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Readers old enough to remember what life was like before the Internet may also remember the early descriptions of it. People tried to sell us on not only how revolutionary this new tool was, but how it compared to everything we did before we'd ever heard of the World Wide Web.
"It's a phone book," they said, referring to the thousands and thousands of phone numbers now at our fingertips. Now we didn't have to dial directory assistance or leaf through dozens of phone books from around the country in search of one number.
"It's an encyclopedia," they said, referring to the millions of facts available with a few keystrokes. No longer did we have to take a trip to the library and browse through dozens of volumes of the World Book or Britannica.
"It's a dictionary," they said. The Web was an easy online substitute for a big, heavy, dusty tome.
Certainly the Internet proved to be all of these things and a lot more. It was really just the beginning. We went on to explore how the Internet can translate into everything from a big calculator to recipe generators.
But these are all static functions. You type something, like a request for information about the cheetah for your school paper, and your browser or animal Web site you find will (hopefully) give you all sorts of details about the big cats.
These days, sites have evolved to find unique ways of blending cyberspace and the real world around us. Rather than providing a basic response to a user question, many sites are more sophisticated and creative. They serve to enhance a real-world experience and use the global power of the Web to complement, but not replace, what's going on in the larger world. Here are a few examples of Web sites where cyberspace and reality intersect.
Where's George?
Since 1998, the mission of Where's George (http://www.wheresgeorge.com) has been to track U.S. currency. Sure, you say, isn't the government already doing that? Maybe the Treasury Department or the Secret Service?
But at this site, the creators have done something unique. They have created an unofficial index of the travels of paper money with the help of the Internet community.
The theory is simple: every piece of paper money you now own has been somewhere else. Some people wonder where their money has been or what adventures your current stash of cash will have once it's put back into the commerce stream.
To begin solving this mystery, take any bill, from $1 to $100. Go to www.wheresgeorge.com and type in the serial number, your zip code, and other info like its condition (any unusual folds or stains), and anything interesting about how it came to be in your possession.
Then, if you register with the site, your next step will be to write the words www.wheresgeorge.com somewhere on your bill. Finally you then go out and spend it somewhere.
Then, if the next recipient follows suit by registering the bill and spending it, you can sit back and watch the money's travels.
If someone else has registered your bill, you get a list of all the cities/communities the bill has gone through before it ended up in your hands. You'll find out the distance it traveled and how long overall it took from its point of origin into your hands (which you might want to wash after you touch such well-traveled money).
If you're the first person to register the bill, you start the list that future owners will pull up when they run across your dollar. Frequent visitors can build up a George Score, which shows the popularity of all the bills you've submitted. At the site, you also can shop for George merchandise.
Before you ask "Hey, does Where's George encourage defacing federal currency?" the creators say they've checked with the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and the answer is that a bill is considered defaced only when it can't be recognized as valid currency anymore. So writing "wheresgeorge.com" in the margins may be OK. Go ahead and color in a wig while you're at it.
Canadian fans are in luck as well – the U.S. site has grown so popular that it led to the creation of Where's Willy, at www.whereswilly.com to track your paper currency from the Great White North.
BookCrossing
Other Internet companies are getting into the act of offering something that has real world components. For example, Bookcrossing.com bills itself as a combined book swap, book club, and book preview service.
The concept is initially similar to Where's George. You take a book that you own, register it with the site, write the Web site name on or in it, and let the book loose on the world.
While the easiest way to release a greenback into the wild is to spend it, the BookCrossing people encourage you to find creative ways of passing your book on, such as leaving it on a bench or the bus, the restaurant table, or even handing it to a friend. Somehow the book should end up in someone else's hands, or at least not be thrown out or put in a lost in found.
The new owner is encouraged to register themselves and report the book's new home, and start the process all over again. Since 2001, the site claims a 25 percent "Return" rate, and said more than 340,000 people have passed books around the world.
Phototag
Here are two more creative sites. Phototag.com uses the same "catch and release" formula as BookCrossing, but in this case, the site supplies the items – disposable cameras -- rather than letting users offer up their own books or bucks.
According to Phototag, at any time, there are 40 cameras let loose on the world. Each one is named after a different animal. If you find one, you're asked to snap just one picture of your life, register at the site to let the site owners and any curious visitors know it's been discovered, and which camera it is. Then, pass the camera on to someone else or leave it somewhere to be discovered.
Once the final frame is taken, the current owner is asked to use the (hopefully still accompanying) postage and return it in the mail. If all goes well, the site folks in Bloomington, Indiana develop the roll of photos and post all the pictures so you and others can see the camera's trip.
The site also includes information about how many cameras have known locations, which ones are still at large, and where and when they were last seen. The returned ones include details on how far they traveled before coming home.
Geocaching
Then, there is geocaching, which is in a category all its own. The idea here is that someone has hidden an object somewhere in the world, and will tell its very specific location on the www.geocaching.com site.
The fun begins in figuring out how to get there. You need a handheld Global Positioning Satellite device, which tells you your exact coordinates on the earth. To find the treasure, all you have to do is match your coordinates up with the treasure's coordinates. Finding the treasure can be a challenge when the creator places the geocache in the middle of a bunch of rocks or in a forest or on top of a big hill.
Often, the treasure is silly, like a doll or a note. But longtime geocachers say it's not about what they find, it's how they find it. Actually, in most hunts, a finder is supposed to leave everything behind for someone else, or in some cases, add their own treasure for future finders.
Since there are currently more than 152,800 active caches in 214 counties, there's always something new to look for. The site, and related sites, offer information on hunts in specific communities, along with tips on how to set up your own hunt for your friends or local residents to try out.
Virtual Fusion
Because all of these sites claim to be quite popular, a lot of Internet users seem to be interested in the fusion of real and virtual worlds. If you are bored with searching, try going to one of these sites and embarking on a new hobby.
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