Picks of the Week - 2002

Here is a random selection of some of the best, most topical or just plain fun sites for journalists for the year of 2002.

Click here for previous years of Picks of the Week, going back to 1997.

• Pick of the week for December 23, 2002:    AltaVista News turns up the heat on Google News by teaming up with Moreover and gathering news from 3,000 worldwide sources. Its strength is that you can select topics, sources and also restrict your news search to countries such as Australia, Canada, Germany, India, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. For more news search tools, see Jnet's News Page
  
  
  
• Pick of the week for December 15, 2002:  Google Translation Your favourite search engine has improved its service by allowing you to translate words, sentences, or even entire web pages. It's never perfect, but it's faster and more efficient than most free computer-based translators. For more tools, see Jnet's Translate Page
  
  
  
  
• Pick of the week for December 8, 2002:  ILG International radio A comprehensive listing of world radio stations, this site allows you to find any news (or music) station by continent or country. It also has the advantage of dividing its listing into internal (home and domestic) services for each country (the radio people in that country are listening to) and external services (the international broadcasts many public networks provide for a world audience.) For more ways to find radio stations, see JNet's Radio Page.
  
  
  

• Pick of the week for December 1, 2002:   Vivisimo News Search The Vivisimo search tool, one of the new generation of search engines that try to "cluster" or group your results, offers a sample of its power by allowing you to search for news from the BBC, Yahoo News, World News, CNN and the New York Times. You can only do one media outlet at a time, but the results are often more efficient than if you tried the searches from the media sites themselves. For more news search tools, see JNet's News Search Page.
  

• Pick of the week for November 24, 2002:   RadioTower An easy-to-use guide to find web radio of your choice: music, news, sports,or business with selections from 80 countries and 20 different genres. Browse by name, country or category or use the advanced search. You can also simply click and play once you find your pick. For more ways to find radio stations, see JNet's Radio Page
  
  

• Pick of the week for November 17, 2002:   WhitePages.com   One of the most convenient and comprehensive phone directories on the web for US and Canada. You can search for only partial names   or do a reverse search by phone number or by address. For more directories, see JNet's Phone Page
  
  
  
• Pick of the week for November 10, 2002:     Executive Library A convenient, easy-to-read page that gives you the top of the news sources from around the world -- plus ways to search for more headlines and stories. The site also offers excellent research strategy tips with good sites to start your search on US and Canadian government and business web pages.
  
  
  
  
• Pick of the week for November 3, 2002:   WWW Virtual Library: International Affairs Resources now has over 2400 carefully selected, annotated links in 37 international affairs categories. You can search directories by media, country or topic. It also offers useful guides to starting research on the web.
  
  
  
  
• Pick of the week for October 27, 2002:  New York Times College Edition Though aimed mainly at students and faculty, this special section of the Times also offers some hidden gems for professional journalists. By organizing the news into over 200 academic disciplines, the College section allows you to easily locate information related to your story. Then you get access to a much older archive of articles compared to the main NY Times site -- and you can search for free for even older articles. Plus you can also sign up to receive free e-mail alerts when new articles related to your story a specific area of study is published on NYTimes.com
  
  
  
• Pick of the week for October 20, 2002:   UN Wire For easy access to top international stories often ignored by the mainstream media, consult this rich news page prepared by the independent United Nations Foundation. You can search the archives going back several years and also consult stories by themes, such as Human Rights, Justice & Democracy,Crime, Corruption & Drugs and Peacekeeping & Security.
  
  
  
• Pick of the week for October 13, 2002:   Washington Post War Coverage    As war clouds gather on Iraq, one of the best newspapers on the web offers a treasure trove of free background material. You can consult a  free archive of close to 4000 stories with a sophisticated advanced search.  Also available are archives of past editorials. For more tools, see JNet's Covering War Pages.
  
  
  
• Pick of the week for October 6, 2002:   Wisenut Touted as the first serious competition to Google, this new search tool from Looksmart has several intriguing features. It's simple and sleek. It returns results in sub-categories, allowing you to do further searches within topics. For example, a query for "Iraq" offers you categories on Sanctions, News, the Middle East, etc. There is also an advanced search option for those not familiar with advanced tricks. For more new search tools, see JNet's Search Engine Guide.
  
