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Searching the Internet
     Remember that all search engines have (usually) well written explanations about how to use them; for example: can you use truncation?, do Boolean searches work? Can you use + or - before a word or do you need to use Boolean operators- AND, OR, NOT and NEAR?  Most search engines have an advanced or supersearch option which can make searching more controlled and effective. There is usually a seperate help page for this advanced search.
     These are the search engines I recommend in order of my preference, from most favored and used, to least (but all are quite good).         HotBot   (for HotBot SuperSearch, click on "more options" button)     AltaVista  (for AltaVista Advanced search, click "advanced" hyperlink)       Infoseek      Northern Light  (Northern Light is newer, uses folders to store results, and learns about your search as you use it, thus getting more useful data for you over time. Access for a small fee to the contents of over 5400 journals and books not usually available on search engines.)    Excite        Lycos      Magellan  (These last two have reviewed sites which you can search seperately.)
The two meta-search engines (ones that submit a search to many search engines simultaneously) that I like are Dogpile and Highway 61. Highway 61 is more amusing; Dogpile a little better in retrieving useful results.
     For a unique way to browse for search engines by type, you must look at the All-in-one Search Page. Kudos to the webmaster. In the past it has not been updated as often as I'd like, but it is unique and still a great resource.
     There are a lot of ways to search for maps and addresses. I use Webcrawler's map service.  Infoseek has a good map-creator service, too. At Mapquest, get driving directions to anywhere in the U.S.  For telephone white and yellow pages, I use the excellent Switchboard. Infoseek has good white and yellow pages, too. Another good site is BigYellow.
Zip Codes? The U.S. Postal Service delivers.

Downloading Software
     If I had a Mac, I would have a somewhat different list of sites to visit, but these sites all offer some Mac software. These sites offer downloads of freeware, shareware and demoware.The biggest Windows software site I know is Winsite. The most entertaining site, smaller but very useful, is Tucows. Their Nantucket server works well for me. The internet giant CNet offers two sites, Shareware.Com and Download.Com. Don't forget that Microsoft, Netscape and Apple offer free software of all kinds for downloading at their sites. And plug-in, or helper software like AdobeAcrobat Reader, Shockwave and RealSystem/RealAudio are free in a basic, stripped-down form from their creator's company sites sites, or from the download sites above, and of course:

Tucows did not pay for this banner- I just like it.