 |
 September 2000
|
|
Maporama Map Site By Sylvia Dennis
Maporama, which was launched earlier this year, provides interactive mapping and driving instructions for most of Europe, Australia and North America, and currently is rapidly expanding the number of countries it covers. The firm says that, in early July, its site went live with 180-plus countries' mapping resources and is now accessible via regular Web and wireless Web, including WAP (wireless application protocol) services. In use, the service now does a lot more than offer mapping services, as it also allows users to find their nearest store, restaurant or hotel. The firm says street-maps covering the whole of Europe have been available since the spring, but new features include door- to-door itineraries, how to find nearby sales outlets, as well as the personalization of Maporama services and geographic coverage. One interesting feature is "My Way," which Maporama says gives users the ability to personalize their use of the portal. With My Way, the firm says that site visitors can keep up to 255 preferred maps of itineraries. 
The site, which is also enabled for 10 languages, including Catalan,
Dutch, English, French, Spanish, Danish, German, Italian, Norwegian,
and Swedish, covers more than 635,000 cities in countries all over
the world, the company says.
Laurent Vermot-Gauchy, Maporama's president, said the milestone of a million maps in one month is a key one for the company. "Maporama is now a member of the exclusive club of Internet big players. For Maporama, this happened extremely fast, the site has been online for only four months," he said. Since the http://www.maporama.com site launch this spring, the Company has established many partnerships, now providing maps and itineraries to over 45 companies, including Annuaire de la Poste (http://www.annuaire.laposte.fr ), http://mailjob.com/ (online employment offers), http://www.infobel.be/ (online international directory), http://www.seloger.com/ (online real estate advertisements) and many other sites. Maporama's Web site is at http://www.maporama.com/ Current Events NYC Dept. of Health West Nile Virus Tracking and Info http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/wnv/wnvhome.html The New York City Department of Health (the same organization which recently began publishing full details on sometimes-stomach-turning restaurant inspections online) is using the Web to help stamp out the dangerous West Nile virus. The mosquito-borne virus, which can cause fatal inflammation of the brain and of the spinal cord lining, has only recently been found in the U.S. The City of New York launched a mosquito-spraying program, which residents can monitor via the health department Web site. Because the virus originates in birds (mosquitoes just pass it on to humans) the Web sites includes a "Dead Bird Reporting Form" through which residents can alert city workers to carcasses that can be used in sample testing for the virus. The health department also offers a "Standing Water Report Form" in an effort to track down potential mosquito breeding grounds. Bush Site Quietly Yanks McCain Diatribe http://www.georgewbush.com/ Now that everything is cheery where Republicans roam, it may be only fair to point out that this was not always so - and that the last vestiges of bad blood between Camps Bush and McCain have only recently been purged from the record. As of late last Tuesday, the Associated Press reported, the official presidential campaign Web site of George W. Bush still featured a blistering video attack ad on that night's featured speaker at the GOP convention in Philadelphia, Sen. John McCain. The ad was part of what the AP called a "tit-for-tat" TV advertising campaign in which Bush and McCain, then bitter rivals for the nomination, traded potshots at one another. Bush' as ran on TV in Michigan, Virginia and South Carolina and contained messages like this one: "McCain says he's the only candidate who can beat Gore on campaign finance. But news investigations reveal McCain solicits money from lobbyists interests before his committee. ..." A spokesman that night declared the ad's online presence as a simple oversight, and it subsequently disappeared. Presidential Speech Archive http://www.gpo.gov/nara/pubpaps/ This online service makes available material that was compiled and published by the US Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration. Each Public Papers volume contains the papers and speeches of the President of the United States that were issued by the Office of the Press Secretary during the specified time period. Volumes cover the administrations of Presidents Hoover, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Bush, as well as President William J. Clinton. Employment  Freelancers Listing Service http://www.freelancelist.com/ Are you a freelancer? It doesn't matter what industry you're in, as this site aims to become the number one global freelancer listing service online. The site, its operators say, will bring freelancers and employers together by giving them a central resource that allows them to search worldwide for the projects and the talent they want, respectively. Greenbook Job Bank http://www.greenbook.org/jbank.htm/ The New York American Marketing Association's GreenBook - a directory of market research firms - has launched an online job bank designed to connect industry professionals with companies looking to hire. Current GreenBook advertisers can post available positions, while job hunters browse opportunities online or receive the information via e-mail. Online for just a short time, the job bank boasts of more than 60 job openings from across the country, ranging from hosts/hostesses at a conference center in New York to jobs for market-research executives in California. OnLine Learning MacroMedia University http://macromedia.elementk.com/ Macromedia and Element K, an e-learning specialist, have teamed up to launch the Macromedia University, which will serve as an online training source for mastering market-leading Macromedia products. With the launch of the new site, Macromedia says it can now provide effective online e-learning services for professional developers. Equity Profile http://www.equityprofile.com/ This is a newly launched site for tech and dot.com entrepreneurs, advising them on how to handle investor relations and public relations issues. The operator, Toby Wilkinson, says that the site covers a wide range of questions from corporate governance to what colors picture editors prefer. Of Interest to Mac User's Dealmac.com for the Ideal Mac Deal http://mydealmac.com/ 
Dealmac.com, which says it is the Web's premier comparison-shopping
resource for Apple Mac-related products and services, has launched
Mydealmac.com, a free online personalized bargain-hunting service that
e-mails the hottest Mac deals directly to your mailbox. The site also
provides the latest news about the best bargains, discounts, rebates
and promotions for the Apple Mac community across the Web.
