www.disney.com

There has always been a strange double-image to Disney. It might be the cuddly creator of children’s fantasies, but it is also a hard-nosed corporate leviathan that approaches fun as just another business opportunity.

Disney’s online service reflects this, with an attractive, professional free site packed with games, story books, pictures and songs. It is an unabashed marketing exercise, but anyone with a lingering affection for Disney’s characters will find plenty here to please.

The Disney site is also a good way of learning to use the Net. Everything is well laid out, there is a rich combination of text, images, animation, sound and video, and with cartoon celebrities from Bambi to Pocahontas guiding the way, there is a sense of instant familiarity.