Educational and Useful Websites: A Help for Students and Researchers in the Internet Age

Question and Answer Websites:

Answer Bag - Site allows you to ask any question and get the answers from real people, or, you can answer the other people’s questions. The sections ‘Expert Q&A’ and ‘Local Q&A’ are mostly helpful. Questions listed on the site are non-duplicated and always open for answers all the while making your search easier. 

WikiAnswers - The Answers.com Q&A Wiki of questions and answers from the internet community; Q&A’s in the different categories and localities. You can search for answers from the community or from the references of the Answers.com library.

Online Reference Encyclopedias:

Answers.com - The best concise answers website that clip excerpts from other web-free encyclopedias, dictionaries, glossaries, or biographies all in one accurate search, and even includes a how to cite (MLA, APA, or Chicago) section at the utmost bottom of the Answer pages. Aside from the Q&A search, the site also has a Community Forum, and the downloadable 1-Click Answers TM to make searches easier.

Wikipedia.org - Free encyclopedia that anyone can edit using the GNU Free Documentation License and Wiki software. The site is hosted by the non-profit organization Wikimedia Foundation. Wikipedia is available in different languages and includes the Simple English Wikipedia. Other sections include the Wikibooks free open-content textbooks, the Wikisourcefree-content online library, Wikiquote free collection of recognized quotes and quotations, and the Wikiversityopen-learning community project. There’s also the Wikimedia Commons, source of free media you can use according to its Creative Commons license.

Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, Translation, etc:

Reference.com - An Ask.com service, free online reference encyclopedia; also provides other sources like Dictionary, Thesaurus, and online Translator; plus Crossword Puzzles and various other interesting learning tools and resources.

Merriam Webster - The No.1 best free online dictionary and thesaurus website, that also offer Spanish to English and medical dictionaries. The site includes audio pronunciations, etymology, history of a word, and usage in sentences; and word games and Word of the Day.

Free Translation - From the best provider of free online translation as well as professional language translator services, the SDL. Free Translation is not just a document or website translation site; it also offers free New Language Learning Tools to help you learn Chinese, Spanish, Dutch, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, or Russian.

The Best Search Engines for Students or Scholars:

Google Scholar Beta - Google search engine app that allows you to search only academic resources on various scholarly disciplines. This Google app allows libraries to subscribe and link to the papers or books that appear on your search; this lets their patrons know which copies are available in their library. Before searching, first edit your ‘Scholar Preferences’ by entering on the ‘Library Links’ field the library you want to include in your search results.

Dog Pile - Search engine that fetches search results from the four leading search providers, Bing, Google, Yahoo!, and Ask.com, all in just a click of a button. Provides the best search results, and very helpful if you’re trying to narrow down your search between the four search engines.

Web based Directory of (Scholarly or Educational) Websites:

Lii.org – Librarians Internet Index - Directory and search engine of (librarians’) selected links to websites on several multi-disciplinary subjects.

Read also:

Part 2 – Top Most Helpful Websites for Education, Learning, and Research

Part 3 – Most Useful Educational Websites for the Scholarly

(c) Ae Dechavez