Collects information from many different Asian journals and newspapers and prints the articles in English. Produced in Hong Kong by a team of property research specialists. (Subscription)

GDP and other economic data for the United States.

Much more than just population figures, although they are here as well. Information on housing starts, the construction industry, and the economic census covering many industries and conducted every five years.

The Board of Governors site allows an informative look at the banking system and money supply of United States. FRED contains historical data on interest rates, exchange rates, banking, and the money supply as well as numbers supplied by other government agencies. Each regional Federal Reserve Bank also has its own Web page.

Excellent background reports on countries of the world.

Yes, the Central Intelligence Agency, but no cloak and dagger here. This factbook is really a useful survey of information about countries of the world.

Information on countries and regions, industries, lists of international trade shows, and much more.

A super site with super links; they claim to have 25,000. The links are well organized and often annotated with useful remarks.

These pages include modules on company information, industry information, stock exchanges, small business, international business, and more. Web links, print resources, and suggested approaches for research in each given area are integrated into these lists.

One of the leaders in strength, flexibility, features, and percentage coverage of the World Wide Web. Also one of the oldest full-strength search engines, but the site is constantly changing and being kept up to date. Be sure to use the advanced search screen to take advantage of Boolean search and other features.

A unique "look and feel" that is not everyone's cup of tea, but good coverage, features, and flexibility. If your favorite search engine lets you down, Hotbot's different approach will be sure to turn up something you did not find before.

My personal favorite, but no search engine does the job alone. This site was designed by librarians (!) only a few years ago, but rivals Altavista and Hotbot for coverage of the Web. Offers an industry search feature that can simplify the process of finding meaningful business sites. Besides being a Web search engine, Northern Light gives access to copyrighted articles (their "special collection" documents) at reasonable rates. Organizes your search into folders after you do it, a unique feature.