"all around the web".B.E. picks the top 50 sites to make your life easier and more productive LAST YEAR, WE BROUGHT you the 25 best Websites to help improve your business, social and personal life. In keeping with the Internet's explosive growth, this year we're upping the ante to 50. Selection for this list is based on three factors: content relevance to BLACK ENTERPRISE readers, utility or ease in finding information and design. First, these sites contain practical information to enhance your bottom line and/or lifestyle. Second, we favor sites that allow for immediate and effortless ef·fort·less adj. Calling for, requiring, or showing little or no effort. See Synonyms at easy. ef  fort·less·ly adv. searches of information. Last, they have strong visual appeal and fast download speeds. These sites not only meet all of these requirements--they surpass them. Of course, we believe the newly revamped blackenterprise.com is one of the top 50 sites, but we'd rather let you make that decision. THE STREET www.thestreet.com TheStreet features free content and premium subscriber content services such as twice-daily financial news e-mail updates. You can scroll To continuously move forward, backward or sideways through the text and images on screen or within a window. Scrolling implies continuous and smooth movement, a line, character or pixel at a time, as if the data were on a paper scroll being rolled behind the screen. See auto scroll. down listings of the S&P, Dow and Nasdaq stock indexes. If you're so inclined, sign up for a free 30-day trial or get full access for $9.95 a month. QUICKEN A popular financial management program for PCs and Macs from Intuit, Inc., Mountain View, CA (www.intuit.com). It is used to write checks, organize investments and produce a variety of reports for personal finance and small business. www.quicken.com Quicken--best known for its financial planning Financial planning Evaluating the investing and financing options available to a firm. Planning includes attempting to make optimal decisions, projecting the consequences of these decisions for the firm in the form of a financial plan, and then comparing future performance against software--offers a Web site with the standard news, stock quotes and tickers. Other extras allow you to set up an online investment portfolio that links to Quicken 99 and get information on start-up business financing. E*TRADE www.etrade.com E*Trade allows you to set up a stock portfolio account and begin buying and selling stock. You get analysts' recommendations, real-time quotes and more for a minimum initial deposit of $1,000. Put your financial market intelligence to work for only $14.95 per trade. BIG CHARTS www.bigcharts.com Big Charts is a great tool for getting quick analysis on companies. Type a company's stock symbol and select a time period (one month, two years, etc.). You'll get a chart of the company's performance and links to sites providing more detailed profiles. DATEK ONLINE www.datek.com Datek's site is comparatively leaner in investment information. Nonetheless, with some digging, you can find most of what you'll need to become a smart investor at a cost of $9.99 per trade. FINANCENTER www.financenter.com FinanCenter sheds light on a number of topics ranging from credit management to retirement planning Retirement financial planning refers to a collection of systems, methods, and processes which, in their aggregate, support a family unit's (client's) desire to achieve a state of financial independence, such that the need to be gainfully employed is optional. . It also features handy calculators for determining home loan payments and savings plans. CHARLES SCHWAB Charles Schwab can refer to:
www.schwab.com Uncomfortable putting your money into an exclusively Internet-based account? Well, the dependability of this "brick and mortar See bricks and mortar. " financial service may help to quell quell tr.v. quelled, quell·ing, quells 1. To put down forcibly; suppress: Police quelled the riot. 2. any doubt. Set up an investment account online or in person at your local Charles Schwab branch and conveniently maintain it online. MORNINGSTAR www.morningstar.net Morningstar is a well-respected, veteran investment research service. At this site, you can learn about investing, map out a portfolio, research stocks and mutual funds, and communicate with other investors through message boards. THE MOTLEY FOOL www.fool.com Motley Fool's clever mix of humor humor, according to ancient theory, any of four bodily fluids that determined man's health and temperament. Hippocrates postulated that an imbalance among the humors (blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile) resulted in pain and disease, and that good health was and common sense makes it easy and fun to learn about the finer points of financial management. Seasoned investors can set up and manage their own stock portfolio while novices can go to "fool's school" and learn the 13 steps to investing and other valuable tips. SMART BUSINESS SUPERSITE www.smartbiz.com This site is an entrepreneur's dream. Choose