Services on the Internet

Cologne is still quite far away from being a virtual metropolis; comparing the internet services of 25 German cities, the business magazine Impulse positioned Cologne to No. 22. Nevertheless, most of the offices and authorities are now represented on the Web and provide information about their work, their office hours, and important facts and figures.

Car drivers can choose their ideal registration number via the Internet and have it reserved for seven days. They buy the number plates before the car is actually registered as they have already printed out the necessary authorisation on their home computer beforehand. They are allowed to drive to the registration office with the new plates.

Public tenders

Since a few years the city of Cologne publishes all invitations for tenders on its website, sorted for area of business, location, period, and other keywords. This includes purchases from 50,000 Euro for construction projects and from 200,000 Euro for other acquisitions and services.

Courses and books

Those who are seeking further education can find out everything about the content and requirements of the courses offered by the Adult Further Education Centre in Cologne by Internet. The desired course can then be booked directly in the Web, but only if there are really places still available.
The 4 most extensive libraries in Cologne can be searched by a combined internet catalog providing more than 6 Million books, CDs, and videos.

Virtual Market Places

Looking for companies, products, or bargains? The online market places may help. Competing the traditional Yellow Pages of Deutsche Telekom, Yellow Map and Google Maps provide geographically oriented search engines and present their results directly in a map.
Thousands classified ads from Greater Cologne can be found on markt.de and kalaydo.de, established by the regional dailies. Making a bid at an Ebay auctions in Cologne and Bonn may have its benefits: You can have a look at the goods before spending your money.