Free Toolbars

Want to better your web surfing experience? Take a look at some of the popular free toolbars available on the web. Additionally, these free toolbars will also help you during the web development and web site positioning process.
Google toolbar

Available for Internet Explorer and Firefox, two popular web browsers. Highly customization with built-in spell checker, bookmarks tool, web site text translation, single click accessibility to frequently visited web sites and more
Download Toolbar

Yahoo! Toolbar

Only for Internet Explorer and Firefox, the Yahoo Toolbar includes quick access to Yahoo! Mail and lets you perform queries on the Yahoo! search engine. Pop-up blocker and spyware detection tools are included in this toolbar.

Download Toolbar

AOL Toolbar

Available only for Internet Explorer, Firefox and Flock web browsers, the AOL toolbar lets you access email, weather and news quickly. You can also add your favorite web sites to this toolbar and share them easily with friends.

Download Toolbar


Bing toolbar


With buttons for news, email (Hotmail), weather, stocks etc., the Bing toolbar is an ideal companion to the Internet Explorer web browser. It can also be installed on Firefox. You can customize the theme and colors of this toolbar.
Download Toolbar

Wikipedia toolbar

The Wikipedia Toolbar is an add-on for Firefox web browser and helps in quick access to the information on Wikipedia pages. It works only with the English version of Wikipedia.
Download Toolbar

Facebook toolbar

Ideal tool for all Facebook addicts. Not only can information be shared with friends more easily, you can also upload photos and update your status without actually going to the Facebook web site.
Download Toolbar

Myspace toolbar

The Myspace toolbar lets you stay connected with friends from any web site you are on, share information, get alerts and updates including Status and Mood. You can also query the web directly from this toolbar - it uses the Google search engine. Available for Internet Explorer and Firefox web browsers.
Download Toolbar

LinkedIN Browser Toolbar

The LinkedIn toolbar can be installed on both Internet Explorer and Firefox web browsers and lets you search quickly and access your profile from anywhere.
Download Toolbar

Ask toolbar

In addition to a pop-up blocker and one-click buttons to your favorite web sites, the Ask toolbar can help in finding images a tad faster.
Download Toolbar

Conduit

Create your own branded community Toolbar and let people download it from your web site. Available in 17 languages with the Google search box, the Conduit toolbar is a great tool for web promotion.
Download Toolbar

Netcraft

Netcraft's anti-phishing toolbar protects you from scams and fraudsters. It's like a neighbourhood watch scheme in which members of the community takes part in identifying phishing mails and web sites. These are then subsequently blocked for other members.
Download Toolbar

eBay Toolbar

In addition to letting you search the web (powered by Yahoo!), eBay and Half.com, this free toolbar for Internet Explorer shows eBay alerts and notifications such as outbids. An ideal tool for eBay lovers that can actually help win more auctions.
Download Toolbar

Stumbleupon toolbar

An easy way to find the web's best content. The toolbar gives you quick access to the like button and bookmark your favorite web sites.
Download Toolbar

Technorati toolbar

The Technorati toolbar includes a powerful search feature and delivers the latest content directly to your web browser. You can also customize the toolbar to put your favorite apps (powered by Conduit).
Download Toolbar

Digg Toolbar

The Digg toolbar is a Firefox add-on to help you keep track of important stories and submit your own diggs. It helps in easy sharing of content with friends.

Download Toolbar

Google as my homepage

How to make Google as my homepage

I use a Dell laptop and whenever I open the browser, it takes me to the company web site. I would like to have Google as my homepage. Could you please tell me how to effect this change?

It's common for companies to set the homepage of the default web browser to the URL of their web sites. And as you probably know the default web browser on the Windows operating system is Internet Explorer. To change the homepage in Internet Explorer you need to modify its settings - read that article for detailed instructions. So, to make Google the homepage in the default browser, all you need to do it tinker a bit with the browser settings (the "Internet Options" section). FYI, some browsers allow you to have more than one URLs as the homepages.

By the way, as far as this article is concerned, the homepage is the page that is displayed when the web browser program is started. (The word homepage is more commonly used when referring to the 'front' page a web site - the page that's shown from the site's domain name).

Below are instructions on how to make Google the homepage in the five popular web browsers.

Internet Explorer
Click "Tools" and select "Internet Options". Under the "General" tab, enter the Google's web site address. Alternatively, open the Google web site and hit the "Use current" button. In the latest version of Internet Explorer, you can set many URLs as the homepages.


Firefox
Open the "Options" pop-up by selecting it from the "Tools" menu. Type www.google.com in the Home Page field and click "OK".







Google Chrome
Click the wrench icon and select "Options". The second section under the "Basics" tab is one that concerns the browser homepage. Type in www.google.com in the text field.




