If you need a specialized tidbit of arcana, this site is as good a place to start as any. An object lesson on how to ride others coattails in a linked medium, Research-It! contains forms that allow you to query more than 30 information servers on a variety of topics. Need a word that rhymes with manubrium? No problem¡let Research-It! take you to CMUs rhyme server. Topics covered include language (thesauruses, translators, etc.), geography (maps, the CIA Fact Book), finance (stock quotes), the Internet, and shipping (track your UPS and FedEx packages online). A fun, if not particularly original, site. - Mike Hase
Recycling is obviously a good thing, but for some citizens it may not be as easy as pitching your soda cans into a plastic bin and taking it to the curb with the garbage. At the Recycling Hotline Web site you enter your zip code and the type of material you'd like to recycle (plastic, paper, etc.), and the site finds the nearest center that handles these goods. While the technology at the site works, it was painfully slow the few times I visited. The additional information on recycling and buying products made from recycled materials is also helpful, but if you're looking to unload some recyclables, it still seems easier to just let your fingers do the walking through the old-fashioned yellow pages. - David Pescovitz
The After a Disaster series of publications comes courtesy of the Virginia Cooperative Extension, an educational outreach program of Virginia Tech and Virginia State Universities. While most of us don't care to think about it, how many of us actually know how to clean water after a disaster? What about filing insurance claims? Or repairing your own roof? All of these questions and many many more are answered in the dozens of After a Disaster documents featured at this site. In clear, concise explanations, the publications tell us exactly what to do when disaster strikes. As the Boy Scouts say, be prepared. - David Pescovitz
Toilet running? Better catch it, and then pay a visit to Kay Keating's toilet-training site. And I mean plumbing training, not potty training. Start with a bit of toilet history, ponder the workings of a john, and then collect the tools you'll need to flush with success. It's just a matter of following Kay's easy-to-understand, step-by-step directions; in no time you'll be fixing tilting valves, renewing a flush valve seat, and diagnosing noisy toilets. Save yourself the trauma of commercial plumbers' weekend-night ratesknow how to wield a toilet auger yourself. - David Pescovitz
From a technical standpoint, this site is very well designed. It makes admirable use of borderless Tables, and would be a terrific primer for someone wanting to understand the appropriate use of Tables. SuperPages wants to be a nationwide phone book on steroids, but it doesn't always pull it off. You can find driving directions for businesses, but you have to search by distance (not the default setting), wait for a map to draw on screen, then click on the "how do I get there?" button, which in turn takes you to Verity's site. (Other sites, such as www.zip2.com, offer door-to-door directions that are easier to access and don't impose a 300-mile trip limit.) Consumer Guide magazine makes its online home here. - Gary Barker
NJO NewsFlash is part of New Jersey Online, an informational service targeted toward the residents of New Jersey. Or was it Hawaii? I get them confused. Wait, no, here it is, yes, New Jersey. In any event, the NewsFlash part of this operation features wire-service news copy from the Associated Press in five sectionsnational, international, Washington, sports, and the N.J. regionplus weather information from www.rainorshine.com. A lot of the Jersey-specific information comes from The Star-Ledger, The Jersey Journal, and The Times of Trenton. The non-NewsFlash areas of NJO feature nine popular comic strips, stock quotes, an almanac, classified ads, and entertainment offerings, among other things. Very well done in all respects. - Gary Barker
Semiotics is a technique for uncovering relationships among concepts. Combining Java and semiotics, SemioMap is strange but sort of cool. You type in your query (if it's a phrase, it must be in quotation marks) and hit Enter, just as you would with any other search engine. Then, if you have a Java-enabled browser, what you see instead of traditional search engine results is a black star field full of bubbles connected by intersecting lines. The interface takes a lot of getting used to, the results are cryptic, the database is slow, and it's all very impractical, but who cares? It's fascinating and kind of fun. Try doing a search for Rod Serling (creator of The Twilight Zone). - Gary Barker
I have no sense of direction and can get lost in a cul-de-sac, so I'll be honest: Zip2 is one of my favorite sites, and it has been since I first learned of it. But it's not perfect. The site provides excellent door-to-door directions most of the time (despite the occasional "turn right on an unknown road"), a searchable database of 16 million businesses nationwide, and a navigable map of the U.S. But it can't find 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., and announces with great authority that Washington, D.C., has no tourist attractions of any kind. So credibility isn't always among Zip2's charms. Call me mad, call me impetuous, but I like it anyway. - Gary Barker
Nolo Press is run by lawyers who apparently believe the law should help people in general, rather than helping lawyers specifically. It publishes self-help law books, creates do-it-yourself legal software, and runs two bookstores in the San Francisco Bay Area. Nolo Press Web site includes a great deal of content, most of it divided into three categories: debt & credit, employment, and buying the right to drive. But there's also a legal encyclopedia with 15 categories of useful information and an abundance of lawyer jokes. If you're curious to learn how your ATM card became a debit card, have questions about credit or student loans, want to understand employee rights, or have reason to believe someone's reading your e-mail, check it out. - Gary Barker