Wendy's Web Search Blog

Wouldn't you like to have some more money in your pocket? Of course! No matter what your financial situation may be, it's always a good idea to learn new ways to save money. Find out how you can utilize the power of the Web to save money, find good deals, and improve your financial status with my article titled 15 Ways to Save Money on the Web.

With gas prices getting as high as they are, it's a good idea to do a bit of Web research first in order to find the lowest gas prices in your area. Read my article titled Find Cheap Gas On The Web before you head out to the pump, and find out how you can potentially avoid giving up your 401K to buy a tank of gas.

I love to keep track of popular searches on the Web, and today, the absolutely hottest search has to be for Emmy nominations. Of course, today (July 17), the 60th annual Primetime Emmy nominations were announced - you can find all the pertinent information here: 2008 Primetime Emmy Awards nominations, nicely organized so you can find what you're looking for FAST. In addition, here's even more Emmy nominations information:

• EW.com's list of Emmy nominees: Entertainment Weekly's annotated list of nominees.
• Yahoo TV's coverage of the Emmy Nominations: Videos, live coverage, images, and background information on every show.
• TV Squad decided to cover the Emmy nominations LIVE this year, and it's a fun read.
• Emmy nominations images: Images from the Emmy nominations announcements this morning. You can also check out Emmy nominations videos.
• Variety's coverage of the Emmy nominations.
• 2007 Emmy winners: Just for fun, take a look at past winners.

In addition, you'll want to check out The 60th Annual Emmy Award Nominees, everything you always wanted to know about the Emmys, and The 59th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards Photo Gallery.

Even more TV stuff!

• The Best Sites to Watch Free TV Online: Did you know that you can watch free TV online? Here are over 30 different sites where you can watch free TV online....anything from sports to comedy and everything in between.

One of my favorite sites on the Web is JibJab, a cartoon and video satire site. Some of their most popular offerings are:

• This Land: President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry star in the political animation parody that started it all -- this funny video was seen on every continent (including Antarctica), it even played on the International Space Station!
• Nuckin' Futs: What do Britney Spears, Google and Iran have in common? They all contributed to one heck of a crazy 2006! Watch singing school children recap the past year's events, with a touch of JibJab's twisted humor!
• Star Spangled Banner: JibJab teamed up with ThePartyParty.com to produce this July Fourth video.
• Time for Some Campaignin': The newest JibJab offering. " In our first election satire since 2004's "This Land" and "Good to be in DC", we bid farewell to Bush and give Obama and McCain a proper JibJab hazing! And, of course, who could forget about Hillary and Bill? This rip-roaring musical romp gives the election process the proper spanking it deserves!"

JibJab also offers JibJab Sendables, a large collection of custom e-cards you can send someone for almost any occasion: love, birthday, get well, etc.

If you like JibJab, you'll probably also like....

• Funny or Die: If you're a fan of comedian and former Saturday Night Live cast member Will Ferrell, then you're going to love Funny or Die, an online video site that showcases well-known celebrities and comics in spoof videos.
• I Can Has Cheezburger: Pictures of cats with nonsensical captions? You can get all this and more over at I Can Has Cheezburger, one of the funniest sites I've ever seen.
• Toothpaste for Dinner: A collection of badly drawn, almost illegible, wickedly funny comics drawn by Drew-no last name.
• OddTodd: OddTodd.com is a collection of extremely weird and funny animations about anything from Mep the Squirrel to OddTodd's battles with unemployment. I especially like the interactive games.

One of the questions I got by email this week was this:

Where do I find quotes by famous people?

There are PLENTY of places you can find great quotes from famous people, including:

• QuoteDB: Organized both by subject and alphabetically; over 60,000 quotes.
• Bartleby.com: a gigantic collection of quotations - you'll definitely find what you're looking for here.
• The Quotations Page: One of the largest and oldest collections of famous quotes on the Web.
• Quoteland: I love how this site is organized - lots of different ways to search for quotes.
• ThinkExist: More than 300,000 quotations by 20,000 authors - in other words, a lot of quotes.
• BrainyQuote: Browse by topic, author, or type.
• Wikiquote: Over 15k pages of quotes; you can also help edit this resource.
• QuotationsBook: A nicely organized site of quotations; easy on the eyes, too.

In addition, you'll want to check out About Quotations, one of my favorite sites with tons of great quotes by famous people, including Top Ten Lists of Quotations, Oscar speeches, Funny Movie Quotes, and lots more.

More on quotes by famous people

• Dead or Alive?: Find out if that famous person is dead or alive.
• Top Twenty Web Celebs: Here are the Top Twenty Web Celebs: the people who didn't necessarily set out to be well-known, but ended up famous anyway due to the viral power of the Web.
• Watch Free Movies Online: If you're looking for the best sites to watch free movies online, you've come to the right place. I've rounded up dozens of the best places on the Web to watch free movies.

Did you know that you might be missing some money? How about bank accounts and safe deposit box contents, stocks, mutual funds, bonds, and dividends, uncashed checks and wages, Insurance policies, CD's, trust funds, Utility deposits, escrow accounts, and more?

Well, you can easily find out by checking out MissingMoney.com, a site put together by the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators, or NAUPA. Here's how MissingMoney.com works:

• Put in your first and last name, plus your state abbreviation.
• You'll be taken to a list of matches. Click on the one that most closely matches your information.
• You'll then see a list of questions to test your eligibility. You then have three options: if you can claim it, you'll be taken to a State Claim Inquiry form. If not, you'll be taken back to your search results. If you know someone who might be eligible for that property, you'll be given the option of emailing them.

