Best Websites

By Maryanne Murray Buechner and Jyoti Thottam

Remember when web surfing meant exploring a vast, uncharted territory? These days it's probably more like your morning commute: essential but routine. There's still plenty to get excited about, however, even for business people who don't have time to search out the latest hot sites. For TIME's guide to the Best Websites for Business, we looked for the most useful and fun new sites, as well as for innovative features on familiar favorites. Here are our picks, with a top choice in each of 10 categories:

KEEPING INFORMED

BEST DIRTY LAUNDRY internalmemos.com This latest project from Philip Kaplan, the man who brought us the profanely named rumor mill F_____dCompany.com bills itself as the Internet's largest collection of corporate memos and other internal communications. A great idea, simply executed--so long as you can bypass the dull stuff and ferret out the juicy tidbits (like a list of 467 employee salaries at Terra Lycos). Kaplan says he just posts whatever people send him; some memos (the ones he thinks will have wide appeal) are free, whereas others are accessible only to subscribers paying $45 a month or $180 a year.

cbsmarketwatch.com Rather than link to the same wire stories found at other business sites, MarketWatch has its own staff of reporters and writers delivering up-to-the-minute market news and first-rate commentary. Next to every company name are links to that firm's stock chart, profile, related news and other information.

Dow Jones Interactive djinteractive.com This pricey but invaluable service for serious news junkies draws from 6,000 publications in nearly two dozen languages. Searching, browsing, headlines and lead sentences are included in the $40 annual fee, but reading a whole article costs $2.95 a pop.

Frontline pbs.org Here you'll find links to past segments of the fine PBS documentary series. Archives are neatly organized by topic, so you can easily find highlights like the interview with Jeffrey Skilling during Enron's glory days.

marketplace.org This nationally syndicated radio show prides itself, and rightly so, on delivering business news in fresh and entertaining ways. Click to listen to the day's Web-only morning report or the most recent evening broadcast. The archives are free.

stockhouse.com For $16.95 a month, "Power Members" can use MediaScan to search hundreds of news sources at once, without banner or pop-up ads getting in the way. Power Membership also includes real-time stock quotes (other users get them delayed) and full access to its BullBoards community forums.

FINDING AND FILLING JOBS

BEST UPSTART flipdog.com The Godzilla of job sites is still Monster, but FlipDog offers an intriguing alternative. Every night "while you sleep," its JobHunter search engine sniffs around the Web for job opportunities that meet your criteria--the location, categories, employers and keywords that you specify--and then e-mails you what it finds. Some leads are delivered with the caveat that you must go directly to the potential employer's site to apply.

careerjournal.com Aimed at executives and managers looking for work, the Who's Hiring section of this Wall Street Journal site lets you search job listings or link directly to the jobs sections of top-tier employer websites. A nifty calculator, located under the Salary & Hiring Info tab, invites you to plug in your current salary, the city where you live and the city to which you would like to move, then spits back what you need to earn to maintain your current standard of living. (To match your $34,395 in Louisville, Ky., you would need $100,000 in New York City.)

monster.com More than 800,000 U.S. job listings, aimed at everyone from the hourly wage earner to the senior executive. A free My Monster account helps you cover all the bases and keep close tabs on your progress. Save time by creating a personalized Job Hunter to sift through the site's listings for you.

salaryexpert.com The free salary tool delivers average compensation, benefits and cost-of-living information based on job title and zip code or metro area. The average salary of an actuary working in Dayton, Ohio, for instance, is $59,978 ($78,291 with benefits and bonuses).

wetfeet.com Articles cover everything from how to ace an interview to how to sift efficiently through that pile of resumes. The site's partner, TrueCareers, runs the job board and provides guidance for job seekers; a personal job-search account offers a place to store job leads, interview schedules and other notes.

CHECKING COMPETITORS

BEST DATA MILL multexinvestor.com A trove of company and market data, with a mix of free and paid research reports from some 200 sources. The Advanced Search button lets you specify industry or research provider. The Headlines section provides a summary of the day's news; read one capsule, and you will get a scrolling series of news briefs about the same company going back weeks or months, while the menu bar provides links to other company info. Biggest complaint: too many pop-up ads.

freeedgar.com Access every corporate sec filing (10Ks, 10Qs, proxy statements, etc.) going back years, or find out about upcoming IPOs.

hoovers.com A quick-reference resource for succinct corporate profiles, company news and financials, all free. Paid subscribers get access to more in-depth info on public and private companies.

