The editors of Pandia share their favorite sites for practical problem solving, search and information.

As webmasters and journalists we are heavy users of sites that helps us handle large amounts of information or that guides to the right source. And, believe it or not, we also have a life — which means that we use the Web for other purposes as well.

Here are our top 10 favorites right now:

1. Google Web Search
Yahoo! and Live are getting better and Ask.com is a hidden gem, but none of them are able to beat Google in the game of high quality Web search.

That doesn’t mean that there isn’t room for improvement. We hate it when they redirect us to the sub-standard Norwegian version of Google, or seem totally incapable of finding the true home page of a hotel site, but still — most of the time it rocks!

2. IMDB
All right, we admit that this one isn’t work related. But when we sit in front of the TV, wondering what the name of that actor is and what other movies he or she has acted in, the Internet Movie Database comes to the rescue. It is packed with information on movies, TV shows, actors. They should freshen up the design, though. It is so nineties!

3. Amazon
Per believes that the Amazon knows him, as she has this uncanny ability to send him exactly the kind of books, CDs and DVDs he likes.

Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk are not necessarily the cheapest online stores around, but their ability to recommend new products based on your previous purchases is amazing.

4. The Wikipedia
Many search engine marketers hate the Wikipedia as it has a tendency of taking over the top position for many search queries. Then there are the academics that claim that it is unprofessional and unreliable.

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