Site Seeing - December 5

New sites are born every minute. Try typing even a vague topic with any major search engine and chances are you'll find 10,000 upward matches. Nothing less. Even if a majority of these matches may be a far cry from your request, some will score direct hits.

After finding the right sites, how often are you excited, disappointed or plain irritated with what you discover. What makes a site good or great or simply pathetic?

Easy... anything that grabs your attention in 10 seconds is good. And if the site can compel you to continue to see what's in store for over 10 minutes, it's great. And if you hit the Back button after waiting over a minute (considered really long), that's right, it's pathetic, unacceptable, a loser.

Here are a few sites (two are Dubai-based) you can check out for yourself. Starting with my favourite, a clear winner. Sit back and enjoy this ride through.

www.wildwadi.com
Crisp cool graphics, funny characters and clever entertainment. A neat package, this bright interactive tour through Wild Wadi is worth the few extra seconds it takes to download images in each section.

Besides, there's always something happening onscreen while you wait (a woodpecker pecking away, 'Ali' flying on a carpet, 'Julshan' writing a script...). Typing this URL takes you first to Jumeirah International which lists all its properties, Wild Wadi being one of them. You then click on Wild Wadi and get linked to its homepage which lists the awards the site has won.

The Best of the Web Award winner, Silver Best Mac OS Website, UAE Webstar award and Webmaster Award. The site creators (emh or e-media house, a division of tmh or the media house) imagined a person browsing the site as a filmgoer not a web surfer who would enjoy a narrative point of view, more like a walk-through experience when surfing this site.

The use of 3-D animated cartoon landscapes, interactive games (at the first step itself you can dunk your favourite characters in the water and score points while the site loads), the Wild Wadi story that's closely linked to Juha, a mythical traveller, adventurer and friend of Sindbad, the legendary seafarer well-known in the Arab world... all make for an arresting read/visual.

A sense of flow is easily felt with the use of a timbered signboard in the background, that helps one navigate through the site or jump to a particular location. There are Amazing Facts, Merchandise, Promotions and Competitions (outdated Swatch wave promotion of October 24 and 27 that needs updating), Registration and more. For those yet to get on to that ride you promised yourself, this virtual tour is an exhilarating teaser to the actual experience.

www.expatsite.com
Immense, interesting and informative, expatsite.com is a global community portal created for the expatriate community around the world. It offers regional and international news, detailed information to help you stay informed of events taking place locally, in your country of origin or any country you are interested in.

It has a listing of 48 countries, starting from A – Algeria to U – the UK. Each country carries an extensive list of topics that include history, housing, economic outlook, schools, politics, transport, medical care, money and banking, permits and more. Important information when starting a life in, or for that matter even visiting, a new country. The homepage offers news, finance, property, education, lifestyles, support sections.

The 'Active Vouchers – Explore your dreams' in the Lifestyles section is very interesting, allowing you the opportunity to gift dear ones different kinds of adventures. Like gifting helicopter lessons, hand gliding, motor racing...

Only two hitches, one you have to register to get more information on payment (reasonably priced, around £80 and above) and two, this service is only available in the UK. Even the tools – chat, check mail, discussion groups – offer an insight.

The discussion groups have covered topics like India Millennium Bond, dangers of mobile phones, who should be England's football manager and many such subjects. A good place to get registered and you can also receive tailor-made information.

www.planetarabia.com
Cutting to the point, the homepage offers a choice of three languages – English, French and Arabic. And if you take too long, you automatically get swept to the English homepage.

Ranked the number one Arab portal by Internet Al-Arab magazine (February 2000) and Best Free Service Site award for the Arab world by the American Internet.com LLC jointly with T4S Group in Gitex Cairo, Planetarabia produces its own content as well as distributes content from leading global partners, including Reuters, AFP and BBC.

Keeping in step with its objective of being a portal for the Arab world, it has launched a Ramadan Channel that offers articles related to the holy month of Ramadan. There's Radio Islam, health channel, Iftar recipes (lovely recipes on soups, mutton dishes, salads, sandwiches, chicken dishes, desserts, vegetable dishes, Arabian meat...) and kids corner (Arabic learner, story time, stories of prophets).