Encylopaedias & dictionaries
Wikipedia
www.wikipedia.org
Wiki sites are created and edited by their users – so if you spot an omission or mistake, it’s yours for the correcting. Ten-year-old Wikipedia recently introduced free registration for posters, but it remains the most thrillingly democratic site on the web, with more entries than Britannica.
H2g2
www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2
The BBC’s edgy, user-written guide to Life, the Universe and Everything.
Dictionary.com
www.dictionary.com
A thesaurus, research tools, translator and word games as well as a multi-source dictionary search.
Word Spy
www.wordspy.com
Fun guide to recently coined words and phrases.
Babelfish
http://babelfish.altavista.com
Translate text or web pages.
Students & higher education
Homework Elephant
www.homeworkelephant.co.uk
More than 5,000 searchable resources to help pupils, teachers and parents.
BBC Revision Guide
www.bbc.co.uk/schools/revision
Dedicated areas for pre-schoolers, Key Stage pupils, AS level students and so on.
Google Scholar http://scholar.google.com
Find peer-reviewed papers, PhD theses, books and technical reports from all areas of research.
Open University
www.open.ac.uk
Search all OU courses and apply here. Also has advice on help with funding.
Almanacs
Google Answers
http://answers.google.com
Post a question on Google Answers and offer a fee to whoever can answer it – or just browse the thousands of questions and answers already there.
Fact Monster
www.factmonster.com
The web’s biggest free reference site for kids.
Infoplease
www.infoplease.com
Reference heaven.
Old Farmer’s Almanac
www.almanac.com
Various odds and ends including a galaxy of astronomical resources.
Maps & atlases
Multimap
www.multimap.co.uk
The international map giant is free to use and includes a route-finder, aerial photos and details of places to stay.
Google Earth
http://earth.google.com
Download this small free application to create a navigable, zoomable, virtual globe inside your PC.
Streetmap
www.streetmap.co.uk
Particularly good for finding your way around the UK’s big cities.
Google Maps UK
http://maps.google.co.uk
Click and drag around maps of the UK, zooming in and out as you go.
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