ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 20, 1997 TAG: 9702200076
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO COMPUTER BITS
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
A new Roanoke Valley Web site is designed to take the hassles out of looking for information about this region on the World Wide - and often Unwieldy - Web.
The new MetroWire, with 250 pages and more than 900 links, is the brainchild of Patrick Maddox, president of SiteVision Inc. Maddox, who has a background in both computers and marketing, said he often got frustrated trying to find local Web sites using national search engines.
MetroWire offers direct links to Roanoke Valley government pages, businesses, stock quotes, family and health news and schools. Links to The Roanoke Times Online, WSLS-TV, Blue Ridge Business Journal, CNN, USA Today and other news organizations provide local and national news summaries.
"The site is designed to give Roanoke Valley residents a spot they can call their own on the World Wide Web," Maddox said.
MetroWire also includes its own search engine, which catalogs sites related to Southwestern Virginia. It will be much easier, Maddox promises, to find local businesses and organizations using the MetroWire engine than national ones.
The site also offers free classified ads and yellow pages, a searchable local calendar, discussion groups for topics including seniors and travel, and a chat service.
Although the site went on line in mid-November, it's still very much a work in progress, Maddox said. He hasn't advertised MetroWire yet, and even the national search engines don't yet list it. He wanted to make sure everything worked before inviting a whole bunch of traffic, he said.
So for now, the searchable calendar and yellow pages and classifieds are fairly bare. But Maddox figures that will change once more people find out about the site.
Since its debut last fall, the site has received more than 90,000 hits, according to Web Trends and the Nielsen Co. More than 96 percent of the visitors came from Southwest Virginia.
The site will always be free to the public. It will be supported by advertising, which will run as banner ads. Maddox said it's not self-supporting yet; he hopes it will be within a year.
* * *
From the mountains to the seas: On SeaWeb, a new Web site designed to raise awareness of the ocean, you can swim with the dolphins or read about killer algae.
The site, a nonprofit ocean conservation project of The Pew Charitable Trusts, features Ocean Update, a monthly on-line newsletter. The February issue includes articles on red tides, illnesses traced to contaminated oysters and threats to Florida's coral reefs.
You also can listen to a daily 90-second radio feature, The Ocean Report, by Dr. Sylvia Earle, former chief scientist of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Or watch Neighbors, a 30-second dolphin protection film.
* * *
If you're reluctant to ask friends or your doctor questions about sexually transmitted diseases, check out a new Web site called Unspeakable: The Naked Truth.
The site, sponsored by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, offers answers to frequently asked questions and will tell you how high your risk is for contracting STDs, based on your age, sex and behavior.
A quiz tests your knowledge of STDs, and a search engine will give you the address of the nearest clinic that tests for STDs.
The site also suggests ways to talk about STDs with your partner and includes effective, yet fairly tactful, rebuttals to comments such as "I tested negative for AIDS. Don't you trust me?" and "But I don't sleep around," and "Don't worry, I'm protected - I'm on the pill."
FOR THURSDAY BUSINESS PAGE, GRAPHIC WITH COMPUTER BITS COLUMN
MetroWire
http://www.metrowire.com
Ocean watch
http://www.seaweb.org
The naked truth
http://www.unspeakable.com
You can contribute to this column or just comment by sending an E-mail to gregexc2roanoke.com or rtimes1xc2roanoke.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
MetroWire - a search engine for local Web sites
PLEASE SEE METROWIRE/B5
MetroWire
FROM PAGE B6
Staff Report
A new Roanoke Valley Web site is designed to take the hassles out of looking for information about this region on the World Wide - and often Unwieldy - Web.
The new MetroWire, with 250 pages and more than 900 links, is the brainchild of Patrick Maddox, president of SiteVision Inc. Maddox, who has a background in both computers and marketing, said he often got frustrated trying to find local Web sites using national search engines.
MetroWire offers direct links to Roanoke Valley government pages, businesses, stock quotes, family and health news and schools. Links to The Roanoke Times Online, WSLS-TV, Blue Ridge Business Journal, CNN, USA Today and other news organizations provide local and national news summaries.
"The site is designed to give Roanoke Valley residents a spot they can call their own on the World Wide Web," Maddox said.
MetroWire also includes its own search engine, which catalogs sites related to Southwestern Virginia. It will be much easier, Maddox promises, to find local businesses and organizations using the MetroWire engine than national ones.
The site also offers free classified ads and yellow pages, a searchable local calendar, discussion groups for topics including seniors and travel, and a chat service.
Although the site went on line in mid-November, it's still very much a work in progress, Maddox said. He hasn't advertised MetroWire yet, and even the national search engines don't yet list it. He wanted to make sure everything worked before inviting a whole bunch of traffic, he said.
So for now, the searchable calendar and yellow pages and classifieds are fairly bare. But Maddox figures that will change once more people find out about the site.
Since its debut last fall, the site has received more than 90,000 hits, according to Web Trends and the Nielsen Co. More than 96 percent of the visitors came from Southwest Virginia.
The site will always be free to the public. It will be supported by advertising, which will run as banner ads. Maddox said it's not self-supporting yet; he hopes it will be within a year.
* * *
From the mountains to the seas: On SeaWeb, a new Web site designed to raise awareness of the ocean, you can swim with the dolphins or read about killer algae.
The site, a nonprofit ocean conservation project of The Pew Charitable Trusts, features Ocean Update, a monthly on-line newsletter. The February issue includes articles on red tides, illnesses traced to contaminated oysters and threats to Florida's coral reefs.
You also can listen to a daily 90-second radio feature, The Ocean Report, by Dr. Sylvia Earle, former chief scientist of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Or watch Neighbors, a 30-second dolphin protection film.
* * *
If you're reluctant to ask friends or your doctor questions about sexually transmitted diseases, check out a new Web site called Unspeakable: The Naked Truth.
The site, sponsored by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, offers answers to frequently asked questions and will tell you how high your risk is for contracting STDs, based on your age, sex and behavior.
A quiz tests your knowledge of STDs, and a search engine will give you the address of the nearest clinic that tests for STDs.
The site also suggests ways to talk about STDs with your partner and includes effective, yet fairly tactful, rebuttals to comments such as "I tested negative for AIDS. Don't you trust me?" and "But I don't sleep around," and "Don't worry, I'm protected - I'm on the pill."
FOR THURSDAY BUSINESS PAGE, GRAPHIC WITH COMPUTER BITS COLUMN
MetroWire
http://www.metrowire.com
Ocean watch
http://www.seaweb.org
The naked truth
http://www.unspeakable.com
You can contribute to this column or just comment by sending an E-mail to gregexc2roanoke.com or rtimes1xc2roanoke.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: Long : 164 linesby CNB