FROM crime writers looking at banking procedures in the ’50s to architects finding formulas for the tensile strength of steel, research can be a rather dull affair. But when the search is for knowledge for its own sake — the less useful the better — then dull research becomes a fascinating end in itself. And where better to access the wealth of all human knowledge than that near-infinite resource — the internet.

For any question you could possibly think of, there is, with 100 per cent certainty, a corresponding answer on the internet. Whether it is the correct answer is another matter. You may wonder, for example, how tall the Queen is. Five foot four inches, says www.funtrivia.com. But if you were to ask David Icke (www.davidicke.com), she is actually six foot tall — and a shape-shifting lizard.

Just as every home should have one good dictionary, so every internet browser should have a decent dictionary site bookmarked. For any given word, dictionary.reference.com gives a number of definitions and etymologies from a number of famous dictionaries, meaning you won’t miss out on any particular shade of meaning.

My favourite example is http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/, which contains details of more than 100,000 trials held since 1674. You can search by name of defendant, crime, or punishment. Those of a more refined disposition can always look at sites such as www.vam.ac.uk (Victoria and Albert Museum), aboutflowers.com, and http://recipes4cakes.com/. I only hope that readers will draw the line at http://cutelittlekittens.com/.