March 25, 2009
TOP 50 websites
Caught in the Net
SHERWIN LOH & THAM YUEN-C trawl the World Wide Web, which celebrates its 20th birthday this year, for the top 50 sites
HOW do you pick the choicest 50 websites when there are 186.7 million?
Of course, trawling all of cyberspace is impossible and the mediocrity of numerous sites make them unworthy of mention.
In the spirit of toasting the 20th birthday of the World Wide Web, we have made the cuts, nevertheless. Rough cuts they may be, but clear ground rules were applied.
The sites had to cover more than one topic, which excluded specialist spaces like Divx, Google Maps and Skype.
Also, the top-of-mind recalls were ruled out: So out went the likes of Google, Wikipedia, Yahoo and YouTube.
Instead, the final 50 highlight a wide range of subjects covering beauty, entertainment, parenting, travel and health, and offer useful tips and ideas and share information online.
Also, we noted the rise in the number of people using their mobile phones to go online: Internet information provider comScore says that 63.2 million people accessed the Internet on their mobile devices in January this year compared to 36.9 million in January last year.
So, we have included three sites that have been formatted for a mobile device. These are sites with icons and text sitting in just the right positions on small screens.
We also put feelers out to you, our readers, and some of your unusual favourites have made it to our list.
The sites on the following pages are numbered, but the numerals are for neat visual order and not to signal any order of merit.
Now, browse and be surprised.
Parenting
1. Kiasu Parents
Raising a child is difficult enough. In Singapore, bringing up children has additional levels of stress. This is where Kiasu Parents comes in.
Aptly named, the site is a portal for local parents to gather and exchange tips and ideas on bringing up baby.
There are discussions on school rankings and Primary 1 registration processes, articles on planning birthday parties as well as feedback by parents on what works for their child, from using flash cards to choosing the right piano.
Useful to new parents, this site is also a great reminder to them that their childhood was definitely more carefree.
2. Nymbler
For a site dedicated to naming your newborn, Nymbler scores by having a distinct name to call itself. Sure, Baby Name Wizard (www.babynamewizard.com) may be easier to find on search engines, but it loses points on originality.
Nymbler lets you pick up to six names and will generate other similar names according to your original choices. It is not the most scientific approach but, when it comes to babies, nothing usually is.
Click on a name and you not only find out its meaning, but also a chart showing when the name was most popular in the last century.
The site only lists English names though, so if you want to know what your Chinese or Malay name actually means, you still have to ask your parents.
Did you know?
Tim Berners-Lee developed the idea for the World Wide Web in 1989. Tim, then a physicist at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, created it as a tool to help scientists share information. In 1993, the organisation opened the technology to the world for free
Food
4. Food Network
If you cannot get enough of the cooking shows on TV, check out Food Network, where you can watch full episodes of various cooking shows, from Iron Chef: America to 30 Minute Meals, for free. The site is the home of the United States cable TV channel of the same name.
The best part is that many of the shows are not available on TV here.
The site is also a repository of recipes featured in the shows. You can search for recipes according to ingredients and cuisine, and also the TV episode you saw it on.
Many of the recipes are from celebrity chefs featured in the shows, such as Jamie Oliver, Bobby Flay and Rachel Ray, all of whom have recipe books that do not come cheap.
5. Epicurious
Whether you are scrambling for a cake recipe or need to decide on what wine to take to a dinner party, Epicurious will have what you need. The site has been around for years and is a treasure trove of information on food.
Like most other food sites, it has no lack of recipes - over 100,000 are listed.
The food and wine dictionaries here are really nifty. Anyone who has ever had problems deciphering recipes will find the food dictionary useful. It defines more than 4,000 food-related terms, so you can use it to find out how to julienne or brunoise vegetables or check out what an ingredient is before setting out to buy it. There are even definitions for satay and balachan.
If you want to bone up on your knowledge of wine, the wine dictionary contains more than 3,500 terms, from basic tasting terms to the names of vineyards.
6. TasteSpotting
All you will see on this site are pictures of delicious food.
However, TasteSpotting is not just a collage of food porn to drool over.
There are enough pictures among the more than 700 pages to stimulate your salivary glands.
The site is a compilation of recipes from the Web and each picture is a link to the website or blog where the recipe resides.
Click on the pictures and another window will pop up, taking you to the external site.
Other than recipes, there are also blog posts, news stories and videos buried among the links.
To submit your food site or blog, make sure you have an inviting image of the dish.
The editorial team behind TasteSpotting will review the submissions and post those that have the most eye-catching pictures and the most useful links.
Did you know?
Information Mesh, Mine Of Information and The Information Mine were some of the early names considered for the Web
Healthy living
7. Spark People
There are two types of dieters: those who want to be left alone doing their own thing and those who need lots of support and encouragement from others.
Spark People is a weight-loss website for those who need moral support.
