The Web is home to millions of Web sites, set up by businesses, agencies, institutions, individuals, and others.  Here's a guide to some information that you can explore using the Internet. To find out other things the Internet can host besides Web sites, check out Find It on the Internet Part 2: More than Just the Web.

• Shopping
• Banking and investing
• News
• Reference
• Miscellany
• Web sites for Web beginners
• “Best of the Internet” Web sites

Shopping

• MSN eShop makes shopping easy. This new online shop connects you to various online merchants in numerous categories, including books and music, clothing and accessories, computers and electronics-you name it! eShop is also loaded with gift and buyer's guides. And the Microsoft Passport Wallet lets you make a secure purchase from all the vendors on eShop, while only having to enter your credit card information once!
• MSN citysearch.com provides local news and entertainment coverage, visitor information, community activities, weather, advertising, job resources, live event ticketing, and more for over 70 United States cities (and some international!). citysearch.com is always easy to use and up to date.
• Go to shop.microsoft.com to get or find out more detailed information about Microsoft® software, hardware, and Microsoft Press® titles. Or check out Microsoft Product Insider for news you can use about Microsoft’s products.
• Go to Microsoft Expedia® Travel Products & Services to book airline tickets for that dream getaway or to take advantage of one of many special flight and travel product offers.
• Check out MSN CarPoint^™ to find great deals on new and used automobiles. To get more information before you buy, you can read reviews, check out reliability ratings, look up blue book values, and more.
• At Amazon.com, browse or search through millions of titles for a book that suits you and then purchase it online. The site also includes book reviews, interviews with authors, articles about the book world, and more. Amazon.com sells sheet music, CDs, and audio books, and has auctions too.
• If you're into music, check out CDNOW. Search for a CD by artist, title, song title, record label, or soundtrack. Or browse through categories including rock/pop, world/new age, classical, and others.
• Use directories such as the All-Internet Shopping Directory to locate online buying opportunities.
• Try visiting an “Internet mall” at ShopNow.com, a site that links you to more than 27,000 stores and brand names, selling products from computers to flowers to dental services.

To find other shopping sites, search for the name of your favorite companies, products, or stores, or just search for the word shopping and peruse the results.

Banking and investing

The Internet is full of information and services related to banking and investing, from general advice about planning for retirement to up-to-the-minute stock prices. Plus, more and more banks are offering customers online access to their bank accounts. You also can manage your own stock portfolio online. (See the Internet Guide chapter Online Banking and Investing for more information.)

• On the MSN MoneyCentral™ Web site, you can find guidance on virtually every aspect of money management, including saving, taxes, home buying, online banking, investing, and retirement planning. The site offers informative articles, practical tools, useful resources, and more.
• If you want to finally get control of your finances, check out the Microsoft Money 2000 Start Page, where you can find out how Money 2000 will help you manage your online investments, banking, and bill paying, as well as investment planning, home mortgages, insurance, and more. Read more about Money 2000 Business and Personal—for sole proprietors who need to handle personal as well as small business finances—or check out Money 2000 Deluxe, which includes comprehensive financial planning and tax tools.
• To learn some of the basics of investing, visit the Web site of the American Association of Individual Investors.

News

No need to wait for the morning paper to find out what's happening in the world. Many news sites on the Web are updated repeatedly throughout the day. So you can get the latest on world events, sports, weather, and more—whenever you want it.

• MSNBC brings you the latest national and international news, weather, business and sports news, and more. You can even get local news by identifying your local affiliate.
• For the latest information about weather around the world, turn to The Weather Channel. Besides getting the top weather stories, you can access current forecasts in many U.S. cities and view a variety of weather maps.
• ESPN.com, which provides in-depth coverage of a variety of sports, up-to-the-minute scores for ongoing games, and more, is another popular Web site.
• At the MSN Home page, you can customize the news, weather, and stock quotes you want to see. Once you select your preferences, subsequent visits to the Web site deliver your customized content in the order you want it to appear.
• The home page of your favorite search engine may have links to news articles. Click the Today’s News link at Yahoo! , for example, and you get a list of detailed topics (such as Top Stories, Business, Politics, Entertainment, and Health) to choose from. These take you to story titles and summaries, which you can click to get the full story.
• If you have a favorite newspaper, search for it on the Web. There are online versions of just about every major newspaper. The New York Times, for instance, publishes an online edition, updated throughout the day to include breaking news.

Reference

The Internet provides you with access to numerous reference materials including the collections of many libraries, research facilities, museums, and similar institutions. You can find information as simple as the definition of a word and as complex as the latest in scientific research.

• Microsoft Encarta® is an interactive encyclopedia full of information about cultures, events, discoveries, and more from all over the world. From the Encarta home page, you can search for any topic.
• You can access "Familiar Quotations: Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced to Their Sources" by Bartlett through the Web site of Columbia University.
• Internet Prolink (iprolink) is an online collection of hyperlinks to hundreds of other resources including magazines, newspapers, almanacs, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other online libraries, so it's a good place to start looking for reference material.
• The Library of Congress Web site includes exhibits, publications, catalogs, photographs, and more.
• Find out if your local library has a Web site. You may be able to access parts of its collection or databases for periodicals and other materials through the site. To search for your library (or others) online, start at the Reference: Libraries category of the Yahoo! directory.

Miscellany

Part of what makes the Web interesting and valuable is that it's easy for not only large companies and organizations but also smaller entities and even individuals to maintain their own Web sites. So there's something for everyone on the Web.

Shopping, banking and investing, news, and reference materials are just the tip of the iceberg. There's also plenty in the way of entertainment and fun, obscure topics, and eccentric interests. Here are just a few examples of some of the variety on the Web.

• National Geographic Online—where you can access the National Geographic Society's photographs, maps, globes, magazines, expeditions, travel tips, and more.
• Dilbert Zone—home of your favorite cubicle-bound cartoon character.
• Art Museum Network—a guide to the world's leading art museums and calendars of their exhibitions.
• NASA—in-depth information, including photographs from space and sections specially designed for kids, about space exploration and the programs and astronauts of the National Aeronautics & Space Administration.
• Left Hand Publishing—“dedicated to making life easier and more enjoyable for left-handed people.”

To get an idea of what else is out there, explore the Web using one or more search engines. Type in any topic, see what comes up, and surf from site to site.

Web sites for Web beginners

The Web includes “starter sites” designed to help new users find their way around. MSN Start is one example.

When you visit the site, click on the left of the home page to move through a list of "Best of the Web" categories, including business, health, entertainment, sports, and more. Click a category heading to get a list of links to top Web sites in that category.

“Best of the Internet” Web sites

Whether you're new to the World Wide Web or an experienced surfer, Web sites that review or rate other Web sites and provide hyperlinks to them can be a great resource. For links to many sites in a variety of categories, try visiting these.

• PC Magazine's Top 100 Web Sites—a regularly updated, categorized list of sites (plus their links) that the experts think are topnotch.
• 100hot.com—a directory of 100 hot sites (plus their links) in various categories, from celebrities to job hunting to computer hardware to jokes.
• TopTenLinks—top 10 lists of sites (plus their links) in categories including family, sports, travel, and government.