Sree's Thoughts on the Best Information Websites
Sunday, Jan. 26, 2003

People are always asking me, can you trust the information on the Internet? They think most of the information is misleading or filled with lies. That's not true. The majority of websites are harmless or one of the following: fun/entertaining/useful. But that doesn't mean you can let your guard down. You can't be 100 percent sure that you are going to get only reliable information, but there are certainly a few websites that you should use to begin your information-hunting trips.

Google.com: This is, hands-down, the best search engine. Make sure you use this to start all your searches. It uses unique technology to get better results. See my in-depth look at several neat Google features.

RefDesk.com: Colin Powell told the New York Times this was his favorite website. In one place you can get links to thousands of useful pieces of information. It's an easy-to-use, easy-to-understand "reference desk."

HowStuffWorks.com: This is site that was a 7online.com "Site of the Week" and a great way to learn, well, how stuffs works. It's a terrific site and I strongly recommend trying it out.

SearchSystems.net: This is a great way to find public records - more than 11,000 kinds of records. Just in NYC, you can get information on such items as property records, doctors who has been disciplined and unclaimed funds - among dozens of others.

Don't forget to check out the "Smarter Surfing" section of our "Computers 101" from last year.

And be careful out there!

Write to techguru@sree.net and let me know your thoughts.