Zip2 Yellow Pages - This site is good because of its simple layout, ease of use, and usefulness of information. By selecting a type or name of a business and the address from which you will be leaving, the "Zip 2 Yellow Pages" gives you directions to your destination. Furthermore, if the address you enter is not recognized, the site displays a list of possible matching choices.
Texas Department of Health - The Texas Department of Health home page is well organized, is simple, and provides links to various sites that may assist you in your search. It also provides a wide variety of health-related information, on topics ranging from E. coli to child safety seat recalls.
Texas Monthly Magazine - This home page provides stories from the current issue of the magazine (including UFOs in this issue!), lists of activities, restaurants and road trips, and the advertising is kept to a minimum. One thing that is especially nice about this site is your option to view additional advertisements if you choose.
Celis Brewery - The Celis Brewery home page has a few interesting aspects that got it on the good list - a chance to listen to Pierre Celis himself, a link to the Austin Chronicle for news and "to-do's," and clear, simple categories from which to choose. Plus, it has a simple design and very little advertising.
The Louvre Museum - On the artistic side, this site provides clean, clear images of selected pieces of art in this famous museum. While the choices may be limited, the categories are simple enough for even the least artistic to choose from. It also has interesting little extras like a picture of the admission ticket to the museum.
The Bad:
UT Campus Computers - The site for the Campus Computers store here at UT hasn't been updated since August 5, 1997, so much of the information I was looking for wasn't available. This is just one example of many sites that are updated on an extremely infrequent basis.
The Dilbert Zone - I was hoping this site would make the good list, but I was disappointed by the long amount of time each page took to load, the huge volume of advertising, and the relative lack of actual Dilbert cartoons.
Shareware-Freeware - This site had one major problem - too much information. Two smaller problems were that the "alphabetized" listing of links to shareware sites was, in fact, not alphabetized correctly and the blue on black color scheme was hard to read.
Texas Governor's Job Bank Start Page - The Governor's Job Bank start page made the bad list because of its limits. The searches you may enter are limited to one topic at a time, and the list of jobs that is returned has only general descriptions (such as 08-12-50-0563 PROJECT and 08/06/97(CRI/AB) ACCES).
UT Parking & Transportation Services - Like the Campus Computers site, I had a very difficult time finding the information I needed at the UT Parking Services site. There were too many categories with similar or non-descriptive titles, and most contained the same overlapping information. The choice of an Index was nice, but it merely listed the same category titles found elsewhere in the site.
This page brought to you courtesy of
Mike Alexander for LIS385T.16. All information is current as of September 2, 1997.