The site encourages you to shed kilograms by dieting and exercising. It has many of the standard tools, such as calorie counter and exercise tracker, that weight-loss sites offer.
The main draw, though, is its community - about 5.5 million members have collectively burned 5.5 billion calories, shed 3.1 million kilograms and spent 538 million minutes exercising.
Like cheerleaders who motivate sports teams, the members of the site cheer each other on in forums and blogs where they share personal experiences, leave encouraging messages and dole out tips and advice.
To encourage bonding, the website also issues challenges for members, say, to lose 5kg in five months. The premise is that with so many people egging you on, you will be more likely to stick to your mission to eat less and exercise more.
If you use the tools to track your daily calorie intake and exercise, the site will convert all the information into charts you can easily decipher.
Another perk is that you can get personalised fitness and diet plans for free, something other dieting websites usually charge for.
8. Zen Habits
Healthy living is not just about exercising and dieting, it is also about being stress free, and Leo Babauta has some ideas on how to do it which he shares on his blog Zen Habits.
It dishes out daily tips on how to handle tasks such as managing your finances and making quick decisions with as little frustration as possible.
Leo hails from Guam and, in the last four years, the writer, runner and vegetarian has lost weight, written a novel and quit smoking, all while bringing up six kids with his wife.
Anyone who can juggle so much and still blog must have something worthwhile to share about staying Zen.
Updated daily, the blog features articles that cover topics as varied as finance, happiness, family and parenting.
However, at the core of it, the articles are mostly about developing the right habits, regardless of whether they are about exercising every day, saving for the future or making decisions quickly.
Some of the articles try to answer life's big questions that bug many of us at some point or another, such as how to find passion and purpose or break out of our limits.
If you can incorporate all the advice, you will probably be on your way to leading the simple life.
Quirks that perk
9. Fail Blog
The success of this site is dependent on the failure of countless of people. Remember shows on television that air home videos of something stupid that took place by accident or a mistake caught on camera?
Fail Blog relies on users putting up occasionally embarrassing, silly or compromising pictures or videos for a good laugh. The end result is a collection of content that shames the subject, but entertains the viewers.
Consider the photo of a mother pushing a pram with her child in it. She starts loading groceries into the pram until the child cannot be seen. It may reflect on her ability to juggle multiple tasks, but speaks poorly of her parenting skills.
Or how about the comic book cover with a crying boy in the foreground and a superhero undressing in the background.
Fail Blog will entertain, especially if you have had a bad day.
10. F*** My Life
The site name may be a tad explicit, but it sums up the thoughts of visitors who leave postings about how they are experiencing a new low in their lives.
While sites like Post Secret (postsecret.blogspot.com) have people baring their soul and confessing their innermost secrets anonymously, this is more of an instant stress therapy.
Each paragraph-long post bears a touch of irony, even as some are simply downright funny.
So whether you are stressed at work or have just received some bad news, there is something therapeutic in knowing that somewhere out there, someone has it a little worse.
A visitor can write about his bad day and if he is wondering if things are as bad as he makes them out to be, he can read the feedback that others have for his story.
11. Oddee: A Blog On Oddities
Robert Ripley of Ripley's Believe It Or Not will feel right at home here.
From the 15 Stupidest Warning Labels, 20 Most Bizarre Mugshots to the World's Most Creative Buildings, Oddee tracks the weirdest, most quirky and some downright puzzling mistakes made by man.
With items listed in various categories, not everything is automatically shunted off to the strange and bizarre though, as some actually make interesting gift ideas.
Such items include an ice cube tray in the shape of fossilised dinosaur bones, a USB flash drive cum lighter and a PC casing in the form of an aircraft in Star Wars called TIE Fighter or BBQ Pit.
So, if you are ever caught surfing while at work, it is good to be on the site. Your excuse can be that someone had pointed out this weird thing in there that is a must-see.
Did you know?
The first Web browser - the equivalent of today's Internet Explorer or Firefox - was created in 1990. It was used not just for browsing Web pages, but also for editing them. Other early Web browsers include Samba for use on Macintosh computers
Data managers
12. Evernote
Even if you have an elephant's memory, it is near impossible to remember everything.
Evernote aims to do this mammoth task for you.
Think of it as a huge manila envelope in which you can save any kind of information you want, whether it is a recipe you have torn off a magazine, a label off a wine bottle, a business card or a love note scribbled on the back of a napkin.
However, unlike when you collect little bits and pieces of notes in an envelope and they all get jumbled up, this online repository helps you organise everything neatly.
All you have to do is snap a photo of whatever you want to keep and upload it into your account on the site. The online application will even scan through these images and convert any words within them into a searchable text format. This makes it possible for you to organise the disparate pieces of information via keywords.
The best part is that you can then search for something by simply typing in a keyword.
