In This Week's Report:

***Friends Online
***Tour The Forbidden City
***Hot Web Mail Coming Through

URLs in this issue:
Mirabilis (ICQ): http://www.mirabilis.com/
Tour The Forbidden City: http://members.aol.com/alisonnyt/
Hotmail: http://www.hotmail.com
Rocketmail: http://www.rocketmail.com

***Friends Online ***
One of the things I have always wanted was a way to see when my friends were on the Internet, so we could chat, place an Internet phone call or even just send an e-mail. This week I found a program that lets you do that. ICQ (or rather "I seek you") is the ultimate tool for keeping in touch with your friends. Now at a glance I can see who's online. With a quick click I can send them all a message, URL or even start a chat session.

Mirabilis (ICQ): http://www.mirabilis.com/

***Tour The Forbidden City***
One of the things I love about the Internet is the way in which someone's trip pictures can become an online photo gallery, their trip diaries, a travelogue, and their scrapbook, a web site. While taking a tour of a few of these sites, I found one which absolutely captivated me: a tour of the forbidden city in China. The beautiful pictorial was put together by Alison Stuebe, a 24-year-old producer at the New York Times on the Web on her trip to China. If you are a fan pictorials (as I am) then be sure to take the tour!
Tour The Forbidden City: http://members.aol.com/alisonnyt/

***Hot Web Mail Coming Through***
Web-based e-mail, once a glimmer in someone's eye, is now an Internet Phenomenon. This week Hotmail unveiled a new look and announced that they have over 2 million e-mail clients. Four 11 decided they weren't going to be left behind on the web e-mail craze, and they launched their own version of web e-mail called Rocketmail. For those of you who travel a lot, or are constantly in e-mail account transition, be sure to pick up a free account at one of these sites!

Hotmail: http://www.hotmail.com
Rocketmail: http://www.rocketmail.com