Apple Safari
From the "Edit" menu, you have to select "Preferences" and then in the "General" section put the Google web site address in the homepage field.




Opera
Go to "Tools" -> "Preferences" -> "General" (tab). Locate the homepage field and enter the Google web address.




An important note for Internet Explorer users: I've come to know that some Internet Explorer users are unable to change the homepage. The problem is generally attributed to spyware/adware/virus, malicious code or a badly written add-on. If you too cannot change the homepage in Internet Explorer, I suggest you read that post for troubleshooting and further help.

Decrease picture size for email

Pictures from a digital camera or scanner are generally very large in both file size and dimensions (width and height) and simply not suited for email and web. For instance, unless you were forwarding the image to a printer, there is no need to send high-quality images to friends and family because not only will the process take a longer time and waste internet bandwidth, the entire picture wouldn't fit on one screen (on most monitors) which results in horizontal and vertical scrolling for the recipient. Thus, if you are in the habit of sharing digital camera photos or scans I strongly recommend learning how to decrease picture size. Some added benefits include increase in productivity, sending more images with one email message and,yes, happy recipients!

Written primarily for the newly initiated, this article addresses some of the different ways with which you can decrease picture size without compromising (much) on quality. For budding web developers, I suggest reading the web graphics section which has full-fledged tutorials on JPG optimization and decreasing the size of Gifs.

Many ways to decrease picture size
There are several different methods you can employ to decrease picture size.
           1. Save pictures with smaller dimensions (decrease the width and height).
           2. Crop out the important part.
           3. Lower the quality for pictures in JPG format or reduce the number of colors for GIFs.

All of above require the use of graphics manipulation software also called image editors and there are tons of such programs available. Depending on your experience with computers and desire to learn, you can use online image editors such as one at Pixlr.com, a standalone program such as Microsoft Paint or even free web based services to which you upload a large picture and get a picture with reduced size. We'll now look into these options in detail.

Pixlr.com editor to reduce size of images
The online free Pixlr.com image editor offers all the basic tools to decrease picture size - resizing, cropping and changing image quality. For step by step instructions, read how to reduce image size with Pixlr.com.

Use Paint on Windows for decreasing picture size
The Microsoft Paint program is the free image editor that comes with the Windows operating system. You can open a large picture in this program and then resize and crop it. Learn how to make photographs smaller for use on email and the web.

Decrease size of pictures with free online services
Use one of these online free services to decrease the size of your pictures:
               Free Image Optimizer lets you decrease picture size by resizing, compressing and optimizing. Easy to use service that is also available as a standalone download.
                Online Image Optimizer from Dynamic Drive: Enter the URL of the image (if online) or upload a picture from your computer and get a smaller image.
                Web Resizer does a decent job of reducing the size of images that you upload to the service.
                 Shrink Pictures in a few steps: Upload image, specify size, apply a special effect (optional) and select quality.
                Reducephoto.com is designed primarily for people who email photographs taken from digital cameras.

What is a search engine?

In the context of computer and the internet, a search engine is a program that helps locate information. The user provides queries the search engine which then processes it and displays the result.

As far as the Internet is concerned, a web search engine helps you find information on the web based on your query. The results of your query to the search engine can be web pages, text documents (PDF or Word files), videos, images etc or a combination of all. Google, Yahoo!, MSN, AOL are some of the famous web search engines - for more, refer the major search engines and directories list.

Without search engines, it would be impossible to find something on the web. I know it's a doggone cliché but it would be like searching for a needle in a haystack... a haystack that's miles and miles across.

So what is a web search engine?
Is a web search engine just one program? NO! There are five main ingredients to it:
          1.an interface through which you enter your search query
          2.a database of the indexed information (web pages and their contents)
          3.a "bot" or an automated program that continuously scourges the web for new and changed information
          4.a program that indexes the information (contents of online web pages)
          5.the actual search engine program
We shall now look at each to understand web search engines better.

Web search engine interface
Most people think of the interface as the actual search engine. It is not. For instance, what you see on www.google.com is the interface - a text field in which you type in your search query, a couple of buttons and a few links. The real Google search engine is one that works behind the scenes - it wakes up when a query it entered in the txt field and the search button in clicked.

A typical web search engine interface has a text field, in which the surfer needs to enter their query, and a submit button that passes the query to the actual search engine program. This interface is either presented on a web page or may be a part of another program such as the web browser or the add-on browser toolbar.

By far, the simplest web page search engine interface is that of Google and I guess it's one of the reasons that made it so famous. Google has been very particular and "careful" of its interface. Ever since it was launched, the Google homepage was simplicity personified - a logo, text field and search buttons. Distracting elements were altogether absent and because of which the interface loads very fast even on slow internet connections.