The free service allows you to save typed notes, clippings from the Internet, images, audio clips and PDF files, but it has a 40MB upload limit per month.
13. Scanr
Phone cameras these days can snap clear pictures of documents you want to keep. However, if you leave them in JPEG format, storage is a problem and they would be unsearchable.
Plus, if you send them to your friends, they may not appreciate a huge file clogging up their inbox.
To help, Scanr lets you convert these images into PDF or text files. The online application can convert pictures of written or printed documents ranging from notes, forms, receipts, business cards to even scrawlings on whiteboards. All you have to do is snap a picture of the document and upload it onto the site.
Scanr also cleans up the documents. So even if the tax form is askew in your picture, the website will right it before converting it into a PDF file. It also lightens dark pictures so that the converted documents are legible.
All scanned documents are stored online, so you can download them from any computer or mobile phone.
14. Geni
There is no poking or sheep throwing in this social networking site. What it lacks in the games arena, it more than makes up for in its higher purpose.
Its aim is to help members build up their family tree.
Unlike a regular social networking site, you can add only members related to you on Geni. When you first sign up, you are asked to add biographical details of your parents, siblings and other relatives.
For privacy, a family tree can be linked to another family tree only via marriage. That means you are unlikely to meet true strangers on the site. The site uses a graphical interface, so you can move boxes and links around to establish relationships on your tree.
There are, of course, some social networking aspects too. You can fill in the e-mail addresses of relatives and they will be invited to join the network. There are also features like birthday reminders, family albums and videos.
Each tree comes with a forum where members can leave messages for each other or share family gossip.
Did you know?
There are over 100 billion Web pages on the Internet today. Several billion are added every day
Inspiration
15. Notcot
Tune in to all that is amusing and aesthetically pleasing on the Net at Notcot.
The site is a collection of pictures that are not only pretty to look at, but also link to other sites. These pictures and links are contributed by netizens around the world, but curated by a team of editors who decide what is good enough to go on the site.
Other than being design-centric, the selection seems to be totally random, which means you could stumble upon just about anything here, like illustrations by Singaporean artist Caramelaw. There are also postings on architecture, advertisements and comics.
If anything, the pretty pictures can, hopefully, spark off some creativity.
16. Lovelines
Take a peek into the hearts of people around the world through Lovelines. The website lets you discover what the rest of the world is feeling through their blogs and Internet postings.
It does this by harvesting people's feelings through analysing thousands of blogs every minute and then picking up lines where there are expressions of love or hate. It also picks up on the feelings in between, identifying words and phrases such as 'like', 'want' and 'didn't like'.
The results of this analysis are presented in the form of an interactive page with sliders and charts.
There are different categories you can explore, including words, pictures and superlatives.
Superlatives are an aggregation of all the loves and hates and give you an idea of which were good or bad days for people. On March 2 this year, for example, some 289 people hated things from walnuts to paying fees. Just a day before, 854 people expressed love for something.
The site also displays pictures that people have taken of things they love and hate, basing its analysis on the accompanying captions.
As the site also ties in the feelings with the geographical location of the poster, it can also provide a glimpse into the emotional health of countries.
Entertainment
17. Musicovery
The only time I get to discover new pieces of music is when I'm listening to the radio while driving.
What if you would like to discover songs that are new to you, but might not necessarily be new?
Try Musicovery, an online music service that helps you discover songs.
The cool thing is that you can explore the world of music not just by regular genres like musical style, but also by mood, decade and tempo.
Based on the filters you have chosen, the service will throw up songs that fit the bill. Some of those suggested by the site for calm rock songs include Sugar Ray's Every Morning and The Beatles' Think For Yourself.
You can narrow down your choices by using multiple filters, say dark, energetic, pop music from the 1990s, or just click on the discovery button to let the service suggest any song.
This is a good way to try out obscure bands.
18. The Digital Bits
Movie fans hankering for the latest DVD releases or Blu-ray releases of blockbusters like The Lord Of The Rings or the Star Wars Trilogy should bookmark this site.
The Digital Bits keeps track of the home-video market, with news and reviews of the latest and upcoming releases from the United States.
These guys do not just review the movie. They tell visitors about the production quality of the final DVD or Blu-ray, something that mainstream entertainment magazines fail to mention at times.
For those new to the high-definition market, there is a comprehensive explanation of the different features of home-video formats available (such as full frame, widescreen and letterbox) and which one you should support.
In case you are wondering, the answer is widescreen.
19. Kontraband
For family friendly fun, there is YouTube (www.youtube.com), but for everything else, there is Kontraband. As the name suggests, this site hosts clips, jokes, pictures and games that are best viewed when you are alone.
No, there is nothing illegal or pornographic here, but much of the content is deemed NSFW - tech speak for Not Safe For Work. From suggestive videos to stunts gone wrong, the content is not for the faint-hearted.
