Research tools

We discussed a few of the research tools which would be useful for your individual research topic - some are obvious, a few less so:

• Encyclopedia
• wikipedia - nearly always a useful starting point
• Howstuffworks - often good explanations of technology, spoilt by advertising
  
• Search engine
• google - you may have other prefered search engines but this is still the best for me
• Search peer-reviewed papers on the web
• scholar google
• MSN
  
• Online academic journals are searchable and available via the library - see in particular:
• the ACM Digital Library
• IEEE Xplore
• Springer Link
• Online industry journals
• Digital Web Magazine
  
• Usage statistics from alaxa - alaxaradar is a useful mashup of alexa data showing trends
• podcasts and vod casts
• Google Techtalks
  
• IT Conversations
  
• comparison sites - there is often a site which gathers technical data on the available software of a given kind - e.g. wikimatrix for wikis
• developer sites
  
• XML.com
  
• IBM developerworks
• Developer.com
  
• Conferences - commercial - XTech, ...
  
• your own personal experience of use
• site discussion boards and blogs
• standards documents