Reference

Search The Purple Crayon
Home | Articles | Children's Books | Publishing | Pictures | Links index

 

A note on finding information on the Internet:
In a corollary to Murphy's Law, the more specific the information you need, the more difficult it is to find it. Try three different ways to find your information:

Use a search engine

Use an index

Use a site that specializes

#1: Search Engines

These index material on the WWW, allowing you to search it as if it were a database. Try more than one! Always experiment with the different ways to limit or broaden the search. For example, putting a phrase in quotes will make many of these search for it as a unit, rather than just for the individual words of which it is composed, and this often helps you get fewer off-target results. Be wary of paid-for results, often called "featured" or "sponsored" results.

Two of the best search engines indexing all of the WWW:

Google A great approach--this search engines weights results by how many sites link TO the indexed site. For many reasons, Google is today's most-used search engine.

Vivisimo: Ah, an alternative to Google! If you are doing serious research, the way this engine "clusters" the results into sub-categories will be very useful to you.

Specialized search engines These are just a few examples:

CitySearch Events and more for selected U.S. cities.

Deja News Search the news groups (now a part of Google).

Healthatoz For health and medical topics.

Learn about the workings of search engines at Search Engine Watch.

New sites are appearing constantly, so keep your eyes open and experiment. For literally hundreds of other options, from the general to the specialized in focus, you could try either Yahoo's Web Directories page or their Search Engines page.

Searching for people: You could start at People Search Sites. To find an email address, use Internet Address Finder, or try WhoWhere. To find people off the Internet, don't use those CD-ROMs, use Switchboard: Find a Person, or Telephone Directories on the Web, or for a business, Big Book, or The Ultimate Directory - InfoSpace, a white and yellow pages type of directory, or similar sites.

dotted line

#2: WWW Indices

These range from the all-inclusive, with Yahoo being the best-known example, though too non-selective to be the best, to specialized indices that cover any subject you can imagine. Find those that focus on your area of interest and explore! You'll find some of my favorites around the site. Some of the more general indices:
bullet About.com
bullet IPL The Internet Public Library
bullet Snap!--a Yahoo-like directory
bullet WWW Yellow Pages A bit commercial, but useful.
bullet IPL Ready Reference Collection: Reference
bullet Repositories of Primary Sources For researchers--a list of all archives, etc., with WWW presences.
bullet WWW Virtual Library A subject catalogue of the Web.
Virtual libraries from real librarians Anyone can put together a list of links. That's what a bookmark file is, after all. But it takes a librarian to select and organize it in a useful way. This sub-page contains links to some great library Web sites.

Resources for Children, Parents, and Teachers:

There are many. Here are a selected few.
bullet Global SchoolNet Foundation Home Page A resource center for educational projects using the Internet.
bullet Gander Academy's Theme-Related Resources
bullet Education World (tm) - Education Site Awards and Reviews
bullet Educational Hotlists
bullet Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Site Reviews and thematic and whole language suggestions--for teachers.
bullet Kids Web - A World Wide Web Digital Library for Schoolkids
bullet MEL: Children's Resources An organized site full of useful links.
bullet Great Sites! (for parents and kids) Sponsored by the ALA.
bullet The Parenting Community: PARENTS PLACE.COM The parenting resource center on the web. Run by two stay-at-home parents.
bullet Kid's Domain Software

dotted line

# 3 More Focused Destinations

Statistical Resources on the Web

OneLook Dictionary

Hypertext version of the CIA World Factbook
An almanac-like resource that lists just about every country in the world. Or try the Library of Congress / Country Studies, which is similar.

Government Documents in the News Government-published information on current news and issues.

Don't Spread that Hoax! Check here before you panic.

Crank.net A great resource for unusual, crackpot, and just plain wrong ideas.

iLoveLanguages Information about many languages.

Psych Central: Dr. Grohol's Mental Health Page
Carefully selected mental health information resources.

The Center for World Indigenous Studies
Information about, by, and for the indigenous peoples of the world.

dotted line

Computer-related resources

bulletA WWW FAQ
Everything you might want to know about the WWW.
bullet whatis.com A handy dictionary of all things Internet.
bulletnet.wars by Wendy Grossman A complete WWW version of an NYU Press book. Recent Internet history--good reading!
bullet Stroud's Consummate Winsock Apps
Windows Internet shareware: html editors, browsers, etc. Or try TUCOWS: The Ultimate Collection of Winsock Software
bullet Games Domain
Reviews, patches, FAQ files, shareware games, demos, etc., etc.,
bullet A Beginner's Guide to HTML Home Page
I found this useful.
bullet Webmaster Reference Library
For more advanced HTMLers.
bullet The Compendium of HTML Elements : A Reference Manual
bulletRoger Black--Web Sites That Work Some opinionated advice.
bullet Electronic Frontier Foundation
The organization working to preserve freedom of speech on the Internet.

I hope you have found this page and this site useful. Please visit The Purple Crayon Bookstores page to find some recommended bookstores and to learn how to support this site while doing your usual online shopping. Thank you.

Search The Purple Crayon

end of a crayonhomearticleschildren's bookspublishingpicturesreferenceanother end of a crayon

Home | Articles | Children's Books | Publishing | Pictures | Top of page | Links index