Web Search Guide Canada

Sport

Canadian Sport (http://www.canadiansport.ca/) provides "sports enthusiasts with information on sport, fitness and sports medicine". Subject areas include subject areas on the database are Sports Medicine, Rehabilitation, Physical Fitness, Coaching & Training, Physical Education, Physical Therapy, Corporate Wellness, Exercise Physiology, Sport Science, Child Healthcare, Recreation, Health & Safety, Biomedicine, Complementary Therapies (Acupuncture to Yoga) and more.

Internet Use Up

64 per cent of Canadians used Internet over one-month period: poll Canadian Press (Dec 21)

August poll was done by Leger Marketing.

"Regional breakdowns in this year's poll were British Columbia, 71 per cent; Ontario, 67; Alberta, 66; Manitoba and Saskatchewan, 63; the Atlantic provinces, 60 and Quebec, 58."

Bell Speeds up DSL

Bell to boost DSL speed by Ian Johnson. Globe and Mail (Dec 16) Bell Canada will increase the high-speed DSL service to residential subscribers to 3 Mbps with no additional cost. The high-end service will increase from 3 Mbps to 4 Mbps. Most (75% of subscribers) will see the improvement in the first quarter of 2004. The competition between cable and DSL may not reduce costs but should improve services.

"Rather than lower Internet access fees in the coming months, he [Mr Surtees of IDC Canada] said consumers can expect more value-added services from their Internet service providers (ISPs), along with bundles for things like Internet access and cable or satellite television feeds."

Shopping online

Window shopping without the walk Globe and Mail (Dec 10) More Canadians are going online to shop - or at least to scout around. Comscore Media Metrix Canada found that more than 15.1 million people visited retailers in October, an increase of 13.6% than last year. People are spending more time and looking at more pages.

"Among the traditional retailers that saw visitor growth rise were Ikea.ca (137.8 per cent), HBC.com (82.6 per cent) and Futureshop.ca (47.3 per cent). Other retailers, such as Canadian Tire, Sears, Chapters, saw double-digit growth."

Many sites have free shipping this holiday season - Indigo, Amazon.ca, Future SHop, Canadian Tire, Sears.

Residential Cable v DSL

Rogers doubles Internet speed Robert Thompson Financial Post (Dec 10) Rogers will be offering three mega bits per second on its residential service for $44.95 / month. This is twice what it had before, and twice what Bell Sympatico offers at the same price (though Bell does have 3 Mbps for $69.95). Rogers has 755,000 high speed customers, and Bell has 1.4 million.

More Digital Stuff

Digital junkyard in works Canadian Press via Globe and Mail (Dec 8)-- University of Waterloo is building a public archive of images, sound, video and text. "The archive is to feature everything from movie outtakes to the sound bites left on the editing floor during the shooting of a music video. Researchers aim to make it accessible to anyone with a computer."

The Tyee for BC

The Tyee (www.thetyee.ca) is a weblog created by David Beers in British Columbia as an alternative to the big media. Beers used to work for the Vancouver Sun. Today he writes for and manages The Tyee -- "A Spirited New Voice For Our Province". The name - Tyee - comes from a large silver salmon.

Against opinion's tide by Alexandra Gill. Globe and Mail. (Dec 8)

Journeys of Discovery

Journeys of Discovery creates "getaways" in Ontario to places that are rich in history and culture. It's a good looking site with some very appealing travel ideas and packages.

"Journeys of Discovery is a new Ontario tourism alliance made up of fourteen select historic and cultural sites across southern Ontario.
Journeys of Discovery offers Canadians a chance to go behind-the-scenes at these historic and cultural sites and meet one-on-one with archaeologists, curators, biologists, artisans interpreters, costumers and storytellers who share their knowledge of our rich history and provide a unique perspective on the cultures and people who shaped this province and built our nation."

Visual Search

Wonderfile sees value in visual photo searches By Sue Bowness Globe and Mail Update (Dec 8) - At Wonderfile www.wonderfile.com, a royalty-free stock photography site, you can search for images that are similar to a selected one - thanks to visual search technology from Idée www.ideeinc.com.