JNet's Top Picks of 2004

Here is a selection of the best sites for journalists from JNet's weekly picks of 2004.

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Google tools:

  • Google Deskbar The best search engine on the web now offers a new tool. The deskbar allows you to search using Google, even when your browser isn't running.You can preview search results in a small inset window that closes automatically. It's similar but more versatile than the Google Toolbar and Google Buttons For more Google tools, see JNet's Search Page.

  • Google Desktop The best search engine on the web can now be used to search your files and emails on your own computer. This beta test download installs easily, searches your computer and then lets you find lost or forgotten files -- even files you deleted thanks to Google's cache function. For similar tools, see JNet's Google page.
News searches:
  • Columbia Newsblaster Columbia University has come up with a better way to search the news - instead of just a mish mash of headlines. Every night, the system crawls a series of Web sites, downloads articles, groups them together into "clusters" about the same topic, and summarizes each cluster. The end result is a Web page that gives you a sense of what the major stories of the day are, so you don't have to visit the pages of dozens of publications. For more news tools, see JNet's Find News Page.

  • Today's Front Pages The Newseum provides you with a great peek at the front pages of 34 world papers. You can see what they look like in living colour -- and then check out their web home page if you want more. For more news tools, see JNet's Find News Pages .

  • Reuters Feedroom Watch the latest TV news from Reuters News -- top world stories, business and entertainment. Plus a selected archive. One the easiest web sites to use to get a glimpse of breaking TV news. For more TV News, see JNet's News Pages.

  • BBC Radio Player The best radio news network in the world now offers an easy, free player that allows you to choose from dozens of its top World Service programs. You can find out more on the World Service main page. For more radio news tools, see JNet's Radio Pages.
Blogs, RSS:
  • Daypop is trying to become the Google of blogs, those increasingly-popular web diaries. It offers you the choice of searching just for news, or just for blogs, or both. It also monitors hot words and trends in newspapers and weblogs.For more blog services, check out JNet's Find Blogs page.


  • Feedreader One of the simplest of the new breed of news readers to use. It's free and allows you to use the growing number of free RSS (Real Simple Syndication) offered by the New York Times, the BBC and thousands of other sites. For more on RSS Newsfeeds, check out this article in the Online Journalism Review. And for more ways to find news, see JNet's News Pages.
New Search Tools:
  • Clusty JNet has long been promoting the new technology of clustering - the ability of search engines to group your results into folders of connected subjects of topics. Vivisimo, one of the pioneers in this field, has just launched Clusty - poor name, but a good attempt at a clustering search engine. For more of the best new search engines, see JNet's Search Pages.

  •  A9.com A new search engine that uses Google, but gives you plenty of extras. You get the usual web search, but also image search results "Search Inside the Book" results from Amazon.com, reference results from GuruNet, and even movies results from a movie database. Plus, you can keep your own notes about any web page and search them. For more new search tools, see JNet's Best Search Page