  
  
• Pick of the week for September 29, 2002:  Gumshoe Librarian Gary Price, an American librarian and one of the best Internet researchers, along Genie Tyburski of a web site called Virtual Chase offer great advice for journalists. Topics include investigating companies , finding people and US criminal records.
  
  
  
• Pick of the week for September 22, 2002:  IraqWatch Web site devoted to monitoring Iraq's progress in building weapons of mass destruction. Iraq Watch describes key Iraqi organizations and sites, lists their foreign suppliers, and provides access to U.N. and other documents that describe Iraq's activities.
  
  
  
• Pick of the week for September 15, 2002:  Robotype Tired of typing the same names or words over and over again in your stories. Save yourself a lot of grief with this free download from PCMag. You set the abbreviations for the words, phrases, and paragraphs that you frequently type and RoboType simply replaces your abbreviations with the expanded text. You'll for more tools for journalists at JNet's Tools Page
  
  
  

• Pick of the week for September 8, 2002:  September 11 Coverage Looking for fresh ideas or want to check out the competition for the big anniversary story? Read the Poynter's survey about how the American media is wrestling with the issue. The site includes web resources, including the Smithsonian's Digital Archive  and Human Rights Watch analysis.
  
  

• Pick of the week for September 1, 2002:   CNN Newswatch The powerful web site and news organization now offers one of best personalized news services on the web called Newswatch. It's not free, but you can try it out for one week -- and you'll be sold. It offers ways for you to choose your headline topics, stock watches, and tickers. It continuously monitors news from CNN.com, CNN/Money, CNN/Sports Illustrated, major newswires, and over 2,000 regional, national, and global news sources. For more newstickers, see JNet's Choose your News page.
  
  
  

• Pick of the week for August 25, 2002:   SingingFish Finding video and audio clips on the web is not easy -- general search engines are not great. But this new search engine joins the ranks of the specialized tools that will help you find pictures and video. It also has a good advanced search tool that allows you to narrow your search to news and select the type of video and audio formats. For other tools like this, see JNet's Audio Search Tools and JNet's Video Search Tools.
  
  
  

• Pick of the week for August 18, 2002:   Killer Info A new metasearch engine (it uses several search engines at once) that has two intriguing features: You can get a "quick peek" of each result without leaving the results page. And every search also gives you a "Table of Contents", showing you subject topics hidden deep within the search results, making it easier to find the sites you are looking for. For other tools like this, see JNet's Multiple Search Engines.
  
  
  

• Pick of the week for August 11, 2002:   Kplay Reference    Making it simple to use different reference works on the Web. Reference Search gives you several dictionaries, encyclopedias and factbooks all on one page with easy-to-use buttons. Finance search gives you stock market and SEC databases. There are also speical pages to search for people and pictures and videos. For more reference sites, see JNet's Reference Page.
  
  
  
• Pick of the week for August 4, 2002:   World Freelancer   Looking for the perfect place to pitch a story idea? This site offers extensive lists of writing markets by continent, including detailed submission guidelines for many magazines. There are also tips and job postings. For more job news, see JNet's Jobs Page.
  
  
  
• Pick of the week for July 28, 2002:   Journalists' Weblogs   Weblogs are personal diaries of web sites visited. When they are compiled by thoughtful journalists, they can be insightful, helpful for leads or just plain fun. This list has weblogs from veteran investigative journalist Peter Maas, a Boston Globe business reporter, an MSNBC correspondent and others. For more media profession news, see JNet's Media Page.
  
  
  
• Pick of the week for July 21, 2002:   Rulers Investigating arms exports from your country and you need to know who was in power in Argentina in the 1970s or who ruled Belgium six years ago? Rulers.org has complete lists of heads of states going back to 1900, plus a detailed list of key world events since 1996. For more information on finding leaders and governments, see JNet's Find Countries page.
  
  
  
• Pick of the week for July 14, 2002:   Find Law News on World Terrorism Find Law, one of the best legal research sites on the web, has a special section on terrorism. It offers the latest news, plus resources such as laws, cases and web links (although the Documents section is outdated.) Find Law also has a special page on the WorldCom scandal and other topics such as Enron and Tobacco. For more legal resources, see JNet's Legal News Page.
  
  
  
• Pick of the week for July 7, 2002:   FirstGov  The US government's official portal has improved its search tool and offers one of the best ways to start your search for anything connected to American governments -- federal or state. The international page offers links to 191 countries, foreign embassies, the CIA World FactBook and other useful tools. For other ways to search countries, see JNet's Country page.
  
