Where to look for history and etymology of Chinese characters? For example 工 Is there a website where I can look for history and etymology of Chinese characters? For example 工.

It can be a Chinese website (I am VERY new to Chinese). But better in English.

Please also drop any useful links you regularly used when starting to learn.

Or let's say, how do Chinese understand this: 极 [jí] (extreme)?
http://www.chineseetymology.org/CharacterEtymology.aspx?characterInput=%E8%BB%8A&amp;submitButton1=Etymology

This website gives origins for many characters, as well as pictures of some earlier forms (e.g., from Oracle bones). Keep in mind that the structure of most characters is a phonetic and a semantic component put together (形声字). Most characters aren't pictograms (象形字), ideograms (指事字), or semantic combinations of other characters (会意字); although these types of characters have most captured the western imagination.

Also, etymology is a bit of a misnomer, as that would be for morphemes and words, not their graphical representation. It is, however, commonly called this.