The database of indexed web pages
When you run a query on a web search engine, the program doesn't run off to each web site on the internet hunting for the required information.. This would be impossible to do and would take an immense amount of time - by the time you would have aged a few years. So what happens and how are the search results displayed so quickly?

Each web search engine keeps a repository of web pages. This collection is stored in a database. Furthermore, the web pages in this database are indexed (or organized, if you don't like the fancy word) based on the information (text, images...) they contain. This indexing is very important and is responsible for rapidly searching for the required web pages based on your query.

The automated search engine bots
The main job of a search engine bot is to go around the web, hunt for new information and add or update the database. The bot follows links from web pages quite like you do when you click on one. However, it moves from one web site to another like a spider without human involvement. On finding a new web page, it sends the information which is then stored in the database. The same goes when it finds a web page that has been changed or deleted.

As mentioned above, because of the dynamic nature of the internet (with information being changed and added each second), it is virtually impossible for a bot to have all the current information of the web in the database. There simply cannot be a current snapshot of the web. This, as you would have gathered, means the results you get for your query would not include web pages that have been added a few seconds back (sometime even hours and days).

The search engine indexing program
At the heart of it all is the search engine indexing program. This program is in-charge of organizing and segregating information which the bot gathers and stores in the database. It's also responsible for getting you relevant results based on your query.

The indexing of online information (web pages and their contents) involves complicated algorithms and processes. And these are closely guarded secrets because the success of the search engine depends on them. Google, Yahoo!, MSN, AOL all have different algorithms for indexing web pages which is apparent from the different search results they display for the same query.

The actual search engine program
The web search engine program takes the query provided by the user, runs it through the indexed database and provides the results. Note: the relevancy of the results depends on how the information has been indexed - the actual search program simply goes through the index and presents the results.

Most web search engines follow the same basic format in presenting the results - web pages are listed one after another, 10 or 20 at a time. More results (if found) are displayed on additional pages.

Do you now understand the complexities in a web search engine? The simple interface which you see on the web page of Google.com is just the tip of the iceberg. There is so much more the web search companies do to make it easy for all of us. I hope you've found this article entertaining and useful; if so drop me a comment.

ZOOZOO (37)

