Internet Search Guide for Writers
Sometimes it's hard to know where to start when you need information from the internet. Before you start and possibly waste a lot of precious writing and research time, try reading this article about searching the internet, On The Net: Internet Search Techniques and Strategies by Greg R. Notess (Reference Librarian, Montana State University). Mr. Notess is also the author of Advanced Internet Searching: A Search Engine Showdown Online Tutorial.
In fact, Mr. Notess's website, Search Engine Showdown, is a great search engine resource.
Search Engines
- Google | Google Advanced Search | Google U.S. Government Search | Google News | Google Web Directory | Google Toolbar
Google is my favorite all-purpose search engine on the internet. Search results come up quickly and there isn't a lot of hooey on the search page to interfere when I'm looking at the results. I use the Google toolbar and recommend it to anyone who would like to have easy, quick access to the Google search engine. - All The Web
- AltaVista | AltaVista Advanced Search
- Ask Jeeves | Ask Jeeves News | Ask Jeeves Toolbar
- Dogpile | Dogpile Toolbar
- Excite
- Gigablast
- HotBot
- Infoplease
- Lycos Advanced Search
- MSN Search
- Teoma
- WiseNut
Online Web Directories
Useful Books About Web Searching
- Extreme Searcher's Guide to Web Search Engines: A Handbook for the Serious Searcher by Ran Hock
- Great Scouts!: CyberGuides for Subject Searching on the Web by Nora Paul, et. al.
- Find It Online: The Complete Guide to Online Research by Alan M. Schlein
- Law of the Super Searchers: The Online Secrets of Top Legal Researchers by T. R. Halvorson
- Super Searchers Do Business: The Online Secrets of Top Business Researchers by Mary Ellen Bates.
- Researching Online for Dummies
- Official Netscape Guide to Internet Research by Tara Calishain & Jill Alane Nystrom
- Search Engines: For the World Wide Web (Visual Quickstart Guide Series) by Alfred Glossbrenner & Emily Glossbrenner
- How to Search the Web: A Quick-Reference Guide to Finding Things on the World Wide Web
- The Information Specialist's Guide to Searching and Researching on the Internet and the World Wide Web by Ernest Ackermann & Karen Hartman
- Searching Smart on the World Wide Web: Tools and Techniques for Getting Quality Results by Cheryl Gould
Reference Search Tools
- Dictionaries and Thesauruses
- Merriam-Webster
- American Heritage Dictionary
- Dictionary.com
- InfoPlease Dictionary
- Dictionary of English Slang and Colloquialisms of the UK
- Thesaurus.com
- Encyclopedias
- Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
- Britannica (fee based)
- Columbia Encyclopedia
- Encarta (Full version available for Encarta CD owners)
- Other Collections
- Bartleby Reference
- xrefer Showcase
- InfoPlease (almanacs, dictionary, encyclopedia, biographies)