It goes without saying that the Web is an invaluable research and learning tool and any scholar denied access to it is really missing out on a wealth of information.

However, getting to that information is an art form in itself and can sometimes lead to frustrating encounters with the search engines we all have to rely on. Users need to be au fait with compiling at least reasonably structured queries if they are to stand any chance of finding the factual information they are looking for.

Many Web users are staggered to find that there appear to be thousands of pages dedicated to their particular search phrase, only to be disappointed when none of them are what they expected - for example, a simple query for 'Venezuelan yak farming' entered into the popular Altavista (www.altavista.com) comes back with well over 700,000 sites, a figure whose accuracy I think we can safely call into doubt. Of course, you can familiarise yourself with advanced, or 'Boolean', searching and you will trim these results down dramatically and maybe end up with a page that contains your search term, but even that doesn't guarantee the factual information you seek.

What would be really useful is a place where searches bring back hard information rather than merely listing thousands of irrelevant Web sites - a place where concise information awaits at the end of the submit button.

A place, in fact, very much like the Internet's very first real 'reference engine', Xrefer (www.xrefer.com). In its own words, xrefer brings together and fully integrates a large and diverse collection of reference works from some of the world's leading publishers - placing all the facts and information you need at your fingertips.

Make no mistake about it, this growing collection of cross-referenced information is without parallel in giving the users quick and fully relevant facts based entirely on their searches.

Using xrefer.com is like having a vast, searchable index page for a large collection of factual books, all cross-referring against each other and the information available is brought together from the resources of such bigwig players as Oxford University Press and Bloomsbury, so we immediately find ourselves in a credible environment. Everyone I have told about xrefer can now be seen using it regularly and the bottom line is that if you want structured, relevant results from your search, there can be no better starting point than xrefer.com.

They may have trouble raining down on them from every conceivable angle, but the Microsoft development machine still thunders on. The company has just stated a release date of September 14 for its next consumer version of Windows, know as Millennium Edition, or just Windows ME for short. This new release of the world's most widely-used software adds a plethora of features and upgrades to Windows 98, as well as bringing the slightly up-market look and feel of Windows 2000 to the home computer.

I was pleased to see that one of the promises of ME is that it features faster startup and shutdown - a new Windows release just wouldn't be the same without that little chestnut. Learn more from the official site at www.microsoft.com/windowsme.