~Search
One of the problems with Google is that you need to know the right words to search on, even if it's as simple as using vacation instead of holiday. In many cases, you can now get better results by asking Google to search for a cluster of synonyms, simply by putting a tilde in front of the search word. Searching for ~food, for example, will also find pages that contain the words cooking, cuisine, nutrition, recipe and restaurant. There don't seem to be any disadvantages, either: if a word has no synonyms assigned (eg sex), you get the same result as searching without the tilde.

Pirate games
Yo ho ho, the massively multiplayer Puzzle Pirates has reached the beta test stage. It is a sociable game that focuses, as you might guess, on solving puzzles. Windows and Linux are supported, with Mac OS X to follow.

Futures buy
Prediction is difficult, especially about the future. However, one way to predict what will happen is to open a futures market where people can "vote" - or bet on - events by buying and selling stocks. Given the apparent unpredictability of the current US government, a "consortium of computer scientists, political scientists and sociologists" is planning to open a futures market on what the world's only superpower will do next. The idea follows a similar plan by the Pentagon's Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) to launch a policy analysis market - a small-stakes betting shop for speculation on acts of terrorism and war - which was rapidly cancelled. However, the American Action Market will take up that idea with "a market in the future of the Middle East". Assuming it is not just an MIT spoof, you can register ahead of the start of trading on October 1.

Safety check
What does your deodorant contain, and are any of the ingredients potentially harmful? What about the stuff you use in the garden or for car care? The US government has put the information about US products online in the Household Products Database. It indexes a vast number of brand names from ABIN Primer & Sealer to Zymol Natural Car Polish, with manufacturer and safety information. You can also find out which products have certain ingredients then follow a link to any information in the Toxnet database. It would, of course, be much better to have the same information about products sold in the UK. However, you can at least read about US products that may have the same or very similar ingredients.

Anorak time
If you watch re-runs of old science fiction shows such as Lexx, Andromeda, Red Dwarf and Babylon 5, then you are a very sad person indeed. However, you are not alone, and there's a wonderful site about these and other geek favourites, including Buffy and The Prisoner, created by SadGeezer and NewKate from Preston, England. You can also take "purity tests" to confirm your in-depth knowledge of the major shows. For the even larger number more committed to Star Trek, there is The Great Link.

Boycott
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which is preparing to sue thousands of downloaders in the US, could find itself the victim of a grass-roots boycott. The Boycott-RIAA site carries basic news and info, and has forums for debate, plus useful links.

The Word
Now you can search God's words - as represented by 11 Upanishads, the Holy Tanakh, New Testament and Koran - using a search engine that, visually, bears more than a little resemblance to Google. And you can search all the texts at once, since all the versions are offered as English translations. atomicsoftware.com/word

Six of the best
Fantasy football

The original
The Telegraph
Yahoo Sports
The Times
BBC Fantasy League
FISO

New & noted

Google News Alerts (beta)
Guide to Google
Popout Prism browser (requires Windows and Java 1.3)