CCC Help Page  

The Consumer Radar is really quite easy to use.  Here's all you really need to know:

• You'll need a recent version of Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator or Firefox to use it.  If you have an older version, go to Download.com to download an updated browser.
  
  
• It uses cookies and scripting, which are turned on in most browsers.  If you need to turn on scripting in Internet Explorer, click on Tools, Internet Options, the Security tab, and the Custom Level button, then enable Active Scripting near the bottom of the list you'll see.  To turn cookies on, click on Tools, Internet Options, the Privacy tab, and set security to Medium.
  
  
• In the Consumer Searches box, if you type something into the text box and click Find, you'll get search results from Google; if you click any site link below the box, you'll get search results from that site.  If there is nothing in the text box, you'll go to the home page of that site.  Try clicking on each tab to see all the available sites.
  
  Clicking any Search All button will search the three or four listed sites simultaneously.  You may need to command your popup blocker to allow ConsumerAll.com to generate popups (we don't do commercial popups at all:  it's just that popup blockers aren't smart enough to tell the difference.)
  
  
• The My Hometown box is fairly self-explanatory.  To use the Forecast and Current Conditions tabs, you'll need to enter your home city and zip code.
  
  
• The World News box is an easy-to-use newsreader using "RSS" technology, free for public usage.  Just click any tab to see the latest news headlines, then click any news link that interests you.
  
  
• When you see this symbol: -- just ignore it (it usually means that the computer is busy, but not here).

The Consumer Searches box can be used to research your purchases and save yourself a lot of money.  Here's how to use it:

1. Search.  Use the sites on the Search tab to research information on any subject that interests you, whether it's a purchase or anything else.  Google Web Search, MSN.com, Yahoo! Web Search and Ask.com are web search engines.  Yahoo! Directory is probably the Web's best directory of sites, while Clusty MetaSearch will search several search engines at the same time and group the results into folders for you.
   
   
2. Guides.  You can research products and companies here.  Consumer Reports, Consumer World, Federal Info Ctr and Consumer.gov contain general information on all kinds of consumer needs.  Consumer Search, Epinions and ConsumerGuide are three sites where you can read product reviews (you might also try Amazon.com and Consumer Reports.)  CNet, ZDNet and Download.com are good sites to research computers and software (Download.com specializes mostly in shareware and freeware.)  Bizrate, Complaints.com and BBB are three sites where you can check up on companies to make sure they're legit and consumer-friendly.
   
   
3. Shop.  Froogle, PriceGrabber and MySimon are three shopping agents that will compare prices for you.  Froogle is probably the most complete, because it does not charge businesses any fee to list their products.  FatWallet, DealCatcher and MyCoupons list money-saving coupons:  to save the most money, use these in addition to the shopping agents.  FatWallet has a nice added benefit:  it pays you rebates when you shop at scores of popular sites such as Amazon.com.  Amazon.com, Buy.com and Target.com are three online stores that usually have low prices.  EBay, CraigsList and your Local Newspaper are three good places to look for really cheap offers from private parties, including new products at very low prices.
   
   
4. Locate.  To use UPS, Federal Express and Post Office, whenever youre given a tracking number for a product you ordered, just type it into the text box and click one of these links to see where your order is in transit.  To use the Shops search, type any store name or type into the text box (e.g. "Sears" or "Department Store") and click the Shops link.  You'll be shown a map of all the nearby stores you're looking for.  To use the Pizza and Hospital searches, just click the link without typing anything into the text box (unless you want to narrow your search to a specific restaurant, e.g. by typing "Domino's".)
   
   
5. News.  Kiplinger.com, MSN MoneyCentral and BankRate.com are three excellent sites to look for advice on personal finance matters. Forbes.com is a good site for news on the business world and general finance, while CNN and Yahoo! News are good sites for all sorts of news.
   
   
6. Lookup.  Wikipedia and MSN Encarta are two excellent online encyclopedias, while Google Books is a virtual library of thousands of books with good information (albeit a little dated.)  Dictionary.com is a good site to search for the definition of a word, Thesaurus.com will search for words similar to what you type in the text box, and Google Images will search for pictures related to anything you type in.
   
   
7. Other.  Blink TV has a ton of videos, IMDB.com is about movies and film stars, Allmusic is about musical performers and their songs, AZLyrics is a good place to search for song lyrics, WebMD is a virtual medical encyclopedia, ESPN is where you can search for sports-related subjects, and iVillage is a site for women's interests.