumption. With a sampling of news covering
every major region of the world, it offers articles and audio in 43 languages.
There are also in-depth and at-a-glance options. More of a
visual person? You can select dates from a drop-down menu to see the
week in pictures.” By Natalie Goel of PC
Magazine Online
TRAVEL
SERVICES
Expedia
Expedia, Inc.
is the world’s leading online travel service and the fourth largest travel
agency in the U.S. Expedia’s award-winning Expert
Searching and Pricing (ESP) technology delivers the most comprehensive flight
options available online. ESP also allows customers to dynamically build
complete trips that combine flights, Expedia® Special Rate hotels and other
lodging, ground transportation, and destination activities. Expedia operates
Classic Custom Vacations®, a leading distributor of premiere vacation packages
to destinations such as Hawaii, Mexico, Europe and the Caribbean; and Expedia®
Corporate Travel, a full-service corporate travel agency. Expedia, Inc.'s
wholly owned subsidiary, Travelscape, Inc., operates
WWTE™, bringing complementary cross-sell and dynamic packaging booking
functionality to third parties on a private-label basis.
“When any
place sounds more appealing than your office, Expedia.com gives you a surplus
of options. We like this travel site for its extensive variety and versatility;
you can plan a trip around any destination, interest, or deal. And the
pocket-pleasing packages allow you to arrange it all in just one quick break
from your other pressing tasks. Then cruise through work visualizing the French
“Far easier to navigate than most
airport security lines, Expedia is the best travel-booking site on the Web.
Besides being easy to use, Expedia simplifies building a package combining
airfare, hotel, and car rentals. The site offers a terrific range of discount
hotels, with Web-shopper-friendly cancellation policies; Priceline
and Hotwire don't let you cancel at all. Even though Expedia charges a $5
booking fee for plane tickets, you're still ahead of the game.” Review by PC
World.
Orbitz
Orbitz, a wholly-owned
subsidiary of Cendant Corporation and part of Cendant Travel Distribution
Services division. Orbitz is a leading online travel company offering leisure and business
travelers a wide selection of low airfares, as well as deals on lodging, car
rentals, cruises, vacation packages and other travel. The site was created to
address consumers' need for an unbiased, comprehensive display of fares and
rates in a single location.
“Orbitz.com
is your one-stop shop for researching and booking flights, hotel rooms, car
rentals, cruises, and vacation packages. Just enter your starting point and
destination; Orbitz lets you sort results by price, departure times, number of
stopovers, distance from desired location, and more. And when you book with
Orbitz, you'll receive flight-delay notices and reminders via e-mail or sent to
your cell phone.” By Jessica Levine of PC Magazine Online.
“Finding flights is what Orbitz does
best. When you look for a flight, Orbitz lists the most likely candidates in an
easy-to-read table that's organized by carrier. If you check a box on the search
page, Orbitz will point you to flights into or out of alternative airports
within a 70-mile radius of your starting point or destination. Overall, we
found the site slightly sluggish compared to Expedia and the design not quite
as welcoming.” Review by PC World
Travelocity
Travelocity
strives to give its customers the information they need to make the most
educated shopping and buying decisions possible. As such, Travelocity is
committed to the Web site guidelines set forth by Consumer WebWatch
intended to help prevent confusion, deception, and fraud on the Internet. We
also have more than 1,000 customer service agents - our own people - who stand
ready to help you 24 hours a day, every day.
“Always
wanted to run with the bulls in
“Travelocity's Last Minute Deals tab
at the top of its crowded home page is the first thing you should click when
you visit this comprehensive site. You can almost always find a combination
package of airfare and hotel or airfare and car rental that's as good as, if
not better than, the price of each purchased separately. In addition, the
Guides & Advice tab, packed with information from travel guide publisher Frommer's, provides good general guidance about traveling
to cities throughout the world.” Review by PC World
TripAdvisor
TripAdvisor, Inc. provides a comprehensive travel search engine
and directory that helps consumers research their travel plans via the web.
TripAdvisor.com is the 6th most popular travel website worldwide, according to comScore Media Metrix (March
2004), and has won dozens of awards, including PC Magazine's Top 100 Web Sites
and Forbes Best of the Web. The company also offers travel suppliers a
performance-based marketing medium that generates average click-through rates
of over 10% per page. Partners include leading travel companies such as Expedia,
Travelocity, Orbitz, hotels.com and American Airlines. TripAdvisor
is a wholly owned operating business of IAC/InterActiveCorp
(Nasdaq: IACI) and is part
of IAC's Local and Media Services Group.
