And by canonical, I mean web sites that are truly useful and definitive sources of information. For example, if you need to find out what actor was in what movie, you can go to the Internet Movie Database, type in the name of an actor or a movie and find out. The CD Database presumably does the same thing for music. The online Merriam-Webster dictionary is good enough, even if it isn’t the OED.
And of course Google is arguably the greatest search engine ever, and if there’s a piece of information you can’t find there, you can always ask it here on the boards.
So tell me, Dopers, what web sites do you visit when you need to find out something?
Well, when I need biographical info on a band I might be interviewing in the near future, I hit the Ultimate Band List. It can be found at http://www.ubl.com
IMDB is a given, but another great search engine is Metacrawler, at http://www.metacrawler.com. If I have to do research on a topic or a competitive analysis for a client, and don’t feel like wading through tonnes of crap there, I’ll just go to Yahoo and use the directory search there… their search engine sux hard, but if you have a general idea of what category to look in, you’ll find all sorts of useful info.
Useful for computer terms. Someone directed me to the Jargon File once when I asked about Godwin’s Law. It’s a great resource.
Snopes:
The definitive source for all urban legends. Almost every time I’ve received an urban legend via email, I’ve been able to go to Snopes and find either the verification or debunking.
The Exploding Dictionary is better.
For information about languages (foreign and English) yourdictionary.com (translation dictionaries, rhyming dictionaries, thesauruses, etc.)
For general knowledge, Encyclopedia Britannica (free registration required)
Alphagene’s post in the Moderator’s Notes: On General Questions thread a while back had a great list of web sites like that. I used quite a few of them and have started using quite a few in that post that I didn’t know about. I’d repost them here but there are quite a few, so I’ve just linked back to his post.
The All Music Guide http://www.allmusic.com/ includes complete discographies, often with album/CD track listings and insightful commentary.
Working on a sure-fire Hollywood manuscript? You couldn’t find a better on-line course in how to do it all, from plotting to marketing, than this site written by a couple of industry pros http://www.wordplayer.com/
Los Alamos National Laboratory has a handy periodic table here. Click on an element and get a rundown on everything from Hydrogen to the as-yet-unnamed Element 118 http://pearl1.lanl.gov/periodic/
And the 1901 version of Bartlett’s is online at http://www.bartleby.com/100/ which helps with those classic quotations
A great links page for everything to do with comics: newspaper series, magazine stand variety, undergrounds, alternatives, graphic novels, online comics, etc. is http://aaa.wraithspace.com/
Probably the best online Bible search is Blue Letter Bible at http://www.blueletterbible.org/ You can access every verse and passage in the original Greek, Aramaic, or Hebrew it was written in. It’s an amazing feature. Also has several translations.
I highly recommend these sites and have them all bookmarked themselves.
My favorite canonical site is Fred Espenak’s Eclipse Home Page. Need to know the time, location, and duration of the next solar or lunar eclipse? Got it. Looking for eclipses of historic interest? Got 'em. Looking for all a Seven Thousand Year Catalog of Very Long Solar Eclipses? It’s there too.
http://www.nativeweb.org/
Native Web. An electronic database project providing information on Native cultural groups, law and literature, languages, education, and publications.
http://www.ncai.org/
The National Congress of American Indians. Along with much other useful stuff, this site lists the addresses of all of the U.S. tribal governments, and has links to official tribal Sites. (Click on “Tribal Directory”.)
The Native American Rights Fund. A good source of information about current legal issues.
http://www.indianz.com/ Indianz.Com. Their mission: to provide quality news, information, and entertainment, from a Native American perspective.
http://www.oyate.org/main.html
Oyate is a Native organization working to see that Native American lives and histories are portrayed honestly. The Site includes reviews of materials for children about Native Americans.
http://saiic.nativeweb.org/
The South and Meso American Indian Rights Center (SAIIC) exists to ensure that the struggles of Latin America’s Indigenous peoples for self-determination and respect are heard in the US and internationally, and to support Indigenous peoples’ organizing.
http://abyayala.nativeweb.org/
Abya Yala Net is a project of the South and Meso American Indian Rights Center (SAIIC) in colaboration with NativeWeb. This site presents information on Indigenous peoples in Mexico, Central, and South America.
http://www.moles.org/uwa/index.html
U’wa: People of the Andean Cloud Forest. Information on U’wa culture, traditions, beliefs, and current situation, from the U’wa Defense Working Group.
http://members.nbci.com/cariblink/index.html
Caribbean Amerindian Centrelink. An international editorial team presents comprehensive coverage of native Caribbean communities and educational resources.