ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 16, 1997 TAG: 9701160015
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Computer Bits
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
IF YOU'RE INTERESTED, Disney brings parents customized information with their new Web site.
The Maddox Agency, a Roanoke advertising and public relations firm, has formed Maddox Interactive, a subsidiary that gives advice on the Internet and plans, designs and constructs Internet pages. The new company recently introduced two sites on the World Wide Web. One provides information about the company and marketing news.
The other, titled Business Survival Guide, provides in a visually attractive format nearly three dozen pages with links to such resources as marketing, finance, travel, business reading, and Internet search engines.
For instance, a click on an indexed item called Money Matters takes you to links for live stock market data, daily business news, Nasdaq's on-line service and much more. Click on News and Reading and you find links to Time Magazine Interactive, Inc. 500, MSNBC and more.
"We see the Internet as the single most exciting communication device in decades," Claire Maddox, president of the company, said in announcing the site.
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Those interested in the latest doings on Wall Street or searching for an obscure technical article can find newspaper and business magazine home page addresses and some of their editors' e-mail addresses by using a service provided by EditPros, a Davis, Calif., writing, editing and publication planning business.
Its Business News Media Directory furnishes links to about 270 publications. They include periodicals with such names as Accountant's Tax Weekly, Who's Mailing What? and Rand Journal of Economics, as well as popular publications such as Time, Money and Advertising Age.
Among trade journals, which are grouped by industry, there's Embroidery Business News and Chemical Week. Regional business magazines and newspapers are grouped by state.
The people at EditPros apparently expect many literary types to see the site, and offer an interactive grammar quiz to those who browse the directory.
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Disney Online has developed a new Web site, Family.com, to offer customized national and local information to parents. The site has a search engine that allows visiting parents to seek out information on their specific needs. They can also search for information by the age of their child and in specific categories.
The site offers information in six categories: recreational activities, computing, education, family ties, food and travel. It also offers links to local parenting publications affiliated with the site. The only two listed so far for Virginia, though, are in Richmond and Virginia Beach.
The computing site contains an article, "Ten Steps to Trouble-Free Computing," that may be useful to novice computer users. But then, if you're too much of a novice, you probably aren't on the Web.
Websites in today's column
Maddox Interactive
http://www.sitevision.com/tma
Business Survival Guide
http://www.sitevision.com/bizguide
EditPros
http://www.editpros.com/
Disney's Family.com
http://www.family.com
You can contribute to this column or just comment by sending an E-mail to biznews@roanoke.infi.net or by calling 981-3393 or 981-3237 in the Roanoke Valley, or (800) 346-1234, extension 393, outside the Roanoke area. Previous Computer Bits columns can be found online at http://www.roanoke.com
LENGTH: Medium: 77 linesby CNB