WebRewards
The something-for-nothing economy gained a new player this month. WebRewards.co.uk hopes to take on the likes of iPoints and Beenz by offering a small number of high-quality gift items in exchange for online purchases at its partner sites, such as Car Phone Warehouse and Easyshop. Registration is particularly easy and there are plenty of reward points on offer just for joining and alerting your friends. However, to get the really good rewards such as helicopter flying lessons or a micro skate scooter you are either going to be very rich or have access to a corporate expense account.
Director's cut
The website for director Michael Winterbottom's loose adaptation of Thomas Hardy's The Mayor Of Casterbridge is probably the most obsessive ever built, especially as it promotes a film deep in pre-production. Visitors to www.kingdomcomemovie.com can not only download trailers and take a virtual tour of the set but also review the rushes and keep tabs on the production schedule, thanks to daily bulletins. It has enough detail to satisfy even the most die-hard of movie buffs.
Kookiest film site doing the rounds? Lars Von Trier's Cannes-winning Dancer In The Dark, which stars Bjork. See www.dancerinthedark.com.
EuroSoccer
Euro 2000 is nearly upon us and a flurry of new footie sites has been launched. Soccernet has added a micro-site at www.soccernet.com/euro2000 with its own front page and content. The most novel feature, and the one most likely to cause a rumpus in the pub, is the score prediction service. OneFootball.com also tries to offer in-depth coverage, which means a lot of text-heavy pages, but it does have good travel and ticket facilities. Footie fanzine When Saturday Comes has launched a "fans think tank" at www.dottwo.com/onetouch, and there is an official site at www.euro2000.org.
The Fiver, Football Unlimited's irreverent tea-time take on the world of football, will be producing a special Euro 2000 newsletter. See www.footballunlimited.co.uk/euro for subscription details.
Computer love
Fans of the arch-priests of Kraut rock and single-handed inventors of techno will be delighted with www.kraftwerk.de. Refreshingly, the site has very little information, and the link to Kraftwerk's record company, KlingKlang, seems to be broken. However, a number of interactive pages "play" segments from the group's music. Which all leads to lots of fun, fun, fun on das internet.
Card guard
Worries about credit card security are often cited as the main reason customers are unwilling to shop online. Now www.card-guard.com hopes to allay security fears by offering a browser plug-in that records every transaction you make on the web. The basic service sets you back £17.50 a year, but will provide documentary evidence should the worst happen and your goods do not show up.
Web for zilch
Net4nowt.com, a directory devoted to free internet service providers (ISPs), includes exhaustive tables comparing them. Of most use is the comprehensive list of unmetered ISPs. See http://net4nowt.com/unmetered.
Afore ye go
AnywhereYouGo claims to be "the world's largest independent community of wireless developers" and has launched a Wap (wireless application protocol) testing service. It claims nearly one in four Wap applications has significant coding errors and offers tests for a variety of platforms. See www.AnywhereYouGo.com.
New and noted
Footage of live births can be seen at www.motherandbaby.com, but not that one; www.wowgo.com is a portal for teenage girls and clothes horses will want to look at www.style365.com. Last but not least, offers a comprehensive travel site. Sean Dodson
