While Google is the most popular search engine on the Internet today, using it is not always the best way to find what you’re looking for. There’s a lot of outdated, misleading, and simply erroneous information that shows up on the search engine results.
Did you know that Google indexes only about 8 billion web pages? The part of the web that’s invisible to Google (also known as the deep web) is estimated to be up to 500 times larger than the visible (searchable) web. Today’s post is inspired by a question that Don Morris asked recently on the NCC listserv. Thanks, Coach Don!
Here are links and brief descriptions of ten very powerful research sites that have a lot of useful information along with a very high credibility factor. Some of them are visible and indexed, some are not. I hope that one of them is the perfect time-saver that you need this week!
http://www.lii.org/Librarians’ Internet Index: a search engine containing sites that actual human librarians have rated as trustworthy.
http://www.britannica.com/ Encyclopedia Britannica: with full text, searchable on-line.
http://www.ipl.org/ The Internet Public Library: a vast collection of resources with advanced searching and organizational tools to make your results easier to use.
http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=enAmerican Fact Finder: US Census Bureau data (population, housing, economic, and geographic) searchable by state, county, or zip code.
http://www.fedstats.gov/ FedStats: statistics from over 100 US Federal agencies on topics from adoption to women-owned businesses.
http://gos2.geodata.gov/wps/portal/gos GeoSpatialOneStop: zillions of maps and tons of data about the atmosphere, the environment, geology, health, transportation, and utilities.
http://www.loc.gov/search/new/ Library of Congress: the world’s largest library.
http://www.loc.gov/law/index.html Law Library of Congress: the largest collection of legal material in the world.
http://health.nih.gov/ National Institutes of Health: a searchable encyclopedia of health topics.
http://biznar.com/ a portal for business research that allows you to search many high quality sources simultaneously, including news, blogs, government databases, Google scholar; extensive advanced search features so you can easily customize your search.
Do you have another great source that’s not on the list? Please share it with the rest of the readers by leaving a comment below.
Sheryl Schuff is a Certified Public Accountant and founder of the Business Startup Success Club. She specializes in consulting with solopreneurs about business formation, taxes, recordkeeping, and technology and will begin accepting applications for charter membership in a special mentoring program through BSSC later this month. Sheryl is the author of “Save$100’s in Taxes With a Home Office Deduction,” and “How to Get Your Business On-Line for Under $10.”
