JNet Picks of the Week - 2003

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

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

  • See JNet's Top Ten Picks of the Year for 2003

  • Pick of the week for December 21, 2003: Search Online Books More than 20,000 books are available for free online. Use this page to search them by title, author or subject. Amazon also offers a way not just to buy books but to search their content. For more book searches, see JNet's Find Books Pages .

  • Pick of the week for December 14, 2003: AllRefer Country Guide A comprehensive reference site, AllRefer, offers an extensive look at every country in the world -- complete history in almost overwhelming detail, plus basic facts and links. For similar tools, see JNet's Reference Pages and see JNets Country Pages for more ways to find out about countries.

  • Pick of the week for December 7, 2003: OneWorld.ca Refreshingly different news from an alternative perspective, this site offers well-researched news article from Canada and around the world. Part of the OneWorld.net web sites, which give you great resources for experts, opinion and documents and major issues. (Aussi disponible en français avec unseulmonde.ca) For more alternative news tools see JNet's Alternate News Pages

  • Pick of the week for November 30, 2003: VROOSH! Advanced News Search This new search engine allows you to do a multiple search -- by country. There are many tools that are meta-crawlers, hunting through many search engines at once. But Vroosh also allows you to narrow your search to a country. In the advanced page, in the "Where" box, select your country and Vroosh searches through Google, Teoma, AltaVista and other good searchg engines to bring you relevant hits. For more search tools see JNet's Search Pages

  • Pick of the week for November 23, 2003: DMOZ Open Directory The Open Directory Project is the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web, maintained by a vast, global community of volunteer editors. Instead of doing a blind search by keywords, there can sometimes be a distinct advantage to search by topics. You'll discover gems you would never uncover by restricting your search to words you thought you needed. For example, their listing of newspapers, media watchdogs, . and journalism pages contains many surprises. For more search tools see JNet's Search Pages

  • Pick of the week for November 16, 2003:  Total News A reliable news search tool, Total News' strength is in its simplicity and ease of use. There is a basic search function, but the best way to use it to browse by country (click on World) or by topic -- business, technology, etc. For each country, you get local news media and wire services. A good way to get a snapshot of what the news is around the world. For other news tools see JNet's Finds News Pages

  • Pick of the week for November 9, 2003:   1st Headlines An old stalwart in the web news business, 1st Headlines does not have the breadth or scope of Google News, but its fresh look does offer some attractions. It has special links for news on Iraq and SARS. If you click on one of the continents or countries listed on the right hand side, you get a quick snapshot of news from CNN, MSNBC, the Christian Science Monitor and the Independent from London. As always, you can also search by major themes, such as Health and Technology. For other news tools see JNet's Finds News Pages

  • Pick of the week for November 2, 2003:   Marketwatch Need a fast fact on a business story or an update on what trouble a company is in? Marketwatch from CBS news offers free and searchable business news content from AP, Reuters, CBS, New York Times, Financial Times and other outlets. You can search by keyword or company ticker and you can choose individual news sites or hunt through them all. For more ways to find business news see JNet's Business News Pages

  • Pick of the week for October 26, 2003:   Newslink A revamped look for this site makes it even easier to use to find newspapers, radio and TV stations from around the world. Its strength is American media, but its international covearge is broad. For more ways to find newspapers, see JNet's Find Papers page, plus Find TV and Find Radio.

  • Pick of the week for October 19, 2003:   Vivisimo This was the search engine that first introduced clustering -- instead of just giving you one long list, Vivisimo groups your search results by themes and suggests new avenues of research. Now it has expanded its resources. For news, Vivisimo has added the CBC, PBS and other outlets to an already strong list that includes the New York Times and the BBC. Plus you can now get clustered results from several top American universities, medical web sites , and government sites including the US government and the World Bank. For more new search engines, see JNet Next Generation Page of search tools.

  • Pick of the week for October 12, 2003:   Geek Tools - Who Is Finding out who exactly is behind a web page can be an important way to verify information or track down targets of your investigation. The Geek Tool site offers one of simplest interfaces to do this, with fast results. For more ways to find web site owners, see JNet's Who is Behind a Web Page and also a feature article on the subject on the JNet Tips page.

