Google will usually give you the most possibly correct responses. One fine aspect of Google is that they cache all their hits. If you click on a link and get an error message, click on the word "cache" at the bottom of the listing. You will get a snapshot of that page when Google looked at it. This usually means you get text but not pictures.

One thing we've noticed about Google is that the technology, which measures how popular a site is in addition to relevance, tends to come up with a lot of mega-sites which don't always contain a lot of useful information. (There are at least half a dozen sites which created nationwide databases of one sort or another and wait for others to give them URLs or ads to populate the site). It also sometimes means that the best site is not necessarily high on the list of returns.

This limitation is one reason we like Ixquick. If a historic location has a web site, Ixquick will probably list it first. However, results tend to head off to complete irrelevance after the first few listings, although they've been getting better in the year since we began using them.  

If you want to find something fast, why not give Refdesk a chance?  We've been using this site for years.  It is a collection of links to almost any sort of reference material you could want.  Plain vanilla in appearance, it is lightning fast to load and categorizes the resources right on the page. (no tunneling through a series of levels)  www.refdesk.com

Along the same lines, CEO Express is a collection of business links, tightly organized and to the point.  If you are looking for a business magazine, the site is probably listed here.