101 Best Sites

0    Facebook
Facebook is social networking site. 
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1    Yahoo!   
Yahoo is your Online Free Treasure Room! An outstanding search engine (especially for "official" websites), it also provides a cornucopia of free services: free email, maps, Yellow Pages, games, shopping, news, finance, sports, live chat -- the list just goes on and on and on! By far (in our opinion), Yahoo is the best site on the Web!
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2    Google   
We believe Google is simply the best tool on the Web for finding just about anything (except possibly "official" websites). It is screamingly fast, sleek, streamlined, and as comprehensive as a search tool can be.
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3    Amazon.com   
Amazon is nothing less than a revolution in how the world shops. It is a huge step forward in the achievement of an ideal competitive market. It is user-friendly, vast, and reliable.
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4    About.com   
About.com breaks up the Web into major subject areas with a volunteer human host for each of them. It helps you sift out the wheat from the chaff on an enormous range of subjects.
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5    Bartleby.com   
Much of the greatest literature in the history of humankind will be found in full text form (and free of charge) at this amazing site. In addition, many useful reference tools are here (also free!)
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6    Google Groups    
Formerly "DejaNews", Google Groups is a glorious experiment in free speech! This oceanic database of over 800 million posted "Usenet" messages from people all over the globe constitutes the largest bulletin board in the history of the world! It's fully searchable, and you can post your own messages free of charge. (Tip: don't use your primary email address in your posts! To avoid spam, use a temporary email address.)
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7    Google News
A bold endeavor in online journalism, Google News provides you hundreds of news sources (typically) for each of the major stories of the day. Just find the story that interests you on the main page, and you will see something like "227 related" or "535 related" just beneath it. Click this to see the extensive range of news sources available for the story you are after! (Its database of past news is also searchable.)
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8    CNN   
For fast-breaking news and responsible journalism, it's hard to beat CNN. And the text content at this site is mostly free!
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9    EBay   
Ebay is the world's biggest, longest-running garage sale, as well as its most extensive auction house. Buy, sell, browse, bid, and be amazed at what you find at this wonderful site!
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10    Download.com   
If you love software treasure-hunting, Download.com is the site for you! This massive and well-rounded collection of shareware (try-before-you-buy) and freeware (totally free software) is fully searchable and sortable. And there's no wait for a package in the mail: download it NOW, install it, and take it for a test drive!
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11    Craigslist.org   
Craigslist.org is a daring bulletin board system directed toward the major cities in the US, Canada, the UK, and (soon) other countries. The magical distinction of Craigslist is its use of anonymous email forwarding: your email address is invisible to the public. A pointer (which expires after several days) forwards all responses to you. Visit Craigslist if you want to sell or buy something, if you want to meet new people (romantically or otherwise), if you want to look for a job, or if you want to share your ideas. Almost all of its features are totally free, except job listings for employers.
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12    Reference.com   
Your inner-librarian will be delighted! Here you will find (free of charge) Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, Almanacs, Atlases, and an assortment of other helpful resources.
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13    Wikipedia.org   
One of the most remarkable online encyclopedias on the Web! All the content is free, in the public domain, and quotable. Wikipedia is maintained by an army of volunteers. Even so, its content remains of very high quality. Wikipedia is a good example of how the Web can function at is best! Be sure to visit whenever you have any question that an encyclopedia might help you answer. You might be surprised how often Wikipedia will come through for you!
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14    Beliefnet.com   
Beliefnet.com is an online community for people who practice spirituality in just about any tradition in the world. The emphasis here is on mutual respect and tolerance. Free inquiry and exchange of ideas is invited. Secular (non-religious) philosophies and ideas are also welcome. Also, sacred texts from the world's great religions will be found referenced at this site.
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15    Anywho   
Anywho is a great online phone book and people-finder sponsor
ed by AT&T. Use the Yellow Pages for businesses, the White Pages for people, and the Reverse Lookup if all you have is a phone number.
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16    Weather.com   
Enter your Zip Code and see the weather predictions for the next ten days (scroll down), courtesy of The Weather Channel. It's easy and it's free!
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17    Search.com   
Search.com is an outstanding example of a "metasearch engine": a web search tool that employs over 1,000 search engines running in parallel to help you find what you are looking for.
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18    Hotmail.com   
MSN's Hotmail.com provides you with totally free email, pure and simple!
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19    NIH.gov   
The National Institutes of Health of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services has created this clearinghouse of information on all matters related to your physical well-being. You'll find drug information (MEDLINEplus), disease & symptom documentation, health recommendations, summaries on every major system of the human body, and much more at this excellent site.
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20    CNET.com   
CNET.com (the parent site of Download.com) is a technophile's oasis! If you are looking for desktop computers, laptops, printers, peripherals, software cell phones, cameras, or just about any other kind of gadgetry, be sure to take advantage of CNET's reviews and price comparison features. This free site can save you hundred or thousands of dollars, depending on your needs
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21    London Books   
The London Review of Books is a respected journal for those who enjoy reading the best books in the world! At times, the reviews themselves rise to the level of great literature.
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22    Refdesk.com   
You could spend tens and tens of hours browsing the huge catalogue of useful websites at Refdesk.com. You'll find newspapers, photo databases, reference tools, trivia, quotes, self-help advice, search engines, and much, much more at this virtual goldmine of the Web.
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23    MayoClinic.com   
Simply put, the Mayo Clinic is one of the greatest hospitals and medical research centers on Planet Earth. In that tradition, the Mayo Clinic provides this excellent website devoted to the promotion of human health.
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24    GuideStar.org   
If you give some of your time, money, and energy to help the disadvantaged of the world, you would probably like to know that your contributions are put to good use. GuideStar.org provides extensive information on nearly all major charitable organizations. It will help you "heal the world" responsibly.
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25    FirstGov.gov   
The official portal of the Federal Government of the United States, FirstGov.gov puts you in touch with your elected officials and the agencies and people they govern. Lots of good information here.
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26    BBC.com   
The BBC has long been the standard for international journalism. At this site, you can watch, listen, and read live and recorded content from the BBC. (Be sure to catch the hourly World News Update!) But don’t stop with the news! Be sure to browse the History, Science, Society, and other categories to find rich content of unusually high quality. You could browse this site for many weeks without exhausting its abundant resources!
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27    IMDB.com   
