Introducing: your guide to the best of the Internet

As the new Digital Media Manager here at the Evening Press I intend to help Evening Press readers get the best out of the net. To this end, over the coming weeks I shall be giving you a guided tour through the farthest corners of the world wide web.

Each week I shall concentrate on a different facet of the web, focusing on the best and worse sites in a given style. I'll cover anything from cookery and restaurants, to car auctions and computer games, to the more bizarre sites adorned with vibrating cows and talking monkeys.

There'll be no techie speak, and I'll steer well clear of any net jargon. The whole point of this column will be to help you, the reader, get the best out of the net. There are literally millions of well-designed, informative sites out there - and even more that are just plain funny - but if you don't know where to look you just won't find them.

So, as a snippet of what's to come, check out these fine, if vaguely obscure web sites.

The Internet is full of harebrained money-making schemes, and none more harebrained than www.anybirthday.com. If you've got too much time on your hands then log on and search for the birthday of somebody - anybody, in fact. They have over 135 million records, you know. Personally, I'd just ring somebody up and ask them.

To be vaguely topical, the question of free speech on the Internet is causing heated debates in cyber-space chat rooms across the web. The oldest and the best of these sites - meaning its not run by complete whackos - is www.aolsucks.org, where controversy abounds as David fights Goliath in a petty battle of name calling versus court writs.

Then there's oddities like www.bulgaria.com - not much use unless you're a Bulgarian national, or an ex-pat, but still unexpectedly intriguing.

Even the more obvious sites on the World Wide Web can still prove entertaining as well as informative. For example, www.thesimpsons.com, is a colourful and engaging site whose attitude reflects that of the cartoon.

However, one of the new found wonders of the Internet is that, by using Flash technology (which allows you to downloaded cartoon-esque graphics in a very short period of time) graphic artists have begun to create and upload whole cartoons to the web. Indeed, Tim Burton has just agreed to begin producing mini-movies using Flash. For now, though, one of the best of these cartoon sites is Chad Frick's www.yukyuk.com which has various interactive cartoons for you to get involved in. Quite weird, but entertaining nonetheless.

But of course the net can also be used for business purposes, and nowhere is this more typified than in www.mynetsales.com, which gives even the smallest business the chance to get tied up in the same sort of paperwork and bureaucracy that big business thrives on. Somebody definitely saw a hole in the market and filled it. Lucky us.

And finally, if anybody can tell me the point of the dinky bird (http://people.ne.mediaone.net/nothingness/drinkybird.html), I'd be very grateful.

If you have any sites you think may be of interest to Press readers then email me at howard.davis@ycp.co.uk, and don't forget to check out the Evening Press' own award-winning web site www.thisisyork.co.uk

New on This is York

The Evening Press' award-winning web site - www.thisisyork.co.uk - is currently undergoing a facelift, and if you log on this week you will be invited to comment on the new site as it is at the moment. As I write this we are working night and day to redesign the site to reflect the improvements in technology. This new site will be officially launched in a few weeks.

Indeed, not only does the Evening Press have a new Digital Media Manger, but a brand new Digital Media Team as well, and we are all very excited about the possibilities ahead for This is York. For example, very soon we'll be launching a new Community Network, offering free web-design, support and hosting to any local group interested, from charities to Sunday League football. Our aim is to provide the readers of the Evening Press with the same quality product over the Internet that they have come to expect and trust from their local evening paper.

And don't forget that This is York is still one of the largest local web sites in the country. It has both the close-knit community feel that is reflected in its loyal local audience, and broader view as well, providing historical and tourist information to an ever increasing national and international audience.

If you wish to discuss This is York please email digital.media@ycp.co.uk.