Deal News http://dealnews.com/index.html/ The Parent site for DealMac, you can find deals on almost any type and brand of electronics product browsing through the Deal News. Of Interest to Women WOW - Work of Women http://www.workofwomen.org/ 
Work of Women (WOW!) is a relatively new global membership
organization that aims to open doors for women living in extreme
poverty. It provides educational and training opportunities, small
business loans, healthcare and clean water for women and children
living in remote communities in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The
Web site features incredible women, and highlights WOW! travel
groups and special events.Home Improvement DIYonline.com http://www.DIYonline.com/ DIYonline.com has re-launched its home improvements Web site, including a range of "how-to guides" and articles and new tools. Aimed at keen do-it-yourselfers, the site's highlight is a design tool that visitors can make use of in their home improvement projects. The free software helps them custom design decks, gazebos, sprinkler systems, kitchens and baths, and more. After the specifications are entered, the Web site coughs up 3-D drawings of the project, step-by-step directions and a complete list of required materials. Online Video Gaming Daily Radar 
http://www.dailyradar.com/
Daily Radar is a 24-hour video game news source on the Internet, covering the latest breaking news and commentary on consoles, PC games, tech specs, Sony, Sega, Nintendo and Xbox. Video Editing Gaming MGI VideoWave III - Free 30 Day Trial http://www.videowave.com/ MGI Software is offering a downloadable 30-day trial version of MGI VideoWave III from its site. By offering a downloadable trial version of its video editing suite, the firm says it hopes to attract Web- savvy people to its user base. The trial version of VideoWave offers users all the major functionality of the full product for a 30-day period - free-of-charge. 
Wireless Internet WAP Hub http://MXwap.com/ Singapore's McGallen & Bolden Group has launched its first WAP hub - alongside a wealth of material, along with a free PC WAP emulator at bin/wapalize.cgi?url=http://mxwap.com . The good news is that the WAP emulator is WML (Wireless Markup Language) v1.1 compatible. That means it can view almost any WAP site - which is more than can be said for most WAP emulator sites. WAP Configs for GSM http://www.teletext.co.uk/ 
The UK's teletext service has expanded into the world of WAP, with the
site containing step-by-step instructions on how to configure various
WAP-enabled mobile handsets to its service. This is especially useful
for roaming GSM (global system for mobile communications) users who
want to manually set up their WAP access beyond their home country.
Corel Presentations v9 for Windows -Free Download http://www.corel.com/ Cash-strapped Corel Corp.'s need to generate interest in its WordPerfect Office suite may be a boon for cash-strapped computer users. This week, the Canadian company began serving up online a free download of Corel Presentations 9 for Windows. The software, which goes head-to-head with Microsoft's ubiquitous PowerPoint, is used to create slide shows and other kinds of illustration-heavy presentations. Previously, the software had only been available as part of its office suite and in a bundle with CorelDRAW. (The fact that it supports PowerPoint-format files makes the free offer a bargain for users who can't afford Microsoft's own office suite.) But if your boss wants you to create a presentation right away, you'll need some serious bandwidth: the Corel Presentations download is a hefty 71 megabytes. Copyright Post-Newsweek Business Information, Inc. All rights reserved |