“It's not designed for booking a
hotel room, but we find TripAdvisor indispensable for
researching hotels, especially when we don't have a guidebook handy. The site
offers links to reviews from myriad publications, including the New York Times,
Fodors, and Frommer's, as
well as posts by TripAdvisor users. You'll also find
links to major travel-booking sites, though occasionally the links won't return
any results--especially if you're looking at smaller inns. The only risk with TripAdvisor: The profusion of information can induce
planning paralysis.” Review by PC World
Travelaxe
Travelaxe is the best free consumer hotel rate comparison
tool available. It is a windows application that needs to be downloaded and
installed on your computer. Travelaxe is free because we make commissions from the
travel websites not you. Travelaxe
searches more than 20 different
travel websites, for hotel rates in 3367
cities from 104 different
countries. Prices are compared side-by-side, with the cheapest prices highlighted.
Travelaxe
is secure and virus free. There is no spyware or adware in the application. We do not sell your email to
other companies, or spam your account. User privacy is very important to us.
“The tough hit the
road and look for a good place to stay. Travelaxe
helps by scouring nearly two dozen travel and hotel Web sites for the best deal
on hotel rooms. To use the site you first install a small app. Select the start
and end days of your trip on a calendar, use the drop-down menus to choose your
destination, click a button, and you'll get a screenful
of offers you can compare side-by-side. Travelaxe
won't book the room for you, but takes you to the appropriate reservation site
to close the deal. At the time of this writing, Travelaxe
tapped listings for 35,000 hotels in 535 different locations in 36 countries.” Review by PC World
MAPS & TRAFFIC
MapQuest
In the 1960s,
R.R. Donnelley & Sons founded the Company in
“A bit more intuitive than most map sites, MapQuest remembers recently entered addresses, so you can
select them from a drop-down menu. You can also copy directions over to a Palm
or Pocket PC device, though you must install AvantGo
(a free download) to take advantage of that service. “ Review by PC World
AccuTraffic
“Need to know whether an accident or heavy
snow threatens to turn your road trip into a road trap? This handy portal links
you to local and state traffic agencies' sites from around the country. The one
downside isn't Accutraffic's fault: The quality of
information varies dramatically from state to state.” Review by PC World
MEDICAL
MedlinePlus
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/
MedlinePlus, a goldmine of good health information from the
world's largest medical library, the National Library of Medicine. Health professionals and consumers alike can depend
on it for information that is authoritative and up to date. MedlinePlus
has extensive information from the National Institutes of Health and other
trusted sources on over 650 diseases and conditions. There are also lists of
hospitals and physicians, a medical encyclopedia and a medical dictionary,
health information in Spanish, extensive information on prescription and
nonprescription drugs, health information from the media, and links to
thousands of clinical trials. MedlinePlus is updated
daily and can be bookmarked at the URL: medlineplus.gov. There is no
advertising on this site, nor does MedlinePlus
endorse any company or product.
“Sometimes you need more medical advice than Scrubs can provide. The gold standard
is MedlinePlus. Once the preserve of physicians, Medline's
formidable database is now easier for laypersons to use and is open to
everyone. You can easily search for a symptom, condition, or disease, and get
quick links to studies, definitions, and the like. Other sections of the site
provide direct access to news about clinical trials, a dictionary of strong drugs,
and an illustrated medical encyclopedia. And unlike other medical sites,
Medline doesn't pelt you with ads or other sponsored editorials.” Review by PC World
The
The National Library of
Medicine (NLM), on the campus of the National Institutes of Health in
“If you want heavy-duty medical information, go to United States National Library of
Medicine and the core Medline database for tools.” Review by PC World
WebMD
WebMD
Corporation: the leader in providing services that help physicians, consumers,
providers and health plans navigate the complexity of the healthcare system.
Our products and services streamline administrative and clinical processes,
promote efficiency and reduce costs by facilitating information exchange,
communication and electronic transactions between healthcare participants.
Mayo Clinic
http://www.mayoclinic.com/index.cfm
Our mission
is to empower people to manage their health. We accomplish this by providing
useful and up-to-date information and tools that reflect the expertise and
standard of excellence of Mayo Clinic.
A team of
Web-publishing professionals and medical experts work side by side to produce
this site. Through this unique collaboration, we give you access to the
experience and knowledge of the more than 2,000 physicians and scientists of
Mayo Clinic.
This site is
owned by Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, which is located
at:
OTHER
INTERESTING SITES
Refdesk
On the Internet since 1995, Refdesk is a free and
family-friendly web site that indexes and reviews quality, credible, and
current web-based resources.
“The motto at RefDesk.com is Avaritia Facit Bardus--greed makes you stupid. That's why RefDesk is free, says creator Bob Drudge (Matt's dad), and
it's clearly a labor of love. The home page looks like an old Sears newspaper ad, but it's packed with links to useful
resources. The emphasis is on, well, everything: news (and links to major
sources); health, science, and technology stories; virus threats; over a dozen
reference sites; a grab bag of miscellany (Harper's Index, the Internet Health
Guide); and more.”
Review by PC World