Master's Degrees to Fit
Your Busy Schedule
Madonna
University, our
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734/432-5667
email: muinfo@smtp.munet.edu
web: www.munet.edu
master's degrees in
business are designed
for working adults.
Classes are offered
during the evening and
on weekends,
complemented by
on-line courses.
MBA
Master of Business
Administration
MSBA
Master of Science in
Business Administration
"The business progam prepares
students to take leadership roles
in their organizations, giving
them a sound business
philosophy and vision,"
— Leslie Rose, chairman,
Fidelity Bank; Madonna
University trustee emeritus
Madonna University • 1-96 & Levan Rd. • Livonia
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FASTEST AVAILABILITY IN METRO DETROIT!
Cyber Spot reviews and Web site addresses are now on JN Online:
www.detroitjewishnews.com
Content
Design
Ease of use
Another Portal
he Jewish portal wars
are heating up.
Internet portals, for
cyber-neophytes, are all-
purpose homepages that serve as
a kind of directory aimed at mak-
ing sense out of the chaos of the
World Wide Web.
Many users now set their Web
browsers to automatically load
the portal of their choice every
time they get on the Net.
Yahoo! is the best-known all-
purpose portal, but there are a
growing number aimed directly at
Jewish cybernauts.
The latest: Zipple, a cute, graphi-
cally sophisticated index to Jewish
stuff on the Internet. But the cuteness
doesn't make up for the uneven con-
tent — although that hopefully will
change as it gets up and running.
Zipple was created by Jon , Rozner, a
30-year-old Chicago CPA and real estate
professional who got the online itch two
years ago and never looked back.
Zipple borrows its basic model
from Yahoo! The universe is broken
down into broad categories — arts
and humanities, food, education, life-
cycle, organizations, people and poli-
tics, with some special-interest choices
thrown in for good measure.
But some of the categories are
painfully thin. A "peace process" sec-
tion links visitors to the Israeli Foreign
Ministry, but that's about it. There are
links to Jewish organizations, but only-
a small handful of the dozens have
their own Web sites.
A section on Jewish religious
streams offers links to Reform,
Conservative and Orthodox organiza-
tions, but are only the most obvious
ones.
On the other hand, the Holocaust
section is filled with links and effi-
ciently organized. One section pro-
vides a list of major concentration
camps with links to sites that provide
more information; another offers
dozens of links dealing with Holocaust
art and music.
A "global communities" section
T
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provides information about Jews in
about a dozen countries, from
Argentina to South Africa; a "global
directory" provides links to syna-
gogues, Hillels, Jewish community
centers and even mikvaot (Jewish ritu-
al baths).
Zipple has a big singles focus. An
area with a name right out of the `60s
— The Scene" — offers chat rooms,
directories of Jewish events around the
world and extensive connections to
singles' services. It's free but registra-
tion is required. The fill-in-the-blanks
forms are irritating.
For non-singles, there are also chat
rooms and bulletin boards; again, reg-
istration is required, and again the
application form is intrusive and cum-
bersome.
The portal has extensive links to
online Jewish shopping, and Zipple
provides coast-to-coast Internet ser-
vices, with over 6,000 access numbers,
for $19.95 per month.
How does Zipple stack up against
other Jewish portals? The shmoozing
stuff may be your cup of borscht, but
if not, the portal called Maven
(wvvw.maven.co .i1) may be a better
all-around choice because of its clean-
er design, more extensive resources
and powerful search engine. Ditto for
the Jewish Community Online's
Internet page (www.jewish.com ).
But Zipple is a new service with a
lot of promise. Let's just hope the glitz
and the commercialism doesn't get in
the way. II
— James D. Besser