Even though I have visited the site before, I was still distracted by the new Ice-Cream Fight video and jokes that have been posted before switching my attention back to the official legwork for this story.
20. Newsarama
To fans of the graphic novel, the movie Watchmen is a work of art. However, for non-fans who cannot quite follow the plot, there is a reason: The comic book was deemed "unfilmable" by the novel's creator, Alan Moore.
Find out more about comics and comics-related tie-ins like movies and video games, where all forms of spandex and capes are acceptable.
Sites like Comic Book Resources (www.comicbookresources.com) offer something similar, but Newsarama makes everything easier for non-geeks to understand.
From weekly reviews of the latest comics, articles on comic characters and interviews with the hottest comic writers and artists, you will learn that comic books are not just for children anymore.
21. Television Without Pity
There is simply not enough time in the week to catch all the shows being made for TV and even if there is, it is not as if the local broadcaster airs them all here.
Luckily, TV junkies have Television Without Pity or TWOP.
More than just a review of the latest episodes of hit shows like Lost and Heroes, TWOP is a site with updates on what took place in all episodes aired to date.
Reading a recap at the site is like having a discussion with a fan about the episode: Did the writers make a mistake in an episode? Was the main guy written out of character for this week?
In fact, having a 14-page or more recap is as good as reading the script for the particular episode. Nothing is left out and the TWOP writers often act as if he or she could have written the episode better than the original writers.
If anything, the ones re-telling the story on TWOP are doing a great job of holding the excitement of the original script.
Did you know?
In December 1991, the first Web server, a computer responsible for serving up Web pages, went online at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in California in the United States
Tech whiz
22. Digg
News and blogs are not merely rated - users actually Digg them. A technology news accumulator, Digg collates the articles posted by users around the world. Visitors to the sites rate the worthiness of the article by "Digging" them.
Articles with a bigger Digg count, or rating, will be placed higher on the home page and you will not have to sift through thousands of articles to find out what is important as other readers would have done it for you.
Think of Digg as the equivalent of a music countdown show that ranks the top hits based on listeners' votes. This means you have a say in what is interesting.
Aside from voting, users can also comment on the stories and you get to know what other people think of the story. This premise has been used on several other sites - like Delicious (delicious.com), which bookmarks popular websites - but we like the tech element that Digg offers.
23. Hack N Mod
Only geeks would buy a brand new or second-hand drum set, strip it apart and use the pieces to build a better one. Failure means you do not have anything to show for it but that is the essence of Hack N Mod - a site that teaches you how to take a working product and modify it.
Some of the hacks, such as using spare parts to build your own Star Wars lightsaber (hold still guys, it is still a prop and will not cut through metal), require a bit of technical know-how like drilling, while defending your wireless network against leeches depends on your level of software expertise.
However, there are a few quirky ones, like extending your Wi-Fi signals using tin cans or turning your old PC into a server.
This is a fun IT guide to reusing and recycling - the geek way.
24. AfterDawn.com
If you have watched an online video, downloaded a song or bought software, chances are you can find tips on this site to get the most out of your investments.
The website offers free software download alternatives, from digital music players to programs that catalogue your DVD collection.
It also has step-by-step guides on ways to modify your hardware, like a DVD player or computer.
Want to convert MKV video files to MP4 format for your PlayStation 3 or copy DVDs using free software? How about deciding which high-definition TV to buy? This is a one-stop site for the answers.
The forums here have users from around the world answering your every tech query.
Be warned though - attempting to ask a question that had previously been answered could lead to ridicule.
25. Lifehacker
From details of updates for computer software to test-drives of upcoming programs, Lifehacker offers insights and comparisons in simple bite-sized chunks for the technologically challenged.
After all, Lifehacker is a blog for people who want to stay on top of tech developments.
The Download section informs you of the latest versions of popular software like iTunes and Firefox, while the Videos segment shares interesting recordings posted on the Web, from cooking videos to video games.
Spend a few minutes each day reading the headlines on the home page and you will be able to arm yourself with enough knowledge to make conversation on the latest happenings in the IT world.
Did you know?
Website was recognised as a standard word in the Oxford Dictionary in 2004
Word play
26. Yahoo! Babel Fish
In the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, the babel fish was a fictitious species of yellow-coloured fish that could translate one spoken language to another when inserted into the ear.
The Yahoo! Babel Fish service does not require any insertion and does the same translation, but for text and Web pages.
It has a simple interface, which comprises a text box where you can paste the passage you want to translate, then select the language of the passage and the language you want it translated to, and the site will do the rest.
You can also use the service to translate entire Web pages by entering the URL of the page but some of the non-text portions, like graphical navigation buttons and menus, might not get translated.
27. Urban Dictionary
If you find it hard to talk to a teenager and not get confused by his lingo, git wit da (get with the) times by checking the Urban Dictionary.
