JNet's Top Picks of 2005

Here is a selection of the best sites for journalists from JNet's weekly picks of 2005. For a complete list of Jnet's picks from 2005, click here.

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Google tools:

  • Google Advanced Scholar Search is the advanced version of Google's little-known scholar search which allows you to hunt through academic journals and publications. The advanced tool lets you search by author, by publication, by date or by subject area. For more Google tools, see JNet's Google Page.

  • Google's Updated Desktop Google has taken a marvelous tool and made it better. Its free Desktop searches your entire hard drive, including emails you sent and web sites you visited. Now Google has added a sidebar that collects a list of recent headlines from various sources and adapts to your tastes based on the articles you select. For any headline you can right-click and select "Don't show me items like this." Plus weather, Google Talk and numerous other gadgets.

  • Google Print Still controversial because authors and publishers are worried about copyright infringement, this latest assault from the Google behemoth allows you to search the contents of books. You can often get excerpts from pages and links to local libraries or online stores to borrow or buy the book. In advanced search you can search by author and date as well.

News searches:

  • Lexis Nexis News One of the most comprehensive news database services on the web, Lexis Nexis, is often too expensive for many journalists and freelancers. But this free news service offers a wide range of recent headlines, background stories, access to wire services and TV transcripts. For more ways to find news, JNet's News Search Page.

    See also LexisNexis AlaCarte! Need the latest news on your topic? Search more than 6,000 of the world's leading news sources from the past 2 years. The Lexis database, one of the largest in the world, is widely used in big newsrooms but usually is far too expensive for individual journalists to enjoy. This slimmed-down version offers a free search and charges only $3 per article. You can also click the Search Additional Sources tab to select from more than 20,000 sources dating as far back as 1968. Plus, access to public records, and government information, company and industry reports and criminal and legal records. For more data tools. see JNet's Data page.

  • Librarians' News Archives Newly-improved, this listing was always one of the best web sources for newspaper archives, now with expanded and up-to-date listings for US, Canada, European and Asian archives. It tells you what paper has what and how much it is.. For more archives tools, see JNet's Archives Page

  • Inter Press News Service A refreshing alternative look at world events, with in-depth reporting from around the world. You can search by country, region and language.IPS was set up was set up in 1964 as a non-profit international cooperative of journalists. Be sure to check out their excellent dossiers on everything from corruption to Pope John Paul. For other alternative news services, see JNet's Alternate News Page.

  • OpenSecrets As political scandal and controversy swirls around the White House, it's a good time to consult a web page like Open Secrets, which details the influence of money in Washington. You can type in the name of any member of the Bush administration, the Senate or the Congress and get good background information. The site is run by the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan, non-profit research group that tracks money in politics. For more ways to cover American politics, see JNet's US Politics Page and JNet's Main US Page.

  • NationMaster.com A massive central data source and a handy way to graphically compare nations, NationMaster pulls together data from such sources as the CIA World Factbook, United Nations, World Health Organization, World Bank, UNESCO, UNICEF and OECD. You can generate maps and graphs on all kinds of statistics on anything and everything from military strengths to wall plug voltages. Plus a full encyclopedia with over 200,000 articles. For similar tools, see JNet's Countries Page.

Blogs, RSS:

  • Google Blog Search The most powerful search engine on the web turns its strength to searching blogs. The basic search page offers Google's usual simple and sleek results. The advanced page allows you to search by a word in the title, by date or by blog author. For similar tools, see JNet's Blog Page.

New Tools:

  • Firefox Why settle for Microsoft's ubiquitous Internet Explorer browser when you can surf the web with a much more news-friendly tool called Firefox. It's open source, which means people keep coming with neat extensions to increase its functionality. Its main address bar is automatically a Google search engine, so if you don't know the web URL, just type in a name like "thailand tourism ministry" or "aids statistics" and you get the appropriate website. You can also set up live bookmarks with newsfeeds from sites like the BBC, New York Times or other media. For more browsing tips, see JNet's Tools page.