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Fish Here for Facts

Search without getting caught in the tangle of the Web.

The Web is the greatest information appliance ever invented — if you can actually find what you need, that is. Here are five sites that will help you fast-forward to what you're looking for — so that you won't get lost in the tangle of the Web.

Site You'll Find Bookmark This Toss This
Backwire.com
www.backwire.com
If you want a convenient way to keep up with your favorite sites, visit Backwire, which monitors those sites — so you don't have to. Backwire sends daily or weekly emails, summarizing news about the sites that you've selected and providing links to that information. Merchandisers will try to sell you stuff based on the categories you choose.
Blink.com
www.blink.com
Similar to HotLinks, Blink lets you upload, organize, and store your bookmarks online. The "related-link" technology lets you retrieve links from other members who have similar bookmark folders and similar site preferences. Want to view your bookmarks? You wait for the user interface to present a new Web page — and you can't view all your bookmarks at the same time.
Fast City
www.fastcity.com
Just the facts, ma'am. Data on everything from entertainment to sports, drawn from sites that have incorporated Fact City's functionality. Real answers to specific questions. Want to know the population of San Francisco? You'll get the actual fact, with the source credited. Because of deals with ESPN, the Internet Movie Database, and Muze, much of the site's material is entertainment-oriented.
HotLinks.com
www.hotlinks.com
A place to find, store, access, organize, and share your bookmarks online. The HotLinks guide is a directory of member links; you tap into only those sites that the community has deemed worthy enough to bookmark. Found other sites that you'd like to bookmark? You can save them to your HotLinks account, but you can't export them to your browser.
Keen.com
www.keen.com
Connects people with questions to people with answers by phone. Pick a category — from arts and entertainment to business and finance — and you get a list of experts who are available to take your call. If you use your phone line to connect to the Internet, you'll need to log off quickly.

A version of this article appeared in the June 2000 issue of Fast Company magazine.

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