Net Surf changes daily.
T h e S p o t : W h a t I s I t ?Is it a preview for the next Aaron Spelling production? A fledgling singles service? Or the real-life journal of five twentysomethings who just happen to be beautiful, available, and Net-savvy? Inquiring minds want to know. And the Spotizens are happy to oblige. The Spot they explain, is a (mostly) fictional "episodic Web site," produced by Fattal & Collins, a design and advertising agency. It was the brainchild of two young employees, who developed it in their off-hours, and:Yes. The people in the photos are "real," and
Yes. They write their own journal entries, but
No. Those aren't their real names, and
No. Not everything in the journals is true, and
No. They don't all live together, but
Yes. They work in the same office, and
No. Michelle won't go out with you.
No summer would be complete without at least one assignment hanging over your head. Here's yours: Get to know a handful of the San Domenico School. Learn their hobbies, look at their pictures, and meet their BFF (best friends forever). Speed read if you must, but don't even think about skipping the short short stories that these budding Hemingways added to the bottom of their home pages. You will be tested, and there aren't any Cliff Notes.T h e D o m a i n - n a m e G a m e
In the world of Web-thrills, nothing quite compares with the rush of finding an unfamiliar country domain in your server log and knowing that someone in God-knows-where has been using your little-ol' pages as a procrastination tool. Realistically, though, you can't memorize all those country domains (who could possibly remember that .ch is Switzerland, not China?), so just bookmark this handy little list of country codes, and pull it up the next time you have an exotic visitor.
Way-new Watering Hole?
Someone at Snapple knows his or her stuff. Unlike most companies, which trumpet the arrival of their corporate Web sites with pomp, circumstance, and the systematic elimination of all unofficial online shrines (God forbid you get free publicity from customers who weren't created by Saatchi or Saatchi). But Snapple is the first to admit that it didn't get here first, and the company's new Land of Snapple site provides grateful and prominent links to its predecessors. Featuring medium-specific amusements, such as a contest to creatively explain why your favorite Snapple flavor is better than the rest (we think they all sorta taste the same, but that's not how you win contests), and expandable collections of Snapple stories and celebrity Snapple sightings, the site is well on its way to becoming a way-new watering hole.
If the word akebono still appears in your bookmarks, you're now not one, but two steps behind the times. First of all, everyone's favorite directory (formerly located at akebono.stanford.edu) moved on up to its own domain name (yahoo.com, of course) in April, when seed money from Sequoia Capital turned its two student founders into a Silicon Valley start-up. But more recently, the site underwent a major face lift, with a streamlined look and spunky graphics to reflect its new status as well as its new features - Reuters news feed and paid advertisements.
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HotWired Surf Team:
June Cohen (june@hotwired.com)
Eliot Bergson (eliot@birdsong.com)
Martha Brockenbrough (mec@tribnet.com)
Steven Koster (kosts@calvin.edu)
Joel Risberg (jrisberg@shore.net)
Andrew Rozmiarek (andy@wired.com)
Jim Ure (ure@lfmail.lfc.edu)
Lang Zerner (lang@apocalypse.org)T H R E A D S : 28 topics, 135 links.
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