Want some quick information on your neighborhood? Or maybe on the area you will be moving to soon? Thinking of investing? Yahoo! has a quick and easy spot to get some preliminary demographic information without needing a PhD in advanced mathematics!

Just enter your zip code or a street address and, Shazam! --- in two seconds you will have a neighborhood profile that will tell you a lot about the folks who live there. What they earn, level of education, married or single, the cost of living and even the “quality of life”.

Find and track airline flights

Want to check the progress of your flight or that of a family member or friend? Try Flightview.com, another useful, easy to use tool. This one is a “two-trick pony”!

First you can enter any flight number by airline and instantly determine the flight status. Has it left? When is it scheduled to arrive? You even get a map of its route showing the plane at the current location with its speed and altitude.

Then if you don’t know the flight number you can just enter the departure city, destination and time frame and these smart folks list all flights scheduled in that time frame, and the status of each.

Find government resources

Ever tried to wade through the maze of State or Federal bureaucracy? Well, finally someone has done something about it ---the government!

About a year ago the U.S.General Services Administration created the Office of FirstGov, charged with accelerating the move to electronic government. Through this powerful site these folks highlight information and services that agencies offer electronically and manage this official U.S. Internet gateway to government services at all levels.

FirstGov.com currently contains 47 million pages of government information, services, and on-line transactions all organized so you will think you are at Yahoo! You will find a powerful search engine that searches every word of just about every U.S. government document in a quarter of a second or less. You will also find a topical index, on-line transactions, links to state and local government and other tools set up so you don't have to know the name of the government agency to get the information you want anytime you want it.

You'll find it hard to believe that your tax dollars are hard at work here -- looks too easy!

Published: October 9, 2001

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

John M. "Jack" Peckham is the Executive Director of REcyber.com (the Real Estate CyberSpace Society). In that capacity he oversees the development and delivery of the latest up to the minute Real Estate Cyberspace tools, strategies, networking structures and services that the Society provides its members to leverage their effectiveness, visibility, professionalism and earnings. As host of Real Estate CyberSpace Radio, he provides over 40 hours of programming to help listeners integrate the power of the Internet into their daily business lives. He is the author of several real estate books published by Prentice Hall and Harcourt Brace Jovanovich including his latest Master Guide to Income Property Brokerage from Wiley Publishing. A columnist for the Boston Herald for nine years, his syndicated columns have appeared in over 100 papers nationwide. Jack loves to sell real estate has been involved directly in the sale of over one billion dollars in Real Estate. Today he sells in his jeans and fuzzy slippers as a one-man shop and has closed over $40,000,000 in sales on the Internet recently in 20% of his working time. The balance he spends directing the affairs of the 10,000 member Real Estate CyberSpace Society. The Society awards the RECS (Real Estate CyberSpace Specialist) Designation to members based on the current criteria. He served as Chairman of the Strategic Planning Committee for the National Association of Realtors (NAR), is a Past President of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors and has been honored as the Massachusetts State Realtor of the Year. You can reach Jack at or by calling 617-523-4441.