If you're a fan of MapQuest driving directions, you'll be glad to know that you can also access International MapQuest, a nice list of maps and driving directions from all over the globe. For example:

• MapQuest United Kingdom
• MapQuest France
• MapQuest Deutschland
• MapQuest Italia
• MapQuest España
• MapQuest Ã-sterreich

These are all available in a variety of languages, depending which country/region you select. Pretty cool!

More about Mapquest: MapQuest Driving Directions Search Shortcuts gives you even more power over making your MapQuest driving directions and maps as customized as possible to your needs.

It's Saturday, and you know what that means: a chore list as long as your arm and the weekly Web Search news roundup (not necessarily in that order). Let's get right to it:

• Google's movie showtimes, digitally remastered: Google's added a few improvements to your movie searching experience, including detailed background information, maps, and genre filters.
• Bing partners with Wolfram Alpha: Bing and Wolfram Alpha will be collaborating to make Bing search results even better.
• One in four now use Firefox to surf the Web: Firefox has snagged up 25% of total browser market share.
• Yahoo adds more to video search: Yahoo has tweaked their already excellent video search service with deeper search suggestions/relevance.
• Experimenting with Digg Trends: Want to see what's popular on Digg? Check out Digg Trends, a new(ish) innovation that places trending stories on the front page.
• Facebook and Wikipedia execs to brief the Vatican on the Web: Executives from Wikipedia and Facebook are at the Vatican until Sunday to talk about the World Wide Web.
• Clicker.com aims to become the Internet usher: Want to see what's showing in the world of Web multimedia? Clicker might be a good answer.
• Interview with founder of Isohunt: Excellent in-depth interview with the founder of Isohunt, one of the most popular torrent search engines on the Web.

Did I miss something? Let us know about a Web search news item that happened this week in the comments below, or comment on what's been posted.

Wolfram Alpha, the incredibly useful (if oddly named) computational search engine, has won a coveted place in Popular Science's yearly top innovations selection: it's one of the "Best of What's New" in 2009.

A detailed profile of Wolfram Alpha, along with a background piece on Stephen Wolfram, the search engine's founder, will appear in the December 2009 issue of Popular Science, which came out yesterday (November 12). Congratulations to the W/A team - it's a well-deserved honor!

More about Wolfram Alpha: Not your average search engine. Wolfram Alpha is a computational, question and answer engine (it is NOT a search engine, it does NOT scour the Web for information) that will give you statistical-type answers for whatever query you might come up with.

Ever wonder where an image you see on the Web actually came from, how it is being used, if modified versions of the image exist, or to find higher resolution versions? You can use TinEye as a reverse image search engine to answer all of these questions. Here's how it works:

• Upload an image from your computer, or copy and paste a URL that has the image you're investigating.
• TinEye comes back with a list of possible sources for that image.

TinEye has all sorts of interesting possibilities. For example:

• See how the Mona Lisa has been used all over the globe
• The Google logo has a ton of variations
• The official Obama Biden campaign logo shows up in a lot of different places

Definitely an interesting tool. Need to find more images? Try Image Search Engines, or if you're looking for free images for use on your site, check out Thirty Free Image Resources on the Web.

If you've been looking for an easier way to access the Web on ANY computer, whether it's home, work, a coffee shop, school, etc., then you'll want to check out WebAnywhere, an open source free screen reader project from the University of Washington.

The beauty of WebAnywhere is that it is entirely web-based, meaning you don't have to download any special software, so you can use it on any machine your heart desires. It's also available on any operating system and via any browser, which makes it even more useful. You can see a demo of WebAnywhere in action here (make sure your sound is turned on), as well as some pretty handy keyboard shortcuts.

WebAnywhere is not intended to replace more sophisticated screen readers, however, it's great for when you're out and about and just need something that will work quickly and easily, without the need for any special software or hardware. Very useful!

More Web usability tools

• Tools on the Web for Free Spyware Removal
• YubNub-Funny Name, Good Tool
• The Best Firefox Add-ons for Web Search
• The Top Ten iPhone Apps for Web Search

I happened across a fun way to personalize your home page with a ton of different skins - Shiny Search. You can choose from literally dozens of different designs - pop culture, movies, celebrities, nature, kids' stuff, gothic, patriotic, you name it. You can see mine above - I chose the Burning Guitar design, as you can see!