It has more than 3.8 million definitions for slang phrases and words often used by young people. Although the site originated as one that defines street lingo - slang used by subculture groups that prowl the streets - it has since expanded to include many pop culture terms.
One of the newer examples is dejabrew, defined as what happens "when you start to remember things you did last night while drinking an excessive amount of beer".
Many of the words on the site are a reflection of the times and a large number of the new words submitted these days has to do with technology.
There is instant message speak but also other quirky entries. Blackburied (being inundated and exhausted trying to be on top of all your e-mail 24/7 with your handheld mobile device), inbox rot (to neither accept nor decline a friend request from someone on Facebook or MySpace) and social notworking (the practice of spending time unproductively on social networking websites, especially when one should be working) are some of the more recent entries.
The dictionary depends on people's submissions: anyone can submit a term and a definition and also vote for the word-of-the-day.
Only editors - who are those who have registered with the site - can edit or remove entries.
28. Save The Words
Save The Words is a website set up to deal with the senticous (prickly, thorny) issue of, well, saving words.
Every year, hundreds of words suffer permanent summotion (removal) from dictionaries. They are dropped to make space for newer words simply because they have become less relevant to life today.
The site is a call to arms for word lovers, or just about anyone who wants to abstrigillate (to oppose, resist) the erosion of our collective vocabulary.
It is a collage of hundreds of these neglected words, displayed in different fonts and colours. Clicking on a word brings up the word's meaning, an example of how to use it in a sentence and a plea for you to adopt the word.
It is a fun site. Words begging to be saved will shout out "Yes, yes me" and "Pick me" when you move your mouse over them.
Adopting a word requires a vadiation (pledge) from you to use it in daily conversations and correspondence.
The more a word appears in daily usage, the more likely it will be picked up by lexicographers who decide on what to add and what to leave out of dictionaries.
The thing is some of the words are so awkward - like philargyrist (someone who loves money) - that it is hard to imagine using them in actual life.
The vanmost (foremost) purpose of the site is to save the words, so there are also tips on the site that tell you how to spread them. Some of the more desperate suggestions include using the words in wall graffiti and even as pet names.
29. One Word
Writing takes discipline.
Professional writers and authors take years to build up a writing routine and do not just wait around for the words to flow.
One Word helps to build up that discipline for aspiring writers.
Clicking on "go" throws up one word-of-the-day. Users get 60 seconds to write a short line or passage that incorporates that word.
Your writing will then be posted on the site along with other people's contributions.
If anything, this helps eradicate writer's block caused by deadlines, since a minute is really not that long a time to write.
Words on the site are typically simple including "specific", "locked" and "vendetta". Yet, it is not easy to form beautiful sentences. Most of the writing on the site attest to this.
Even if you are not into writing, it can be entertaining to see what other people have come up with, if only to know what certain words conjure up in their minds.
Know it all
30. Alltop
Wikipedia might be the online encyclopedia for what has happened in the world but for those who want to know what is happening right now, there is Alltop.
Calling itself a "magazine rack" for popular topics, the site collects headlines of stories from around the world and groups them by topics such as health, sports, culture and technology.
Under technology, a wide range of subjects are listed, from Nintendo to cloud computing. The categories are further sub-divided, with five headlines appearing for each topic.
This way, you know what exactly the world is thinking or talking about and can stay in the loop of the latest trends.
31. How To Clean Stuff.net
Even if you are a cleanliness guru, there will be some cleaning routines you are not familiar with and this is where How To Clean Stuff can be useful.
From diamonds, old photographs and the PlayStation Portable to your keyboard, the instructions tell you what to brush off and what areas to avoid. There is an extensive listing on how to clean floors, from marble and wood to laminate, and ways to trim the nails of your pet dog.
Of course, with any cleaning process, different people will offer their own methods and materials to use, so do not be surprised if you find uncommon items, like Coca-Cola, listed as a cleaning agent.
Hey, it worked for someone.
32. GameFAQs
Playing games on the PC or console is simple enough but beating the game as well as getting all the hidden secrets is another matter.
There are various game websites and even tip books on how to do just that, but GameFAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) lists the secrets of just about every game made.
The game walkthroughs are fan created and, for most games, there are about a dozen walkthroughs and hint files for gamers to pick. If you still have a problem winning, the forums are a good place to ask questions or even offer your own insights into a game.
If the game stumps you despite all the walkthroughs, hints and spoilers, there is still a chance for victory.
Games saved are hosted on this site so all you need to do is download the relevant saved game file to your PC or console.
Voila, you can now easily continue the game in which someone else has already defeated that terrible boss you could not beat or use in-game credits that some gamer spent months collecting and was nice enough to share with the online community.
33. Howcast
There is your mother's method of folding your T-shirts and there is the Howcast way.
