Kim's Weekly Kolumn

Online research is just a click away

By Kim Komando
From: The Kim Komando Radio Show Web site

The kids are back-to-school and by now, you've had enough time to figure out it's time to beef up the Internet bookmarks on the family computer with some of today's latest and greatest online research tools. As you will quickly see, however, these tools aren't just for the kids and school reports.

Often, finding an online research tool is as easy as typing in the kind of resource you're looking for, surrounded by www and com.

For example, if you're not quite sure about the meaning of a word, type www.dictionary.com into your Web browser. This takes you to a free meta dictionary, for lack of a better term. Type in a word, and this site queries a number of different online dictionaries and then shows the results of the query. Instead of one definition, you end up with several, which can really help with your understanding of a word.

There's also a companion site to Dictionary.com located at www.thesaurus.com. Similar to its definition-finding brother, this site queries as many as 20 different online thesauri to help you find the exact word or phrase you need. Both of these sites also have interesting links to other word-related resources.

By now, it should come as no surprise that you can reach an online encyclopedia by typing www.encyclopedia.com into your Web browser. To be exact, this brings you to a free online version of The Concise Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Third Edition. At first glance, its 14,000 articles may seem meager in comparison to the 30,000-70,000 articles you're likely to find on a CD-based encyclopedia. However, Encyclopedia.com does have links to more than 170,000 external articles on the Internet. For the nice price of free, this one's worth a look.

While it doesn't deliver the full benefit of a real library, the Electric Library at www.elibrary.com does allow you to search an interesting array of online resources. From here, you can search for any combination of newspaper articles, magazine articles, books, pictures, maps, or TV/radio transcripts.

The Electric Library also offers two unique, free services. First is the Tracker. This allows the Electric Library to monitor its database for new entries that may interest you based on preferences you specify. When any such item is added, you're automatically notified by e-mail.

The other is called Q&A. The site maintains a list of thousands of self-proclaimed experts, all sorted by their areas of expertise. You can drill down through categories and subcategories until you find just the expert you need. Then you can pose a question to that expert without charge. Not a bad resource.

Sites like the ones I've already mentioned are handy when you know exactly what you're looking for. Suppose you're not quite sure where you want to look or what type of online resource is the most appropriate. One of the best multi-purpose research tools I've found is called Research-It, and it's located at www.itools.com/research-it.

Like Dictionary.com, this site actually goes out and searches other Web sites for
relevant information. What makes Search-It unique is the wide variety of online resources you're able to query. The page is broken down into the following main categories: Language Tools, Library Tools, Geographical Tools, Financial Tools,
Shipping & Mailing Tools, and Internet. Under each of these headings are text-entry fields for searching specific online resources.

For example, under Shipping & Mailing Tools, you can check a Zip code or check tracking information for either a UPS or FedEx shipment. Under Financial Tools, you can perform currency conversions or check stock information. Library Tools let you look up biographical information or English quotations. This one page is truly a Swiss army knife of online research tools.

Sometimes you need to learn how to do things that typically aren't taught in the average school. For example, maybe you've never had to change your own oil or write a thank-you note or host a dinner party. These are just a few examples of the detailed, free instructions you can find at Learn2.com, located conveniently at www.learn2.com. No matter what you're trying to do, there's a good chance you can learn how to do it here.

Of course, there's more to learning and schoolwork than just looking up facts and figures. One of the best "homework helper" sites I've seen is the School Bell section at Yahooligans, located at www.yahooligans.com/School_Bell. Here you can find links to literally thousands of resources for language arts, math, social studies and science/nature. For example, the Geography section alone (found under Social Studies) lists over 350 online resources.

While an impressive number of external links are available through Yahooligans, don't overlook Yahooligans' own Kids' Almanac, which can be found at www.yahooligans.com/content/ka. This section offers interesting, kid-friendly
information under the following headings: Animals, Body & Food, Book Baedeker, Business & Technology, Creature Catalog, Disaster Digest, Environment Examination, Laws & Rights, Measuring Up, People Pamphlet, Speaking of Language, Sports Section, The Wide World of War, The World, and Universal Knowledge.

Finally, if you're tired of search engines that return too many results or don't allow you to target your search narrowly enough, I'd like to suggest that you consider a desktop Internet search application such as BullsEye (www.intelliseek.com) or Copernic (www.copernic.com). Both of these products allow you to intelligently manage and organize your Internet searching to a degree not possible on any Web site. Of the two, my favorite is BullsEye, although either one beats a standard search engine. Best of all, both of these products are available for free. Your only cost is in having to view banner advertising while you're using the program.

Kim Komando is a national talkshow host, syndicated columnist, computer editor and best-selling author. Her works have appeared in such publications as USA TODAY, the Los Angeles Times and Popular Mechanics. In cyberspace, she can be found at www.komando.com. Got a question for Kim? Put a call into the Kim Komando Computer Show - toll-free at 1-888-825-5254, on Saturdays between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET. Or e-mail her at komando@komando.com.

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