Pollen.com — 'Enter your ZIP code and get your free allergy forecast'

We like free.

Here's Nancy Matsumoto's "Quick Fix" feature from today's Wall Street Journal about the site and several companions.

Getting Pollen Counts

Problem: You suffer from allergies and want data on pollen conditions at or far from home.

Solution: Pollen.com offers free, two-day email alerts for U.S. locations according to ZIP Codes. Alerts are triggered whenever pollen levels in a ZIP Code reach 4.0 or above on a scale of 0 to 12. You also can see longer, four-day allergy forecasts. Free PC applications called Yahoo Widgets and Google Gadgets allow monitoring of local pollen activity using Yahoo or Google calendars on your computer desktop. Enter a ZIP Code at Pollen.com's sister site, www.pollenlibrary.com, to learn about the pollen-producing trees, grasses and weeds in your county. The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology's site, www.aaaai.org/nab/index.cfm (click on "pollen counts") runs more than 70 pollen-counting stations in the U.S., Canada and Argentina, for which you can get email alerts. For pollen counts in Europe, try www.polleninfo.org, for all-English reports. The site includes links to pollen sites outside of Europe, though not all of them have good English translations.