Peter Greene’s “eLivingtm Guide”
First
created specially for Wisconsin Public Radio Monday, Nov. 8th,
1999 Thanks for your support!
Current version edited: 10/18/2000
12:51 AM
When you see text that is
in a different color (“bold”, “underlined” and usually blue) that means it contains a “hyperlink” to a Web site
or Web page. By placing your mouse over
the “bold, underlined & blue” word or phrase (your mouse
pointer will turn into a hand) and clicking on it will take you to that Web
page. Enjoy what you have access
to. Please feel free to give me
feedback any time at: pgreene@infostar.com
Experts call the Web an
“e-revolution”. (I’ve stated many times
that its growth is like an exploding sun!)
They write about “E-Transformation”
in information and computer industry magazines, and “E-Life”
in consumer publications. Today, we are
continually bombarded with “.com” commercials via print, radio,
TV and other media. So, how many Web
pages are there? About
800 million and counting! Here
is a recent study by the “Online Computer Library Center” where
their researchers tried to measure the Web (Oct. 16th, 2000). As the Web continues its exponential growth
(it almost seems like an 8th continent J) it has become increasingly difficult for search
engines and search utilities to keep up.
I’m here to share my knowledge and experience. Access this online document called “Share the Knowledge” to gain some more insight. Perhaps stated best by Dylan Tweney, a former Editor for InfoWorld:
“The Internet is a lot like a large university
library with no card catalog, no librarians, and all the books scattered across
the floor. You know there’s rich
information in there somewhere, but finding it requires quantities of patience,
expertise, and time that few people other than graduate students possess.”
– Dylan Tweney, Sept. 20th,
1999
So, this “discovery
document” or “eLivingtm Guide” is for you.
It is about helping you get more out of the usefulness and vast content
that is out there on the Internet & Web.
“eLivingtm”
is more than just making phone calls over
the Internet for free, or checking
up on your students! “eLivingtm” is about you being “empowered” – about you being in
control.
Please keep in mind that I
have no control over the availability of the products & services on the
Web. Some of them have won awards and
praises while others have not. You be
the judge! Additionally, I have no
control over what browsers they support as well as what operating system they
choose to work with. Explore with an
open mind and realize that there will be products that support Windows only,
Apple Mac only, Internet Explorer only, etc….
If you have any comments, additions, corrections, or feedback please
feel free to e-mail me – pgreene@infostar.com. Through your feedback is how things will
improve! I will periodically make
changes to this document, as it will now only be for online use.
You must learn to become your own Web librarian and Internet technician to find useful information that is available online. Fortunately, there are many useful software products and services for you to try and see if they fit your needs. Some of them are free (usually advertiser supported) while others are free to try for a limited period (trial version), or you may have to pay to gain access to more advanced features. The products listed below allow you to search the Web more efficiently and give you access to pieces of information that might otherwise be difficult or impossible to find. How do some of them work? Rather than visiting each individual Web directory and search engine one at a time, these products allow you to search them all at once. They gather the search results, work at eliminating the duplicates and then present the findings. You can even save the results for future reference, and re-initiate the search at any time to update your findings and keep current. Keep in mind that they all vary with regards to the quality of the search results but one thing is clear – using just one search engine is a thing of the past! Here is a recent article about “How to Find Anything Online”. Remember you have access to the wide variety of Web search engines and portals via the WEBHITZ® Web menus.
Web Research Products:
Copernic,
Web Ferret, Alexa, FlySwat, Mata Hari, BullsEye, X-Portal, Powerize, Beeline, MagicBrain. If you find a product
that works well please let me know!
Improving Your
Web “Window”
I call this “Power
Browsing”. Some people don’t even
realize that you can have more than one Web browser session going on at the
same time. In fact, if you have enough
system capacity you can run several sessions of the same browser along with
another Web browser (I use Internet Explorer and Netscape on the same system at
the same time to test my Web pages).
Running several
browser sessions allows you to test Web sites for functionality and
performance. It also allows you to have
many things going on at the same time.
