Thanks to the Internet, more people feel as though they know the places they're moving to without actually setting foot in them.

Consider John Boughman, a senior documentation specialist who relocated to Vancouver, B.C., from Huntingtown, Md., with his wife Janette Wenrick Boughman in 1998. While Mrs. Boughman had visited Vancouver to interview for a postdoctoral fellow's position in zoology at the University of British Columbia, all of Mr. Boughman's visits prior to the move had been online.

Three years later, Mr. Boughman is moving to another city he's visited only online -- Madison, Wis. Again, he's used online relocation tools and regional Web sites to analyze and facilitate the move. In 1998, information about cities on the Internet was limited, but the impression he formed about Vancouver was favorable. Now, much more information is available via the Web, and his research has been more comprehensive.

"Three years ago I went to my professional society, STC, the Society for Technical Communication, to look for jobs. And the Vancouver Sun had a site. I also did searches on Vancouver," he says. Now he can't imagine relocating without using the Internet. "It's indispensable," he says.

Other professionals also are finding the Web invaluable for researching possible relocation destinations and comparing costs of living and salary differentials between cities. Here's how online resources helped four of them.

As Mrs. Boughman considered new positions around the country and internationally, her husband went online simultaneously to research the various locations. His first stop on the Web usually is MSN HomeAdvisor, a generalized home-buying site. Houston and Madison were among the cities the Boughmans considered seriously this time.

"One of the things I always do is check out the real-estate section at HomeAdvisor. It's free and easy to use," Mr. Boughman says. "Also the HomeAdvisor site has other things [such as] maps you can link out to."

HomeAdvisor's city comparison is a worthwhile tool. "I compared Houston and Madison and found that taxes and [other costs] are higher in Madison, but the education system is better," he says. "It was really helpful to look at those broad generalizations and get an idea of the communities."

HomeAdvisor's real-estate offerings for Madison were limited, so Mr. Boughman used search engines, such as Yahoo  and Google, and the map sites, MapQuest and MapBlast, to seek out area realtors and other local details.

"I did a search for photos of the Madison area to get a sense of what the place looks like from afar," he says. "I looked at online Yellow Pages to see what businesses are there. And of course I've looked at different employment links."

The search engines led him to the Madison chamber of commerce site and Madison.com sites, which contained worthwhile information. Mr. Boughman also used his own unique tool to gauge the cities' cultures.

"I look at the movies that play in a town. Where I used to live in Maryland, you'd get the top 10 Hollywood movies and that's all you'd see. In Vancouver, there are selections from around the world. You can tell a lot about a community from the movies alone," he says. A culture buff, Mr. Boughman also reads articles on the sites about local theatre and dance.

Many factors contributed to the couple's decision to move to Madison, including the information acquired about the city online, says Mr. Boughman. Compared to past research methods, such as reading local newspapers or ordering information from the chamber of commerce, he says, "It would be really scary making a move without the Internet."

Like Mr. Boughman, Christina Rudy didn't visit her destination prior to moving. A computer programmer, Ms. Rudy gathered much of her information about Atlanta by going online prior to moving there from Pittsburgh in 1999. "My decision was based totally on what I'd either read from the Web sites or had heard from talking to other people. I actually found and applied for my job over the Internet, too," she says.

Information at Yahoo gave her a basic picture of Atlanta. "Yahoo has statistics about the number of universities, number of hospitals, crime and other basic demographics for major cities," she says. A visit to Rent.net also helped with her decision. "I put in salary information in Atlanta and did a comparison," says Ms. Rudy. "Rent.net also has a lot of relocation information -- links to storage and stuff like that."

Ms. Rudy used the neighborhood comparison feature at Rent.net to help decide where she wanted to live. At CitySearch, "I took a look at that to see what was going on, what's the weather's like. I'd never been to Atlanta," says Ms. Rudy.

Cost-of-living factors loomed large for Gwen Cooper before she decided to accept a position as director of marketing for Pencom Systems Inc. and relocate from South Beach, Fla., to New York City. She used HomeFair.com [a partner of the WSJ.com network's RealEstateJournal.com], now a member of the Homestore.com family of sites, to calculate how far her salary would stretch in the Big Apple.

"Cost of living was a very big issue for me," says Ms. Cooper. "I did a cost-of-living comparison for 10 different cities and HomeFair gave me the most consistent information."

Ms. Cooper also used cost-comparison tools at other sites, but says none were as accurate as HomeFair's. "One site was telling me I'd have to make a quarter million dollars to live in New York," she says. "I kept coming back to HomeFair. It's very intuitive in terms of using it."

A native of Miami, Ms. Cooper spent considerable time researching cities online before committing to relocation. She looked into Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston and Washington, D.C., before deciding to move to New York. "It's something I investigated thoroughly. I did my due diligence," she says.

Online regional directories, such as CitySearch and DigitalCity, were helpful when researching cities. "I used the event listings and calendars," she says.

To verify the accuracy of the information, Ms. Cooper used her home city as a basis of comparison. "I would scope out Miami, the city I already knew, and see if the sites would be realistic. If there was good information about Miami, I knew it was probably accurate," she says.

Web sites of local publications also helped her to take the pulse of a city. "A lot of times it would be a local publication that had an online presence, such as the Village Voice online or the Boston Globe online," she says.

Technical recruiter Jennifer Wilmer knew a salary increase would be necessary when considering a transfer to San Francisco from Seattle in 2000. She and her employer relied on HomeFair to determine a fair relocation package. "Both my supervisor and I used the salary calculator to determine a cost-of-living increase," she says.

Ms. Wilmer used other site features as well. "I used the city reports and did the side-by-side comparison," she says. In addition, she calculated her potential moving costs with a tool available on HomeFair. "It helped me determine what my relocation assistance was going to be from my employer," she says.

To gather general information about San Francisco, Ms. Wilmer visited CitySearch. "I was looking for general information about what was going on as far as entertainment," she says. Search engines also led her to BayArea.com and BayInsider.com.

Ms. Wilmer is considering another relocation -- this time to Denver -- because of the Bay Area's economic slowdown and high living costs. Again, she's using the Internet to explore options, including HomeFair's tools and CitySearch.

"One of the tools I'm using now shows me that I can afford to buy a house anywhere else in the country but where I'm currently living," she says.

Weather is particularly important to Ms. Wilmer. "I've learned from living in Seattle that I can't deal with rain," she says. "Everybody complains about their weather, but you need to find out the reality." She suggests using sites that compare the number of days of rain instead of the number of inches.

As a recruiter in Seattle, Ms. Wilmer often worked with relocators from the East Coast and Midwest. She advised them during the prenegotiating phase to go online, usually sending them to HomeFair or CitySearch. Most try the salary calculators, but from personal experience, Ms. Wilmer says there's a downside to relying on them exclusively. For instance, certain variables weren't weighted enough when she compared costs in San Francisco vs. Seattle.

Given that housing costs are so much higher in San Francisco and Washington has no state income tax, her cost-of-living adjustment should have been "at least 10% more," she says.

Future tools will likely be more sophisticated and give relocators more accurate pictures. Until then, she says, salary and cost-of-living calculators should be used in conjunction with other information. "The tools are a starting point," she says.