The markets are still tumultuous, and most of us financial pundits are kept busy providing either commentary about the colossal lack of judgment on behalf of Wall Street and the federal government, or giving people advice on how to weather the financial storm. I’ve already discussed some of the storm-weathering steps you can take, but this time around I’m going to go a step further and discuss how you can take advantage of the market-wide decline in stock prices.

Invest now? Are you Crazy?

With the advent of Google's (GOOG) foray into Web browsers with Google Chrome, we have yet another contender for the title of Web Browser King. If you're not a die-hard web user this may not seem like a great title. Some Web browsers are better than others, yes, but these browsers are free anyway, so what's the point if one is more popular than another. Believe it or not, the business of Web browsers is pretty important, not to mention occasionally profitable. The popular websites of today may also be the operating systems of tomorrow.

Obligatory History Lesson

Before I continue, though, let me cover briefly how web browser companies make money. While they may be free to the user, companies who want to use the browser's source code will have to pay for that privilege. The best example of this is Opera, a little-known web browser that concentrates on selling its small screen browsers to companies that make cell phones, consoles and handhelds. It does extremely well profit-wise with this strategy, well enough to make its personal computer browser available free of charge.

Trying to select stocks from companies that got caught up in the housing crisis is a lot like trying to determine what can be salvaged from a house fire. You might find something worth saving, but it'll take some time and work. For investors, the work consists of finding something worth saving.

Depots at a Lowe Point

The first stocks I'd like to point out are not, oddly enough, bank stocks. Let's start with companies such as Home Depot (HD) and Lowe's (LOW), the places that make their living out of selling building materials. As you might expect, 2008 has not been kind to these companies.