Earthrise. Credit: Apollo 8, NASA. Click photo to see NASA's Astronomy Picture of The Day
A Tiny Window on the Universe of Information that is the Internet
(A base from which to search some of the 'Best-of-the-Best' WWW sites, simply and efficiently.)
 
Approach conceived and executed by Hugh McGrory.
Try clicking on the photo above ...

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Best Desktop Resources
The first section below is organized on the basis of a hierarchy of information needs. You may just need a 'quick and dirty' check on the meaning of an acronym or the definition of a word.
If you wish to go further, you may search some of the best available dictionaries on the web, or find and search specialist dictionaries for more esoteric queries.
If you need still more, you may explore encyclopedias, or sources for publications, research tools, or the best web search engines (depending on your needs, some will serve you better than others ...)

So, use this Common Search Window to search the sources below:

 Enter your search parameter(s) above, choose the appropriate radio button below, then click GO. If you don't find what you want, return to this page, and select another radio button.

 Acronyms  
Acronym Finder about ... Close to half a million human-edited acronyms.
 Definitions  
Definitions about ... Definitions from the Web.
 Dictionaries  
One Look about ... Search multiple dictionaries.
Specialist more ... Find specialist dictionaries and glossaries.
howjsay.com about ... Hear how words are pronounced.
Inogolo about ... English Pronunciation Guide to Names (of People, Places, and Stuff).
Quotations about ... More than 85,000 quotations at Bartleby.com
Thesaurus.com about ... Over 17,000 entries from Roget's New Millennium Thesaurus.
FOLDOC about ... Free On-line Dictionary Of Computing.
 Encyclopedias  
Britannica about ... Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.
WhatIs.com about ... IT encyclopedia.
Wikipedia about ... The free encyclopedia that anyone can improve by editing.
 Publications  
Articles about ... Millions of academic, industry and general interest articles.
Bus. Publications about ... Publicatons and articles for the Business User.
 Research Sources  
HowStuffWorks about ... Thousands of articles on how things actually work.
Refdesk about ... A huge repository of reference and research links.
 Search Engines  
Ask.com about ... Multiple sources - easily narrow or broaden your search results.
bing about ... Microsoft's latest version of their search engine.
Clusty about ... Query several top search engines - group similar results into clusters.
Gigablast about ... Large index - can narrow search by using 'Giga Bits'.
pipl about ... Most popular search engine for finding people.  More Detailed Search
Yahoo! about ... Very large search engine database.
   
Also:                
 Calendars  
  CalendarHome.com   A huge collection of date/time related material.
  Elapsed time   Calculates the elapsed time between two specified dates.
  Current Year   Calendar for this/last/next year.
 Converters  
  Currency   The Universal Currency Converter® from xe.com.
  Language Translator 1   Free Word translation from WordReferenc.com
  Language Translator 2   Free Text translation from Applied Language Solutions
  Temperature   Institut für Chemie und Biochemie, Freie Universität Berlin.
     Unit Conversions:  
     Approximate   Common Equivalent Weights and Measures.
     Cooking   Converter for cooking measurement units
     The Metric System   All you ever wanted to know about the International System of Units.
     Less Technical   WWW Unit Converter.
     More Technical   Institute of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Free University Berlin.
 Find  
  People - US and Canada   Sources for finding a person through their email address or website.
  People - Wordwide   More sources.
 Maps  
  Google Maps   Find locations in map or satellite view.
  MapQuest   Find places and how to get there.
  Multimap (UK)   Europe's most popular mapping web site - now Bing Maps.
  Streetmap (UK)   UK mainland only (not Northern Ireland).
  Route Planner (UK)   Automobile Association - covers Great Britain, Ireland and Europe.
 Postal Services  
  Canada   Find Postal Codes, Addresses, Rates, Post Offices etc.
  UK   Find Postal Codes, Prices, Nearest Post Office etc.
  USA   Find Postal Codes, Addresses, Rates, Post Offices etc.
 Telephone Stuff  
  Country Calling Codes   How to call from Country A to Country B (and local time in Country B).
 Locators  
  N. America I   Find geographic area from Area Code.
  N. America II   Find geographic area from Prefix within Area Code. (Area)Prefix-Number
 Reverse Lookup  
  Canada   Find a person or business from a phone number.
  USA   Find a person or business from a phone number (Canada also).
 White Pages  
  Canada   Residential and Business directories.
  International I   "Find anyone anywhere in the World".
  International II   International White and Yellow Pages.
  Ireland   118 Limited directory enquiries and information services.
  UK   BT Residential and Business directories.
  USA   Find a person.
 Yellow Pages  
  Canada   From YellowPages.ca.
  UK   From Yell.com.
  USA   Find a business.