Shiny Search isn't just about making your homepage purty, though. You can use it to search the Web via Google, check your email via a variety of free Web-based email services, check in with your friends via social networking sites, check news, sports, watch videos, play games, listen to music, research reference sites, etc. Check it out and see what you think!

More ways to personalize your presence on the Web

• Set Your Home Page To Your Favorite Site
• Use Toolbars to Spiff Up Your Web Search
• Five Ways to Make Your Own Search Engine

I have a confession to make, dear readers: I change my desktop wallpaper about as often as I change my socks (which is every day, just in case you were concerned). Therefore my desktop lovin' heart was thrilled to find Desktoptopia, a free desktop manager download for both Windows and Mac machines that automatically updates your computer with designer desktop designs as often as you want. Oh! And did I mention it was FREE? Yep. You can download it here: Desktoptopia.

Speaking of desktops and decorative stuff, there are tons of great free desktop themes, wallpapers, etc. on the Web. Here are a few free desktop themes for you to check out.

Oh, and desktop wallpaper? Got that too: Free Halloween Wallpaper, Free Thanksgiving Wallpaper, Space Station Wallpaper, Zoo Animal Wallpaper, and Vladstudio.

How about some screensavers? I've done a roundup of the best free screensavers on the Web: Free Screensavers, but my personal favorite has to be the PBS Screensavers. I especially love the ones that stem off their nature and travel shows.

How about you - what's your favorite place to find free desktop themes, wallpapers, and screensavers on the Web? Let's hear it in the comments!

Lots of great Web search news and doin's around the Web this week, let's get right to it:

• Yahoo Helps Music Lovers Find Videos More Easily: Yahoo's added some great search refinements to their video search.
• List of all magazines now available in Google Books: Lots of magazines available for viewing in Google Books; I'm guessing they're going to add more (only three pages at the time of this writing).
• Coming Soon: Your Resource for Good Things to Come: Hulu presents a schedule of what's on TV.
• National Geographic Digitizes 120 Years of Magazines; Geobrowse with Bing Maps: Oh, now, THIS is cool. Local map functionality included in new Natl. Geographic retrospective set.
• No link between social isolation and the Internet: Phew! A new Pew Internet study "finds that the Internet and mobile phones do not lead to social isolation, as some previous research suggested. In fact, there's plenty of evidence that people who spend a lot of time online have fuller social lives."
• Internet censorship liable to WTO challenge: "Censorship of the Internet is open to challenge at the World Trade Organisation as it can restrict trade in services delivered online, a forthcoming study says."
• Build Your Own Google News Home Page With Custom Sections: A new Custom Sections Directory makes it easier than ever for searchers to customize their news.

Is there a great Web search news item that you'd like to share? Leave it in the comments!

Like YouTube? Of course you do! Here are a few alternate methods/sites/utilities you can use to search YouTube for your favorite videos:

• You can do more with YouTube than just watch videos
• Search YouTube with Podzinger
• Watch Free Movies and Videos at Google Video
• StumbleVideo
• Video Search Engines
• YouTubeX - About Web Search Best Free Download
• Viral Video Chart
• Free Educational Videos on the Web
• Thirty Ways to Watch Free Videos Online
• Go back in video time with TimeTube

That should be enough to keep us busy for a while! Do you have a favorite YouTube video you'd like to share with the rest of us? Leave the URL in the comments (but make sure it's clean - this is a family-friendly site, after all!).

We all know that there are great free online dictionaries we can use if we run across a word we don't know. But how about a dictionary that you can use both on and off the Web that actually lives on your computer - and is free? That's where WordWeb comes in.

WordWeb is a an English thesaurus and dictionary for Windows (no Mac versions at this time, unfortunately). It works both on and off-line, and pulls definitions not only from dictionary and thesaurus sources, but also reference resources, such as Wikipedia. Check it out - it's a free download and well worth looking into if you find yourself using a dictionary or thesaurus often in your work.

More dictionary resources

• About Web Search Glossary
• Use the Web to Find Word Definitions
• Factbites, an Answer Finding Search Engine