  
  

• Pick of the week for June 30, 2002:   Portals of the World The US Library of Congress offers a top-notch database of information on countries around the world. Depending on the country, you get lists of web links for Government, Politics, History,Libraries, news media and even Listservs and Newsgroups. One of the most complete ways to begin research on a story abroad. For more ways to research countries, see JNet's Find Countries Page.
  
  

• Pick of the week for June 23, 2002:   Al-Bab.com run by Brian Whitaker, the Guardian's Middle East correspondent, is an excellent guide to Middle East news. You can choose news by country or region, or select from many of the background features. Country profiles give you everything from hotels to statistics to the best news sources.
  
  

• Pick of the week for June 16, 2002:   BBC Country profiles The BBC offers detailed snapshots of most countries -- history, political analysis, media outlets and in many cases a timeline of key events and outside web links. There is no central listing -- you have to search by region for Europe, Africa,Middle East, Asia-Pacific and the Americas. For more ways to research countries, see JNet's Find Countries Page.  
  
  

• Pick of the week for June 9, 2002:   Google Glossary Google Labs -- the department that keeps coming up with improvements for Google -- offers you a peek at a new site they are developing. Need a quick definition, not just of a word but of a concept or an issue -- for example, "ozone layer" or PCBs? You get several links to the best web pages that give you a snapshot of the phrase, its meaning and context. An excellent quick reference guide.
  
  

• Pick of the week for June 2, 2002:   $20,000 Investigative Reporting Prize Deadline Nears Entries for the annual International Consortium of Investigative Journalists Award for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting must be postmarked by July 15. The ICIJ Award aims to foster international investigative reporting. The work must have involved reporting in at least two countries. There is a $20,000 first-place prize and up to five $1,000 finalist awards. The ICIJ is a project of the Center for Public Integrity in Washington.
  In Canada, the deadline is June 15, for entries for third annual Justicia Awards for Excellence in Journalism. The Justicia Awards recognize outstanding broadcast and print stories that foster public awareness of any aspect of the Canadian justice system and are sponsored by the Canadian Bar Association, the Law Commission of Canada and the Department of Justice Canada. Email stephenh@cba.org or sbindman@justice.gc.ca for more information.

  
  
  
  
• Pick of the week for May 26, 2002:    BBC News Search The BBC has launched a new search engine which has distinct advantages for journalists. Its general results tend to be of higher quality than ordinary search tools. Plus you can click on a special button and get results only from BBC News and the BBC WebSite. The Advanced Archives search also gives you access to years of BBC online material.  For more news search tools, see JNet News.
  
  
• Pick of the week for May 19, 2002:    Teoma   A new search engine offers impressive results by using a new technology they call "Subject-Specific Popularity." They ask experts within a specific subject community about who they believe is the best resource for that subject. You almost always get very relevant results, neatly organized and tips on how to refine your search. A brilliant concept.
  
  
  
• Pick of the week for May 12, 2002: The Corporate Library Extensive site devoted to international corporate governance. The free services include news briefs. You can also do excellent company research  including not just biographies of CEOs and board members of companies listed on US stock exchanges, but also their salary, perks and sometimes even a copy of their contracts. For similar tools, see JNet's Business Criticism page.
  
  
  
• Pick of the week for May 5, 2002: Ajeeb.com With tensions in the Middle East showing no signs of easing, you might want to check out this site -- the only way to get translations from Arabic and English for free.  You can translate single words, selected text or entire web pages. For more translation tools from Russian, Chinese, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish, see JNet's Translation Page
  
  
  
• Pick of the week for April 28, 2002: Privacy International Get the latest news about internet privacy and other privacy issues from this organization based in London and the US. Last week, its American branch gave out its annual Big Brother Awards to top corporations and governments for infringing on citizens' rights. There are also Country reports on Privacy. For more links on privacy, see JNet's Privacy Watchdogs and JNet's Spy Tips
  
  
  
• Pick of the week for April 21, 2002:  Addresses.com Finding someone's email is mainly luck on the web. That's because there is no single directory and listings are always voluntary. But Addresses.com is one of the best -- it did not find all of my email addresses, but did track down 5 of them. For more email tools, see Jnet's Page Finding People's Email.
  
