Is the Web way too big? Some sites try to narrow things to what you really need or like. We found librarians trying to help, along with sites about the vast world of search engines and crime as entertainment, and a place to create your own advertising-free Web newspaper.
SEARCH WATCH
Informative and even surprising news about search engines is here. Some are highly specialized. For example, we discovered Zoominfo, at www.zoominfo.com, which catches descriptive information about millions of people named on the Web. Tutorials help you fine-tune a standard search.
CRIME LIBRARY
Crime is an acquired taste, and — forgive us — we tend to like it. That is, we like reading about it. And the Crime Library site, which belongs to Court TV, has lots of crime to explore. There are sections on criminal psychology, notorious crimes, terrorists and spies. And it has the latest on running cases, including the Michael Jackson trial and the BTK arrest and investigation in Kansas.
www.crimelibrary.com
LIBRARIAN’S INDEX
The Librarian’s Index to the Internet is a valiant effort to sort out the best Web sites. After all, would real librarians steer us wrong? The site promises to keep its links current, and claims fewer than 100 dead sites among its 16,000 listings at any given time.
http://lii.org
PERSONAL NEWS
Here is a venerable site. It has been around since the mid-1990s and is not at all flashy. What it does is let you make a “personal” newspaper that really is not much more than a Web-based list of bookmarks. But it is your own list. Then you jazz it up with your own title.
http://crayon.net
