Bells & Whistles

Instant Portal

Feeling left out of the portal wars? Hey, you don't have to be a Jarry Yang to put together a top-notch collection of resources. Instant Portal offers some of the more popular "sticky" apps: Free e-mail (no foolin'!), chat and message boards to keep your customers clicking.

iSyndicate

Fast, fresh and delivered to your virtual doorstep -- that's what iSyndicate has to offer your site's users. Choose from scores of content providers, from Reuters to Cigar Afficionado, and display headlines and photos on your site. Sure, the full story resides on their side, but what do you want for free?

The Weather Channel

For those of us chained to our computers, it's sometimes hard to pry ourselves away to take a peek outside. Not to worry -- get the latest weather report (users enter their ZIP for local forecasts) posted on your site from the proverbial horse's mouth. You can get the cute little Weather Magnet with highlights, or the comprehensive Weather Viewer, almost a page unto itself.

Newsclipper

Not free, but a bargain at any price. Newsclipper offers not only headlines froma variety of providers, but also stock tickers, sports briefs, comics and oh, so much more. Add a few simple includes in your code, and Newsclipper does the rest for you. Join such luminaries as the http://www.lylug.org Lynchburg Linux User's Group  and http://www.demented.net Demented.net as satisfied users.

PicoSearch

Don't make your users hunt for needles in haystacks - PicoSearch offers free, easy-to-create  search functionality for your site. Just register, enter your home page (or other point of entry) and PicoSearch indexes the contents of your site. Results are hosted off-site, formatted in familiar, search-engine format for easy navigation.

VantageNet polls

Let your users' voices be heard and build community in the process. These free polls require no knowledge of CGI;  just follow the online poll wizard, select your color scheme and form type, fill out the question and options, and voila! Results are hosted on Vantage.net, with a user-defined link back to your site.

GuestWorld

Set up a quick and easy guest book. Just breeze through the quick and simple registration, and you're ready to go. Like most free features, the book is hosted off-site, but the navigation is intuitive enough to keep your users coming back home.

BigNetwork: My Games

All work and no play...you know the rest. Give your users a much needed break with these clever Java-based games that you can easily embed on your site. Silicon Valley twenty-somethings will thrill at the retro-arcade classics, or they can try their hand at solitaire or Mah Jongg. Stay tuned -- multi-player games are on the horizon.

Stupid Web Tricks and

More Stupid Web Tricks

Sometime you just gotta do it yourself, and the crack team at CNET Builder.com shows you how. Get simple, erudite instructions on how to make your site jump through hoops of fire, from password validation to watermarks, or give your site some pizzazz with splash screens, fade-ins or slide shows. Up, Simba!

Internet Traffic Report

Wondering why your surfing speed's dwindled to that of morning traffic on the Bay Bridge? The Internet Traffic Report is the barometer of Net traffic, displaying up-to-the-minute stats on data packet snarls across the global network. Get the handy little GIF, or the constantly updating JavaScript display, to help your users cope with Internet gridlock.

CometZone

For the ultimate in superfluous frills for your site, why not customize the cursors? CometZone offers an exapnsive variety of perky pointers. Just pop some code in your page, and IE users will get themed cursors (Netscape users can download a plug-in to view them), from the cutesy to the...well, OK, most of them are cutesy.

Third Voice

This one's not about what you add to your site, but what others might be adding to it. Third Voice is a browser companion that allows users to post their own comments about a Web site, which can then be seen by other Third Voice users. Currently only compatible with IE5, you just might want to download it and see what's being said behind your back and under your nose.