BUYING GIFTS

BEST INDULGENCE bluenile.com Elegant sterling-silver gifts for special clients. Blue Nile specializes in the luxe life, but there are plenty of items under $100 too. Prices include shipping.

redenvelope.com This beautifully illustrated site sets the standard for online gift giving. Forget someone? There's a selection of Express Gifts available for next-day delivery.

surprise.com When you're stumped for a gift idea, head here for suggestions in dozens of categories, from "Loves Their Car" to "Wants a Little Peace & Quiet." The site will also link you to where to buy.

WASTING TIME

BEST ALTERNATIVE UNIVERSE Eatonweb Portal portal.eatonweb.com A great way to enter the wild, wonderful world of blogs: online diaries exploring everything from comic books to medicine, posted by articulate, occasionally obsessive Web travelers. Browse by category (the site counts 88 business-related blogs), or submit one of your own.

badgolfer.com Tired of struggling to improve your game? Embrace your awfulness with others who share your pain. Linked to this website's lighthearted articles are extensive product reviews and guides to golf courses across the country from its parent site, TravelGolf.com

pogo.com No one to play with? Connect with thousands of people seeking partners for chess, backgammon, bridge and other games. Unlike many other online gaming sites, Pogo is free, and its well-designed games are the handiwork of Electronic Arts, the wizards behind The Sims and Madden NFL.

Weekend Edition Sunday Puzzle npr.org/programs/wesun/puzzle Missed the Sunday word puzzle on National Public Radio's Weekend Edition? You can find it here, along with the solution and archives of previous challenges. The past month's puzzles are transcribed on the site; for earlier editions, you will need RealAudio software to listen to the archives.

MANAGING YOUR PORTFOLIO

BEST MAKEOVER ETrade Financial etrade.com Last decade, ETrade was a champion of online stock trading; today, while still letting you do trades on the cheap, it's a financial superstore with style, revamped and reorganized to provide a full array of banking and investing services. Users can open a checking or brokerage account, pay household bills, apply for home-equity loans, even get car-insurance quotes. In another twist, the site has built a bricks-and-mortar presence, opening personal-service locations in dozens of SuperTarget retail stores.

MSN Money www.moneycentral.msn.com Download the free Deluxe Portfolio Manager, input ticker symbols and other data, and--presto!--you have a snapshot of your holdings. Monitor stocks, mutual funds, bonds and other investments. The site earns extra points for working seamlessly with Microsoft's Excel program.

The Motley Fool fool.com Giddy investors flocked to this site during the bull market, but it's proving useful in a bear market too. Staff-monitored discussion boards are great for gossip hounds, though these days you have to pay to play ($29.95 a year). The site also features lively staff-written commentary on the day's financial news.

quicken.com A perennial favorite, with its free, user-friendly planning and management tools. Check out the refinancing, retirement and tax calculators. Set up a personal Watchlist and My Finances page to get customized stock quotes, news and alerts. The stock screener (click the Brokerage tab and look under Quotes & Research) is particularly useful.

stockcharts.com If you'd rather conduct more technical stock market analysis, this site is for you. The free tools quickly generate stock charts to your specifications, and you can drag, draw, slide and zoom in on the data to your heart's content.

Yahoo Finance finance.yahoo.com Still the fastest, easiest way to check up on specific stocks. A ticker-symbol search pulls up the day's trading activity, plus links to charts, a company profile, research reports for sale, recent sec filings, buy-sell recommendations and more. On the personal-finance side, Yahoo Money Manager charts your net worth and helps you stick to a budget; Savings Finder shops for deals on bank accounts, credit cards and other products and services.

TRAVELING

BEST TOUR GUIDE International Herald Tribune City Guides iht.com/cityguides.html The International Herald Tribune brings the trademark savvy and precision of its news pages to this elegant website geared to the business traveler. It tells you not just the best new restaurants in Rome and what's showing in London's galleries but also whether your cell phone will work in Dubai and where to play golf in Shenzhen.

fitforbusiness.com For serious road warriors, detailed reviews and information about where to find the best fitness facilities, based on reports from travelers. Coming soon: a scheduling feature that helps you find a racquetball partner on the road.

fodors.com/reviews The Dining section of Fodor's online guide is a worthy alternative to the sometimes overwhelming Zagat.com with a well-chosen selection of a few dozen restaurants in each city. Includes international destinations from Cairo to Kobe as well as most major U.S. cities.

