There is much data in the web young Padawan, with the secrets of google fu and other specialized search engines, you can delve deeper than the common land lubber.
With the correct syntax, you can find whatever the hell you want.
Sometimes you can find really interesting data on FTP services...
Ohey I found someone's personal computer running an anonymous ftp
Sometimes you can find current titles and technical manuals for free.
This particular system is a personal laptop ( in case you didn't already know) owned by someone in China.
This picture was found under ../backup/Images/familyzip1.zip/Dad/
See for yourself
ftp://24.193.251.83/
Although the ftp service has problem been long since closed and the system was of no use to me. Particularly interesting was the massive amounts of information on the art of seduction on this guy's computer. Personal computers should not be overlooked although obviously larger systems or dedicated servers have the capacity to store more data.
In my opinion google is not particularly effective at finding ftp even with advanced query syntax. You want to use an ftp search engine or a crawler.
Search Engines:
http://www.searchftps.com/
http://www.filemare.com/
http://wing.ftp.server.proisk.ru/
Links I've found
http://ftp.heanet.ie/
ftp://ftp.icm.edu.pl/
ftp://24.193.251.83/
ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/ .
ftp://145.24.145.100/welcome.msg
ftp://ftp.asstr.org/
ftp://coast.cs.purdue.edu/
ftp://ftp.ccs.neu.edu/
ftp://nlmpubs.nlm.nih.gov/
ftp://yahost.ru/pub/
ftp://91.204.149.69/
Grabbing data off of systems expands the availability of information. Static resources such as ebooks of value to the sysop are found naturally on their computer. Personally I find other people's interests fascinating and digging into this information can help broaden you own knowledge. In addition many public institutions have an open anonymous ftp services, such as NASA:
ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/
If you need help with efficient query syntax, I suggest you learn about googlehacking or google query languages.
Calibre Library provides an online surface for ebooks. Its header is..:: calibre library ::.. searching for it does not always provide thorough results. However, the best bet is to include it in a query to find what works best.
I took a line from the home screen of the service which is present on all versions and included it in the query...
intitle:"..:: calibre library ::.." intext:Choose a category to browse by:
Access a small portion of the world's digital books at no cost to yourself.
This will be updated as I find more interesting things. Send me a PM and I will add to this list, crediting you.