The Most Useful Sites on the Web
The World Wide Web has grown to extraordinary lengths over the past decade. Everybody has that group of sites that they visit every day and often multiple times per day. However, this list will give you some of the most useful sites around. Go through the categories that interest you and find new resources that you may have never known existed.
The Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com) is the essential site for anyone wanting any kind of information on a movie. This free database has thousands of movies in it with all kinds of info about every movie. Directors, starring actors/actresses, staff, trivia, reviews, user message boards are just some of the key bits of info you’ll run into at IMDB. You’ll also be able to look up recently released films as well as future works and find out whatever you can about them.
All Music (www.allmusic.com) was created in 1995 but has since turned into a musical masterpiece chock full of facts and opinions. All the musical genre’s you can think of are searchable at All Music. Information such as an artist’s influences, group members, its followers and comparable artists are as useful as any other musical branded site out there. Reviews, band facts and outright editorials are always fun to read here.
Blogger (www.blogger.com) and Blogdex (www.blogdex.net) are two sites based around the usage and directory of today’s ultimate world of blogging. A blog is an online journal kept by thousands of people around the world. Blogger is a free service which allows you to create your very own blog with tons of customizable features. Blogdex is a directory full of all kinds of blogs. You’ll never be bored when finding interesting blog after interesting blog to check out.
eBay (www.ebay.com) and Amazon (www.amazon.com) are two of the best places around for you to purchase products or sell your own for money. eBay is an online auction site which allows users to bid on or outright buy products sold by other users. Many people have found ways to create eBay stores and have made enough profits that they’re able to do it for a living. What it’s best for is to find an item that you’ve been looking for. Everything from collectibles, movies, music, video games, and books to cars, land and clothes is sold. Amazon is probably the most successful online retail store with categories to purchase products like books, dvds, cds, electronics, beauty products, and tons more. Quick shipping is also a benefit of Amazon. If you’re a college student looking for cheaper textbooks, hit both eBay and Amazon up and give it a try.
Craigs List (www.craigslist.org) is a tremendous tool to use to find anything you’re looking for, locally. There are different versions of the site for tons of cities in the US as well as multiple international locations. Once you find your city, you’re able to check out personals, housing advertisements, job ads, professional gigs or just plain talk with other users about whatever’s on your mind.
The Drudge Report (www.drudgereport.com), run by Matt Drudge is one of the best news sites available mainly because Drudge is not tainted by a large corporation worried about sponsors or advertising. A simple web design full of national news story links from around the country give you as much info as you can ask. Drudge became widely popular for breaking national stories such as the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal and the death of Princess Diana, among others. Criticized by some for being too conservative, Drudge denies the fact and boasts his independence. Many in the national news scene (Bill O’Reily and Keith Olbermann specifically) dislike Drudge and his antics, but the man runs a great site.
If you’re looking for new facts on any kind of topic, forget the encyclopedia and go give Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.com) a try. The free encyclopedia opened up in 2001 and its content is written and can be edited by users. An amazing number of topics are housed at the site, now nearing the 700,000 mark.
GameFaqs is a great site based on video games, both console and computer gaming. The site is a reference tool for gamers who can log on to check reviews, cheats/codes or look up information on FAQs and walkthroughs. Every game has a message board (some more dedicated than others) and while some of the posters can be a bit immature, it makes for some interesting reading. GameFaqs (www.gamefaqs.com) also boasts a new poll every day and numerous contests for users to take part in.
At this point, everybody and their mother know about Google (www.google.com) and all of its heroics. Nonetheless, it remains among the best and most useful sites on the net. With new tools seemingly beginning every month, there’s more to do than to just search for content. GMail, their version of email and Froogle, a resource to find cheaper deals on items are just two of the many resources you will find.
There you have it, some of the best and most useful sites on the net. Perhaps the best thing of all is that they’re all free of charge to use and enjoy every day. Enjoy!
