Websites
Recommended by Users, to Help you find Anything and
Everything on the Net

I only include sites that have been
checked and recommended. If a site doesn’t come up to
scratch, please tell me so I can keep this list up to
date. New addresses are marked *. The page is designed so
that you can easily make it your browser’s homepage

  1. Favourite Searchers
  2. Lists, Groups and Experts
  3. Other Search Facilities –
    Directories & Guides, Search Engines, Search
    Facilities, Image/Non-Text, Multiple and People
    Searchers
  4. Subject Guides and
    Libraries & Children’s Resources
  5. Arts/Humanities
  6. Award Providers
  7. General Texts
  8. Media Archives
  9. Movies
  10. News
  11. Ready Reference – Facts
    & Data, General, Literary & Publishing, and
    World
  12. Academia
  13. Law, Crime, Politics, Government
  14. Science,GeneralKnowlege, Computer and Internet
  15. Writers Resources

Disclaimer: No guarantee
is given that any URLs are still operative, or are any
use, or that any information supplied is accurate. In
fact we take no responsibility whatsoever for anything at
all, so it’s on your own head for good or ill.

All suggestions and
comments are welcome. If sending information on an
existing link, please include the link’s title in the
FAQ as well as the address and any other information
that you feel will be useful. If suggesting a new link,
then I generally only include sites that have a wide
range, and usually only those which compile links to
other sites or will in some other way help Internet
searchers. Click here.

Enjoy!

Return to the FAQ Home page

Favourite Searchers

  • Alta Vista – Still very good- will search for images, audio, video
  • Best Private Search Engines – popular search engines like Google and Bing track your searches and other online activity. Comparitech list the best private search engines to consider as alternatives
  • Britannica – run by those encyclopedia people, was
    subscription only, then free, now subscription again –
    will they ever make up their minds? Still good value
    if you can afford it, but check out the free
    alternatives too
  • Galaxy –
    excellent directory
  • Google – the market leader for most searches –
    simple, functional and fast
  • Theinfo.com – excellent multi-search site
  • Profusion
    very good metasearch engine which
    combines results (saving duplication) and can also
    check links are still live
  • SearchSpaniel – one of the very
    best multi-search sites
  • Wikipedia
    – free encyclopedia in many languages: Wikipedia works
    by allowing anyone who wants to correct an entry,
    which with millions of users works remarkably well.
  • Yahoo
    Directory     – Sometimes
    great, sometimes not

Lists, Groups and
Experts

  • Ask An Expert
  • FYI – WGA list of
    experts on numerous subjects – mostly phone and
    snail-mail. US contacts only
  • Google
    – use Google too for searching newsgroups
  • Infinite Ink: Finding FAQs.
  • InternetFAQ Archives- excellent archive of FAQs (easy
    to search and up to date!!)
  • KnowPost – real human beings guide the lost on the
    Information Superhighway
  • LISTSERV list reference
  • Listz – find the mailing list you want out of
    85,000
  • Profnet:FindingExperts to Answer Questions
  • Publicly accessible mailing lists
  • Remarq – directory/search engine for discussion
    groups gives star ratings to newsgroups and discussion
    topics
  • Supernews – fast search facility for newsgroups,
    includes ability to read binary files
  • Topica – very large directory and search engine
    allows you to find suitable mailing lists or even
    follow specific discussion topics on-line
  • Windweaver Mailing List Links


Other Directories, Search Engines,
Search Facilities, Image/Non-Text and Multiple
Searchers.

Directories

  • About.com – value-added directory by experts on all
    subjects
  • Clearinghouse – one of the original value-added
    directories, rates links for quality (no longer
    actively maintained but still valuable)
  • DMOZ Open
    Directory     – selective –
    sites evaluated by expert volunteers (you too could
    sign up in your field of expertise)
  • WebRings – sites linked by topic for easy browsing

Search Engines

Search Facilities

Image and Other Non-Text Search Resources

  • Ditto
    – image searcher
  • FindSounds.com
    – search engine for finding sound effects and sample
    sounds on the Web
  • Google
    – and Google can also search for images – is there no
    end to its abilities?
  • ImageFinder –
    searches for various kinds of pictures
  • Image
    Surfer     – search for images
    by categories or keywords, the results are given in
    thumbnail image form
  • Webshots
    – impressive image search engine

Multiple
Searchers (with Multi- and Meta- Search Engines)

  • Aliweb: SearchForm
  • Debriefing – efficient, removes duplicates, English and
    French
  • Dogpile – impressively fast, and you can set a
    maximum search time, eg: 20 secs
  • Freeality – includes some less usual search sites
  • InternetSleuth – masses of
    categories
  • IPL – grades the
    top search engines by their strengths and weaknesses
  • IxQuick
    – highly recommended metaengine
  • Langenberg – a vast multitude of categories, from
    government to finding people, maps to cooking,
    encyclopedia to translation
  • MetaCrawler – search across multiple engines at once
  • OnlineSpy – from general web searching to song lyrics,
    pictures, newsgroup postings and maps (not just USA!)