from 80 categories of resources on everything from advertising to tax liability. Even tricky issues such as municipal zoning codes are answered in simple, no-nonsense language. SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION www.sba.gov The Small Business Administration helps businesses get started and keep going strong. If funds are slow in coming from your local banks, try site for more financing leads. You can also get information on government contracts and services. MONSTERBOARD www.monsterboard.com Browse through 50,000 local, national and international job listings then set up a profile. A search agent will contact you via e-mail with available positions matching your criteria. CAREERPATH www.careerpath.com This site combines classified ads from over 50 top newspapers and companies to offer more than 275,000 jobs. Research potential employers and conduct job searches by title and function. INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE www.irs.ustreas.gov/prod/forms Don't wait and scramble around during tax time. Use this site to find the exact forms you need to meet the April 15 deadline. Do your filing electronically and get answers to your most taxing questions. CINET CINET Convention Industry Network : THE COMPUTER NETWORK www.cnet.com CINet, also a television show on the Sci-Fi Channel, is comprised of several sites. Cnet.com is a general purpose site featuring the latest computer industry news and shopping. Builder.com can help you create your Web pages while Shareware Software on the "honor system." The concept is that users try a product, and if they like it, they voluntarily pay a set registration fee or make a donation to the program's creator. There are tens of thousands of shareware programs; some fantastic, some awful. .com lets you search for free software. IBM'S e-BUSINESS www.ibm.com/ebusiness What's all the hype about ecommerce? Visit IBM's site to learn all about doing business on the Internet. Read case studies of successful e-businesses to help decide if this is right for your company. ZDNET (ZDNet, Cambridge, MA, www.zdnet.com) A technical portal for PC users from CNET Networks, Inc. (www.cnetnetworks.com). ZDNet contains news, white papers, product reviews and links to a wide variety of shareware, trial downloads and public domain software on the Internet. www.zdnet.com Come here for information on technology and the Internet. ZDNet covers all the bases from addressing the Y2K problem Y2K problem or Y2K bug: see Year 2000 problem. (Year 2000 problem) The inability of older hardware and software to recognize the century change in a date. to listing upcoming trade shows. Get free software downloads and audio/video clips from broadcast affiliates or even take a computing computing - computer class through ZDUniversity. GARAGE.COM www.garage.com Technology is the gold rush of this century. Driving much of the explosive growth of companies in this sector is the investment of venture capitalists Venture Capitalist An investor who provides capital to either start-up ventures or support small companies who wish to expand but do not have access to public funding. Notes: Venture capitalists usually expect higher returns for the additional risks taken. and investor "angels." This site can put you in touch with these financiers. CAREERBUILDER.COM www.careerbuilder.com CareerBuilder not only lets you search for jobs with companies in its career network by location, job title and salary, but it can also use its Personal Search Agent to send you e-mail on companies that match your criteria. The site includes helpful career management resources and offers tips on getting ahead in the workplace. PC WEBOPAEDIA www.webopaedia.com Have no idea what high-tech terms like "multi-threading" or "HDSL See DSL. HDSL - High bit-rate Digital Subscriber Line " mean? Well, type in this URL URL in full Uniform Resource Locator Address of a resource on the Internet. The resource can be any type of file stored on a server, such as a Web page, a text file, a graphics file, or an application program. and delete your confusion once and for all. Simply type in the term you're wondering about, and you'll get a layman's explanation right away! KILLERAPP www.killerapp.com In the market for a computer, printer or memory? Give this site a whirl. Type in your requirements (monitor size, processor speed, etc.) and get a list of products and links to various e-stores to help you find the best street price. ALTAVISTA www.altavista.com Alta Vista See AltaVista. (World-Wide Web) Alta Vista - A World-Wide Web site provided by Digital which features a very fast Web and Usenet search engine. As of April 1996 its word index is 33GB in size. is generally recognized by the online community as "the search engine's search engine." You can often find links with it after an unsuccessful search at another engine. Unlike the others, Alta Vista also recognizes requests in question form. BLOOMBERG www.bloomberg.com Bloomberg, a well-known name in the business sector, provides a general news service through its Web site. You can track your portfolio