500 Newport Center Drive, Suite 500
Newport Beach, CA 92660
Phone: (949) 721-2330
Fax: (949) 721-0734
March 2008 
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What is your favorite (non-financial) website?
By The Tarbox Group - March 2007
This quarter, we’ve asked the Tarbox team to share a favorite (non-financial) website or two:
Mark
Over the last four years, www.hotwire.com has saved our family over a thousand dollars on hotel reservations and car rentals. For hotel reservations, you tell them when and where you would like to stay, then Hotwire shows you the hotel star ratings and approximate locations of several hotel options. The catch is that the site does not show you the actual hotel name and address until you commit to the purchase. Because they are selling unsold inventory without giving up the hotel names, rooms can be had at substantial discounts. I recently booked a four star room in Miami at a savings of nearly 50% over that hotel's discounted web rate. I've booked over ten other rooms through Hotwire and have never been disappointed with the final price or accommodations.
Laura
I visit www.highschoolsports.net to check on game schedules for Laguna Beach High School so I can see if I can run at the track in the evening or whether there is a game or track meet that will prohibit me. (I do most of my running at the track, as I am hoping the track surface will help make my knees and joints last longer!) They also post scores and other info for high schools all over the country.
Estelle
I go to the Internet most often for research. Here is my kitchen research tool, The Food Network Encyclopedia: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/ck_encyclopedia/0,1971,FOOD_9801,00.html
Mike
http://www.imdb.com/ Whether you are looking to see who played opposite Cary Grant in the 1958 movie Indiscreet (Ingrid Bergman) or you are settling a bet on who directed Casablanca (Michael Curtiz), I find imdb a fantastic source for information on movies, actors, directors, quotes, and much more.
Steve
I have three young kids at home. When my first child was two, I began looking for websites for children, I found www.boowakwala.com. The site has lots of wonderful activities for kids and their parents. The graphics are colorful, the kindergarten songs are cute and sweet, and the games are stimulating and educational. It is a free site. Some ads are posted on the margin by Google, but no pop-up ads whatsoever. My family loves the site. Not only did it entertain and teach the kids, it prepared them for their computer classes as they entered school.
Elizabeth
Out of print? Hard to find locally? Need books, toys, games, music? Amazon.com is a sure bet. The Amazon search engine is smart enough to suggest books along the lines of the book you're looking for. I've found many books I hadn't previously heard of, compliments of the smart search engine. Amazon's access to a variety of used and new booksellers means you can find a perfectly excellent condition used book. Since having kids, I've also found Amazon's toy selection both extensive and well priced – great for the myriad birthday parties we attend.