People
Finding and Other Miscellaneous Searchers

  • All-In-One/People
    – a number of people-searchers on one page
  • Ancestry.com – good for genealogical research and looking
    up details on dead Americans
  • Background checks.org – People Search, Public Records,
    Reverse Phone Lookup and more (USA only)
  • Bigfoot – look up email addresses, but by no means
    all-embracing
  • Infospace – reverse telephone lookup, address and
    email
  • Langenberg – find a person by a variety of email search
    sites
  • PeopleSearch – mostly fee-paid services but also some
    good free multi-search facilities to use
  • Vservers Domain Check – domain names, what’s taken and who’s
    behind them

Arts/Humanities

Award Providers:
These sites search for newsites, rate them, and
provide “Best” (or sometimes “Worst”) type listings, in
all subjects:

General Subject Guides

  • BBC Web Guide –
    BBC Education’s searchable guide to Internet sites on
    key subjects, with useful reviews of each site
  • Beaucoup – search pages on a multitude of subjects
  • Electric Library – publications, TV
    and radio transcripts, dictionaries, encyclopedias,
    maps, pictures and classic works. Note:
    monthly/annual subscription with free trial
  • ELib –
    subject-based review lists – still limited in scope
  • Encyclopedia Brittanica – The
    encyclopedia. Monthly/annual subscription with
    free trial
  • Encyclopedia.Com – Concise Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia
  • Escotet – links
    to sites in every category – humanities, social
    sciences, economics, etc, but takes time to find your
    way around
  • Internet
    Public Library     – online
    books, magazines and newspapers from all over the
    world
  • Information
    Research FAQ     – how to find
    information fast, online and off
  • Kai’s StudyWeb- wide-ranging educational resources in
    English and Norwegian
  • Library Resources on the Internet (searchable)
  • LibWeb: libraries worldwide
  • MiningCo – a wide-ranging subject-based resource:
    “500 expert guides mining the net on thousands of
    topics.”
  • OLIG – Oxford Libraries Internet Gateway – Sciences, Social Sciences & Humanities
  • Online
    Tutorial Resoruces     – An impressively large
    number of free books and tutorials on-line on all
    kinds of subjects from entertainment and cookery to
    home and finance.
  • Pathfinders
    – guides written to get you started researching many
    topics, both online and off. Very focused and easy to
    follow – be patient if pages are slow to appear. Worth
    waiting for.
  • Wikipedia
    – free encyclopedia in many languages: Wikipedia works
    by allowing anyone who wants to correct an entry,
    which with millions of users works remarkably well.

Children’s Resources

  • BBC Education –
    just as classy as you’d imagine with the BBC brand
    name
  • The Children’s Literature Web Guide– includes info on movies/tv based on
    children’s books
  • Encarta Online – concise level
    searches free, full encyclopedia payable
  • Homework Heaven –
    a massive online academic directory designed for
    student use, from junior to college and beyond
  • Internet For Schools – easily navigated educational resources,
    linked to UK National Curriculum, school sites and
    chat rooms
  • National Geographic – searchable for all ages, but also has
    special area for kids
  • Topmarks – good searchable directory for kids (age
    range and subject can be specified)
  • Yahooligans – The big Yahoo directory for little terrors

General Texts

Media Archives

Movies

  • CineMedia – links to over 5,000 sites devoted to
    actors, 700 magazines and journals, 800 film and video
    festivals, and 400 TV networks and channels
  • Greatest films – synopses of the greatest (mostly US) films ever made
  • The Internet Movie Database – not error-free but still the best
  • Netribution – Everything you wanted to know about the film industry, from statistics and services to festivals and even films.
  • Reelgood – search engine for where to stream, buy or rent a movie or show. Searchable for titles and people.
  • RML Movie Page – not just Australian links, but some local flavour
  • SA Film Independent – links to film and TV databases
  • Screensite: Film & TV Studies

News

Ready Reference – Facts & Data, General, Literary & Publishing, and World

Reference: Facts & Data

  • EsearchCentral – market research reports, white papers,
    business intelligence including a forum for posting
    requests for information
  • Finding Data on the Internet – links to online databases for fact-checking or statistics
  • “Statistics Every Writer Should Know” – do you know the
    difference between mean and median…? etc

Reference: General

  • General Reference Resources
  • HowStuffWorks – good resource on how all kinds of things, er, work, from technology and the body to finance and careers
  • InternetPublicLibrary Reference Center
  • KnowPlay –
    dictionaries, encylopedias, finance, recipes, etc –
    good selection and fast
  • Martindale’s Reference Desk – you won’t believe the wealth of odd and
    unusual, and timely, references you’ll find there
  • My Virtual Reference Desk – – inc. encyclopaedia, quick ref, fast
    facts, almanac
  • National Writers Union – loads of very useful research and resource
    links, well-organised
  • No
    Junk Reference Page     –
    essays, freeware, samples, books, etc for free
  • Reference Shelf –
    inc. geographic, phone, words, scientific, perpetual
    calendar
  • Research It! –
    anagrams, currency converter, a language translator,
    dictionary, thesaurus, zip code retrieval, biography
    searcher, bible search, quotation search and package
    tracking plus a lot of other stuff you might need now
    and then
  • Virtual Reference Desk – census data, dictionaries, maps and travel,
    science data
  • VirtualReference Shelf- you name it, they’ve got it

Reference: Literary & Publishing

Reference: World

Academia

Law, Crime, Politics & Government

Law & Crime

Politics & Government

Science, General Knowledge, Computer & Internet

Science and General
Knowledge

Computer and Internet

Writers Resources

General Writing Resources

Writing: Screenwriting and On-Line Scripts

All suggestions and comments are welcome. If sending information on an
existing link, please include the link’s title in the FAQ
as well as the address and any other information that you
feel will be useful. If suggesting a new link, then I
generally only include sites that have a wide range, and
usually only those which compile links to other sites or
will in some other way help Internet searchers. Click here.

Credits: URLs supplied and compiled by Charles Harris,
Laurence A. Moore, Steven Blacher, Yvonne Hewett and
many others.

© Charles Harris

(This FAQ may be copied in whole or in
part for non-profit making purposes only, provided
you tell me you’re doing it, adequate credit is given
to those who helped towards it and the home address is
given http://www.search-faq.com.)

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