Practical Resources

Accuweather 
Provides breaking “weather news,” weather maps as well as daily and long-range forecasts. 

National Weather Service
The US Government site for national weather displays state by state conditions and forecasts. Aviation and marine weather conditions are provided for international locations.

Business Traveler Flight Tracker
Although its name is a bit of mouthful, the service is straightforward: on time, delayed or cancelled, it will track any flight’s status. A quick and efficient tool that gives you the news you’d rather not find out at the airport. 

CitySearch
An online equivalent of the local yellow pages, enhanced with links to merchant websites and customer reviews. 

Farmer's Almanac
In the grand tradition of the Farmer’s Almanac, this site offers a (speculative) long-range weather forecast, but also a host of more or less related services such as gardening tips, recipes, camping and fishing tips. The folksy advice is mixed in with such unique and useful features as tidal prediction calendars, full moon dates, and rise and set times for the sun.  

National Geographic Map Machine
With its long history of reporting and supporting exploration, this service seems like a natural fit for the venerable Geographic. Their online atlas offers maps that range from local street maps to satellite pictures, as well as a range of tools such a trip planner to local weather charts and population density tables. Beyond all these useful features, the Map Machine appeals to map lovers with historical, conservation, topographical maps - and even maps of space. 

Oanda - Currency Converter 
A well respected online currency conversion service, Onada provides multi-lingual currency converter, as well as a network of support links to help travelers deal with just about every other aspect of traveling. 

Open Table
An idea who’s time has come – an online reservation system for restaurants in most major U.S. cities. The site also helpfully reviews, ranks and categorizes restaurants to facilitate the selection process. 

Rand McNally 
The renowned map makers Rand McNally have created a web site that is a natural extension of their travel and geographical education aids business. They offer their own version of the now widely used driving directions search engine, even throwing in a map finder featuring local points of interest and a mileage calculator. Maps are still their business and the site features applications for maps, including sections for commercial transportation, as well as business and educational services. 

CitySearch
An online equivalent of the local yellow pages, enhanced with links to merchant websites and customer reviews.

Craigslist
What started as a local, non-profit, online community billboard has become the ubiquitous international community billboard. With sites for many of the major cities in the world, Craig’s List has become an effective substitute for the local classifieds, while staying true to its grass-roots beginnings. 

Google Local Search
One of the most promising local search sites out there, with plenty of unique features.

A9 Search Engine
Amazon.com’s highly user-friendly search tool that surpasses the basic yellow pages and internet search functionality of its competitors. 

CEO Express
Although this site was imagined as an online Rolodex for busy executives, the media, business, travel and leisure sources so intelligently indexed here are useful for everybody.  

Child Statistics
Government report on the condition of children living in America. 

Infobel International Phone Directory
Infobel assembles a number of helpful search tools, such as white and yellow pages, reverse look-up (finding the name that matches the number), near address (finding people and businesses near a given address) and world telephone directories.  

Librarians' Internet Index
This timesaving, publicly-funded site is a godsend for researchers and anyone else seeking reliable, trustworthy information on the ’Net. Users can do a search by topic (and subtopic) to get a listing of more than 20,000 quality Web sites that have been carefully chosen by a team of discriminating librarians. Topics include arts and humanities, business, computers, government, health, home and housing, law, media, people, ready reference and quick facts, recreation, regions of the world, science, and society and social science. Each entry includes a link to the site, a description of what you’ll find there, and an area where users can post their own comments about the site. Visitors to the Librarians’ Internet Index (LII) can also subscribe to a weekly e-mail of the librarians’ Best of the Web picks.