Introduce the Internet to your holiday visitors
Nov.
23, 1997
By JIM BROOKS
With the holidays just around the corner, you can just about bet
that last piece of pumpkin pie that computers and the Internet will
come up as a topic of discussion sometime during the festivities.
If you're an Internet user, you can probably count on giving a
demonstration to either your visitors or their children. And with
a little creative bookmarking, you can quickly showcase some of
the best content on the World Wide Web.
-- One of the best uses of the Internet is e-mail.
OK, you can't do much to demonstrate this to a visitor (besides
sending yourself a message), so before they arrive simply download
a copy of the free Juno e-mail software.
Juno's e-mail service is still free, and they claim to have several
million members.
Juno's software fits on one 3.5-inch disk, and will run on a 386
running Windows 3.1. The company encourages people to copy their
software and pass it along, so don't feel the least bit guilty of
giving a copy to Uncle Bud. If he has a computer, he'll thank you
for giving him access to e-mail.
The software package is simple to install and even simpler to use
(Mac and DOS versions aren't likely to be developeed.
-- Nearly every town has a newspaper, and if you're
friends or family are from out of town, look up their local newspaper's
Web site.
Two great places to head are Newspapers.com at www.newspapers.com,
and the home page for the Newspaper Association of America.
The NAA's Web site is aimed at the those working in the newspaper
industry, and you'll have to poke around a bit to find the "Hot
Links" button on the home page. It will take you to a clickable
map of the Unitest States. You can also select a state-by-state
listing of online newspapers.
Newspapers.com's Web site is a bit easier to navigate, though both
should give you plenty of leads.
-- One of the best places to start a demo of how useful
the Web can be for education is to begin at the Yahooligans! Web
site at www.yahooligans.com.
Yahooligans!, like its bigger brother, Yahoo!, is an index of Web
sites and their content. But Yahooligans! is aimed at school-aged
children, so you can be sure that it won't send you browsing to
the wrong places on the Web.
-- I found this next site completely by accident, but
it's been a favorite in my bookmark list.
Encyberpedia, at www.bigleague.com, bills itself as "The Living
Encyclopedia of Cyberspace."
Encyberpedia is mostly a collection of links to other sites on
the Web -- though you'll have to go some to beat it for its diversity
and kid-friendliness of the collection (be aware that a few pages
of links are obviously aimed at older audiences, including those
on pregnancy and investing).
At any rate, Encyberpedia will likely have something to interest
everyone.
-- For your tabloid-loving Aunt Mabel, you might want
to bookmark the Web's latest supermarket tabloid to go online, The
Weekly World News.
Yes, the News is the one that's famous for Elvis sightings, alien
encounters as well as the checkout line's strangest headlines. This
week's headlines included: "Jungle Tribe Worships Howard Stern"
and "Saddam Photographed With Gay Lover."
Where the truth ends and the fiction begins is anyone's guess,
but consider yourself warned. Visit the News at http://wwnonline.com.
BROWSER WARS REVISITED. Netscape Communications' dominance
as the top Web browser continues to erode, according to a study
released last week.
Netscape's Navigator Web browser's market share is now estimated
by Dataquest Inc. study at 57.6 percent for the third quarter of
this year.
By comparison, Microsoft's Internet Explorer continued to grow
in popularity, capturing 39.4 percent of the browser market.
Nine months ago, Netscape's share of the market stood at 73 percent,
versus Microsoft's 20 percent.
Dataquest analysts say that Microsoft could reach parity with Netscape
as early as June of next year -- a particularly likely scenario,
since the upcoming release of Windows98 will essentially merge the
Internet Explorer Web browser with the Windows operating system.
How will Netscape and Microsoft respond as the difference between
them narrows?
Dataquests' analysts say to Look for increased competition between
the two as Netscape scurries to protect the corporate turf it owns
and Microsoft works to take the lead as the consumer's browser of
choice.
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