Published in InfoAlert.

Once in a long while, you'll discover a website or two that stand fully above the rest. Two such sites are Martindale's 'The Desk Reference' and My Virtual Reference Desk.

These websites offer such a powerhouse of information that you could spend hours searching through the nooks and crannies and still not break the surface of what's really available.

Martindale's 'The Desk Reference'

To begin with, Martindale's offers an amazing 4,610 online calculators, which increase almost daily. Calculators for what, you might ask.

What about an early retirement incentive calculator, or a calculator that will let you know how much you'll be able to deduct on your taxes for a particular loan?

Business persons will find calculators that can assist them in determining the cost of employee benefits, office space needs, real hourly wages, direct mail, employee relocation, and indirect expenses. If you're trying to decide which investment method is best for you, utilize the Investment Yield Calculator.

But the calculators are only the beginning. Under Electronic Media, you'll find links to libraries, magazines, newspapers, and publishers all over the Web. The Travel and Shipping Center contains information on different modes of travel as well as travel warnings, language dictionaries, and anything and everything on mailing and shipping.

Are you interested in online courses in areas such as antitrust, accounting, business law, or management? Under Business, Finance, and Economics, you'll find such courses along with information on international banking, commodities, mutual funds, and stocks.

All areas of science are covered in detail, with "centers" for chemistry, mathematics, engineering, and more. But the Health Science Center is truly phenomenal. Would you believe that the center currently features over 38,600 teaching files; over 45,700 medical cases; 736 multimedia courses/textbooks; 947 multimedia tutorials; over 2,700 databases; and, over 10,125 movies in categories such as Medical Law, Public Health, and Pharmacy?

If you're interested in graduate and undergraduate studies, or need to find out what the time or weather is in another part of the world, Martindale's can supply you with that information.

To find out what's happening in the world today, the site features links to 205 individual countries. And what about Internet statistics and information? You'll find links for Internet traffic delays, Internet performance, audio files, virus information, HTML tools, and Internet configuration and standards.

My Virtual Reference Desk

Voted one of the 25 most incredibly useful websites by Yahoo! Internet Life magazine, My Virtual Reference Desk is a "one-stop site for all things Internet." The site provides reviews for many of the links, which will help you decide if you want to visit them.

First thing in the morning, you may want to start with First Things First. Read the latest news from over 50 different news services, headlines or summaries from the Associated Press or Reuters, or access various services such as ESPNET Sports Zone, the Financial Times, or Investor's Business Daily. To search for a stock quote, enter a ticker symbol and your quote will be delivered within seconds.

Quick Reference/Research features over 270 links to reference sites all over the Net. For example, you'll find 1001 of the Best Internet Tips, a 1996 Statistical Abstract of the United States, Company Profiles, and the Bank Rate Monitor.

Need a search engine? The site contains a whopping 260 of them in 19 different categories. Business-related search engines include the Big Book of 11 million businesses, the Better Business Bureau, FedEx Tracking, Fidelity Investments, and Fortune 500.

How about 140 weather-related sites? Or over 230 freeware or shareware sites? Under the Virtual Encyclopedia, you'll find 41 subject categories in areas such as International, Personal Finances, and the U.S. Government. The Business and Career category contains over 100 different links to places like The Federal Marketplace, a site designed to assist businesses in selling to the federal government, or the Wall Street Journal Money & Investing Update.

My Facts Page features atlases, phone books, dictionaries, population information, world religions, and even a WWW Virtual Library. And if you have children, My Homework Helper contains homework help divided by grade level and category.

Robin Nobles is a freelance writer who can be reached at robinnobles@robinsnest.com.

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