jetblue.com The budget airline's clean, well-organized website contains features that business travelers will appreciate: its own smart and concise guide for what to do and see in each of the cities it services, and detailed information on security procedures at different airports.

roadfood.com This site may not tell you where to impress a client when you're in New York City, but you'll learn where to find the best pie when you're stuck on the road in West Jefferson, Ohio (Henry's). The reviews are written mostly by the galloping gourmands Jane and Michael Stern, authors of the Roadfood book.

worldairportguide.com A handy primer on airports in more than 50 countries. Each description includes a map of the airport terminals and other details, like how to find long-term parking near Larnaca International in Cyprus and where to hold a videoconference at Nice--Cote d'Azur Airport on the French Riviera.

TRACKING TRENDS

BEST INDICATOR Energy Information Administration eia.doe.gov For free research on a crucial industry, try this site from the Department of Energy, which forecasts future prices and trends for oil, gas and other petroleum products. In addition to statistical tables, the era produces clearly written reports that spell out in plain English what the numbers mean. It also features profiles of the energy sector in various countries and regions.

dailycandy.com An unscientific but engaging analysis of the latest fads--at least, what self-styled hipsters in New York City and Los Angeles are wearing, eating and doing. A London edition is in the works.

demographicsnow.com There's a wealth of data on population, income and such available online from the government at no charge, but it may not be tailored to your business needs. Several paid sites offer this service, and this is one of the most comprehensive. Fees vary; the automotive service, for example, is $250 a month. Also available: free reports based on Census data.

STAT-USA/Internet stat-usa.gov For a $175 annual fee, you get access to detailed national and international trade statistics, plus background research on more than 100 foreign countries. A service of the Department of Commerce.

U.S. Census Bureau factfinder.census.gov eire.census.gov/popest/estimates.php American FactFinder links you to prepared reports on popular topics. The Population Estimates site shows how fast different areas of the country are growing and why.

MANAGING A SMALL BUSINESS

BEST STARTER KIT entreworld.org Primarily a search engine, the site gathers articles and advice from around the Web on everything from effective advertising to executing a business plan, and it provides quick summaries with each direct link. In the Byline section, successful executives in various industries ruminate on such diverse topics as corporate culture and cash flow, branding and burnout. For U.S. business demographics and other interesting factoids, go to Quick Facts under Media Resource Center. The site is run by the not-for-profit Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, so it's refreshingly independent and ad-free.

Business Owner's Toolkit toolkit.cch.com Practical how-to guides on topics such as marketing a product, organizing an office and protecting assets, penned by the site's team of writers and analysts. The Ask Alice advice column tackles timely issues like identity theft and deceptive accounting.

NetLedger's Oracle Small Business Suite oraclesmallbusiness.com Web-based tools designed to help with accounting, payroll and sales-force management. The software automates paper-based tasks (sales orders, bill payment, etc.), so employees can work more efficiently and keep up with what's happening in other departments. Prices start at $1,200 a year, but free trials are available.

startupjournal.com The Wall Street Journal's site for small-business owners offers timely feature articles ("Dot-com Entrepreneurs: Where Are They Now?"), plus free tools such as a step-by-step guide to writing an effective business plan. If you're in the market to buy a business, there's also a searchable database of some 15,000 of them that are for sale.

U.S. Business Advisor www.business.gov A useful reference, run by the Small Business Administration, on federal laws and regulations, loan programs and other government-sponsored services. Special sections cover such topics as taxes (where to file, untangling the code) and workplace issues (complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act, maintaining indoor air quality).

MASTERING YOUR GEAR

BEST FREE ADVICE consumerreview.com Smart, concise reviews of a wide range of products, from mountain bikes to webcams. The site wins points for the clarity of its layout and ease of use, and you can sort the reviews by price range. ConsumerReview also builds active website communities around each category. Once you have bought that fabulous new audio system, you can come back and talk about it as much as you like.

annoyances.org If members of your company's tech-support staff run when they see you coming, maybe it's time to wrestle with Windows yourself. This guide, compiled by fellow Windows users, will tell you how to fix (and avoid) common PC problems.

CNET Reviews reviews.cnet.com Before you buy any electronic gear, begin here. CNET's tech experts put pdas, MP3 players and every other gizmo through their paces to produce detailed reviews. The site also posts ratings by other users and links to the latest prices offered by online merchants. Also, check out the Download section for hundreds of popular shareware programs.