The Internet Movie Database (IMDB) is a movie-lover's paradise! Discover every movie your favorite actor/actress has been in, discover every actress/actor in your favorite movie! All the facts about all the films will be found here.
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28    Expedia.com   
Expedia.com makes travel very easy and about as cheap as it can be. Your one stop shop for low-cost air travel, hotels, rental cars, and tour packages!
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29    Slate.com   
MSN's Slate is one of the premier online magazines. You'll find news, ideas, reviews, and much more here.
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30    Nutrition.gov   
Nutrition.gov provides authoritative information about health and nutrition. You will also find the USDA's National Nutrient Database here, which will allow you to evaluate your diet with more knowledge than ever before!
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31    Altmedicine.com   
Alternative medicine has found its voice on the web at Altmedicine.com! Having received praise from many sources (including the prestigious medical journal "The Lancet"), Altmedicine.com explores the best information from many sources on alternative approaches to human health.
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32    Citysearch.com   
When you need to get to know a city fast, Citysearch.com should be your first stop! You'll find information and reviews of restaurants, hotels, places to see, shopping, services, and much more about major American (and some international) cities at this site.
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33    Monster.com   
Need a job? Visit Monster.com, an enormous database & job listing site for employers and employees to be!
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34    Vote-Smart.org   
Enter your Zip Code and find links to your Congresspersons, your President, and your state representatives! Project Vote Smart will help you become an informed and effective voter.
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35    Sciam.com   
The online manifestaton of Scientific American magazine, Sciam.com presents clear, intelligent writing on the most important scientific discoveries, initiatives, and controversies of our time. Much of the content is free. And you can search past issues!
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36    ESPN.com   
If you love sports, sports history, or sports statistics, ESPN.com is the site for you!
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37    Encarta.com   
MSN's online encyclopedia Encarta gives you fast, free access to an amazing range of facts. Much of the content is free, but some requires membership.
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38    Findlaw.com   
Findlaw.com provides a fantastic set of tools for anyone interested in American Law. Widely used by legal professionals, it can also be used profitably by laymen. Learn the facts about the laws that govern you from this excellent site!
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39    Nature.com   
One of the world's premier scientific journals, Nature, provides much of its content online (and much of it free!) Check out subject areas on Chemistry, Physics, Microbiology, Medicine and much more at this fantastic site!
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40    USA Today local   
Though it's not quite a substitute for your favorite local paper, USA Today's "States" news will give you a summary of the major events in all 50 states of the Union.
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41    AllPosters.com   
Who would have thought that one of the best selections of fine art prints online would be available at a poster shop?! Allposters.com is almost like an online museum: but a museum at which you can buy what you see (at reasonable prices). Not only fine art, but movie and concert posters and many other things framable will be found here!
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42    Time.com   
Time magazine is one most respected news magazines on earth. And much of its content is available free here!
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43    Mapquest.com   
Get clear, printable maps, driving directions, addresses of businesses, and much more at Mapquest.com
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44    Abebooks.com   
Find your favorite old or out-of-print books at this wonderful site!
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45    Allmusic.com   
From Beethoven to the Beatles and beyond, you'll find Allmusic.com a treasure-trove of musical knowledge.
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46    MedlinePlus.gov   
The National Institutes of Health maintains MedlinePlus for those interested in reliable information on prescription and over-the-counter drugs. Even so, you'll find many other valuable health-related resources here.
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47    Open Directory    
As modest as it appears, the Open Directory is a true powerhouse in web-searching! It provides search data to many of the most widely-used search engines, and it itself is a first rate directory of the best of the Web.
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48    LOC.gov   
The Library of Congress is gradually making more and more of its collosal store of resources available on the web. Its website should afford you many happy hours of browsing.
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49    Windows Media    
Online Radio is here, and MSN's Windows Media is one of the finest sites available devoted to it!
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50    UComics.com   
Your favorite comics may be online, and they may be here! The latest contributions from Garfield, Calvin & Hobbes, Doonesbury, Cathy, Ziggy, and many others will be found at this easy-to-use site.
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51    InfoPlease.com  
A first-rate online almanac, atlas, dictionary, & encylcopedia, all rolled into one!
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52    Alexa.com   
What's good is not always popular, and what's popular is not always good, but on the Internet, popularity and quality go are found together often enough. Alexa.com helps you find the most frequently visited sites in many categories.
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53    Museums   
When you're too busy to visit museums in person, you can visit them online! This fantastic guide to online museums is a great place to start.
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54    UN.org   
The homepage of the United Nations presents a rich collection of information about the state of humankind on Planet Earth. Practical strategies for making this world a better place are laid out in substantial detail here.
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55    Sacred Texts    
The Internet Sacred Text Archive presents the scriptures of the world's great spiritual traditions. You'll find sacred writings from Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Confucianism, and many others here (along with a few curious entries!)
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56    ArtForum.com   
Artforum is one of the world's most widely read journals devoted to the fine arts. Be sure to check out there "Museum Finder" when you visit!
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57    WebMD.com   
Get sound medical information and tips on a healthy lifestyle from this respected site.
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58    VLIB.org   
The WWW Virtual Library relies on a consortium of experts around the world to present the richest content available on the Web in a broad range of subject areas.
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59    MoneyCentral   
MSN's MoneyCentral will help you make intelligent decisions about investing, taxes, loans, retirement, and all things financial.
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60    Classmates.com   
Wouldn't you love to track down some of your old school friends? Or maybe a favorite teacher who made a difference in your life? This is the place to start. Basic access is free, premium access is modestly priced.
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61    Europa.eu.int   
The Hompage of the European Union is home to a vast collection of information about all aspects of European government. The EU's goals and strategies for achieving them are discussed in detail.
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62    Yahoo! Groups    
Nowhere is it easier to start your own discussion group or bulletin board about just about anything! Within minutes and with no cost, you can have your special subject humming with lively (and often scrappy) discussion. Free speech rules!
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63    NY Rev Books   
This foremost literary journal is surprisingly generous with its content: access the full content of each edition online. Remarkable.
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64    Jokes.com   
Not only will you find jokes in abundance here, but each joke has a running rating from site visitors! Be forewarned, not all these jokes are in good taste!
