auctions
Ebay
It's still the biggest, still the best. But here are some features you may not know about: 1) You can hire a 'trading assistant' (an experienced ebay seller) to sell your items for you. Search for one by zip code or category (see pages.ebay.com/tradingassistants.html). 2) Buyers can apply frequent-flier miles and other credits toward their eBay purchases (see Anything Points under Buyer Tools). 3) The eBay toolbar, introduced last October, downloads directly into your browser and lets you keep an eye on items you may want. Coming soon: shipping calculators. (If bidding wars stress you out, you can always head to eBay's fixed-price bazaar at Half.com.)
driving directions
Randmcnally.com
Move over Mapquest — sending us down that dead-end street in Burlington, Vt., was the last straw. Rand McNally's maps are prettier anyway, and nicely detailed. The turn-by-turn directions are clearly presented, with handy links to weather forecasts for both your start and end points and a list of scheduled road work, searchable by state and road type. Register for a free basic membership and you can store details about your next road trip.
free e-mail
Hotmail.com
Longtime users complain about spam, but the built-in filters will work fine if you take the time to set them up. It's also the easiest free e-mail to 'pop' (forward) over to Outlook (not surprisingly, as both are from Microsoft).
investing
Yahoo Finance
Business and financial news, stock charts, company profiles, industry reports and a slew of other investing and personal finance tools. Recently added: analyst scorecards. You'll find the Analyst Performance Center under Stock Research. Browse by analyst name, firm or industry to pull up a profile; ratings are given on a one to five star scale and reflect the accuracy of that analyst's recommendations relative to his peers. Note: ratings are not available for every equities analyst in the site's database.
money
Paypal
The great enabler of person-to-person online transactions, PayPal helps make the eBay world go 'round (which is probably why the auction powerhouser purchased the company last year for $1.42 billion). PayPal is also an accepted mode of secure payment at 42,000 other websites. All you need is an e-mail address to pay or be paid using PayPal; you can even use the service from your Web-enabled mobile phone. Now with a choice of three currencies: Euros, Pounds Sterling or U.S. dollars.
movies
Internet Movie Database
Who was Anthony Michael Hall's co-star in Weird Science? Did fuzzy-haired Chris Makepeace ever work again after My Bodyguard? This site, a rich database of 260,000 film and television productions made in the last 115 years, answers all these questions and more. Movie info pages lead you to cast members' filmographies, which take you to more movie pages and more filmographies. A half million actors and some 50,000 directors are represented. (Pet peeve: many bios are missing head shots.) Search for titles, people, characters or quotes, or delve into trivia or 'goofs' (two of 19 additional search areas; scroll down the home page and look left for a full list). Hungry for more? Sign up for IMDb Pro ($100 per year or $12.95 per month) and you'll be able to read about 1,500 movies currently in production.
search
Google
You already know it's the best search engine. But have you visited all the planets in the Google Universe? News (news.google.com) searches 4,500 news sources for the stories you want to read; Froogle (froogle.google.com) searches retail sites for products you want to buy online; and Images (images.google.com) will link you to 825 pictures of Willie Nelson. Zeitgeist (google.com/press/zeitgeist.html) offers fun factoids such as most popular 'Jennifer' searches (Lopez came in first, Aniston second). Download and install the Google toolbar (toolbar.google.com) in Internet Explorer and you'll be able to google from wherever you happen to be surfing, without returning to Google's home page.
shopping
Amazon
You're probably already aware that Amazon sells CDs, electronics and clothes. But did you know that you can also go there to buy cell phone service, subscribe to magazines or set up a wedding registry? Rather than create each new store or service from scratch, the company has partnered with some of the biggest names in retail to turn itself into a mega-mall. And it's still the best bookstore.
technology
Cnet
News, reviews and how-tos that fill all your tech needs, no matter what your level of expertise. Click on one of the product icons displayed at the top of the home page to find buying guides that cover all the bases without treating you like an idiot. CNET's own reviewers provide their top picks, and for each, there's a Where To Buy link so you can quickly compare prices. Download.cnet.com catalogs every conceivable piece of software, from spam e-mail filters to games for your PDA; many are rated based on user comments.
weather
Weather
Love the hourly forecast button. And if you don't mind displaying a small ad on your desktop, you can download a little piece of software that displays real-time weather conditions in your locale for as long as you're connected to the Internet. Pay a fee and the ad goes away.
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