卫报: 新的最有用的100个网站
英国《卫报》2006年底评选出“新的最有用的100个网站”，从中大致可以了解目前也许全球，也许英语世界，也许仅仅英国的互联网发展趋势和方向。(J的废话是不是很多? A不多 B还可以 C多个X D以上皆是，嘿嘿…… )
一、应用软件
为什么要在浏览器中运行一个应用软件？因为可以与不同位置的人们分享任务，这在进行有密码保护的工作时非常有效。 backpackit.com因其简单的任务，basecamphq.com因其成熟的项目而当选。tadalis很简单，类似于DOS。而google 的Documents & Spreadsheets需要一个google账号(免费的)，而且它不打算与微软竞争。wikicalc是一个免费的在线电子表格，发展也非常迅速。
backpackit.com
basecamphq.com
tadalist.com
docs.google.com
softwaregarden.com/wkcalpha
二、博客：阅读
互联网上有着无数的博客服务网站，用户需要选择最好的。通过rss和博客搜索引擎就可以简化工作。technorati虽然有时候比较诡异，但是一般情况下是一个可以值得信赖的博客导航网站。icerocket很善于粘住用户。网民需要在网上找到能包含自己最感兴趣的事，那么newsgator 和 google reader就是一个很好的选择。另外，bloglines也是一个很好的信息获取网站。
technorati.com
icerocket.com
newsgator.com
google.com/reader
bloglines.com
三、博客：写作
网民需要找到一个好工具来写作，而不仅仅是阅读。开源和免费的软件程序wordpress就凸显了出来，它因自己的创造性、管理能力和发布信息的工具，已经将它的竞争对手远远抛在了身后。wordpress.org是一个免费的软件；wordpress.com提供免费包的付费、管理版。blogger是剩下的里面最好的。vox灵巧、简单而且免费，同时包含了很多的社交应用功能。statcounter统计非常棒，能为你的网站提供很好的统计数据。免费的google analytics也非常好。
wordpress.org
blogger.com
vox.com
statcounter.com
google.com/analytics
四、电子邮件
google的gmail是基于网络的电子邮件系统，缺点就是在英国只有受邀请才能使用。但是，yahoo的免费邮件服务是一个厉害的竞争者，而微软也有live Mail。与微软以前的hotmail服务不同，如果你30天中不登录的话，它不会删除你所有的旧信。在所有这些免费服务商中，bluebottle因为它对垃圾邮件的过滤功能而深受人们喜爱。免费版本提供250MB的存储空间，并且支持POP3和SMTP标准，因而网民从中可以获得一个很好的邮件程序和网络通道。另外还有tempInbox，它提供免费、临时的邮件账号，而且不需要注册。
mail.google.com
mail.yahoo.com
mail.live.com
bluebottle.com
tempinbox.com/english
五、游戏
如今互联网上有许多视频游戏网站，你需要一个像gametab这样的导航帮你找到最好的。pocketgamer深入研究了手控游戏，gamasutra收集得非常全面。gamesfaqs拥有常见问题解答和预演(另外还有游戏的秘笈、复盘和预览等)。esrb允许按照年龄段来搜索。
gametab.com
pocketgamer.co.uk
gamasutra.com
gamefaqs.com
esrb.org/ratings/index.jsp
六、地图
在google地图和人造卫星图像出现以前，每个人都会看ordnance survey的数据，这意味着它们之间没有什么区别。grdnance survey已经升级了自己的网站，可以告诉你该买一个地区的哪个地图。它的地名搜索非常棒。与此同时，new popular edition能够显示地区在上个世纪40年代时的样子，这非常不错。
maps.google.co.uk
streetmap.co.uk
multimap.com
ordnancesurvey.co.uk
npemap.org.uk
七、新闻：主流媒体
bbc继续在自己的道路上行进，它提供了多种媒体形式，同时允许用户添加自己的评论。《纽约时报》网站虽然关闭了一些内容，但是它依然非常强大。这两个网站的rss feeds在bbcriver.com和nytimesriver.com上可以使用手机来阅读。google新闻也尽其所能，虽然头条依然是最新的，而不是最为准确的。nowpublic是ohmynews来自美国的竞争对手，宣称拥有52000个配备移动电话的业余记者，而且这些人的位置可以通过 GPS或者手机定位来获得。
news.bbc.co.uk
nytimes.com
news.google.co.uk
english.ohmynews.com
nowpublic.com
八、新闻：推荐
Web2.0所能做到的一件很好的事情就是，它能够让许多人来投票。虽然可能会被滥用，但是一般情况下还是能够起到很好的作用。那些能让网民投票的网站，以及博客热衷于讲故事的网站(memoerandum)现在越来越多了。最大的就是digg，2006年年初已经超过了 slashdot。reddi如今被《连线》杂志所收购。findory有点不同，你越用它学到的就越多。
digg.com
reddit.com
memeorandum.com
megite.com
findory.com
九、特色
snopes披露难以置信的故事、诡计和城市传说，并且揭穿或者证实这些故事。另外，还有100个看上去无用，但是非比寻常的网络博物馆。其中包括虚拟卫生纸博物馆、老计算机网络博物馆和交通信号标识博物馆。网民可以通过weird网站上的链接找到许多其他有趣的网站。onion 是网上的讽刺文学杂志，不过它对美国存在偏见。如果要休息5分钟，那么可以浏览b3ta。这个英国网站每周发送一次酷站的直邮，它还有一个信息公告板供人们粘贴有趣的处理图。但是需要注意的是：有人认为，它常常会产生人身攻击，对于工作的人来说并不安全。
snopes.com
ringsurf.com
theweirdsite.com
theonion.com
b3ta.com
十、政治