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65    Priceline.com   
Name the price you're willing to pay for airline tickets, hotels, rental cars, vacations, or cruises. There's no guarantee your offer will be accepted, but if it is, you will save some serious money!
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66    RottenTomatoes   
Which movie should you see this weekend? Rottentomatoes.com lets you read the opinions of over 100 critics (for most movies) to help you decide. The "Cream of the Crop" critics list may include your favorite critic. The popular "TomatoMeter" gives you a running average of the critics ratings for each film.
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67    IPL.org   
The Internet Public Library, based at the University of Michigan, may be the next best thing to having a University library attached to your house! In some ways, it may be even better.
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68    AceFitness.com   
We all know we should exercise, but what exercises are best for us? The American Council on Exercise describes exercises that are safe and effective for those wishing to stay in shape.
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69    Quicken.com   
The home of Quicken financial software, this site also provides free tools to help you plan and manage your assets.
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70    Andante.com   
This celebrated classical music magazine is available online, much of the content free. Paying members will enjoy an extensive collection of additional resources.
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71    Pauling Nutrition   
What does the latest research say about vitamins, minerals, nutritional supplements, and other nutrients? The Micronutrient Information Center of the Linus Pauling Institute provides detailed and well-documented information on all these. (Incidentally, Linus Pauling was the only person in history to win two Nobel Prizes!)
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72    PCmag.com   
PC Magazine has long been a favorite read of computer and technology enthusiasts. For hardware and software reviews, as well as tips for improving your computing experience, be sure to visit this site!
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73    Times of London   
Yes, you have to subscribe for access, but it's worth it to read the Times of London online.
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74    Federal Jobs   
The FedWorld Federal Job Search engine might land you in a new job quicker than you had thought possible! It's free to use, and user-friendly.
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75    IHT.com   
One of the world's finest newspapers, the International Herald Tribune is also one of the few online newspapers that doesn't require registration to read, free or otherwise! (Let's hope it stays that way!)
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76    Online Books    
Over 20,000 free books on the Web, many of them classics! Search by author, title, subject, century, or just browse for fun.
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77    Pogo.com   
Play Chess, Checkers, card games, or work Crosswords online at Pogo.com, a free website maintained by Electronic Arts!
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78    BizRate.com   
BizRate.com may be "the largest, fastest, and most accurate shopping search engine on the Web". Save money and find top quality at this site.
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79    Billboard.com   
Billboard Magazine has chronicled the world of popular music and entertainment since its founding in 1894! (Yes, that's 1894, not 1994!) Much of the information at this site is free.
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80    Translation   
Translate the content of an entire website from one language to another simply by entering the site's web address! Or enter a block of text and translate it from one language to another! To be sure, the translation is not perfect, but it may be good enough for what you need. AltaVista's Babel Fish Translations site has been serving up automatic translations for years, and it's free! (To see Babel Fish in action, why not translate and display THIS website in any one of 10 languages with a single click of the mouse -- click here  to see our "Translation Bar"!
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81    Give.org   
Most of us would like to donate money, time, energy, or ideas to help the least advantaged people of the world. But it is a challenge to ensure that our donations are used effectively and responsibly. Give.org, a service of the Better Business Bureau, evaluates major charities and provides reports on how responsibly they do their work.
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82    Mathworld   
"The Web's most extensive mathematics resource" will help you remember all the algebra, geometry, trig, statistics, calculus, and diffie-Q that you left behind years ago! And you'll probably learn a lot you never knew along the way.
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83    WebRing.org   
Webrings are like pearl necklaces of websites on related topics. Webring.org helps you find the webring that you'd like to browse or insert your own website into.
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84    Career Builder    
CareerBuilder.com employs its network of more than 130 local newspapers to help employ YOU! If you're looking for work, do stop by!
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85    411.com   
411.com is a combined online Yellow Pages, White Pages, People Finder, and more!
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86    Epinions.com   
This site exists to help people make intelligent buying decisions. It is a compendium of reviews from thousands of people on thousands of different products. A good site to visit before any major purchase.
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87    Spiritual Journals    
The Religious Studies Web Guide is an enormous collection of links to major journals in theology and spiritual philosophy.
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88    ALdaily.com   
Arts & Letters Daily is a favorite stop for those who love thinking, literature, and dazzling ideas. It's always fresh and always relevant.
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89    Nolopress.com  
The homepage of Nolo Press, the pioneers of do-it-yourself law, is also a rich source of free legal information.
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90    Classical.net   
Classical music lovers of all different levels of experience and sublety will love this site devoted to the history and ideas of great western music.
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91    Blogger   
Create your own "blog" to express your ideas to the world and invite responses. This service is high quality, and it's free!
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92    NYTimes.com   
The New York Times online does require (free) registration, but it is well worth that small investment of time. Keep up on events that shape the world by visiting often.
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93    Earthcam.com   
Live online cameras are all over the world in fascinating and often unlikely places. Look through many windows on the world LIVE at Earthcam.com!
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94    BBB.org   
The Better Business Bureau is online and ready to help in the continuing struggle against shoddy business practices.
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95    intelihealth    
Harvard Medical School's respository of consumer health information will be found at this excellent site, along with many user-friendly articles on health, disease, drugs, and the human body.
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96    LiveJournal.com   
Keep a journal online about anything at all! And browse the journals of others. Livejournal.com is one of the most popular "blogging" sites, and with very good reason.
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97    BBC Faith    
The "Religion & Ethics" site of the BBC sets the world's great spiritual traditions side by side and provides extensive information on each of them.
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98    ArtsJournal   
This "daily digest of arts, culture, and ideas" is sure to provide stimulation for aesthetes and intellectuals.
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99    TicketMaster   
The purpose of ticketmaster.com is simple: get the tickets you want easily, in advance, and at a reasonable cost.
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100    Gutenberg.net   
Project Gutenberg presents a collection of over 15,000 electronic books ("ebooks") available for free download! Most are older literary works in the public domain, many of the considered classics. An amazing and useful monument to the volunteer labor of thousands of participants!
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History of the Internet