  • Pick of the week for October 5, 2003:  Open Secrets  Washington gears up for the presidential elections of 2004 and money talks. To find out who is doing the talking, Open Secrets is the best place to start. Not just who is financing the candidates, but who is behind various senators and congress representatives. There is a special section on Iraq contracts, plus a free alert by email system. For more US resources, see Jnet's US Page.

  • Pick of the week for September 29, 2003:  AskJeeves - News  Ask Jeeves, the simple text search engine, also offers a decent news search tool. Once you get your results, you can also narrow down the search to news from the last day, week or month. The International  page also allows you to search for news from or about a country. Not as sophisticated as Google News, but you do get some surprising results. For more News search tools, see JNet's News Page

  • Pick of the week for September 22, 2003: Google News Alert Google has just added an excellent feature to its already excellent Google news search site. Now you can set an endless number of free news alerts - once a day or as they happen -- for any words that appear in newspapers and media outlets. Using the advanced search function, you can even narrow your alerts to a single publication. Be sure to read the tips to find out how this is done. For more Google search tools, see JNet's Best Search Page

  • Pick of the week for September 15, 2003: Anywho International Anywho, one of the best tools for searching for US phone numbers and addresses, offers a short list of world resources as well. Not as complete as others, but it covers the bases with ease and simplicity. For more phone books, see JNet's Phone Pages

  • Pick of the week for September 8, 2003:   Dogpile Already one of the better multiple search tools (they search many search engines at once), Dogpile has improved by using the new clustering technology. Your search results are returned with suggestions for other combinations of words "clustered" by theme. For more mega-search tools, see Jnet's Multiple Search Page

  • Pick of the week for September 1, 2003:   GoogleAlert Tired of always returning to Google to check on the same topic over and over again? Worried about missing a new web page on a breaking story? This free and ingenious device runs daily Google searches for you and emails you whenever new results appear. You can run up to five separate searches. For more Google search tools, see JNet's Best Search Page

  • Pick of the week for August 24, 2003:  Querydata One of the least expensive ways to gather information on someone in the United States. You can get statewide Criminal Conviction Records for $2.95, search driving records in 50 states, or do a complete check on someone for $9.95 -- including possible family members, neighbours, tax liens and civil judgments, aircraft ownership, and bankruptcies.For more ways to spy on people in the US, see JNet's US Criminal Databases or see Spy on People for other countries.

  • Pick of the week for August 17, 2003:   iTools A convenient gathering on one site of some of the top web tools. You get the major search engines, but also language tools and research sources such as dictionaries, biographies and quotes. For more reference tools, see JNet's Reference Desk.

  • Pick of the week for August 10, 2003:   Kartoo A delightful new search tool, Kartoo takes your keywords and then draws a visual map, with links to other topics that help you refine your search. If nothing else, it's a lot prettier to look at that all those lists from other search engines. For more on the new generation of search tools, see JNet's Search Page

  • Pick of the week for August 3, 2003:   CNN Specials. You already know CNN for its fast news. But you can also use these Specials to hunt for background features, resources and special dossiers -- going back as far as 1996. For more news tools, see JNet's News Page


  • Pick of the week for July 27, 2003:   Dogpile International Directories. The multi-search engine Dogpile also offers a listing of world phone directories. For more world phone directories, see JNet's Phone Page

  • Pick of the week for July 20, 2003:   Newsworld Media News With controversy swirling around the BBC and its firm policy of protecting the identity of sources in the wake of the suicide of the British arms expert, the media often finds itself in the news instead of just reporting it. One of the best sources for news about the media -- everything from freedom of the press, deaths in Iraq, to controversies on the screen -- comes from the London-based Newsworld. For more media news, see JNet's Media Page

  • Pick of the week for July 13, 2003:   Facsnet Daily Briefing   The FACSNET Daily News Briefing, run by the Foundation for American Communications, provides sources, resources and backgrounders to the day's top stories in science, economics, community and public policy. For more news sources, see JNet News.

