It’s easy to get lost in a crowd of 37,000 people, but a Web site called The University of Info launched yesterday with the goal of making the UA seem a little bit smaller.

Jared Horowitz, a regional development senior, said after being at the UA for four years he wanted to improve student relations, so he created a Web site for students to stay connected.

The site, www.UofInfo.com is divided into nine categories: restaurants, nightlife, shopping, living, transportation, healthcare, everyday needs, recreational activities, and places for visitors.

The site also contains a photo gallery, a classifieds section, coupons, a forum and top ten clicks of the week.

The forum allows students to post questions or comments about entertainment, academics, news or create their own topics.

Unlike Craigslist, Horowitz said, students can safely buy and sell items since the site requires a UA e-mail address to access certain options.

“”You know it’s legit,”” he said.

Horowitz

said the site, which cost “”a couple thousand dollars”” to create, wasn’t as pricey as he expected, since hedesigned it all himself.

The site generates its revenue from businesses advertisements.

On its first day, the site had 50 to 60 users, but Horowitz hopes to see that figure increase in the next few months.

Although only available at the UA now, the site will expand to 25 other universities by the fall, including ASU, Johns Hopkins, Cornell, and New York University.

“”The main goal is to improve college life, take the stress off,”” Horowitz said. “”If you have a question, you have an answer waiting for you from another student, if you want to sell something, you can … you can get to any restaurant in less than three clicks, it’s convenient.””

The site is free for anyone with a UA e-mail address.

Although the site was launched a month late, Horowitz said February may hold some luck for his Web site, noting that both Facebook and YouTube launched in February of 2004 and 2005, respectively.

-Compiled from staff reports