INTERNET INSITE: Find like-minded people, locally

SITE: http://www.meetup.com

Do you have an interest? A hobby? Or something you just love to talk about? Then you are a candidate for Meetup.com, a site that sets up face-to-face meetings of like-minded people. Meetup boasts over 54,000 groups across the country on every topic from scrapbooking to wrestling.

There are several ways to approach meetup, the first and most common is to search by topic. Go Meetup's search page (http://www.meetup.com/topics/) and browse the groups by topic.

But let's say you're really into golf, which isn't listed in topics. Just type golf into the search box in the upper-right hand corner of the screen and you will get a list of golf Meetups that you can join.

The other option for you is to start your own group on whatever the topic. Let's say you have a localized political interest. Go to Meetup's start up page (http://www.meetup.com/create/?ic=sn1), follow the on-screen directions and your group will be posted. You can advertise the group yourself to friends and family but the group will also be available to the world through the site.

One note, Meetup is free for people to use, browse, and join groups. The only charge is for organizers, who pay about $15/month to run a group.

The thing that amazed me about me about Meetup is the enormous breadth of topics on the site. Some of the more interesting groups I found include: Chihuahuas, Knitting, Dungeons and Dragons, Pagans and Witches Singles, and the Artificial Intelligence Group.