and keep an eye on the latest trends in the global market. A $24.95 subscription to Bloomberg magazine is required to access these services. YAHOO See Yahoo!. (World-Wide Web) Yahoo - Yet Another Hierarchical Officious/Obstreperous/Odiferous/Organized Oracle. (Or a member of a race of brutes in Swift's Gulliver's Travels who have the form and all the vices of man, or an uncouth or rowdy person). ! www.yahoo.com Yahoo! is the king of Internet search engines or portals. A portal is a site that serves as an entry point to Internet services such as the Web, e-mail and shopping. Yahoo! even "pages" you with stock quotes and lets you create your own chat rooms--all for free. MSNBC MSNBC Microsoft/National Broadcasting Company www.msnbc.com Founded as a joint venture between Microsoft and NBC NBC in full National Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. commercial broadcasting company. It was formed in 1926 by RCA Corp., General Electric Co. (GE), and Westinghouse and was the first U.S. company to operate a broadcast network. , MSNBC has evolved into a premier news site. It's tightly integrated with the NBC news NBC News (along with NBC News + HD) is the news division of American television network NBC, a part of NBC Universal, which is majority-owned by General Electric. Its current president is Steve Capus. It is the top-rated broadcast news division and has been for a decade. to keep you up to date. You can also find information on its various television programs. EXCITE www.excite.com The "Avis" of portals, Excite does try harder. Arguably ar·gu·a·ble adj. 1. Open to argument: an arguable question, still unresolved. 2. That can be argued plausibly; defensible in argument: three arguable points of law. , it has more bells and whistles--daily horoscopes, sports scores and airline ticket ordering, for example--than the others. They have some top of the line partners, and provide a well-rounded information source. THE WALL STREET JOURNAL INTERACTIVE EDITION www.wsj.com This site provides continuous updates of the print version of the newspaper. Visit Tech Center for technology news, and get e-mail alerts on other major business developments. A $59 annual interactive subscription includes in-depth, personalized per·son·al·ize tr.v. per·son·al·ized, per·son·al·iz·ing, per·son·al·iz·es 1. To take (a general remark or characterization) in a personal manner. 2. To attribute human or personal qualities to; personify. news and portfolios. THE MINING COMPANY www.miningco.com Hate sifting through countless sites unrelated to your search engine topic? Check out the Mining Company. It complements its search engine with human guides in over 500 categories. They do the digging so you don't have to. CNN CNN or Cable News Network Subsidiary company of Turner Broadcasting Systems. It was created by Ted Turner in 1980 to present 24-hour live news broadcasts, using satellites to transmit reports from news bureaus around the world. INTERACTIVE www.cnn.com The premier cable news station extends its reach into cyberspace Coined by William Gibson in his 1984 novel "Neuromancer," it is a futuristic computer network that people use by plugging their minds into it! The term now refers to the Internet or to the online or digital world in general. See Internet and virtual reality. Contrast with meatspace. and maintains its dominant presence. After downloading the media player, browse the video vault news archives. Or, get transcripts of your favorite television shows. THE TRIP COM www.thetrip.com Enjoy the benefits of an online travel agent online. Plan a trip by entering your start and destination cities and times. Compare prices, flight times and on-time performance, and select your seat using a custom Java applet A Java program that is downloaded from the server and run from the browser. The Java Virtual Machine built into the browser is interpreting the instructions. Contrast with Java application. . BIZTRAVEL.COM www.biztravel.com Recognized as the premier site for business travelers, Biztravel allows you to customize airline/hotel/car packages to find the best prices and label your itineraries by name or purpose. You can also customize your itinerary with personal preferences. NETNOIR www.netnoir.com Netnoir is one of the net's first African American African American Multiculture A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa. See Race. entities, and it shows. The site contains a wealth of information, from art and romance to business and technology. It also offers news, chat rooms, links to African American cyberspace and e-commerce shopping. THE BLACK WORLD TODAY www.tbwt.com This site takes a global approach to issues concerning African Americans. The Black World Today chronicles the daily social, political, cultural and economic realities of the black Diaspora through news stories and links to other relevant sites. PREVIEW TRAVEL www.previewtravel.com Leisure travelers can select from an array of vacation, cruise and ski packages, and book plane, car rental and hotel reservations. You can even send digital postcards See e-card. See also PC Postage. to friends and family. THE CONDUIT www.theconduit.com The Conduit charts the impact of technology on the African American community. It features how-to articles on subjects ranging from Web page building to e-commerce. Check out interviews with African American celebrities, like Sinbad, who use technology to advance their careers. TRAVELOCITY www.travelocity.com Travelocity provides the basic travel functions, along with a feature that links to your alphanumeric alphanumeric (ăl'fən  mĕr`ĭk) or alphameric (ăl'fəmĕr`ĭk), the set of letters and numbers. pager to update you on your flight's status. A handy currency converter (1) A device that changes one set of codes, modes, sequences or frequencies to a different set. See A/D converter.