We all have a shortlist of websites and web tools that we return to often. Here’s a list of 17 handy web tools that may be useful for managers, communicators, and HR staff. We’re sure that we’ve featured a few of these before, but a reminder never hurts. Most of these of these tools are free or have a free version. Have any free web resources you use all the time? Let us know!
- eLaws Advisors (Dept of Labor) – elaws is a set of interactive, online tools to help employers and employees learn more about their rights and responsibilities under numerous Federal employment laws.
- Free Management Library – Since 1995, one of the world’s most complete, well-organized libraries of 1,000’s of practical resources for personal, professional, business, and organizational development. The broad categories include sections, each of which has numerous topics. Also, each topic includes links to descriptions and various online articles related to that topic.
- The Diversity Style Guide – Resource to help journalists and other communicators cover a complex, multicultural world with accuracy, authority and sensitivity. The guide includes terms and phrases related to race/ethnicity; religion; sexual orientation; gender identity; age and generation; drugs and alcohol; and physical, mental and cognitive disabilities.
- OneLook – Your guide to every English word and phrase. OneLook scans 16,965,772 entries in 805 dictionaries, offering definitions, related words, quotes, names, lyrics, colors, and more.
- Acronym Finder – Comprehensive dictionary of acronyms, abbreviations, and initialisms. Combined with the Acronym Attic, Acronym Finder contains more than 5 million acronyms and abbreviations.
- Medical Encyclopedia (MedlinePlus) – The A.D.A.M. Medical Encyclopedia includes over 4,000 articles about diseases, tests, symptoms, injuries, and surgeries. It also contains an extensive library of medical photographs and illustrations.
- WhatIs? – A great source of info for both tech- and non-tech savvy users. Browse tech and web terms in an alphabetical glossary or by topics. There’s also a great list of Tech Explainers.
- Google Advanced Search – Bookmark this page for more precise searching.
- Google Trends – Explore what’s trending across Google Search, Google News and YouTube.
- Wayback Machine – From the Internet Archive. Looking for a website that is now gone? Or an earlier version of a site you frequent? Enter a URL to explore more than 1 trillion web pages saved over time.
- World Time Buddy (WTB) – A convenient world clock, a time zone converter, and online meeting scheduler. A good online productivity tools for those often traveling, in flights, in online meetings or just calling friends and family abroad.
- Ezgif.com – A simple, free online GIF maker and toolset for basic animated image editing. Create, edit and convert GIF, APNG, WebP, MNG and AVIF animations.
- Koolyz – Fast, private and unlimited web utilities. 100+ free online tools for PDF, images, text, development, SEO, and more. Fast, secure, and privacy-focused utilities for everyone.
- Open Culture – Founded in 2006, this site brings together high-quality cultural & educational media for the worldwide lifelong learning community. It’s all free. It’s all enriching, but it’s also scattered across the web, and not easy to find. Open Culture’s mission is to centralize this content, curate it, and give you access to this high quality content whenever and wherever you want it. Some of our major resource collections include 1,700 Free Online Courses from Top Universities, 1,000 Free Audio Books: Download Great Books for Free, and 46 Languages Lessons Online for Free: Spanish, Chinese, English & More.
- Disaster 101 – A guide to extreme weather preparation, relief, and recovery from Grist.
- Audacity – A popular free software for recording and editing audio. So if you’re producing music, a podcast, or just playing around with audio, Audacity is for you. It’s the perfect tool for anyone who wants to get creative with sound or needs to quickly edit or export audio, for any reason.
- Shotcut – A free, open source, cross-platform video editor for Windows, Mac and Linux. Major features include support for a wide range of formats; no import required meaning native timeline editing.