  • Pick of the week for July 6, 2003:   Dogpile toolbar One of the better multiple search services, Dogpile allows you to search 13 major engines including Google and FAST. Now with the Dogpile toolbar, you get access to these tools while surfing any web page -- plus yellow or white pages ,a dictionary and thesaurus. For more toolbars, see JNet's Search Tools Page

  • Pick of the week for June 29, 2003:   Phonebook of the World This new site is run by WhitePages.com, already an excellent resource for finding American and Canadian numbers. Now they offer directories for 244 countries. Plus you get dialling codes, basic statistics and business links. For more phone directories, see JNet's Phones Page.

  • Pick of the week for June 22, 2003:   The Internet Archive Toolbar    The Wayback Machine was always a little known but delightful archive tool -- making it possible to surf more than 10 billion pages stored in the Internet Archive. You can find years-old versions of web pages -- it's hit or miss, but still always useful to see what some official site was saying before or after a key event. Now you can put the Wayback Machine right in your browser by simply dragging this new toolbar link to your browser toolbar. Then when you visit a page that you want to find an old version of, just click and you will be transported to any historic versions at the Wayback Machine. For more archive tools, see JNet' Find Archives Page

  • Pick of the week for June 15, 2003:   BBC Monitoring This site - Newsbasemonitoring -- allows you to search and read thousands of news reports from radio, newspaper, internet, television and news agency broadcasts from over 3,000 sources in more than 150 countries, monitored by the BBC and then translated into English. Each article is about $10 US, but the search and headline results are free. So are email alerts which will notify you if your search term appears in a news report. For more news search tools, see JNet's Find News Page.


  • Pick of the week for June 8, 2003:   Find the best search engine Need quick advice on what is the best tool to use for your research? Debbie Abilock of the San Francisco Chronicle continues to update her excellent list of the top tools on the web - from fast news to deep background. For more web training, see JNet's Online Courses.

  • Pick of the week for June 1, 2003:   $20,000 Investigative Reporting Prize Deadline Nears Time again to announce the annual deadline for 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.

  • Pick of the week for May 25, 2003:    CrHear is one of the largest online audio, radio, TVand video broadcasting directories on the internet. Simply select what format you want -- news, music, etc -- and then the country and you get an up-to-date list. Then click a channel and see or hear the newscast. For ways to find radio, see Jnet's Find Radio Pages.

  • Pick of the week for May 18, 2003:    Multinational Monitor Bi-monthly newsletter provides revealing insight into worldwide corporate activities. Free archives, including the Ten Worst Multinationals of the Year, plus an excellent links page with resources from around the world. For more corporate watch sites, see Jnet's Business News Pages.


  • Pick of the week for May 11, 2003:    This Day In History Need to know what happened today? This History Channel site offers an easy search tool -- you can even find out what happened on your birthday. For more history tools, see JNet's Reference Page.


  • Pick of the week for May 4, 2003:    Newsisfree   This site collects headlines from 5470 sources around the web and lets you browse the latest headlines, search for the latest news and even create custom pages with your own choice of news sources or send headlines to your friends and colleagues by mail. For more search tools, see JNet's Search News Page

  • Pick of the week for April 27, 2003:     Google Toolbar Get the best of Google right on your browser's toolbar. Install this free tool from Google -- you must have Internet Explorer running -- and get instant access to the Google search engine,Google's Advanced Search, Google News, and Google Groups. For more toolbars, see JNet's Search Tools Page


  • Pick of the week for April 20, 2003: WatchThatPage   Often you visit a web page -- a news page, the official site of a lobby group or a person's page you are monitoring -- and need to know if there have been any changes or updates. This free tool will send you an email anytime a certain keyword you specify appears on your target page. For other tracking tools, see Jnet's Track Changes Page.

  • Pick of the week for April 13, 2003:Gurunet   Do more than browse.  This nifty add-on gets you more information on the words you select -- everything from the latest news, biographies, maps, statistics, translation, plus business and dictionary help. Click on any word -- not just on a web page, but even in your email or Word documents -- and Gurunet launches and retrieves information from its database. Extremely practical for news searches on the fly. You can download a trial version for free, but after 14 days it only does a dictionary and thesaurus search -- not the full news tools. The full version costs $39 US, but is well worth the price.

