Ask a Geek

Three words: Reliability, flexibility, simplicity. No matter what, you want a Web host that never goes offline, so make sure it guarantees uninterrupted uptime. Beyond that, you’ll first need to identify the features you want your site to have. If all you require is yourname.com and an easy way to post text and images, try a free service like Wordpress.com. It offers automated site design, a choice of 76 themes, and the ability to add and edit pages with the click of a button.

You can. And now that Google has launched its Google Voice service (google.com/voice), it’s free. At press time, the service was invitation-only, but when it becomes more widely available, here’s how it will work: You get a new universal phone number with your choice of area code, along with a Web-based inbox to manage your voicemail, text messages and call history.

One word: performance. If you’re a gamer, a designer or a movie lover, you’ll need a full-fledged laptop. Even low-end models like the $550 Gateway MD have large screens and feature fast processors and lots of memory that let you easily run multiple programs or powerful apps like Photoshop. To get fast enough graphics for Blu-ray movies or games, though, your starting price will go up.

Good news for the busy and the impatient: It’s easy to speed up your start-up. PC users can boot up within 15 seconds using new “instant-on” Linux software like Presto ($20) and Phoenix’s alternative OS, HyperSpace ($40 per year), both of which bypass Windows at start-up while still offering access to e-mail and other frequently used programs.

There are a lot more clips out there than what turns up using YouTube's keyword-search function. On sites such as Hulu.com, you can watch free TV shows and movies. And "vertical content" Web sites focus on single subjects, whether bird-watching or extreme sports.

Yes indeed. The sticker shock you're experiencing usually does translate to better performance. The priciest TVs are full-HD 1080p (the highest resolution). Less-expensive 720p sets still deliver an outstanding picture, and most high-def TV service is 720p or 1080i, but 1080p is your best bet for watching Blu-ray movies and for smoother up-close viewing. Telltale measurements such as contrast ratio (the range of bright to dark colors — look for at least 3,000:1) and the refresh rate (which reduces motion blur) can also improve demonstrably as the price increases. A 60-hertz refresh rate is common, but 120 hertz provides smoother fast-action rendering for sports.

Yes, and there are lots of ways they can do it. Web pages are a flexible platform for exchanging information, but that also means it can be easy to track what you’re looking at on them. The first method is through third-party content. Say Company A is an advertising or tracking firm. When you visit sites that display A’s ads or use A to track their visitors, A can identify your browser and see what pages you visit on those sites (and more).

Google's index reached a trillion pages last year, but that doesn't mean it (or other large search engines, like Yahoo) will always understand the exact intent of your search and yield results that have the information you really want.

It’s a fine time to ditch paper for good and move to an all e-mail- and SMS-based system. Start with Google’s online calendar (google.com/calendar), which lets you set up multiple alerts for one event—for example, a text message one week before Mother’s Day, then another the day before in case you still managed to put off sending flowers. New event pop up while you’re away from a computer? Add it to GCal from your cellphone by texting the event details to GVENT (48368).

The dreaded lost file syndrome: You know that somewhere on your hard drive, the file you seek is happily sitting, awaiting you. But you just can't find it, and you can't even remember the name of it.

Now what?