The quickest finding trick I have is to use my browser and type in a question mark, a space, then the name of the subject (zip code, or company) I am looking for, and hit ENTER.  Just like the laws of statistics, it works -- 8 times out of 10. 

Another thing you can do for example ... Type in kinkos -- then hold your control key down while hitting ENTER.  Your browser will take you right there. randomhouse is another one, zebra is another one, so is talewins for that matter.  Just type in "talewins.com" and there you is.  Now occasionally the web is busy and you have to come back to type in the http, etc, but quite often, you are sailing home free with just the name.

The third quickest finding trick I use is with engines like Alta Vista . Type in the name, or the category, and you get the whole ball of wax, if too much information is available, narrow the search. For example, type in Death and you'll get 314 entries. "Death Books" (with the quotation marks) will narrow it to less than ten. Now, for a trick with the old codger. What if you hit a brick wall and still don't have what you want? Well, when you hit a brick wall, choose which way you want to bounce. Even if the page you hit has absolutely no links out whatsoever, you can backtrack.
Yes, backtrack from a brick wall. Pop over to the Alta Vista site and, follow this advice EXACTLY now, In the Search Field, Type in link:http://www.writers.net -- replacing the URL address of the brick wall site you hit where the http of this one now is. Or, in other words, type "link:" in front of the http: address of the brick wall. This will reveal all the pages known by Alta Vista to be linked TO that page. If they are linked to the page the chances are they have something in common with what is ON that page. This has saved my bacon many times when otherwise I would have given up entirely. For another use of this facility, click here on heroes.

One thing all of us love is FREE Goodies.  Search4Free Keeps you updated on the newest freebies on the web!  A huge site with business opportunities, books, gifts, cards, software, clothes, and -- you name it.

radio stations, theme, owners, reps, sortable.  Online Newspapers * Electronic Newsstand Dominis eZines Database * Ecola Newsstand

Net-Temps... a world of jobs, neatly packaged.  Billy Moliter has a terrific site here, easy to navigate, even easier to use.  The jobs looked real, and you can even get your own desktop for job hunting.  Uh -- when I mention REAL jobs, what I mean is that just a whole lot of companies advertise they have jobs, but don't intend to hire anyone.  They are simply advertising to keep their names in front of more people, or to give a false impression of imminent growth.

Philately  Exhibitions and collections.

Robin's Nest for Writers and Web Surfers is one of my favorite sites for writers. Cafe Au Lait has everything you need to know about Java all in one neat pigeonhole. And HTML heaven is right here beside it. Believe you me, there is enough html information here to earn you a B.A. at college. Included are special guides for writers.

The Calculator Page contains over "5,410" Calculators created by over '1,370' very "CREATIVE" Individuals, Businesses & Tax Supported Entities World Wide. If you have anything at all that needs figuring, this is the place to get it done. Has everything from numerology to astrophysics, from time, to camera field of view.

Alexa is a free advertising-supported Web navigation service. It works with your browser and accompanies you as you surf, providing useful information about the sites you are viewing and suggesting related sites.  Funny, I wasn't interested in that kind of assistance, but jumped right in for another program that monitored where I was going every day.  Of course, they paid me for the privilege, and I dropped them quickly enough when I realized they were getting as smart as I am

* Encyberpedia  American Society of Association Execs can give you tons of information and assistance on hundreds of subjects of interest to writers.

A terrific all out helpful page comes from my friend Ken called  Secrets of Searching the Web and Promoting Your website. Schedule yourself a good hour for exploring, and then plan on coming back for more intensive studies later. I have looked this page over quite extensively, and found it to be THE most helpful page yet encountered in many hours of study.

The Stalkers Home Page, everything you ever gagged on about stalking.

State and Local Government on the Net  
The Internet Crime Complaint Center IC3's mission is to serve as a vehicle to receive, develop, and refer criminal complaints regarding the rapidly expanding arena of cyber crime. The IC3 gives the victims of cyber crime a convenient and easy-to-use reporting mechanism that alerts authorities of suspected criminal or civil violations. For law enforcement and regulatory agencies at the federal, state, local and international level, IC3 provides a central referral mechanism for complaints involving Internet related crimes.

* Some More Red Hot Search Engines are listed here in machine gun fashion.
HotBot * DogPile * GO.com * All In One Search * Alta Vista * IFind * Beaucoup! * Excite * MetaSearch at Highway 61 * Scoop Cybersleuth's Internet Guide * Search.Com * Web Search * Webcrawler *  Linkmaster   * Scrub The Web * The Net One *

To find Heroes, Single out a few pages in your genre who are exceeding successful and pop over to the Alta Vista site and, follow this advice EXACTLY now, In the Search Field, Type in link:http://www.writers.net -- replacing the url address of the site you admire where this one now is. What does this achieve? This will roll out a big long list (well, you can hope it is as big and long as this one) which will give you the linking pages that are sending people to visit the Hero Site you admire so much. Go to them, everyone linking to your hero, and ask for a link to your page. One last thing, remember the first advice I gave you.. make dad blasted sure you have a home page worth linking to before you go. Fail to do this and not only will you waste your time, you may very well kill any chances you have for going back in the near future.  

Experts.Com * Festival Finder * FileMine download site * Image Surfer (Pix) list * ISpy News Search * Jeeves Search Engine * Look Smart-download site * Video Games Yellow Pages *

Mailing lists

Liszt, the mailing list directory * MAILLIST.COM * Publicly Accessible Mailing Lists *

This isn't an engine or an index, but as a resource for maps and map history, not listing it would be inexcusible.

National Address Server Given a valid U.S. postal address, this server attempts to rewrite the address in the proper format along with the ZIP+4 code. Try it out with your own name. If it is successful, you can retrieve a Postscript or a GIF file of the address for printing, with a barcode! You can also view a street map of the address, from 2 different Internet map sites (MapBlast and MapQuest).

How many brothers did George III have? How many sisters did George Washington have? Okay, so you're smarter than I am. Now, what are their names? Ah ha, gotcha. When you are writing historical fiction (or fact) it would be a good idea to check out their geneaology. Do that here.

Anzwers Search Centre is creating a comprehensive engine.  They even list some of the postcards sent out, not the post card senders, the cards themselves!  That's extensive.

* Find the Homepage a unique Finder if there ever was one. * Personal Home Page Finder * Companies on the Net * World Pages * WWWomen! Search Directory for Women

Award Site Heaven has a long list of sites which will evaluate your page and serve up an award if you earn it. There is also some pertinent advice tacked on the end of the page for those who think of serving up their own awards. Here's one you can grow on.