CLICK & DOUBLE CLICK: INTERNET NOT JUST FUN AND GAMES; HAS PRACTICAL SIDE (COLUMN 15)

The Internet isn't just all fun and games. There is a lot of practical information available, if you know where to look.

For example, you can find phone numbers, e-mail addresses, business listings and current weather conditions.

We'll start our practical tour of the web at InfoSpace, which bills itself as the "most innovative directory on the Internet." You can find it at

http://www.infospace.com

Joni: They have a place called People Search. Enter last name, first name, city and state. I'll enter myself. Here we are with our correct address. It even has my four digit zip code, which I don't know. It also is updated with the new area code.

Peggy: They have a phone-dialer setup. You put your touchtone telephone handset in front of the computer's speakers. Click on the number and it automatically dials for you. Your browser needs to be configured to play wave files. Of course, if you only have one phone line and you are using it, the phone dialer won't be very convenient.

Joni: They also have businesses on the web, something like a yellow pages. We didn't have any luck searching for stores by name, so we are trying by category. We looked up barbers in Cape Girardeau. Eleven came up, complete with addresses and phone numbers.

Peggy: Let's see what AccuMail. Ah, it's a search for people's e-mail addresses. But it couldn't find my e-mail address. But they offer a free digital ID to assure people you communicate with electronically that the messages they receive from you are authentic.

Joni: They also have a fax directory and a toll-free directory. The fax directory found the Missourian's fax number, but the toll-free directory didn't find any of our 800 numbers. I guess each service is only as good as the sources they work from.

Peggy: Search for federal agencies by topic on their Blue Pages. Let's see if there is information about my town under My Town. Burfordville is listed along with a list of services and businesses available. The Hardee's in Jackson is listed in Burfordville. It's not foolproof.

Joni: Census information for each city send you to the U.S. Census Bureau and gives you all the stats. The area map shows streets in Cape Girardeau thanks to Map Quest.

http://www.mapquest.com

Peggy: Probably one of the most popular map makers on the Web is Map Quest. The interactive atlas allows you to find any place in the world. Trip Quest provides city-to-city driving directions for the United States and parts of Canada and Mexico.

Joni: You can pinpoint things down to the street, such things as banking, dining, lodging and health care. Pack your bags, Peggy, we're heading from work to New Orleans.

Peggy: We learned it is 574.4 miles from the Missourian to Bourbon Street, and it gave us pretty specific directions, including which way to turn and how many miles to stay on each road.

Joni: Another popular map site is Map Blast.

http://www.mapblast.com

You can create, e-mail or add a map to your homepage by cutting and pasting. Soon the page will have detailed street maps of European cities.

Peggy: Let's blast our own map to locate the Southeast Missourian. Map Blast put the newspaper office on Independence, but it's easy to move to the right location. Don't make the same mistake we made. When they say click to edit the map, they mean click on the spot you want the locator to move to. It's not click and drag.

Joni: We're not sure about style of map, sunrise, midday and nighttime. Seems kind of odd. It might be better to get the weather forecast from The Weather Channel at

http://www.weather.com

Peggy: Check out the latest rain and snow with local radar updated every 30 minutes. An interested feature of the page is the hows and whys of weather, some history, weather words, weather wonders and a teacher resource.

Joni: What's a weather wonder. You can ask weather questions of The Weather Channel's meteorologists.

Peggy: If you want to find out more about a specific business. The Security and Exchange Commission has a World Wide Web site at

http://www.edgar-online.com

It's the source for today's up to the minute SEC corporate filings and SEC documents going back to 1994. Parts are free. Some parts require a subscription.

Joni: If you're a subscriber, Edgar will instantly notify you by e-mail whenever there is a filing of a company or form that you have put on your alert form.

Peggy: This goes down to the nitty-gritty. You can learn how much the chairman of the board of Disney makes, including perks. You find out everything the stockholders can find out.

E-mail us with your best information sites at movn@ldd.net.

See you in Cyberspace.

~Joni Adams is managing editor and Peggy Scott is a graphics editor/staff writer at the Southeast Missourian.