CLICK & DOUBLE CLICK: NINETY-FIVE OF THE HOTTEST WEBSITES VIE FOR THE WEBBY AWARDS (COLUMN 66)

Cybertip: We're taking reservations for our January Internet training classes for beginners. On Jan. 12, the class will be held from 7-9 p.m. On Jan. 21, it will be offered from 1-3 p.m. The cost is $10. To register, call Joni or Peggy at 335-6611.

Drum roll please ... this month THE WEB magazine announced the nominees for the Webby Awards, dubbed the Oscars of the Web. The awards honor the best creative and innovative websites of the year and the talented people behind them.

Some of the nominees were created by Web powerhouses like Disney. Others were the brainchild of a single person. The categories are arts, community, education, film, games, health, home, living, money/business, music, news, politics/law, print/zines, radio, science, sports, TV, travel and weird.

The awards will be presented March 6 in San Francisco where more than 2,000 movers and shakers in cyberculture, media and entertainment will attend.

Joni: Do you have your reservation booked, Peggy?

Peggy: Uh, well, I plan to attend online ... there is an online version, right? Even if I can't attend in person, I can vote online in 19 categories with five nominees in each category.

Joni: That's 95 websites, and you can find them all and vote at

www.webbyawards.com

You will have to put in your e-mail address to vote so they can prevent people from voting more than once. You will get an e-mail notification shortly after voting, but you can get more updates on the awards if you want them.

Peggy: Boy, they sure take this security thing seriously. You can't even get to the list of nominees until after the e-mail response returns. I've never seen that before.

Joni: They say they've reviewed thousands of web sites. You see Web Magazine's reviews and can travel their links to see for yourself. You don't have to vote all at once and can change your votes until Feb. 1. If you seriously were going to visit each of the nominees, it could take you until Feb. 1 to finish voting.

Peggy: Let's look at the nominees for games. And the nominees are ... BeZerk, Gamecenter.com, GameSpot, Imagine Games Network and PlaySite. Too bad we can't take a look at BeZerk. I've heard about people who are really hooked. We don't have Windows or a Power Mac. But you can check it out at

www.bezerk.com.

Web Magazine calls it a hip, funny trivia game you can play on the web. It requires Windows95 and a 28.8 modem.

Joni: A nice feature of the Webby voting is a review offered by THE WEB magazine, along with a link. Let's check out GameSpot. This site provides serious ammunition for gamers. You can find it at

www.gamespot.com

Peggy: You can pick from lots of different kinds of games including action/adventure, sports, puzzles, driving and role playing. They also have the top 10 demos online and reviews.

Joni: If you were a game junkie, this would be a good spot. If you are trying to figure out which computer game to give as a gift this holiday, you can check out their guide. But we still haven't played any games.

Peggy: Maybe there is something to play at PlaySite.

www.playsite.com

These folks recommend Internet Explorer for their games, and say Netscape won't work well. We don't have it. Oh, well. Let's try a different category.

Joni: Let's try TV. One of the nominees is the Sci-Fi channel.

www.scifi.com

If you want to know the exact moment to the millennium, including the years, months, days, minutes and seconds, the Sci-Fi channel has a countdown.

Peggy: At the Seeing Ear Theater, you can see the classics redone for the Internet. You need RealPlayer 5.0, which you can download here. These are science fiction and horror stories with a new twist. There are many more features and stories geared to sci-fi junkies.

Joni: There are so many categories, it's hard to pick and choose. Let's check out the news category. First stop is

www.abcnews.com

Peggy: This is a very clean page with news divided by categories. You can also click on the scrolling headlines, or you can select the ABC affiliate nearest you for the top news.

Joni: But, the closest ones to us are Indianapolis or Chicago. Not exactly local news. They do have a link to Mr. Showbiz, a site we really like. It's also one of the nominees for a webby.

Peggy: Here's the Fact of the Day: Nevada, home of many casinos, has no state lottery. Click on it and we were sent to ABC's business feature.

Joni: Someone from ABC is going to travel to every casino across the country through the glitz and greed.

Peggy: What a good idea. Perhaps I should do the same thing for the Southeast Missourian?

Joni: The president of Circus Circus said Baby Boomers are the greatest spenders in world history.

Peggy: I see. You've ignored my suggestion. No road trip for me.

Joni: For now, I think we'll limit our travels to cyberspace. What's your vote for the best sites on the Internet? E-mail us at click@semissourian.com

See you in Cyberspace.

Joni Adams and Peggy Scott are members of the Southeast Missourian online staff.