wiseGEEK: clear answers for common questions

Home and Garden

Issues related to your home and everything around it.

Technological innovations seem to trickle down and find their way into our lives either directly or indirectly. We cover all those gadgets that you fumble around with each day, as well as other technologies that may not be so ubiquitous.

Manufacturing and Industry

Manufacturing techniques and industrial technologies.

Adult Education and Training

Higher education, continuing education, technical and trade schools, job training and other adult education information.

Health and Wellness

Diseases, conditions, cures, fitness and other health-related matters.

Internet and Computers

Information technology is altering all of our lives; in this section we address search engines, keyboards, storage, networks, security, auctions etc.

Finance and Investing

Answers to your questions about personal finance and investing.

Science and Engineering

Scientific research and the associated breakthroughs are fueling modern life with new innovations and ways of viewing the world.

Cars Boats and Airplanes

Cars, boats, planes and trains- they're everywhere! We cover all sorts of topics related to the vehicles that we use to transport our possessions and ourselves.

Business and Economy

Business, economics and other questions related to money.

Sports and Hobbies

Answers relating to sports, hobbies and other pastimes.

Food and Cooking

All about food, cooking and cuisines.

Travel and Entertainment

Vacations, cruises, and all sorts of ways to relax and enjoy yourself.

Art and Music

Film, poetry, architecture, sculpture, painting and all sorts of music.

People

Information about all sorts of important people, past and present.

The World

World politics, geography, country statistics and the environment. We also provide an extensive collection of maps.

Animals and the Environment

Everything about the natural world around us

The United States

The history, places and economy of America.

Language and The Humanities

We tackle questions regarding figures-of-speech, philosophy, logic and language.

History and Government

Wars, historical figures and events that have shaped our lives.

Crafts and Do-it-Yourself

Information about tools, materials, crafts and do-it-yourself projects.

Miscellaneous

The repository of our answers that do not seem to fit in one of our other categories.

blog

30 September 2009: We just posted our 50,000th article!
4 May 2009: We just passed the 40,000 article mark! It took our growing team about five and a half months to complete the most recent 10,000 articles; we are working hard to publish the next 10,000 in even less time.
22 March 2009: The economy is shifting under our feet; old industries are fading and new ones are moving in to take their place. Many people are going back to school and accordingly, we are launching a new category called Adult Education and Training. There are already hundreds of articles there, and we intend to add many more in the near future.
5 January 2009: Thank you to our writers, editors, researchers and visitors for making 2008 another record year. We added over 12,000 articles and served over 62,000,000 visitors! We look forward to answering even more common questions in 2009.
15 December 2008: wiseGEEK focuses on answers for common questions, but what if you have a not-so-common question? Today we are pleased to announce snippets.com, our latest project to help you get answers for your more informal or obscure inquiries. It is still a little rough around the edges, but feel free to join in by answering an existing question or asking your own.
4 December 2008: We have just launched a new wiseGEEK homepage to better illustrate the breadth of our questions-and-answers. Let us know what you think!
21 November 2008: Today, we are proud to announce that we published our 30,000th article! In addition, we are currently expanding the wiseGEEK team to be able to answer even more of your questions; we should reach the next milestone in no time.
24 August 2008: The 2008 Olympics concluded today in Beijing with the U.S. edging China in total medals won, but China ruled in total gold medals. The results could have been drastically different; if the former Soviet Union did not dissolve into 15 separate countries, it would have dominated the overall medal count.
15 July 2008: Our writers keep chugging along - today we reached our 25,000th article! As always, you can keep an eye on our article count above the search box on our homepage.
25 May 2008: At the end of last year, we conducted an experiment where we allowed wiseGEEK visitors to comment on articles on the site. The experiment was a great success, and now we are getting thousands and thousands of insightful comments from users like you. You can see our discussions by scrolling to the bottom of any article page, or you browse through our list of the most recent wiseGEEK discussion posts. If you have something to add to any discussion, we welcome and appreciate your contributions!
23 April 2008: We have arranged some special collections of articles that are subsets of our regular categories. For example, we have collections of articles on pregnancy, loans and home medical remedies.
17 February 2008: We have just posted an article that confirms that the US Border Patrol (a division of the Department of Homeland Security) has recruited Border Patrol agents with ads in a hunting magazine. This isn't about hunting, and its not about recruiting Border Agents; this is notable because some people think that a hunting magazine is an inappropriate outlet for recruiting for this type of job.
28 January 2008: Today we added the 20,000th article to wiseGEEK! We crossed the 10,000 barrier in March of 2007. You can keep track of the progress by looking above the search box on our homepage.
3 January 2008: We would like to thank the 29 million people who visited wiseGEEK in 2007. We doubled our size by adding over 10,000 new articles, and also introduced wiseGEEK discussions which is becoming increasingly popular. There are several new features in the works; 2008 should be quite exciting!
19 July 2007: The CocaCola Company owns cocacola.com and McDonalds Corp owns mcdonalds.com - we wanted to see if all professional sports teams own the domains for their team names. The results are pretty surprising, especially the differences in domain ownership between leagues.
16 July 2007: How to get the most out of an all-you-can-eat buffet.
6 June 2007: With our easy movie review tool, you can compare your personal movie reviews with the movie reviews of some of the most prolific critics. You’ll quickly know who's reviews to trust so you can easily find the movies you will love.
8 May 2007: Why do gas prices end with 9/10ths of a cent? The extra money earned because of this technique is surprising. What would happen if gas prices were quietly increased to 99/100ths of a cent?
27 April 2007: If you ever need to determine the average color in a photograph, simply upload your image into our Average Color Tool.
26 April 2007: Our analysis of whether fruit-sellers really do put the best looking fruit on top.
23 April 2007: If you ever try using Digg.com and discover that it is a little slow, try our Digg Navigation Firefox Extension.
17 April 2007: We have just posted a list of 30 tips to make your offline life a little easier.
7 April 2007: Tax season has us thinking about taxes. Aside from the complexity, one of the annoying things about making the payment is that the money gets lumped into the general fund, and you can't know exactly where it will be spent. With Personal Tax Earmarking, you would be able to earmark specific parts of the budget so you knew specifically where your money would be spent.
14 March 2007: To celebrate the posting of our 10,000th article, we are inviting the public to submit their own articles into the wiseGEEK Writing Contest. There are $10,000 in cash prizes! We are sure that every reader has something to contribute, so why not spend a little time and give it a try?
11 February 2007: Home Institute is a great website for detailed information about home improvement.
16 January 2007: We love air hockey, but we wanted to see how the game would work if it was played on real ice. Building the table was rather easy and the results were surprising. We also provide instructions so you can build a table ice hockey game yourself.
3 January 2007: We took a large set of pictures of 200 Calories of various foods. With this side-by-side comparison, you can plainly see that for 200 calories you can get significantly more of some foods than others.
31 December 2006: At wiseGEEK we focus on providing clear answers to common questions. Every once in awhile, however, we come across something that doesn't fit into our question-and-answer format - we will use this space for such cases. We will also post here about wiseGEEK news and updates.