The birth of the Internet can be traced to a small government project in the United States of America way back in 1970s. It was born from the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) network called the ARPANET. The ARPANET had several small computers called Interface Message Processors (IMPs) which were connected to each other through modems and leased lines that facilitated exchange of data between different computers via packate switching. As the news spread about ARPANET, more and more computers got connected to it gradually increasing its size and laying the seed for the Internet.

In 1993, I "saw" the Internet for the first time. Back in those days one could connect to another computer through protocols such as telnet and FTP using a terminal window. The telnet or FTP commands had to manually typed in at the prompt - there was no user interface. To gain access to a remote system one either needed to know the username and password or one was restricted to only the public directories - directories that were not protected and were thus, open to all. And if you didn't have an idea of how to locate a file, you had to go through each directory listing and check the file names (assuming that the file name described its contents)!

The major growth of the Internet came with the development of HTML, the HyperText Markup Language, and programs (browsers) that could read and display those documents. This gave rise to the World Wide Web (commonly known as WWW). Nowadays HTML documents, also called web pages, in addition to text, can also contain images, movie cllips, sound cips, animations and much more.

During its short history, the Internet has grown exponentially. Even at this very moment as you are reading tons of web pages and web sites are being added to this global virtual web. With the advent of easy to use WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get ) editors the techniques of creating a web site and putting it online has reached the hands of the common man (or woman, if you like). People are using the Internet not only for daily tasks such as checking and sending emails (communication) and searching for information but are also creating their personal and business web sites or writing their hearts out on a blog.

The Internet is now a global network of networks. Which means it consists of many smaller networks. The number of computers linked on these smaller networks can range from 2-3 in a small Intranet to thousands of machines in big organizations. No one knows the exact number of computers connected to the Internet, because this figure keeps changing and is increasing with each hour.