In fact, there is the Howcast way for a great many things, from trimming your own bangs, dealing with a flirtatious boss, painting a wall to choosing the bra that accentuates your breasts.
The great thing is each method comes with a step-by-step instructional video, in case instructions in plain text are not clear enough.
Did you know that if a bra makes your breasts look good under a white T-shirt, it will make them look good under any shirt?
I never knew that so it certainly helps to pay attention to the carefully crafted clips that list the items you need for each task and how to go about performing them.
So guys, if you ever want to show off to your girlfriend, get the right tips from this site.
34. How Stuff Works
From the interesting to the quirky, How Stuff Works strips off the spin and lays the truth for visitors. With categories ranging from electronics and food to history and people, the site offers basic information on anything and everything.
For example, Hollywood is touting 3-D movies as the next big thing but how exactly does it work? What makes the iPhone tick and what would happen if you ate only peanut butter for the rest of your life?
The site also gives tips for some pretty uncommon situations. For example, should you ever get stuck in the Alps, there is a video on how to find food to stay alive.
Did you know?
C programming language was used to create the World Wide Web. The code was written on the NeXT computer, made by NeXT Inc, a company founded in 1985 by Apple chief executive officer Steve Jobs
Mobile sites
35. Wapedia
wapedia.mobi/en/
There is Wikipedia when you need to find out what a lamprey eel is.
However, if you are not at the desk, a better bet would be Wapedia, which you can surf on your mobile phone.
Wikipedia's site is not optimised for the small screen of the mobile phone but through Wapedia tweaks, text magically fits. Entries and pictures are resized so that you do not have to scroll too much on your phone. In fact, you can set your own preferences for image size, page length and number of search results and also select from a list of languages.
The mobile site also lets you search via another search engine, Taptu, which arranges its results according to categories such as images, music and videos.
Now, there is a new way to idle away that commute time on the train.
36. Netvibes
Tapping out the addresses of websites on your mobile phone's little keypad can be a pain. The alternative - scrolling through a long list of bookmarks - is equally tedious.
With Netvibes, you get a start page that you can customise to display links, feeds and the latest content from your favourite news sites, blogs and even your inbox.
The service makes browsing on the mobile phone a cinch because all you have to do is navigate to that one page to link to your favourite sites. It also gives you a preview of the content, like news stories or blog posts, so you can decide whether or not to surf those places.
Plus, the links and content are organised neatly under tabs.
As every little bit of convenience counts when it comes to mobile surfing, the site is also set to always scroll vertically.
37. Skweezer
Prevent text clutter on the mobile phone screen with Skweezer.
The online mobile app squeezes information on websites onto tiny screens, even if they are not optimised for that. Skweezer acts as a proxy by first downloading the sites you search for on its server, then reformats them to fit the phone's screen. Think of all the time you can save from not having to scroll.
All about style
38. Red Carpet Fashion Awards
www.redcarpetfashionawards.com
Having browsed through enough fashion magazines and seen a few fashion shows on TV, one thing that crosses my mind often is, do real people actually wear these outfits?
Well, the answer depends on if you consider celebrities to be "real people".
From movie premieres, TV appearances to award shows, this site keeps tabs on the Who's Who of Tinseltown as well as where their fashion inspiration comes from.
If an actress wore a dress, the site will have a picture of how the dress looked during its catwalk premiere and if it so happened that two actresses or more donned the same outfit, the site starts a vote, letting visitors decide who looked better.
If anything, this site will keep you up to date on the latest Hollywood fashion trends and faux pas.
39. AskMen.com
Those who readily believe that men do not know anything have not really attempted to ask the men anything. Even if you did, most of the answers may have come from this site. Modelled after men's magazines, expect a slant towards the testosterone-heavy audience. Topics revolve around beer, women, cars, pictures of women and, well, you get the picture.
There are biographies of your favourite actresses, including editor's ratings.
When you get to the pictures, the site really knows what men want: Images are from red carpet events so visitors to the site do not have to sift through countless pictures to see the glamour shots.
The well-written articles are also a draw, from health to fine dining, so really, what more can a man ask for?
40. The Cool Hunter
Can Lego be back in fashion again? How incredible looking is a house with an outdoor home theatre system? Can one really re-invent the bathtub?
Providing a peek into the design world, this site highlights items with a certain polish to them.
The images of the fanciful items listed are also professional looking, so this is not something cobbled together by guys using a mobile phone chancing upon something pretty looking.
From ingenious table designs and curtains to radios and fancy hotels, The Cool Hunter is a showcase of things that you do not see every day.
Did you know?
The European Organization for Nuclear Research's phone directory formed the contents of the first Web page
Conversions
41. Online Conversion
Shopaholics would recognise that for shoes, a US size 10 is the rough equivalent of a UK size 7.5 or a European size 42.