(2) A device that changes current from 60Hz to 50Hz and vice versa. helps you decide how much money you really need for your trip. EVERYTHINGBLACK www.everythingblack.com This ambitious title describes it all. EverythingBlack is an effective tool to search black cyberspace. Modeled after Yahoo! in style, this search engine will put you in touch with just about any African American-oriented Website. SOUL4U www.soul4u.com What do you do in an unfamiliar city? Surf this site and find the African American-oriented restaurants, social events and places of interest in the regions you're traveling to. BLACK VOICES www.blackvoices.com Called "Black America's favorite Website," Black Voices sets itself apart from the crowd with a fun mix of entertainment, breaking news and member services. Shop, read up on African American politics, the latest movies and much more. MOSAIC BOOKS www.mosaicbooks.com This African American online bookstore has the latest titles. Its literary magazine offers book reviews and interviews with established and new authors. Mosaic also serves as a channel partner for online chains such as Amazon.com. CONSUMER REPORTS www.consumerreports.com The consumer watchdog consumer watchdog n → organización f protectora del consumidor consumer watchdog n → organisme m pour la défense des consommateurs of the consumer world, Consumer Reports takes its expertise online. Browse reports on products ranging from home electronics to cars. A site subscription for $2.95 a month provides access to the online magazine and message boards. CARDTRAK www.cardtrak.com Here, you can track rates and features of all kinds of consumer cards including those of the debit and phone varieties. Learn the difference between standard, gold and platinum credit cards, and visit Credit Ed. 101 to become more credit savvy. KID'S KORNER www.kidskorner.com This site teaches young people to view the computer as a communication tool. They can write letters ($2.95 each) and send cards ($3.75) and postcards ($3.25) to friends and relatives. KELLEY BLUE BOOK www.kbb.com Trading in a used car? Go to this site, enter your car's vitals vi·tals pl.n. 1. The vital body organs. 2. The parts that are essential to continued functioning, as of a system. (make, year, condition, etc.) and get the fair trade in value from this industry standard. Also, check out reviews of 50 "hot" cars. DISCOVERY ONLINE www.discovery.com A wonderful way for children to explore the worlds of science, nature and history. Based on the television channel, Discovery provides articles, pictures and games that young and old can use in "discovering" the wonders of the world Various Wonders of the World lists have been compiled over the ages in order to catalogue the most spectacular natural and manmade constructions. The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World is the first known list of remarkable manmade creations of classical antiquity, and was based on . BANK RATE MONITOR www.bankrate.com The site provides information on noninvestment financial products such as credit cards, auto loans, home equity loans, etc. A small business page addresses topics of interest to the business-minded consumer. HOMEWORK HELP www.homeworkhelp.com This site offers user-friendly tutorials for middle and high school students in over 1,700 homework topics. Subject areas include math, chemistry, physics and English. Access is granted only through a site membership at $9.95 a month. HOMESHARK www.homeshark.com HomeShark, an A to Z real estate source, lives up to its motto: "Buy Smart, Own Well." It sniffs out the best home prices, mortgage rates, and licensed brokers nationwide. It even helps renters decide if home ownership is the better option. CONSUMER INFORMATION CENTER www.pueblo.gsa.gov View full-text versions of hundreds of federal consumer publications on a variety of topics in 11 categories, including nutrition and employment. If you like, you can also order the print versions of these periodicals. They range in price from free to 50 cents plus postage. DISNEY'S BLAST www.disneyblast.com Here, youngsters can play games, read stories and have fun with familiar animated friends. This site has received critical acclaim, and will cost you $5.95 a month for membership. The first 30 days are free. |
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