Bob's Info-Navigator

Factoids' Web Info-Navigator
Links to the best business, medical, news and search sites on the web

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You are what you do when it counts -The Masao

Use the site index to navigate to points of interest.
Diversions was last updated on 9-21-01.
----Send suggestions or comments to: factoids@flash.net

September 2001 Recommendation:
From the Scout Report 6-22: Teoma.com
This new keyword search engine sets itself apart by offering three types of returns at once. In addition to the usual individual sites ranked by relevance, Teoma Search also returns topic groups and directory pages, giving users the option to pursue their search on several fronts.
From The Search Engine Report 7-2
Google examines link structures all over the web. It gives every page a popularity rating known as "PageRank" (the more links TO the page, the higher the rank). URLs with high PageRanks are more likely to be listed first. However, this will only happen if the pages also match other criteria, such as containing your search terms or being identified as being relevant to your search terms by analyzing the context of links.
Teoma operates in an opposite fashion. When you do a search, Teoma looks across the entire web to find pages that contain your search terms or which are considered relevant to those terms based on link context. After finding a matching set of documents, which it calls a "community", Teoma then examines the links between just this set, to determine which are the most popular.

March 2001 Recommendation:

From The Scout Report 3-16:
Bartleby.com has relaunched its electronic version of the Columbia Encyclopedia with numerous updates, including improved search and navigation features. The sixth edition contains close to 51,000 entries, including 17,000 biographies, with over 80,000 hypertext cross-references, as well as links to other resources such as maps, speeches, and additional full-text collections held by Bartleby.com.

November 2000 Recommendation:

From Cecilia Kang, San Jose Mercury News 11-19:
The Open Directory Project is trying to get thousands of people to help create the world's most complete Web directory. ODP, which sprang from Netscape, has attracted about 30,000 volunteer editors to catalog the entire Web. So far, they have indexed 2.1 million Web pages into 326,477 categories.
BrightPlanet aims to index the million of Web pages that are publicly accessible but buried in a way that is too hard for most tools to access. Most search engines can track down and index pages only with a specific Web address (or URL). But lots of pages, say within a government database, don't have Web addresses. BrightPlanet's technology finds those pages and helps them create their own Web addresses. Once created and saved, BrightPlanet indexes the page and adds it to its database.

June 2000 Recommendation:

     Validea objectively assesses the swelling ranks of supposed experts doling out stock picks via the Internet, magazines and other media. Stock selections are culled from about 35 media outlets and the pickers and sources are ranked based on the average performance of their recommendations over periods ranging from a week to a year, going as far back as 1995. (LA Times 6-20)

May 2000 Recommendation:

     AltaVista has introduced a sleeker, quicker search engine. Raging.com fetches results 20% faster than rival sites. The speed of the searches reflects in part a decision not to include any graphics, including graphic-based advertisements.
     AltaVista recently commissioned a study by ZD Labs to determine what search engine produced the most relevant results. AltaVista beat out Google, Direct Hit, Northern Light and Yahoo for coming up with the most relevant results in multi-word queries. Google was the best for single-word queries, according to ZD Labs.

February 2000 Recommendations:

     Desktop News 2.0 is a free customizable news ticker allows users to keep an eye on the latest stories from a wide variety of news sources and click on the headlines to read the full story in their browser (ads are interspersed). Conveniently, Desktop News is both low-bandwidth (56KB over an hour period) and has a small footprint (1MB).
      Essentials of Music (by W.W. Norton & Company and Sony Classical Music) offers an accessible but not simplistic introduction to classical music. The site includes almost 200 excerpts in RealPlayer format. Essentials of Music is composed of three main sections: (6) Eras, (70) Composers, and a (200 item) Glossary. (Scout Report 2-11)

December 1999 Recommendations:

      SpeechBot is a new experimental search engine from Compaq. It indexes over 2,500 hours of content from 20 popular American radio shows. Users can then search the index by keyword or advanced search. Search returns include the text of the clip, a link to a longer transcript, the relevant audio clip in RealPlayer format. (Scout Report 12-17)
     RadioSpy (http://www.radiospy.com) allows a computer user to find a station--streaming in Real Audio, Windows Media Player or Shoutcast--by clicking on the genre of music he or she likes. (LA Times 11-15)
     All-in-One Biblical Resources Search is designed and maintained by Dr. Mark Goodacre of the University of Birmingham, creator of the New Testament Gateway, this new site will find ready use among scholars and students in religious studies. (Scout Report 12-10)

October 1999 Recommendations:

     Encyclopaedia Britannica (with bound volumes still go for about $1,250 a set) is giving away its knowledge for free in a desperate bid to stay afloat. The entire Britannica can be found at the Chicago company's retooled site, (www.eb.com). (Nando 10-19)
From Charles Piller, LA Times 9-29
     HearMe.com was the first World Wide Web community dedicated to voice chat. In August, about 908,000 people used HearMe.com (http://www.hearme.com) or a sister site, Mplayer.com (for playing and chatting about computer games), according to Web-site-rating firm Nielsen/NetRatings.

August 1999 Recommendations:

From the Wall Street Journal of July 28th:
     Still don't know what to do with your multi-media computer with a high speed internet connection? Try some of the following:
     Spinner is one of the Web's music giants. It offers more than 120 music channels, each dedicated to a specific format. Examples: Awesome '80s, Sinatra Style, All Jazz and Bluegrass.
     Imagine Radio is heavy on personalization. It lets listeners program their own stations by selecting from a list of genres. Visitors can also customize by picking specific artists, but the process is tedious.
     NetRadio, like Spinner, features dozens of targeted channels. In addition to pop, jazz and blues, the site features a nice variety of classical music. Offerings include separate channels devoted to chamber music and piano.
     SwingRadio is all swing music, all the time.

July 1999 Recommendations:

From the Scout Report of July 16th:
      Searchpower.com bills itself "the world's largest search engine directory," with links to over 1,700 different specialized search engines. The indexed search engines are organized in over 60 categories, and individual engine entries indicate date added and number of hits from the Searchpower site. A What's New listing and internal keyword search engine round out Searchpower's services.
From the Scout Report of June 25th:
     The World Radio Network is a gateway to radio broadcasts around the world. It allows users to listen to live feeds and recent archived broadcasts in several formats and languages.

June 1999 Recommendations:

From the Scout Report of June 11th:
     Search Engine Showdown, offers reviews, analysis, statistics, and strategies for many of the major search engines.
From the Scout Report of June 4th:
     Google, a search engine originally developed at the Stanford University Computer Science Department, rates the relevance of a Web page to a particular search query in part by examining how many other Web pages link to it.
     Snap.com, a search engine/portal which recently merged with Xoom.com and NBC, has added a "RealPlayer Only" option, allowing users to search only for sites that contain RealPlayer content. Search returns note whether the content is audio, video, or both.

April 1999 Recommendations:

     If the Virtual Art Museum is a bit too much to handle (I mean, going through it alphabetically would take a few days), then try Brian Yoder's Art Gallery. He features his favorite artist, and there are many.

March 1999 Recommendations:

      If you have 10 minutes to kill, a visit to "Webbie" nominee SuperBad might be worth a visit. Is is nominated under the 'wierd' category (and that it is).

February 1999 Recommendations:

     If it's time for a short diversion, let me recommend a tour of the works of Eyvind Earle at ArtVest Gallery. Pictured on the left is an example, "Winter Oak"- which is not that typical of Earle's work (most are better), but was chosen to be displayed due to its economy of file size. While you are there, take the time to find Mark Kostabi's "Upheaval". ArtVest sells prints for numerous artist. But you will find the site low on pictures for most of them.
     Two sites worth a visit for those upcoming spring cleaning/housekeeping/maintenance type chores are Do It Yourself and Toiletology. For some background info, a visit to How Stuff Works may be of help.