There are some of you that will thoroughly enjoy using the following
products like TabSurf, KatieSoft and Opera.
If you are easily bored by the “look” of your Web browser then try
NeoPlanet – they have a variety of “skins” to use.
Power
Browsing Products:
TabSurf, KatieSoft,
Opera, NeoPlanet,
and SurfSaver. Arachnophilia
is a neat program worth looking at if you design Web sites (and it’s free).
My Web Menus – which are
collectively called WEBHITZ®
- give you quick and easy access to useful Web resources. While the WEBHITZ® Web menus
have advertising banners at the bottom that I control, because of your pledge
of support for WPR you are being given access to a special “Wisconsin Public
Radio” version of WEBHITZ®
. Your version does not have
the banner advertisements at the bottom.
You may want to re-visit
this from time to time over the next year to observe any changes that I’ve made
to these pages. If you like how this
document works and the value of it, you may be interested in my “eMatter”. The eMatter document is now posted for sale
and is available only in its “digital form” at “FatBrain.com”
(posted 12/27/1999). This document is
one of my new “eLivingtm guides” and is about the “affiliate marketing and
viral marketing phenomenon” that is currently booming on the Internet and
Web. The article is written for the
individual as well as the Web site or business owner. Read some basic information about affiliate marketing with this
article.
The projections are that we
will continue to use the Web more and more for shopping other than using it as
a big library. Well, there are plenty
of people out there willing to lend a helping hand. The world of Web-enabled shopping agents and services has evolved
tremendously over the past 12 months. I
am continually amazed at the new products and services that are being developed
and fine-tuned. For some of these Web
agents and “shopping tools” you might have to download some software or
register as a user. You’ll have to
experiment to see which ones work best for your needs and tastes. Check out the following and you might be
surprised by the results: BottomDollar,
ClickTheButton, Dash,
eBoodle, eWonders, iChoose,
MyShopNow, MySimon,
NexTag, priceWonders, RatingWonders, StoreRunner, SalesHound, WebShopper and many others! Here’s another
Web resource that you may find handy as well. Are there other eCommerce review resources out there? Yes, BizRate and WebWatchdog are for free while Consumer Reports charges. I’ve made accessing a lot of the online
stores easy via my pull-down menus – just choose “shopping menus“ from
the very top of your WEBHITZ® menus where it says shopping; or
here’s another page to shop
in peace. Share with me your good experiences
and bad experiences so I can let others know.
Yes, it is true. There are actually several new online
services that are advertiser subsidized.
You’ll have to tolerate Web banner advertisements but you do have the
option to shut them off (except you won’t get paid while the banners are
showing). I suggest you check them out
and see what you think. It might be a
way to offset the cost of you being online.
If you have to pay local phone fees to access the Internet than this
might be your solution! Keep in mind
that all of these services are new within the last
6 months so there may be some “bugs”.
Services to check out that
pay you for being online: AllAdvantage, DesktopDollars,
Desktop
Horizon, GoToWorld,
and UtopiAD.
Let’s face it – getting
Internet access for free is nice. If
you travel having access to the Internet for free would come in handy for
picking-up your e-mail along with other things. In the past people would have an AOL account (or CompuServe and
Prodigy) just for traveling so they could have Internet access. If you own a portable computer (or if you
want to use this for a back-up Internet service at home or work) all it takes
is a little planning, online registration, and downloading the FREE
software, follow the instructions and you’re all set to go! Keep in mind that advertising (and venture
capital) supports these free Internet services.
Some Web sites that keep up
or review the Free Internet Service Providers (FISP) are Addlebrain,
FreedomList, and Internet4Free.org.
Visit these resources and you’ll find reviews, discussion boards, tips
on use, searchable directories, access to FISP worldwide, sorted by state and
more.
Addlebrain – the Free ISP Report
FreedomList – Free
ISP Search Directory (worldwide – claim 593 FISP from 49 countries as of 10/1/00)
Internet4Free.org – lists of FISP’s in US and Canada. Sorted by State.