That's about it! MissingMoney.com is completely free, and the data provided is refreshed monthly. Find out if you're missing some money!

More about missing money

• Find Unclaimed Property Using the Web: You can use the Web to find potential unclaimed property. Here are a few of the best sites to find out if you have possible unclaimed property available to you.
• Unclaimed Baggage: One of the most interesting sites on the Web is the official Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, Alabama.
• Check Your Credit Report on the Web: Did you know that you can use the Web to check your credit report? Most financial advisers will tell you to check your credit report every so often to make sure that nothing unusual is going on. You don't have to spend hundreds of dollars; instead, you can use the Web. Here are a few sites that can help you to check your credit report.

Hurricane Bertha is quickly becoming one of the most popular search terms on the Web right now, and with good reason - it stands to affect a LOT of people. If you're looking for Hurricane Bertha information, I've rounded up a few good links for you that will help you stay up to date.

The top three Hurricane Bertha sites

These are the links you'll want to check first - the one that are updated most frequently and will give you the Hurricane Bertha information you need.

• NOAA's Hurricane Bertha page
• Weather Underground's Hurricane Bertha page
• The Weather Channel's Hurricane Bertha page

In addition, you'll find these Hurricane Bertha sites (along with other hurricane-related information links) extremely useful.

• Hurricane and Tropical Storm Watch/Warning Breakpoints: Where hurricanes could hit.
• Live Weather Images: Watch live weather images from all over the world, including Hurricane Bertha.
• IBISEye: an interactive hurricane tracking site
• MSNBC's Hurricane Bertha tracker: Watch the path of Hurricane Bertha.
• BBC Hurricanes: An animated guide to how hurricanes are formed.

Last but not least, if you want to delve into the background of hurricanes or other natural disasters, check out Best Natural Disasters Sites on the Web; some of the best sites in which to find all kinds of natural disasters information, from breaking news to general information to history.

In the past couple of weeks, I've watched with fascination as the frenzy for the new Apple iPhone - released today in 22 countries around the globe - has reached epic proportions. It's amazing to me that a phone; albeit a pretty nice phone with an iPod, Internet access, and all sorts of useful applications, can generate this much conversation. Here, have a quick peek at what I've been looking at:

• The official Apple iPhone 3g page, with all the information you'll need in order to possibly purchase one of these nifty little gadgets. I must say, I'm sorely tempted.
• The iPhone 3g gets dissected: Hmmm. I just don't know about this one.
• Live stream of the Apple iPhone 3g line at Palo Alto: Watch people in line for the iPhone 3g - more interesting than it sounds. Really.
• Free iPhone 3g apps in the iTunes store: Lots of free stuff available for this phone that will make it even more of an efficient little machine.
• International iPhone 3g hysteria: Great pictures of people actually camping out overnight for the iPhone 3g - looks like a lot of fun, actually.

There's a LOT more talk on the Web about the iPhone 3g, believe me. Here's a couple of "firehoses" you can tune into to get more iPhone 3g news and updates:

• Techmeme's Apple iPhone 3g coverage: All the best technology blogs and sites in one convenient place.
• Dueling tech blogs Gizmodo and Engadget are both obsessively covering every twitch of the new iPhone 3g.

In addition, you can find some very in-depth coverage right here at About: check out the iPhone 3g review, and all your iPhone 3g questions answered.

Over the holiday weekend here in the States, I had the opportunity to eavesdrop listen to a variety of different conversations, some of which centered around the Web. I found it very interesting how folks referred to anything related to the Web; let's see if you've heard some of these.

When I talk about the Web, I refer to it as:

• Getting online
• Going on the Internet
• Logging on to the Web
• Downloading the Internet (this one intrigued me)
• Opening my browser
• Google
• Email
• AOL

While a few of these terms don't quite hit the mark (and one is frankly impossible), all of them pretty much aim toward the same goal: that of participating on and in the Web in some way, shape, or form. We don't have to have all our terms correct to take advantage of the vast resources that the Web has to offer, neither do we have to know what every single new technology is all about. However, in this day and age, it's a very good idea to have at least a basic knowledge of the Web. Here are some resources to help you out:

• Web Search 101: From a short history to the Web, to how to find people simply and easily, there's a LOT of information here. If you'd like it in more digestible chunks, try the Web Search 101 free e-course. You can sign up for daily or weekly lessons, and learn at your leisure.
• Seven Habits of Highly Effective Web Searchers: Every time I need to find something on the Web, I am successful. Right? Uh, not exactly. Eventually, I get to where I'm going, but it takes some work sometimes. Over the years I've developed a few search habits that have made me a more effective searcher, and with just a little practice, you can too. After all, searching the Web is a snap - it's actually finding what we're looking for that's the trick!

In addition to these basic materials, I've got a wealth of information for you: check out Web Search Basics, Web Search Tools, and Web Search Tips for more Web search information.

Whether you're looking for the average rainfall in the Amazon rainforest, researching Roman history, or just having fun learning to find information, you'll get some great help using my list of the best research and reference sites on the Web.

Evaluate the Source: Before you start citing things willy-nilly, be sure to check an online source for credibility. Find out how to evaluate a Web source.

Online Archives: If you're looking for historical information about past news, music, celebrities, or historical events, then searching online archives is a great way to keep yourself educated.

Don't get lost in translation: Have you found something online that you'd like to read, but can't decipher the language? Whether you need to translate something from English to French, Spanish to German, or Swahili to Latin, you'll be able to do it with my list of translation sites.