However, when it comes to cooking, how many cubes of butter make a cup? And what time is it in New York right now?
From simple time clocks and cooking measurements to complex conversion of joules and newtons, Online Conversion does all the math for you.
Aside from mere conversions of figures, the site also calculates simple numbers, like a breakdown of monthly payments for a car or a house, size of a room if you have the measurements and days to your retirement.
Reviews
42. Metacritic
Everybody can be an armchair critic.
However, instead of grumbling among friends, some critics do post their thoughts on the Web.
On Metacritic, you can read the reviews of movies, music, DVD releases and video games.
If you find the reviews familiar, it is because Metacritic does not commission any of them. The site collates all credible reviews written about a particular new title, then lists and links them conveniently on one page.
Positive reviews are given a green rating, while negative ones get a red. Those on the fence are rated yellow, so at once glance, visitors can get an idea of the average rating, without reading any of the reviews.
Instead of heading to Rotten Tomatoes (www.rottentomatoes.com) for movie reviews and then switching to IGN (www.ign.com) for game reviews, let Metacritic do all the work for you.
Bookworms
43. Internet Sacred Text Archive
From Christianity to Taoism, Confucianism to Zoroastrianism and Atlantis to UFOs, the Internet Sacred Text Archive hosts a collection of free electronic books covering religion, mythology and legends, folklore and the occult.
These are not your modern fiction either, as the site offers scans of the original books - where possible - with some dating back to the 1800s.
For the fantasy buffs, there is a collection of ancient writings and poems, like Beowulf, many of which have similar names and themes to J.R.R. Tolkiens' Lord Of The Rings saga.
44. Project Gutenberg
When it comes to free electronic books, there is no greater resource than Project Gutenberg. While Google Book Search (books.google.com) attempts to bring more electronic books to the masses, including free ones and those for sale, this site is all about books in the public domain.
The layout is similar to online book retailers - the free texts, some of which are available in audio form, are categorised by genres and authors and visitors simply download them.
Some gems Digital Life found include Alexander Dumas' The Three Musketeers and its various sequels, plus a number of books on Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. There is little mystery here: For bookworms, this is a must-visit site.
45. Gocomics.com
One of the joys of reading newspapers is the comic strips where readers can have a few laughs.
Now, the laughs can be found at any time.
From the popular Calvin and Hobbes, classic Dick Tracy to the under-appreciated Heathcliff, comic strips are updated daily and the free service lets you organise your online comic collection from the website.
As you may not be familiar with all the comic strips available, there is a search function that recommends them to you, based on your preferences, from political, superheroes to plain old cats or dogs.
46. DailyLit
It is ironic that most of us spend the bulk of our daily hours reading e-mail messages but not books. DailyLit comes to the rescue. It offers free public domain books in little chapters.
The premise is simple: pick a book title and choose to have the site e-mail you the chapters in instalments.
Depending on your choice, you can have a chapter sent to you each week or a section every other day. Read what you have and wait for the next e-mail.
This is a great way to stay in touch with the literary classics, and still look as if you are buried in work e-mail.
Did you know?
As of February this year, there were a total of 109,268 .sg domain names registered
Travel
47. SeatGuru
Other than pilots and air crew, most other people will not know the make and model number of the airplanes they are flying in. Even if they do, they probably would have no clue which are the worst or best seats on, say, the Airbus A330-300.
That is where SeatGuru comes in. It provides seat maps of all makes and models of planes from some 80 different airlines.
Although it is a United States-based website, airlines popular with travellers here, such as Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific and China Airlines are all represented.
Getting a good seat is especially crucial for long flights. You can check the seat plans before selecting where you want to sit to make sure you do not choose one with limited recline or reduced legroom due to life-vest boxes.
You should do this before you decide on an airline. Check out the comparison chart to find out which airline has wider seats and more leg room. After all, not all seats are created equal, even if they are from the same flight class.
For the most obsessive of travellers, the website even tells you which seats have personal TVs and which have power for your laptop.
It is so detailed that it even tells you what kinds of power plugs there are at the seats, so you know whether or not you need an adaptor.
48. Oanda.com
Who says you need cheatsheets only during examinations?
If you are not good at mathematics, you will probably want one too when you travel, instead of mentally converting currencies every time you pay for a meal or tickets to attractions.
Unlike other currency converters you can find on the Internet, Oanda does not just convert a single amount.
It has an FxCheatSheet feature, which lets you create a currency conversion table that lists the conversions for smaller amounts from one to 10 to big amounts up to a few hundred dollars.
It is wallet-sized too, so you can print it, cut it out and take it with you.
It makes for easy reference especially when you need to pay for your shopping. For example, at one glance, you will know that 400 Mauritius Rupees is about S$18.40.
What is cool is that you can choose to convert your currency using Interbank, or official, rates, credit card rates with a 2 per cent premium, or rates you would get at a money changer.