  • Pick of the week for April 6, 2003: Aileena  Over 5,500 links to Newspapers, Radio and TV Stations in 174 countries. One of the many ways to find media. For more resources, check out JNet's Find Newspapers Page.

  • Pick of the week for March 30, 2003: Newstrove Fast news search tool gives you access to over 7000 publications -- many from the UK and Australia. You can search by topics on the Iraq war or put in any keywords.

  • Pick of the week for March 23, 2003:  New York Times Navigator An excellent list of resources for covering the war provided by the New York Times. Some of the tools and web sites their own journalists use are listed by category. For more resources, see JNet's Covering War Page.

  • Pick of the week for March 16, 2003:  Ajeeb The only way to translate from Arabic to English. Not free, (English to Arabic is free though) but well worth the $15 a month if you want to read Arab web pages while covering the Iraq war. For more resources, see JNet's Translate Tools.


  • Pick of the week for March 9, 2003:Reverse People Search Reverse searches allow you to put in a phone number and find out who belongs to it. This site allows you to choose some or all of five different phone directories from Canada and the US. You can also do a reverse address search from three directories. And People Search also offers a classic name search from dozens of directories. For more reverse phone searches, see JNet's Phone Page


  • Pick of the week for March 2, 2003:    Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on IRAQ   One of America's most respected foundations has a rich database of information on the upcoming war, including news, experts and links. Plus a separate page on weapons and Iraq country resources. For more resources, see JNet's Covering War Page


  • Pick of the week for February 23, 2003:    Alexa Page Rank Want to know how popular this page is and how it ranks on the web? This Alexa tool gives you not just rankings. It also tells you who is really behind a web page, who else links to their site and related sites. A great way to judge the credibility of a web site. You can also see the most popular web sites by topics. For more resources, see JNet's Who is Behind a Web Site Page


  • Pick of the week for February 16, 2003:   NorthernLight News Search   Northern Light offers a quick way to search for news, with the option of limiting the hunt to the past two weeks, today's news and even the last two hours. Power Search gives you even more features. For more news tools, see JNet's Search news  page.


  • Pick of the week for February 9, 2003:   Allyoucanread.com A searchable directory of 27,000 magazines and newspapers from 200 countries. This handy web site combines searching for newspapers and magazines. You can search for newspapers by country but also see the top 10 in most countries. You can search for magazines by topic or country -- or both: for example, health magazines from the UK. For more resources, see JNet's Find Newspapers Page and JNet's Find Magazines Page


  • Pick of the week for February 2, 2003:   Shuttle Disaster: Tragedies like the loss of the Columbia shuttle can oblige even general journalists to become experts in space and science news. Check out SpaceDaily , Space.com, and UniverseToday For more resources, see JNet's Science News Page.

  • Pick of the week for January 26, 2003:    ExpertClick A quick easy way to find (American only) experts on some of the most popular topics. What makes this site attractive is not just its easy search engine. Once you get the results, you can click on the organizations to see what their expertise is, visit their web site or even send them an instant email. Free registration required to use the advanced features. For more resources, see JNet's Experts Page.


  • Pick of the week for January 19, 2003:   E Investigator.com  This American private investigation site offers more than the usual books and software for sale. It also tells you where to get US vital records and offers extensive genealogy sites. If you're also looking for a private eye to find someone for you, it lists US private eyes  and Canadian private eyes For more resources, see JNet's Private Eye Page.


  • Pick of the week for January 12, 2003:   Corporate Information.com Type in the name of a company or ticker and you'll get a list of sites that cover the company. Over 350,000 profiles are indexed by their search engine. Plus, they offer world-wide country profiles. Registration is required but it is free. For more business resources, see JNet's Business Page.


  • Pick of the week for January 5, 2003:   Statistics on the Web    The University of Michigan's Document Center provides a wealth of easy to find statistical resources. Most of the topics are American, from abortion to wildlife. But there are extensive foreign government listings and international agencies. For more resources, see JNet's Countries Pages