FAQ

In Miguel Cervantes' classic work of fiction, the hero Don Quixote spends his life on a quest. His search for an imaginary, idealized woman named Dulcinea transforms him into a chivalrous knight. The unrelenting search for her, while unfulfilled, gives his life meaning.

Internet users are faced with a similar quest as they seek ideal Web sites in a vast expanse of information. findingDulcinea is determined to fulfill your ideals by guiding you to the best sites out there. Unlike Don Quixote, who never found his ideal, we believe that with findingDulcinea you can find yours.

Our quest is to turn the Web into a platform where everyone can access the wealth of quality information available.

If you want to read more about Don Quixote or Dulcinea, read the findingDulcinea Don Quixote Web Guide.

Dulcinea Media, Inc. is a Silicon Alley-based team of savvy Internet users. Our mission is to untangle the Web, clearing it of clutter and spotlighting only the sites that matter. We aim to provide a richer experience for every Internet user.

To find out more about Dulcinea Media visit the "Our Team" page.

Our Web Guides provide resources on thousands of topics.

Our collection of Web Guides began with the original Guide to Web Search. With the Guide to Web Search, you should be able to find any Web resource you need, but we've drilled down into much more specific topics to help with more targeted search.

Our collection of nearly 300 topic-specific Web Guides is always growing, and the Web Guides already on the site are updated frequently by our research team.

The Guides include fun topics such as Family Travel, academic subjects such as Elementary School Social Studies Resources, serious health topics such as Leukemia.

To find a Web Guide use our site search function (in the upper right corner of any findingDulcinea Web page) or browse our guides from the most general guide on the Web Guides main page to the most specific guides by using the Web Guide topics shown on the right side of any Web Guides page.

Our Beyond the Headlines section takes news stories and current events and provides answers to the questions that most media sources neglect. Instead of just presenting you with a story, our Beyond the Headlines will give context to, background of, opinion about a current event or popular news story. Find biographical information about the key players in a news story, get a link to the actual document at the root of a political debate, get the background you need to understand an international conflict, and much more.

Beyond the Headlines not only provides extended coverage and resources for the news stories and current events of today, but with its On This Day coverage you'll learn about a historical event each day of the year. Today's News Roundup provides you with an overview of all of news coverage each day around the globe.

Visit Beyond the Headlines to learn more.

Watch the video below to see CEO Mark Moran explain our process for researching and putting together Beyond the Headlines.

Netcetera features all that's entertaining and topical on the Web. We provide a daily dose of the best of the Internet, including tasteful humor,  profiles of inspiring people, virtual tours of diverse countries, reviews of innovative, useful sites, and weekly articles that distill widely discussed issues. Our aim in this section is to explore the whims and personality of the Web, finding you insightful sources that might otherwise go undiscovered.

Visit Netcetera to learn more.

findingDulcinea's policy is to not receive payment to recommend any Web site, story, or other online source. We endeavor to specify clearly on our site whenever any of our information is sponsored by a third party.

If you would like to suggest that we include a site in a Web Guide, Beyond the Headlines story, or Netcetera feature, please e-mail the appropriate section and one of our researchers will be happy to evaluate your suggestion. However, only if suggested site meets our strict evaluation criteria can it be selected for inclusion. To find contact information for each section, please see our "Contact Us" page.

We evaluate Web sites on many criteria including credibility, usability, and design.

• Credibility is a fundamental criterion of any site we recommend. When considering a source, we review who has prepared the content, what the site's editorial policy is, when the page was last updated, and whether undisclosed biases or conflicts of interest may exist.

• Usability is assessed by asking ourselves the following questions: Does the site communicate its purposes quickly and concisely? Is the site's navigation conducive to finding information and returning to where you came from? Does obstructive advertising hinder navigation, or does the site make it difficult to differentiate between content and advertising? If a site has a wealth of information but it is difficult to find, the information may be less valuable to our readers.

• Design  We always note whether or not a site's design and layout, particularly the presence of advertising, will distract our users from the editorial content, and more importantly, whether or not ads are labeled as such. Some otherwise useful sites unfortunately are rife with advertising or distracting design elements, and when this is the case, we want you to know about it.

Other important factors:

• Cost: We don't shy away from recommending outstanding subscription-based sites, but we do evaluate the pros and cons of such sites by signing up for them ourselves. More often than not, we find comparable sites in many categories that do not charge a fee for use.

• Accessibility: Does the site itself load easily and get updated frequently? Do the links the site provides access to function correctly? How quickly do page loads take on average? Does the site require plug-ins like Adobe FlashPlayer, JavaScript, or other add-ons that might hinder usability? Does the site make its customer service team, authors, or editors available for contact? Where applicable, is the "Help" section well indicated and useful to readers?

findingDulcinea currently offers four newsletters.

• Top Stories will bring you a daily e-mail with updates of some of our Beyond the Headlines coverage so you'll be the first to know what news stories we've just published.

• Today's Netcetera delivers our Netcetera coverage each morning. You'll get an e-mail each day with that day's people, places, links, daily tilt, and the day's installment of our weekly feature.

• Dulcinea Updates is a site-wide e-mail that will be delivered to you once a week. This will feature a bit of content from each section, give you updates so you know what new site features we are adding or improving, and will provide web search tips exclusive to newsletter subscribers.

• Education will deliver the web's best education news and resources to your inbox. Signing up for this newsletter will also give you early access to the new site we are developing for educators.

To sign up for any one of our e-mails, go to our newsletter signup page.

Click here to read the findingDulcinea privacy policy in full.

Visit our Contact Us section for the contact information of findingDulcinea's various departments and staff members.

If you are interested in joining our team, please contact info@dulcineamedia.com

If you are interested in an internship with findingDulcinea, please see our internship page for more details.