Tracing back in time, we can divide the history of the Internet (till the present) into three main parts.
1. FTP: The first stage
2. Gopher: The second stage
3. The World Wide Web: The third stage

File Transfer Protocol - FTP

The FTP (File Transfer Protocol) was, and is still, widely used to transfer files from one computer to the other. A user typically logs in at an FTP server and downloads or uploads files. Though FTP allowed for sending and retrieving files from a remote computer, it did not facilitate browsing. Thus, a lot of time was spent (wasted!) in searching for the required information. Because of this, a service called Archie was developed to simplify keyword searching of files located at FTP servers. Nowadays, FTP is mainly used to transfer large data (huge files or many small files) from one machine to the other. Various FTP clients are now available and most of them are very simple to use. The File Transfer Protocol still remains a faster method than the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) for uploading and downloading files.
File Transfer Protocol
Using FTP with FTP Explorer
FTP Programs or FTP clients

Gopher - Veronica and Jughead
Gopher was a menu-style information browsing and retrieval system. Developed at the University of Minnesota as a campus-wide information system, Gopher was named after the University mascot, though some opine that Gopher stands for 'go-for' information. Gopher overcame many of FTP's shortcomings but as the content increased, navigating the menu system became arduous. A search facility for Gopher called Veronica was developed which was similar to Archie for FTP. Jughead, a local search service for Gopher was developed to facilitate searching of local networks. Due to the lack of multimedia support and its linear nature, Gopher soon became extinct with the advent of the Web.

The World Wide Web
The World Wide Web: Came into existence with the introduction of browsers, the first one being Mosaic. The browser provided ease of use with graphical display and was able to show images with text. Hyperlinking between documents broke the linear architecture of Gopher and increased the complexity of the web. The browser was able to provide the user with a range of experiences - pictures, multimedia (sound, video) and interactivity. The web also allowed for the integration of pages with databases that resulted in dynamically generated content - content that is picked up from the database and integrated into HTML pages or HTML templates. This prompted many companies to put their wares online resulting in the explosive growth of the web.

The Internet has been put to a variety of uses. Though it started primarily as a medium to facilitate data exchange, it is now employed for information search and retrieval, communication via email, chat and voice, commerce and business processes and much more.

The two aspects of the Internet that I have always admired are communication (via email, chat) and access to information in a matter of seconds.


Email and chat have literally changed the way we communicate - it's now so easy to "talk" to a person sitting on the other side of the globe.

I still remember my first session on the Internet. That was in 1993 and I was one of the lucky few to have Internet access in India. So the first thing I searched for were the lyrics of The Doors. Not knowing how to go about it, I typed in "Doors" in the search field guess what I came up with? - Advice on how to paint "doors" in your house! I did manage to get the lyrics (after revising the search phrase to "the doors lyrics") but what struck me was the extent of information available. It was an amazing first experience!

How do web developers use the Internet?

I conducted a small survey involving 40 web developers and asked them a series of questions. Now web developers are very busy people (ahem!), so I had to keep my questionnaire short and precise. In addition to other questions, the web developers were asked to rank the top 6 reasons why they use the net... and here are the top three:

e-mail: Tops the list as the most used application of the Internet
Information search: Looking for prospects and "knowledge"
Business: Though, the survey was conducted on web developers, I was surprised and most of the 40 participants placed "Business" in the third place

How to make a blog web site?

A blog, also called a web-log, is a type of web site. Past few years, blogs have become very popular as these are extremely easy to create and even simpler to manage and update. And with many free blog services that have mushroomed, this segment of the internet has grown exponentially. In this article I shall be providing instructions on how you can make a blog web site for free using one of the best services - Google's Blogger. I've also included screenshots so that you can follow the directions easily and get an online presence quickly.

Whether you want to make a blog for yourself or for your company, the process is almost the same. And since this article has been written primarily for the beginner, I assume little or no technical knowledge - you should, however, know how to operate a computer and surf the internet.

Please understand that there are several ways to make blog for free - you can even put up one on your web site - but to make things simple to digest we shall be working only with the Blogger service.

Blogger - Google's free service in which you can make a blog
Head off to Blogger.com or click on that link. To make your first blog at Blogger, you need to first get an account at the service or use an existing Google account. Thus, if you already have a Gmail email account, use the same username and password to sign in and jump straight to how to create a blog web site page for detailed instructions and screenshots.

For people who don't have Google account; please follow the steps below.

Making a Google account
FYI, detailed instructions can be found on how do I create a Google account but if you don't want to jump across pages, here is a brief on the same.

Click on the large orange colored "Create a blog" button on the page.

Enter your email address in the first two fields. Don't have one yet? Please refer how to get an email address for details. Choose a password and put it in the next two fields. Keep an eye on the password strength bar and make sure it's not something people can guess outright and, at the same time, it's not so complex that even you are not able to recall later on. The next field requires you to type in a display name which can be your real name or something else... whatever you want. The process is almost over - try to decipher the wavy security text and enter it in the field below. Hit on the "Continue" button when done.

Open another browser window / tab and go to the email account you had entered when making the blog account. You should see an email from Google asking you to verify the newly created account - click on the appropriate link.

Hold on to your horses, the fun is about to start - read the next page to know how to create a blog web site.