Practical Web sites and services

The hot story on PC World these days is a humongous collection of "100 Incredibly Useful and Interesting Web Sites." I'm still wading through it, and it got me thinking about my faves--you know, spots that I keep going back to. Here are some really practical Web sites that I've come to depend on.

Terrific Reference Tools

OWL, the Online Writing Lab, gives you a way to look up the whys and wherefores of grammar.

The Phrase Finder is a handy thesaurus for phrases.

Need a fact checker? Refdesk.com has all the facts--or links to them--you'll ever need.

Visiting LibrarySpot is like walking in to the local library and walking into the reference room.

Let's say you've got 15 barrels of oil and need to know how many gallons that is. Digital Dutch Unit Converter can tell you it's 630. The site covers just about everything anyone could need to convert... you've just got to see for yourself.

One thing that Digital Dutch doesn't handle, though, is money. You'll need to go to XE for your currency conversions.

Handy Sites for Shipping Rates

RedRoller compares shipping rates of the Post Office, DHL, Overnite Express, and Eastern Connection.

Iship handles DHL, UPS, and the Post Office. That's better, but like RedRoller, it's missing FedEx.

Shipping Sidekick handles the four services I use the most: The Postal Service, UPS, FedEx and DHL.

ShipGooder is the fastest and easiest of the services I've tried, and handles the U.S. Post Office, FedEx, UPS, and DHL.

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