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Reference resources

© 2010 Max Lent

Alphabet

General Reference Resources

  • AcademicInfo.net.  "With designs to guide both aspiring students on the advantages and avenues to researching and searching for educational tinged information, AcademicInfo was created in 1998 by Michael Madin.

    Bearing witness to the lack of authoritative educational internet resources, while a student of comparative religion at the University of Washington, Mike believed an alternative to Google was needed for those thirsting for subject area specific information.

    AcademicInfo, while still some way off Mike's initial vision aims to cover all aspects of online and distance education. From Accreditation, Test Preparation to guides on respective subject areas, AcademicInfo will also provide current and aspiring students with a myriad of degree and courses for those looking to enhance their professional credential as well as those seeking personal development.

    For more on Mike's take on online educational resources, read his blog

    The educational spectrum is vast and multifaceted so acting as a conduit, AcademicInfo is able to bring together the best educational institutions and programs they offer directly to you."  Comment:   The subject guide area is amazingly useful. 
  • HotSheet.com. It is hard to tell whether HotSheet.com or Refdesk.com has more links.  Both deserve to be listed in your browser's favorites or bookmark lists.
  • Refdesk.com. This site breaks every Web design rule there is and as a result is one of the most useful quick reference sites on the Web.  If you need to look up a fact fast go to Refdesk.com.  If you need to search for something on the Web use a search tool like Google

Dictionaries

  • Onelook.com.  "Think of this web site as a search engine for words and phrases: If you have a word for which you'd like a definition or translation, we'll quickly shuttle you to the web-based dictionaries that define or translate that word. If you don't know how to spell the word, we'll help you do that too. No word is too obscure: More than 5 million words in more than 900 online dictionaries are indexed by the OneLook® search engine."  Since Onelook.com covers virtually all online dictionaries there's not much reason for looking elsewhere.

Search engines

  • About.com. Not really a search engine, but a portal to a collection of Web sites run on a wide range of topics.
  • AllTheWeb or Fast Search.  Fast is a key word.  The response rate is nearly instantaneous.
  • AltaVista.  The translation service, the ability to search for images, and the content makes this one of my preferences when I am searching for hard to find Web sites.
  • Ask Jeeves.  A natural language search engine.
  • Dogpile. "Dogpile uses innovative metasearch technology to search the Internet's top search engines, including Google, Yahoo, AltaVista, Ask Jeeves, About, FAST, FindWhat, LookSmart, and many more." 
  • Excite.  I use excite as my Web homepage because I like the customization offered.
  • Google.com. The best search engine on the Web.  However, recent reports state that the best search engines search less than 20% and perhaps as low as 10% of the Web sites published.  If you encounter foreign language references use the translate option.
  • Highbeam.com.  "HighBeam™ Research, LLC runs an online research engine for individuals, filling the gap between free search engines and high-end research services. By delivering sophisticated research tools with convenient access to the free Web, paid online services and our proprietary databases, we empower individual researchers to efficiently locate, organize and deliver answers. The HighBeam Research Engine is located at www.highbeam.com. HighBeam Research (formerly Alacritude, LLC) is headquartered in Chicago and has additional operations in Philadelphia."
  • HotBot.  An old timer by Web standards and once my first choice.
  • Lycos. News, images, and sound searching.
  • Metor.  This is a meta search engine.
  • MSN Search.  Microsoft's search engine.
  • Northern Light Search. A favorite of many of my colleagues. 
  • SearchEdu.com.  Searches educational Web sites.
  • SearchGov.com.  Searches government Web sites.
  • SearchMil.com.  Searches military Web sites.
  • Study Web.  If you need encyclopedic information or if you are helping students, send them to this site.
  • Teoma. Use the results, refine, and resources tools together and the search engine becomes more useful.
  • Turbo10.  "The Deep Net consists of a vast array of information contained in specialist databases from business associations, universities, libraries, and government departments. A good example of a Deep Net resource is AustLII - the Australasian Legal Information Institute ( http://www.austlii.org ). AustLII is one of the largest sources of Australasian legal materials on the Net, with over seven gigabytes of raw text materials and over 1.5 million searchable legal documents."
  • Vivísimo.  "Our breakthrough technology automatically categorizes textual information into crisp, meaningful, hierarchically sorted category folders. This unique technology differs from other classification techniques in that it is fully automated, requires no maintenance, and achieves high-quality results on any type of textual content with little or no customization."
  • WebCrawler.  A search engine of search engines.
  • WebWombat.com.  An Australian search engine. 
  • WiseNut. Listings are fee-based and free.  A product of LookSmart.com.
  • Yahoo.com.  Best human classified topic oriented search engine.
  • ZapMeta.com.  "ZapMeta is a meta-search engine, a search tool that provide users the ability of simultaneously search multiple search engines under one interface. Meta-search engines benefit users by saving them time and effort from having to individually visit multiple search engines in order to find the desired result. Along with web search, ZapMeta currently offer a directory based on data from The Open Directory Project and Product Search powered by Pricegrabber."

Search engine directories

Telephone directories online

Google

  • Google works very well as phone book.  Try using these conventions: 
    • phonebook: first name  last name  city  state
    • use rphonebook: to search residential only listings
    • use bphonebook: to search business listings

National

Rochester, NY

Hoaxes and urban legends

  • Truthorfiction.com.  This site has an easy to use interface with nearly all of the current hoaxes and urban legends listed.
 

 

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