Your Technology Jul. 26, 1999

PORTAL FOR PEEWEES Navigating the Net is tough enough when you can read and do long division. Imagine what a first-grader faces. A new search site designed for young children ALFY.com aims to make the Web more kid friendly. Instead of typing words, users search by clicking on pictures. They then follow a link to one of the 4,000 selected sites. Even the category labels are kid-centric: Looking for biology info? Try the animal icon.

SPACING OUT The name Lou Dobbs conjures up images of markets, mutual funds and money–loads of it. And that’s just the kind of stuff you’d expect to see on the website that the cnn Moneyline anchor is launching this week. But Dobbs, founder of the CNNfn network and perhaps the most marketable name in financial news, is pursuing a project of another world entirely. His site, space.com is about the cosmos, not cash, reflecting his interest in space. Sounds swell, but will it fly financially? Over to you, Lou…

PAC ATTACK Wanna emulate the Florida man who just made history by getting the world’s first perfect score in a Pac-Man game? Or are you simply nostalgic for youthful days spent gobbling ghosts at the arcade? If so, check out a 20th-anniversary Pac-Man game for the Sony PlayStation that will hit stores this fall. You can steer Pac-Man through six 3-D worlds, dodging volcanic mines, aliens and crazed clowns. And old-timers needn’t feel left out. They can play in “classic mode,” chasing Pinky, Inky, Blinky and Clyde through the original 2-D mazes.

–By Rebecca Winters