Web Week

By PETER SINCLAIR

Oxford Ancestors Matriline:
Molecular biology offers a fascinating new resource which can trace the maternal lineage of almost anyone of European ancestry back to one of 7 women who lived many thousands of years ago (mitochondrial DNA passes unchanged from mother to child). With the click of a mouse, a mouth-swab and a cheque for £120 or $US180 you can trace your own roots back to one of these "7 daughters of Eve." Coming soon: MaleMatch, to establish or disprove paternal links between individuals.

Thebig50:

A new online magazine, directory and guide for silver surfers including information on health and holidays plus articles, pictures and shopper's guide.

Napigator: Tired of trying, and failing, to connect to a file-sharer? Napigator brings you an up-to-date status report on various networks, including Napster (while it lasts) and the new Opennap Network, with real-time server statistics and ping-times (for the power-user). Instead of a pre-selected server, you make the decision on which one to connect to based on user-numbers, files, sizes, and network lag.

Netscape: A redesigned website to coincide with the debut of (yet another) beta version of the new Netscape browser. Netscape 6.0 (Preview 3) will feature a new look but not many new features; development was mostly aimed at enhancing stability and performance.