Here are the FISP’s and
their respective Web sites: NetZero
claims to have 2,000,000+ million users (so don’t be surprised by busy signals)
started it but they are not alone.
Alphabetically you can give each of these a try - Address,
AltaVista (uses 1stUp), BlueLight (Kmart subsidized), Freei.Net (a.ka. FreeInternet and Freei.com), FreeLane (by Excite and supported by
1stUp), FreeWeb, Funcow,
iFreedom (10/2000 - recently merged with NetZero),
Juno, MicroPortal, NetZero, VirtuallyFree, WinFire (used to be FreeDSL, you can
check to see if their service is available via their “area code” tester right
from their home page), WorldSpy
(uses MicroPortal), and 1stUp! If you are just looking for a new ISP,
you should check out “The List”
by Internet.com.
AltaVista’s access software downloads fast and their registration process is
pretty easy. I haven’t tried them all
(you’ll probably see some reviews in PC Magazine or Computer Shopper - J ) but AltaVista to me seems to be the most
stable. By the way (BTW) AltaVista is
owned by CMGI so they’ve got lots of
money behind them. CMGI is a “big
league” Internet venture capital investment group and Internet holding
company. I’ve had problems with NetZero
(which is now traded publicly on Nasdaq), and their user base is way high! Keep in mind that “Internet Service Providers
(ISP’s) usually use somewhere between an 8:1 to 12:1 ratio for the number of
registered users versus available modems.
You should also visit this Web page so you can check out your “Internet
access speed”; it’s handy for people that are using cable modems. Windows can be a pain when it comes to
memory management – I found a free program called “RamBooster” that
seems to work okay. You might want to
give it a try; go to my “TechLinks”
page and go to #172 (the list is also alphabetized so this number might
change).
Some heads-up tips on
using Free ISP’s:
(1) Make sure you check out
the Internet access phone numbers from their homepages. You’ll want to find out if their access
numbers will be local calls or not (you will be responsible for paying
non-local fees!). (2) Prior to
traveling – check out the numbers that you need to be using for Internet access
– before you leave home! (3) Try the
service so you can see how it operates; and also for setting-up your email
account so you can use it.
Some very useful
e-mail tips!
While traveling you can
access your Internet email in a variety of ways; here are some that I know you
might be interested in: AOL Email, Mindspring Email, or for checking any
other ISP’s email try MailStart, MollyMail, or ThatWeb. Additionally, the Free ISP’s have instructions for you to set-up
email accounts as well. You’ll want to
have your user name or account information handy and your password; visit these
sites and try them so you know how they work.
Not sure if your Internet
connection is a secure one (especially cable and DSL Internet access users)? You
might be interested in visiting Gibson Research Corp.’s Web site and testing to
see if your “Shields are up!”
If
you are in need of a little extra storage space for your computer files then
try these Web sites: Driveway,
Freedrive, iDrive, MyDocsOnline, Myspace, and Xdrive. Drive space that they provide varies from
25MB to 300MB. You’ll need to register
for these free services before you can tuck your files away.
Thank you!
Thank you for supporting
Wisconsin Public Radio with your pledge!
It is really hard to believe that Larry and I are now in our 15th
year of doing this computer show!
Amazing how much has changed and how quickly it will continue to
change. That this probably why I gave
this new way of writing my “e-Living” guides.
A lot of what will happen over the next decade will be because we are or
are going to become more “wired” (connected to the Internet). More and more “information appliances” are
becoming available that have Internet access.
Please give me feedback and let me know what you think about this
“e-living guide”!
Sincerely,
Peter Greene
InfoStar.com, Inc.
And WEBHITZ®
P.S. Please check out the magazine that I am
editor of at http://www.ebillmag.com. The subscription is free if you feel like
subscribing.
Entire contents copyright
1999 by Peter Greene.
Peter Greene, pgreene@infostar.com,
+1 (608) 833-8432
7637 Farmington Way, Madison, WI
53717-1812
WEBHITZ® is a registered trademark with the U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office.
WEBHITZ® is a registered trademark of Peter
Greene.
eLivingtm is a trademark of Peter
Greene.