Last year, I wrote about PC Magazine’s 101 Most Incredibly Useful Sites and received several notes from readers. While some disputed how incredibly useful some of the sites actually were, everyone seemed to find at least some new leads for online destinations. That’s what I keep preaching: You need to expand your Web travel horizons. If you only go to the places you already know and trust, you are likely to miss out on a lot of good and/or fun stuff.
PC Magazine now revisits this topic twice a year, in the fall with an online-only version and in the spring with a print cover story that also has an online update. This year’s list was released last week and is truly worth a visit: Top 101 Web Sites: Sites to Engage, Entertain & Inform.
Several things to note here, including the new and improved categories, which reflect how the Web has evolved in a year. Here are some of the highlights (with my personal favorite from each category):
- There’s a timely Politics category (FactCheck.org).
- The Apps category includes mobile applications reflecting the wireless trend (Vindigo Studios).
- With digital cameras showing up on many holiday wish lists, there’s a Consumer electronics and photography category (DPreview.com).
- Security & the Net is a critical topic these days; did you see the study that says 70 percent of consumers think their PCs are safe, but two-thirds don’t have current anti-virus protection (SpywareInfo.com)?
- To acknowledge varying levels of technical skills, the editors have selected Computing-Everyone (AnswersThatWork), and Computing-Experts (ExtremeTech).
According to Lance Ulanoff, who edits the list, “about half the sites are new this year.” It’s clear from talking to him that his team really enjoys pulling this together and they get to have some fun — and not just in the Oddities (OldSuperstitions.com) and Gaming (FreeGameWorld) categories.
“Yes,” he admits, “we did name ourselves as one of the top 101 sites.” If anyone objects to seeing PCMag.com on the list, he says, “they should just think of the site as being number 101.”
Two closing thoughts: one positive and one less positive. The site has created a URL shortcut so you don’t have to hunt for the list all over the main site: go.pcmag.com/top101 (last year’s shortcut, IncrediblyUseful.com, is, how shall I put it, no longer with us).
What I didn’t like is the internal navigation on the list. Once you click into a category on the main list page, you’re reading about an individual site and you can get to others within the category (so far, so good). But if you use the provided navigation, you cannot easily get back to the master list; instead you end up on an older section of site, with out-of-date listings. So I had to keep using my browser’s back button to get to the master list. This is, however, a small price to pay for all you will learn here.
YOUR TURN: Want to share a site you find useful? Please e-mail a SHORT tip, including your name, affiliation, city, and phone number (for verification only) to poynter@sree.net.
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