In late April, a consumer group stated that consumers searching for the best deal on hotel rooms on the Internet should shop around since no single travel site stands head and shoulders above rivals.
Consumer WebWatch, a project of Consumers Union, said that while the Internet offers cheap fares compared with the system traditionally used by travel agents, travel Web sites do not handle mistakes well and fail to deliver lists of the cheapest hotels without extra clicks. Site Travelocity offered the best hotel rates more often than competitors Expedia, Hotels.com, Lodging.com and Orbitz, but not regularly enough to make it a one-stop-shopping destination, the report said.
Sites of the Month:
1. Freeality Reverse Lookup
(www.freeality.com/findet.htm): Got a
mysterious phone number or e-mail? Head on over to this site and find the person or business behind those digits with the help of plenty of search engines.
2. Ravinia Festival (http://www.ravinia.org): What do Aretha Franklin, Norah Jones, k.d. lang and The Neville Brothers all have in common? Besides probably being rich enough to buy you and me, they're headliners at this summer's Ravinia Festival.
3. Steamworks - Chicago
(www.steamworksonline.com/chicago/default.asp): Go on a virtual tour of the workout facility/recreational area, including the gym, rooms, 'wet areas' and more. You'll practically smell the sweat ... but is that necessarily a good thing?
4. Out Africa (www.africanpride.org/): Get contact info about new groups to the site (like Windy City Black Pride), read about the mission, and find out events both domestic (August's National Black Lesbian and Gay Leadership Forum in New Orleans) and international (the Imbizo 2003 Conference in Johannesburg).
5. Sylvester
(www.queerculturalcenter.org/Pages/Sylvester/Index.html): You make me feel mighty real, indeed. Check out this homage to the openly gay disco singer. Although the page with Djola Branner is a bit outdated, everything else is timeless. You'll find a biography and detailed discography.
6. Like My Gay Photo (http://www.likemygayphoto.com): This site is very similar to that 'Am I Hot?' site where you rate people on a scale of one to 10 and then move on to the next photo. The catch here is that you may see something besides the person's face, if you follow me. However, if you like what you see, you can still click to meet said exhibitionist.
I'm at turn_it_up@hotmail.com .