Pinpointer is the way to discover content on the Web that you're not already familiar with via the mass media.

Pinpointer shows everything by categories, so you know up front how many matches you'll get. (That's what the number to the right of the category is.)

You don't need to know how our categories are structured to go straight to the type of material you're looking for.

Partial typing: If you're looking for, say, landscape paintings, just type in "land", click on the Jump button, and you'll see a list of categories containing those characters.

Drilldown: Whenever a plus sign (+) appears to the left of a category, it means there are subcategories you can drill down into. To do this, click on the category, then click on the More Specific button (the one with an icon that that looks like the top of an organization chart).

Combining both methods: The best way to use Pinpointer is to use partial typing combined with drilldowns. For example, you might want medical information about the disease of osteomyelitis, but you couldn't possibly know in advance how our categories are structured (and you might not know how to even spell the disease). Just type in a portion of the name, like "osteo", and click on Jump. You'll see "osteomyelitis" among the various other categories that contain the letters "osteo". Then click on the More Specific button, and you'll see that you can choose among symptoms of the disease, its treatment, the genetic factors associated with it, etc.

Right Side: Say Whose Taste You Trust (Optional)

One of the biggest advantages of Pinpointer is that you never have to wade through a lot of material that's completely out of synch with your own personal tastes. Just use the Guides section to the right.

If you already know a guide whose tastes are in line with yours, there's a partial typing function to get you right to that guide.

Otherwise, click the Show All button. You'll see all the people who have made recommendations in the category you've picked, along with the number of items they've recommended, arranged in order of their popularity.

To discover which recommenders best match your own individual tastes, whenever you come across an item you especially like, make a mental note of who recommended it.