BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : DECEMBER 18, 2000 ISSUE
SPECIAL REPORT Our Favorite Clicks In 2000, Web sites disappeared as quickly as they cropped up in 1999. Even a few favorites of the Clicks & Misses section of BUSINESS WEEK e.biz and e.biz Online (www.ebiz.businessweek.com) are no more. So this year, we tended toward well-planned, well-developed sites, although a handful of shoestring operations still charmed us. A sampler: -- NAPSTER. It was founded by a 19-year-old kid, but Napster has won up to 40 million users the old-fashioned way: by delivering the best experience of the many online music sites in this year's news. Users share a huge trove of songs, and the site is far easier to use than rival approaches such as Gnutella's and Freenet's. If only it were legal.... A settlement with the music industry, beginning with a deal in which Napster accepts an investment from Bertelsmann in exchange for enforcing copyrights, will change Napster, but it's a lot of fun as it is. -- AMERICA ONLINE. Web hipsters derided it as the Internet on training wheels, but AOL didn't become the Web's behemoth by accident. In areas from health and personal finance to news, we thought AOL more than held its own with the Web's best. AOL's edge: carefully thinking through what its broad audience wants. Excellent design helps, too. -- VOTER.COM. Before we all were thoroughly sick of the Presidential election, this site served up news, commentary, and services such as issue questionnaires and campaign-finance records that let smart voters evaluate their candidates in ways TV or magazines can't. Legendary Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein is its executive editor. -- ZOOMCULTURE.COM. This youth-activism-oriented site gives a Gen-Y take on everything from international trade protests to extreme biking. Do the kids befuddle you? Look here to watch a generation explain itself. -- ZAGAT.COM. A new upgrade earns this restaurant-review site the only repeat mention from last year's list. The new version is easier to search and lets people organize their socializing with online invitations to friends and the ability to make table reservations. The old virtues remain: It's still as comprehensive as Zagat's regional dining guides and easy for users to submit restaurant ratings and become part of the fun. -- EXP.COM AND KEEN.COM. Venture capitalists have bet big on these two sites, marketplaces at which experts in different fields can sell their services. We found both to be useful channels to find help with problems as varied as training dogs and financial planning. As is often the case with community-oriented Web sites, some blowhards are masquerading as experts. But user ratings and other tools help surfers find people who know what they're doing. -- TELLME NETWORKS. Tellme is the best known--and, so far, the best--of the ''voice portal'' services that deliver Web-like content over the telephone. Tellme lets travelers and local revelers find restaurants, movie times, and other information wherever they happen to be with a call to a single 800 number, using voice-recognition software rather than operators to deliver the information. -- SATIREWIRE. Web denizens need to take a moment to laugh at their own antics. And not much is funnier than SatireWire.com. From pleas written in Sally Struthers' name to send 79 cents a month to ''Save the Dot-Coms'' to deadpan wire-service reporting on the B2U (that's Business-to-Unemployment) Internet marketplace, it's not to be missed. By Timothy J. Mullaney in New York _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP					RELATED ITEMS The Best Products of 2000 Our Favorite Clicks Products to Watch INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online

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