Abuzz is a more user-friendly version of the newsgroup, where users submit 'interactions,' i.e. questions, commentaries or discussions, for others to view and respond to. There are well-defined categories to which one can post interactions. Abuzz keeps track of all the interactions you've created, as well as all the ones you are involved in, the number of links you've posted, and how helpful other members have rated you. As with most online forums, Abuzz has become its own little community, complete with circles of friends who get to know each other over the course of their postings. It's fun!

About is one of those data-mining sites, with paid experts on every subject. You search on a topic, and a page relating to the appropriate category comes right up, complete with a hand-picked list of sites pertaining to your search and hand-written (well, you get the idea) review by your About "guide." My favorite section is the section that deals with myths, urban legends, and email hoaxes. I've gotten many emails which were swiftly debunked by About.

Google is the best search engine around. It's kind of a no-frills search page, just the basics. When you search, you can select an option that will take you straight to the highest-ranked search result. Complete with an Image search and Usenet search, Google even caches many pages, so even if the link is dead, you could see what it used to look like. I've had great success finding exactly what I needed with Google.

In these post-Napster times, it's good to have a website where you can still freely exchange music and other audio files. All AudioGalaxy requires is a quick registration and download of a little software. You go to the site, search for your media and click the little sattelite icon. AudioGalaxy queues up the song from another user who has your song, and the software installed on your machine downloads it. You can even queue up a bunch of songs from someone else's computer and download them on your own when it's more convenient. Nice!

You've probably heard of the Kevin Bacon game. That's where you take an actor or actress and link them to Kevin Bacon, movie by movie, until you hit the ubiquitous Kevin Bacon (Example: Steve Martin was in L.A. story with Sara Jessica Parker, who was in Footloose with Kevin Bacon). The lower the number of movies you need to name, the lower the score. This website uses the Internet Movie Database to link any actor or anyone who has ever appeared in a movie (from Frank Sinatra to Weird Al Yankovic) to the esteemed Mr. Bacon, usually by naming three or less movies. If you can "stump" the Oracle by forcing it to name more than three, you're goooood.

A dazzling, baffling array of tricky web design, bizzarre images, and code snippets, arrange to dizzify and confuse the unwary visitor. There's no real point to the site, but that's ok, it's interesting to see. It almost feels like you're visiting the home page of some alien who had a lot to say in their own weird language, replete with annoying blink effects and strange background images. Great for showing other people - watch their reactions!

Another nonsensical website, but this one seems to take a trip through the mind of some talented graphic artist and web designer. There are lots of cool HTML and JavaScript effects and arrangements of graphics. The opening page is never the same from one week to the next, and it's tons of fun getting lost in the endless (and sometimes circular) series of links. View the gallery of smokers. Read about Uncle Jay, Aunt Viv, and little Jay Junior's meat eating problem. Revel in the glory that is SuperBee. Live the magic of the author's trip to heaven, or Captain America's fight against the monster. That is, if you can find these pages in the pile.

Homestar Runner is an armless, clueless athelete, and the star of many Flash cartoons on this site. With a little exposure, I am sure this cartoon could be extremely popular with kids and adults, because of the varied level of its appeal. Homestar Runner would fit in perfectly in the Fox Kids Cartoon lineup, and has elements similar to Eek the cat and Animaniacs. Oh, and Strong Bad rocks.

Snopes is the name of the Urban legend Reference pages, an invaluable resource to those who want their facts straight and want to debunk rumors. Urban legends ranging from virus scares to Coca-cola related rumors- even Walt Disney's alleged cryogenic freezing is handled (FALSE). Complete with references to back up their words, this site is a good site to go to before forwarding that email you just got, insisting that there is a new virus going around that will eat your children.