Top Info and General Reference Websites

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About.com

www.about.com

By Jennifer L. DeLeo



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How Stuff Works

www.howstuffworks.com

By Corinne Iozzio





On average, 34 million monthly visitors head to About.com for guidance
on subjects such as careers, child-raising, and technology. Newly
sprung is the company's video player with over 500 videos, as well as
Guidesites, an expansion of its Web channels overseen by professionals
such as a licensed health counselor and a world news columnist. Don't
have time to sniff around the site? Go to the What's Hot Now sidebar.


No matter how old you are, at some point
you've looked up at an adult holding some toy or contraption and
implored, "But how does it work?" Odds are that dear old Dad made up a
pretty convincing story at the time, but now, in the age of the
Internet, we have the means to dig down and find out how everything
really works, from a dog fight to the animation on an episode of The Simpsons. The experts at How Stuff Works share their knowledge on any and all subjects, and we recommend taking advantage of it.











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The Library of Congress

www.loc.gov

By Lisa Ruefenacht



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Merriam-Webster Online

www.m-w.com

By Kyle Monson





As the online rolodex of the Library of Congress, this site houses
numerous reference materials, digitized collections, films—basically
any content you'd ever want to find. The Library of Congress is the
only library in the United States that contains everything ever
published in the country, so if you're stuck trying to find something,
chances are the Library of Congress will have it.


Besides the regular ol' stuffy-dictionary
features, Merriam-Webster Online teaches you your own mother tongue
with fun stuff like the Word of the Day and daily crossword puzzles,
and even a user-submitted "Open Dictionary" that lets you submit your
own words and definitions.












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Nolo

www.nolo.com

By Kyle Monson



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Snopes

www.snopes.com

By Corinne Iozzio






Nolo is an excellent online law resource
center for non-lawyers. Get legal documents, advice, and information
for your business or family, or turn to the site's lawyer directory if
you're squeamish about taking the law into your own hands.


Before you forward that so-called "true"
story that landed in your inbox this morning to everyone in your
address book, you better check Snopes to make sure it's not completely
full of you-know-what. It's an extensive index of urban legends, common
fallacies, old wives' tales, strange news stories, rumors, trashy
gossip, and more. If it's on Snopes, funny or moving though it may be,
it's totally untrue.












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The Straight Dope

www.straightdope.com

By Corinne Iozzio


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Urban Dictionary

www.urbandictionary.com

By Vicki B. Jacobson





Every class had that kid: the one who
would ask all the dumb questions you were dying to ask but felt too
embarrassed to utter out loud. The Straight Dope is the grown-up,
online version of that kid. Published in the Chicago Reader
and penned by ghostwriters under the name Cecil Adams (aka "the
smartest person in the world"), The Straight Dope tackles burning
questions from "Who invented the smiley face?" to "Did Mussolini use
castor oil as an instrument of torture?" with a delicious combination
of sarcasm and profanity.


This user-generated online slang
dictionary doesn't just teach you new ways to swear; it can actually
expand our common vernacular. For example, on August 1, the Urban Word
of the Day was "baby bear," which is an adjective for when "things are
just right." And here we thought it was just a fairy-tale character!
Also, if you don't have time to check the site every day, get your
daily dose via cell phone at urbanwap.com.











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Wikipedia

www.wikipedia.org

By Brian Heater








Love it or hate it—though most likely,
your feelings are some combination of both—you can't ignore the current
poster child for the wisdom of crowds. Launched in 2001, Wikipedia has
become the go-to online resource for global knowledge, with nearly
eight million articles written in 253 languages. We'd think twice
before quoting it as a source for an academic paper, given the
sometimes questionable authority of its authors, but that doesn't stop
us from consulting the encyclopedia several times every day.