Research Shortcuts for Writers

Everybody loves shortcuts, right? Here's an interesting collection of them: StartSpot. The home page links to resources for finding information more quickly on books, movies, employment, genealogy, charities, food, government, headlines, homework, libraries, museums, people, shopping and travel. "So what?" you may say, "Any search engine does that." But this isn't a search engine, it is human-edited lists for specific purposes. They say:

Our editorial team carefully evaluates and selects the best, most relevant and most interesting online resources for a topic, then organizes the information to make it easily accessible.

Take a look at BookSpot, for example. Glancing down the menu in the left column, it appears that most anything you'd like to find is covered. When you click on a specific topic, you don't find references to everything (and have to wade your way through the dross). The editors have chosen the most useful links to present to visitors, cutting down on the time it takes to do the research.