January 1999 Recommendations:

     One quick note: I am in the process of updating my list of links. As a result of weeding out dead links, you will find the list somewhat smaller. Only the list of business and medical links have not been updated. I appreciate those (esp. Bonnie) who have taken the time to let me know when a link has 'past away', and those who have pasted along their suggestions.

December 1998 Recommendations:

     There little time left to convert your traditional IRA to a Roth IRA for 1998. The Wall Street Journal recently recommended the following three sites for info on the subject:
     The Roth IRA Web Site, Fairmark Press Tax Guide for Investor's and CPA Ed Slott's Tax Information Headquarters.

November 1998 Recommendations:

     A nice place to visit on a cold and rainy afternoon is the Virtual Art Museum. The link is to the University of North Carolina, and there are several mirror sites if this one is slow. Hundreds of artist. Thousand of pictures. On the left is "Sunday Morning" by Edward Hopper. Enjoy!
     Cooking and entertaining ideas:
Epicurious (food.epicurious.com)
Global Gourmet (www.globalgourmet.com)
IChef's (www.ichef.com)
GourmetSpot (www.gourmetspot.com)
StarChefs (www.starchefs.com)
Cookbooks On-line (www.cookbook.com)
DigitalChef (www.digitalchef.com)
Food Network (www.foodtv.com)

October 1998 Recommendations:

     Seventy paintings by Vincent Van Gogh from the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam are now on view at National Gallery of Art in Washington. The Gallery provides a website, with a virtual tour, the exhibition brochure, Van Gogh programs at the Gallery, press releases, online purchase of the exhibition catalog, and links to additional works by Van Gogh.

August 1998 Recommendations:

     Encyclopedia Britannica has formally launched its eBLAST (Encyclopedia Britannica Links and Search Tool) Internet guide. The site includes searchable and browseable reviews and ratings of over 125,000 sites in nineteen subject areas from arts and literature to world geography and culture. Sites are rated from "Noteworthy" (one star) to "Best of the Web" (five stars). Features such as Bookmarks of the Smart & Famous, a Guest Column, and a Net Events section highlight noteworthy Websites or specific aspects of the Web. (From Scout Report 7-24)

July 1998 Recommendation:

      The Psychedelic 60's: Literary Tradition and Social Change uses books and posters to ask the following questions: Were the Sixties the best of times or the worst of times? The handbills section is also worth a visit. (From The Scout Report of 6-26)

June 1998 Recommendations:

     Some 57 artists works are on display at the Markel/Sears Galleries site. This is an attractive and fast loading site with many interesting artists. It is well worth a slow visit.
     CBS MarketWatch is a financial news site that I am frequently using to gather articles for my Factoids page. I have been surprisingly impressed by it so far.

May 1998 Recommendations:

     Salvatore Ventura is an artist who's subject matter includes architectural pieces (capitals, bases, thresholds, columns, ect.). The site also includes an extensive arts links collection.
(From RetroActive)
     For a view of hundreds of old photos, try The Northern Great Plains, 1880-1920. It is from the 'American Memory' section at the Library of Congress site. (From The Scout Report)

April 1998 Recommendations:

     The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American Art has recently released this complement to a touring exhibit of the same name. It contains 137 posters in the topics of American Events, Designed to Sell, Advice to Americans, and Patriotic Persuasion. Each poster contains a captioned image of the poster, with information about the artist. (From The Scout Report)

March 1998 Recommendations:

     This month I am listing two visual diversions, the first being World War II Poster Collection at Northwestern, which has over 200 posters related to World War II. The second diversion (borrowed from Retro) is Billboards of the Past. The ads are for sale at prices up to $5,000 - an interesting way to decorate a den.

February 1998 Recommendations:

     For those looking for a short visual diversion, I suggest the Howard Frank's Portfolio. The site contains 10 black and white photographs from the 1930's and 40's.
     Those interested in viewing some humorous quotes and quips will find Oneliners and Proverbs an interesting place.

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