  
  
• Pick of the week for April 14, 2002: Guardian's Mideast special report page   As the Mideast war heats up, the British paper The Guardian offers excellent resources, including a weblog page with resources and a good list of media links. For direct access to more Mideast papers from ABYZ, click here.
  
  
  
• Pick of the week for April 7, 2002:  Intelligence Online High level insight and analysis -- for a price. Independent news for a few dollars an article. But there are also many free services, including summaries of articles and a great selection of links on everything from moneylaundering to arms and computer hacking. Aussi disponible en français
  
  
  
• Pick of the week for March 31, 2002:NewYorkTimes News Tracker The best newspaper on the web has added a new, personalized search feature. You can now single out specific words and tell the Times to email you any time the word or phrase appears in a headline, an article or even a byline. You have to register first at the member center, but it's all free.
  
  
  
• Pick of the week for March 24, 2002:  GoogleNews The best search engine on the web has rolled out a "beta" test version of an important new service for journalists -- a news search tool. You can read the last week's news by topic (World, Business, etc) or use the search box with the usual powerful Google accuracy.
  
  
  
• Pick of the week for March 17, 2002: Topica The place to search on the web for mailing lists -- the unsung heroes of the web. You can find experts, ordinary people and passionate crusaders among tens of thousands of email discussion topics. This revised page also gives you tips on how to subscribe and describes the different kinds of lists . For more on using mailing lists, see JNet's Mailing List Page and also Jnet's Journalism Lists.
  
  
  
• Pick of the week for March 10, 2002:  Newsthinking Every Monday morning Bob Baker adds a new excerpt from his Los Angeles Times newsletter on writing, taking you inside a successful story and showing you the structure of that success.
  
  
  
• Pick of the week for March 3, 2002:  Nelson Search A news search engine from Poynter.org that allows you to hunt through more than 200 print, broadcast, and online sites around the world -- plus 155 journalism-related organizations and 174 sites relevant to particular beats in the newsroom.See more news resources at JNet's Find News Pages.
  
  
  
• Pick of the week for February 24, 2002:  Newstrove A news search engine that offers many hot pre-selected topics (Mideast, Enron) and an easy search box. The results often come from a surprising variety of sources. See more news resources at JNet's Find News Pages.
  
  
  
• Pick of the week for February 17, 2002:   UN Guide  The UN has a treasure trove of information for journalists, but its web site -- like the UN itself -- is massive and disorganized. This official guide gives you an fast way to find departments by alphabetic listing, by theme and you can also search news releases. See more resources at JNet's Find Country Facts.
  
  
  
• Pick of the week for February 10, 2002:   Profnet Roundup  One of the best resource pages for experts -- Profnet -- has come up with a helpful instant list of consultants and media experts. Though heavily American, the list includes such topics as the Olympics and Performance-Enhancing Drugs, terrorism and the ABM treaty. You can also write to Profnet to request help on a specific story. For more resources in finding experts, see Jnet's Experts pages.
  
  
• Pick of the week for February 3, 2002:   Officer.com   An American law enforcement site with plenty of crime and justice links for international journalists. The site lists a wide range of police agencies across Canada and the world, along with international criminal justice links. For more legal resources, see Jnet's Legal News pages.
  
  
  
• Pick of the week for January 27, 2002:   InternetWire   An easy way to track corporate news releases. Includes an advanced search by headline, summary and date and helpful categories such as medical/health and legal issues. For more PR resources, see Jnet's PR page .
  
  
  
• Pick of the week for January 20, 2002:   Virtual Tuner   A fast way to find radio stations around the world. You can search by country, by news category and an advanced search ;lets you search by city. For more ways to find radio and TV, see Jnet's TV and Radio pages
  
  
  

• Pick of the week for January 13, 2002:   Al Jazeera in English Broadcast throughout the Middle East, al Jazeera has been called the "CNN of the Arab world." WBUR, a national Public Radio outlet in Boston, provides daily translations of its news. For more news on the continuing conflict in Afghanistan and the debates over the war on terrorism, [Discontinued after January 30. 2002] See JNet's War Coverage page.

  
  

• Pick of the week for January 6, 2002:   Scirus Scientific Search Sirus different from other search engines because it concentrates on scientific content only enabling you to chart and pinpoint data, locate university sites, and find reports and articles in an efficient manner. You can do an advanced search on focus on scientists' home pages, articles, abstracts or patents.

  For more ways to find science news, see JNet's Science page