JumpStart Explorers from Knowledge Adventure and AddWeb Website Promoter Version 4.0 from CyberspaceHQ, LLC
JumpStart Explorers from Knowledge Adventure
This year, Knowledge Adventure has introduced several new educational games to their line of highly acclaimed educational software products for kids. JumpStart Explorers is one of their latest and greatest entries for kids ages 5 to 8 who are ready to explore the earth and learn some world history while having fun on the computer. You'll find great graphics, music and a variety of sound effects to help make your educational play enjoyable.
Kids, and adults, will participate in five very exciting expeditions and meet some famous people in history. You'll sail to Asia with Marco Polo to explore ancient China, visit the Egyptian pyramids with King Tut, travel to the South Pole by dogsled, search for the lost civilization of the Inca in Peru and discover America with the Pilgrims. Before you begin your journey, you'll want to printout a map of the world used to track your progress.
After a quick installation, you'll enjoy a short 3-D video featuring the 3-D characters CJ Frog and Edison Firefly who will request your help finding the missing Tadpoles (CJ's nieces and nephews). You'll travel to five different historic regions using the time machine and play lots of educational activities while you earn points redeemable for stickers. Print the stickers to place on your world map. Before you leave on your trip through time, you'll need fuel up by moving the correct time cards into a slot on your time machine. When you've added enough fuel, you're ready to ride. Just pull the lever and you're on your way.
Becky, my 6-year-old daughter, had fun on her virtual trip to Ancient Egypt (around the year 1359 BC) complements of Knowledge Adventure. Her first stop on the site-seeing tour (while in search of the Tadpoles) was the great Pyramid at Gaza where she had fun re-designing the head of the Sphinx. Becky said she enjoyed the songs the Tadpoles sing when you find them, especially the song in China.
Other activities include playing music videos for each region depicting historical events from the past, making a noisemaker used to celebrate the Chinese New Year and other printable crafts and games. More celebrations are celebrated in the different periods. Also, kids will play several educational games including a mapping activity after choosing their destination and location-specific maze games.
JumpStart Explorers has a street price $19.99 and will run on any multimedia PC, 233 MHz Pentium or faster (recommended) with Windows 95/98/NT 4/2000/Me, with 64 MB RAM and a 16X CD-ROM drive. It will also run on a Macintosh G3 233 MHZ or faster, OS 8.1 or higher, with 64 MB RAM and a 24X CD-ROM drive.
AddWeb Website Promoter Version 4.0 from Cyberspace Headquarters, LLC
AddWeb Website Promoter Version 4.0 is the latest and greatest version of an excellent Website promotion tool from Cyberspace Headquarters, LLC, I originally reviewed in my November 1999 column. Just when I thought I found the ultimate Web site promotion tool with AddWeb 3, AddWeb 4 was released with more great features in a completely new program and not just an upgrade. With AddWeb 4.0 you can submit to over 500,000 sites, analyze your site for maximum search engine positioning, get live statistics on your Web traffic, build doorway pages for more exposure and track your page ranking in the major search engines, to mention the key features.
Three versions are available: The Deluxe edition is recommended for the small company with a single Web site, at $69.99. The Platinum edition is recommended for the medium size Web site with no more than 10 URLs, at $149.99. The Professional edition is recommended for the large company and can handle unlimited URLs, at $299.99. If you own AddWeb 3.0, you may upgrade to AddWeb 4.0 for a reduced price.
AddWeb 4.0 is very easy to setup and use. Enter your site information, select the search engines, pick your categories, enter your keywords, enter your SMTP server and e-mail address, and you're ready to go. It includes a very good Windows help file, indexed with lots of topics, a built-in tutorial, 6 articles to read covering Web site submissions, an excellent submission reporting feature and more help direct from the Cyberspace Headquarters Web site. Also, each time you run the program you may be alerted to install their free program and search engine updates, if available. And, don't forget to subscribe to their free newsletter for some great tips on promoting your site.
Here's a rundown of what you can do from the AddWeb 4.0 Professional menu.
Profile Setup
You'll begin here by entering your page statistics, then select your site category, pick your search engines, enter keywords, select the type of page reporting and enter your FTP settings.
Page Advisor
Click Page Advisor to analyze your Web site. Two types of analysis are available. Select General Analysis to compare your site with the top-ranking sites on several of the popular search engines like AltaVista, Excite and Yahoo. Choose Advanced Analysis to compare your site against the highest ranked listings for one particular search engine.
Page Builder Plus
Use this feature to build doorway pages for improved search engine positioning.
Submission
When you've completed your profile and selected your search engines, you start your submission from this menu.
SiteStats Live!
SiteStats Live! allows you to track your Website traffic through Cyberspace Headquarter's server. It offers lots of statistics including search engine and keywords used, IP address, visitor's location, Web browser and operating system, hits by page and more.
Rank Check
This feature will allow you to quickly check your site's ranking on 46 of the popular search engines.
Internet Search
Search the popular search engines right from AddWeb 4.0
Scheduling
Use the scheduler to schedule submissions and page rankings when you're away from the computer.
FTP Upload
Use FTP Upload to send files to your Web server. It supports Microsoft's FrontPage interface.
Update System
Each time you run AddWeb 4.0 it checks the Cyberspace Headquarters Web site for new updates. If available, updates may be installed immediately, or at another time.
This is a great product at a great price (starting at $69.99). It's well designed and easy to use, with excellent reporting features and clear documentation (that's important to me). If you need to promote your Web site, then Addweb 4.0 is the right tool for the right job.
AddWeb Website Promoter Version 4.0 from Cyberspace Headquarters, LLC, runs on any multimedia PC with a Pentium processor running Windows 95/Windows 98/2000 or NT4 (or better). Click for more information or to order.
If you'd like to try before you buy, you can download an actual working demo limited to 10 major search engine with a total of 15 submissions and 15 site rankings.
Howard Berenbon
Software Companies Mentioned
Cyberspace Headquarters, LLC
22048 Sherman Way, Suite 106
Canoga Park, CA. 91303
Phone: 818-593-4900
Knowledge Adventure, Inc.
19840 Pioneer Avenue
Torrance, CA 90503
Phone: 1-800-545-7677
URL: knowledgeadventure.com
