Dot-com Together
Looking for a weekend getaway that doesn’t require packing three different cocktail dresses alongside your capri pants? Festivals.com provides details on more than 33,000 events around the world, from the famous to the infamous, with plenty of well-kept secrets in between. There’s a frighteningly complete list of where and when grungy guys will be playing guitar at America’s various music festivals, as well as information on such unusual activities as playing catch with moose turds (Talkeetna Moose Dropping Festival, July 8 and 9, in Talkeetna, Alaska) and participating in the world’s biggest food fight, with 88,000 pounds of tomatoes as ammo (La Tomatina, August 30, in Buñol, Spain). There are even festivals with a 631 area code.
Mobile Google
Can’t bear to leave the Web when you leave your office? The online search engine Google.com is currently testing a service that makes the Web searchable from Net-friendly Palm Pilots and cell phones. Other search engines have already gone mobile, but only Google.com looks through the entire Web – all 500-some-odd-million pages of it – serving up any sites that offer text-based versions. Not recommended while driving or riding a scooter.
Virtual Assistance
Some jobs require two people; for everything else, there’s a Website. Online personal organizers can now manage your work and social schedules, organize your e-mail, and help you access files from anywhere. Granted, they can’t attend launch parties in your place. But they might free up enough of your time so you can go yourself.
Bungo.com
Want to wrap your life up into an online package complete with calendar, to-do list, and e-mail accessible from anywhere on Earth? Bungo.com has everything you need, and it’s easy on the eyes, with customized news from Fox, CBS Sportsline, and Entertainment Weekly.
Desktop.com
If you list your life High Fidelity-style – “five worst dot-com commercials,” “top five bars on Orchard Street,” Desktop.com is for you. A unique and potentially addictive application lets you generate surveys and poll your friends on their favorite bands, movies, and places to go. You can also set up an e-commerce profile so you don’t have to retype credit-card and shipping-address information on shopping sites.
Myevents.com
Tired of book-club scheduling conflicts? Manage the group – or anything else – within a password-protected area on the Net. Billed as “lifestyle management on the Web,” Myevents.com also offers calendars, address books, and 20 megs of file storage. Perfect for soccer moms.
Officeclick.com
The personal assistant for personal assistants, Officeclick.com is the place “where admins get it all done.” In addition to the calendars and to-do lists, the site offers “research central” (which searches for zip codes and phone numbers) and templates for office documents like fax cover sheets and letters with key phrases like “Please don’t hesitate to call on me.” The Web might change the business world, but it’s nice to know the cliché-ridden cover letter will soldier on.