You can even determine your own exchange margin based on rates at your local money changer to customise your cheatsheet.
49. Tripadvisor
Somehow, I find hotel reviews by real people more accurate than those by travel writers and reviewers. That is because even though there are a few reviewers who will go incognito to test the hotels out, many are familiar faces to hotel folks and are therefore likely to get the red-carpet treatment.
Tripadvisor is the most comprehensive travel site with reviews of hotels around the world submitted by regular travellers.
On the site, you get individual reviews and also an average rating of each hotel. As it has amassed some 10 million reviews, it gives a pretty accurate gauge of how good or bad a hotel is.
There are also photos of the properties, some of which are provided by the hotels and others snapped by the reviewers.
50. Gothere
There are no lack of map sites online, which you can use to find out how to get from one place to another.
What makes Gothere different is the fact that it was created by Singaporeans for Singaporeans.
You can use the service to find out how to get to, say, Tuas Avenue 1 by car, bus or the MRT.
Gothere.com takes into account all factors that make transportation unique in Singapore such as fluctuating Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) charges and taxi surcharges.
It tells you how much ERP you have to pay, even taking into account what time you are planning to set off, since ERP prices change throughout the day.
As public transport is the main mode of travel for many here, the site also provides bus, MRT and taxi directions.
These are so detailed that they include the total fare you have to pay, total time you will need to take and, for bus travel, even the number of bus stops to your destination.
Bus stop numbers are also provided, in case you want to check what time your bus will arrive through the SBS Iris online system.
If you choose the taxi option, Gothere tells you exactly how much taxi surcharge you have to pay and whether it is for taking a cab during the peak hour, from the central business district or for passing under an ERP gantry.
Did you know?
info.cern.ch was the address of the world's first website
Honourable mentions
We said 50 top websites and we meant it. However, here are four popular ones that you cannot afford to ignore
Internet Movie Database
Fans of the trivia game Six Degrees Of Kevin Bacon, where it is said that any actor can be linked to Kevin via their film roles, as well as movie aficionados would be intimately familiar with this site.
The Internet Movie Database or IMDB is the most comprehensive guide to world cinema, covering not just Hollywood, but Hong Kong and European cinema as well.
Say you watch a movie and see a familiar face but cannot place a name to the actor. Look up the movie on IMDB and a list of actors involved in the film will pop up. By clicking on the name of an actor, a filmography of that person will appear, listing the movies the actor has starred in, along with his co-actors.
Click on the movie title to find out how much the movie made at the box office. From directors and writers to producers and the production crew, everyone involved is identified and linked to their various film projects.
For the trivia buffs, there is also a movie page where lines from the movie as well as gaffes are listed for your easy reference.
Wikipedia
The user-created online encyclopaedia, useful as one-stop source for all types of information, needs little introduction unless you have lived on Mars for the last 16 years or so.
Of course, one of the greatest criticisms levelled against this site is that it welcomes all and sundry to give their input. So, mistakes can be made. However, Netizens, being a queer breed, are also proud of correcting mistakes so errors are rectified.
Barring occasional disputes, this practice of self-checking has worked well for the non-profit organisation that runs the website.
While it may not be prudent to gather all your facts from Wikipedia, it is a good go-to site for first-cut fact checks.
Download.com
Here is a one-stop resource for downloading all the computer software available - and most of them free.
Better yet, all of them legal too.
From disc burning software, Internet chat applications, media players, video-editing programs to registry cleaners, Download.com has it all. The site links surfers to all software available for download from the Web, so no time is actually spent hunting them down.
If a software is free, the site tells you so. Otherwise, it lists the trial period and tells you how much you would need to pay for the full version.
Feedback from online users also rate the downloads, so there is a ranking to show how useful each download is.
This is especially helpful if you come across 20 disc-burning software and are unsure of the advantages that each one offers.
What I like is that the feedback also tells you if the free software is loaded with spyware, adding a safety dimension as well.
Ain't It Cool News
Entertainment websites like EW.com and TV Guide (www.tvguide.com) give you the latest movie, TV or celebrity news. When it comes to news that the Hollywood studios do not want to be made public, though, Ain't It Cool News or AICN is where to loiter in.
AICN reports rumours and reviews of new movies and TV shows, as well as information leaked during the production of a film or TV project.
In some cases, the rumours turn out to be true. The site whispered months earlier, from the outset of the filming of The Incredible Hulk, that Iron Man star Robert Downey Jr would make a cameo in Hulk. And he did.
Big-name actors have been known to stop by the site to say a few words to their adoring fans as well.
Sylvester Stallone has been updating AICN creator Harry Knowles on the status of his upcoming action movie, The Expendables, which stars Jet Li.
And psst: There is a rumoured cameo by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Yes, you read it here first, but I got it from AICN.
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