Web Search Guide Canada

Sympatico.MSN

Be warned - this is a rant. Sympatico sold out. The new sympatico.msn personal service is not personal and not much of a service. This is the awkward and very cluttered interface from MSN's personal portal combined with MSN's minimum Canadian content.

It's not all bad. MSN lets you set up several personal pages to cover different interests - general on the main page, supplementary pages for finance, technology or whatever you wish. There are options for changing colours and themes.

But customizing is long process of adding columns and moving chunks one by one. When will they provide drag and drop?

Canadian news comes from CBC and CTV. People who prefer the Globe and Mail are out of luck. Otherwise the news is AP World and MSNBC.

I'd like to increase the number of headlines for a source. Used to be able to do this on the old Excite - can't do it.

I'd like to see weather for the cities I pick on my page. Can't do that either. Weather for my city won't show up. This must be a bug of some sort.

I can get my Hotmail inbox but not my main account with Sympatico.

On the Finance page I set up, I get AMEX, NASDAQ, and NYSE. Where are the Canadian indexes?

There are no video options. Even the old mySympatico had video clips. This isn't believable either.

There is no option for television listings. Can't anyone in Canada pick up television listings?

There is the option to add favorites where I think I'll put in a link to myYahoo?

I've opened this posting up for your comments. Do you like the new Sympatico.MSN or not? Perhaps you've figured out some of the problems.

There are some answers at http://faq.sympatico.msn.ca/en/

Nationhood.ca

Telling Stories: Narratives of Nationhood - a view of Canadian Confederation through art - " In Telling Stories: Narratives of Nationhood, a diversity of art by Canadian artists is the medium for the exploration of Canadian history and heritage, identity, culture, geography, and politics."

Lesson plans were written by a group of educators in PEI and Nova Scotia. "These Integrated Learning Units, written with remarkable commitment, link the wonderful paintings, sketches, journals, sketchbooks, letters, and architectural plans in the Harris Collection to curriculum outcomes for Atlantic Canada and to the eight unique Telling Stories themes."

MSN Sympatico Portal

Bell, Microsoft open 'super portal' By JACK KAPICA Globe and Mail Update (June 9)

Microsoft-Bell partnership has created a new portal - sympatico.msn.ca for all users. Premium subscribers ($4.95 / month) get more -- "Subscribers will get their Sympatico, MSN and Hotmail accounts co-ordinated along with increased mail storage space, the MSN Messenger service, "talking" e-mail called SayMail, anti-spam and anti-virus tools, enhanced parental controls and pop-up ad blocking, as well as streaming concert series, a music store, Sympatico's existing GamesMania site and NHL games content. In addition, the portal — located at Sympatico.MSN.ca — will include new content channels and features, such as Kids, Maps & Directions, Games and the High Speed Zone."

Of course the ultimate objective is to make this a "broadband home" - music, entertainment, video, television.

Rogers will be doing the same with Yahoo as its partner.

Didn't we go through all this portal stuff before? Didn't it crash? Do I want to spend even more time in front of the screen? Do I want to pay more every month? Are they going to make me personalize yet another page?

There is an important FAQ at the site.

The good news is that MSN Passport user ids will be recognized. Also "Existing users of both Sympatico e-mail and MSN Hotmail® can keep their current e-mail addresses. "

Sympatico users may have to do something about their personal page -- "Your personal MySympatico page will be available for a short period of time following the launch of the new site."

Those who track investments through the Sympatico - GlobeInvestor arrangement will have to decide on the Globe or use the Sympatico/MSN channel.

RocketInfo Desktop

Rocketinfo Announces Release of Enhanced Desktop Search Software Market Wire (May 27) Rocketinfo Desktop is at Version 3.0 that includes a full-featured RSS news reader. It also has new content from market research firms, Gartner Group and IDC. This is downloadable software. 14 day trial is available. Annual subscription of $29.95 US /year.

Yellow Pages Smarter

YellowPages.ca offers new search functions Globe and Mail (May 27) New search features to YellowPages.ca, Canada411.ca and the CanadaPlus.ca network of city guides that include browsing categories and searching by proximity.

DDay on CBC

CBC has a retrospective on D-Day with headlines, photographs, and 4 minutes from an audio account from an RAF air raid. There are more maps and data at the DDay news site.

AbeBooks

Abebooks.com virtual market to add new books On-line used book retailer takes on dominant booksellers to bolster sales By MARINA STRAUSS Globe and Mail (June 2) AbeBooks.com, based in Victoria BC and known for used books, will be selling new ones too in Canada.