Jim Karpen Tips

The best Internet sites

August 2000

Which are the best Internet sites? All the ones that I favor, of course. Seriously, no one can say which are the best. But I thought that it might be useful to review all the ones that I use day to day. We've talked about many of them in the past, but maybe you missed those columns, or maybe you're now ready to expand your repertoire.

Google www.google.com is the search engine I turn to first. And many many people have thanked me for recommending it in my columns. They always say the same thing: "Google finds what I'm looking for." If I have a general topic, such as freebies or travel, I go to About www.about.com.

If I have a question, especially a computer-related question, I always go to Deja www.deja.com/usenet first. When I wanted to get a new hard drive for my PowerBook, I immediately went to Deja and did a search. Sure enough, that had already been discussed, and I was able to read the comments on which hard drives people liked best. Deja indexes the discussions that take place on the tens of thousands of Usenet newsgroups.

And I have a personalized page on Yahoo. I always change the default setting in my browser so that it brings up a blank page when I boot up rather than the Netscape or Microsoft web sites. I then set my Home button to my personalized page on Yahoo www.my.yahoo.com, which I view many times a day. If you haven't yet personalized a page, give it a try. I like it because in one glance I see the top news headlines, sports scores for my favorite teams, stock quotes for the few stocks that I own, weather forecast, and more.

I also have a personalized page on Excite www.my.excite.com because of News Tracker nt.excite.com, which calls up news stories on topics of interest from a wide range of publications, including the New York Times, L.A. Times, the Washington Post, MSNBC, and many more.

For online purchases, I always check out Deal News www.dealnews.com to see what coupons are available from the top online vendors. Then I go to CNet www.shopper.cnet.com or MySimon www.mysimon.com to find who's offering the lowest price.

Gist TV www.gist.com serves up my TV schedules, and if I want quick access to a wide range of Internet tools, from telephone directories to currency converters, I use Langenberg www.langenberg.com or Hotsheet www.hotsheet.com.

So there you have it-that's my Internet universe.