对theyworkforyou 和publicwhip 来说，mysociety依然是不可战胜的，因为它将hansard纳入旗下。但是，博客已经开始向大众披露一些政治人物上不了台面的事情。guido fawkes有来自威斯敏斯特市的许多内部消息，而no2id经常会引发有关政治和科技方面的争论。与此同时，nhs 23是一个wiki网站，经常讨论政治、技术和国民健康保险制度等话题。
theyworkforyou.com
publicwhip.org.uk
5thnovember.blogspot.com
no2id.net
editthis.info/nhs_it_info
十一、公众行为
需要揭露一些当权者的弊政了。网络的不同之处在于它的不断成长，政治家如今也上网。而且也有一些请愿的网站。 pledgebank和hearfromyourmp都是mysociety (mysociety.org)家族下的网站，让市民和决策者之间有个交流，这样才使得人们有所期待。包括the virtual activist的netaction网站，是网民在线提出方案的一个重要工具。那些对发展自己地区有兴趣的人可以上timebank，可以找到一些用于打发业余时间的组织。
pledgebank.com
petitions.pm.gov.uk
hearfromyourmp.com
netaction.org
timebank.org.uk
十二、广播
广播现在已经传递到千家万户。bbc在这里占据优势地位，但是依然有许多地方站从aol的短讯中获取即时的新闻，这非常有趣。雷达和无线电设备遍布世界，所以你总能找到可以听的东西。reciva做的事情也是一样，但是如果你购买了它的网络收音机，你可以在线添加你自己喜欢的节目。
bbc.co.uk/radio
shoutcast.com
radio-locator.com
live-radio.net
reciva.com
十三、推荐：音乐
能够发现与你喜欢的音乐相似的素材，这一点显得越来越重要，无论是收听者还是唱片公司都希望从中获利。last.fm需要在你的机器上运行一个软件，显示其他有此音乐的人喜欢的是什么。pandora称你需要一个美国的邮编，给它一个然后你就可以听到精心挑选的节目了。 liveplasma能够搜索相关的电影和音乐。tuneglue是last.fm与EMI投资的一个新网站，使用amazon和last.fm的数据。 goombah需要下载，而且只能在iTunes中播放音乐，但是有时也还是比较重要。
last.fm
pandora.com
liveplasma.com
audiomap.tuneglue.net
goombah.com
十四、索引
wikipedia占据了索引网站的主导地位，部分原因是因为它的网页与google高度相关。用户撰写的东西，虽然不是十分可信，但是却是非常有趣的。wikipedia一直与大英百科全书竞争，而大英百科全书不是免费的。另外一个可选的网站是highbeam百科全书，它从哥伦比亚百科全书上搜索了超过57000篇文章。另外，jim martindale索引创建于1994年，提供了大量的索引资源。对于单词来说，最好使用onelook，它提供了931个词典中的750万单词。而且它还能够根据单词的意思来查找到单词。最后，teldir与世界上的在线电话簿相联系。
en.wikipedia.org
encyclopedia.com
martindalecenter.com
onelook.com
infobel.com/teldir
十五、科学
alphagalileo提供了欧洲面对民众的科学信息，是eurekalert的对应网站。eurekalert是美国的协会，主要是为前沿科学发布宣言的。space.com依然关注于空间科学。nasa包含了财富方面的信息。气候变化重要性的凸显使得有气候变化学家撰写的 reacclimate博客的地位也越来越高了。
alphagalileo.org
eurekalert.org
space.com
nasa.gov/home
realclimate.org
十六、搜索
google依然是我们获取信息的主要手段(占据所有搜索用户的一半)，但是这并不意味着它是最好的。如今的搜索可以包含硬件、博客、图像、点对点甚至是过去的历史记录。blinkx因其对视频的专注，依然是独特的，而ask也取得了很大的进步，虽然它只吸引了很少的用户。
google.co.uk
search.yahoo.com
search.msn.co.uk
blinkx.com
ask.com
十七、社交
网民可以在网上找到与自己兴趣相同的人，可以创建自己的个人空间与别人分享。社交网络现在越来越多，但是依然没有阻止myspace成为老大。bebo也很流行。habbo吸引了很多年轻人，而friendster 和linkedin则吸引了很多年龄大的网民。
myspace.com
bebo.com
habbo.com
friendster.com
linkedin.com
十八、视频
虽然youtube上的人非常多，但是它不是唯一能够找到视频的网站。revver提供了一个收益分享系统，当别人观看你的视频的时候，你就可以获得一定的现金。你也可以在brightcove和currenttv创建自己的电台。另外，videojug上演示了怎么去做那些可能有用的工作。
youtube.com
revver.com
brightcove.com
currenttv.com
videojug.com
十九、虚拟世界
与myspace等社交网站不同的是，虚拟世界给你一个替身，用于代表虚拟世界中的你。宽带的使用加速了计算机运行速度，使得这一切变成可能。bbc在second life上举行一场音乐会，这听起来比较诡异。IBM首席执行官拥有了一个替身，这使得habbo hotel上人满为患。world of warcraft拥有数百万的用户，并且在寻找自己的文化。用户也可以在sims在线上玩耍。大量新人的涌现是否会让这个世界上的人与人之间变得更加冷漠，这依然是一个未知的问题。
secondlife.com
habbohotel.co.uk
worldofwarcraft.com
thesimsonline.com
eqplayers.station.sony.com/index.vm
二十、时代潮流
这些网站之所以如此引人注目，是因为它们代表了整个世界在思考些什么。看着它们从我们身边经过，不要忘记：youtube是网络上流动的图像；Flickr是静止的图像；google的搜索趋势代表着整个世界在寻找的东西； digg表示我们找到了什么；technorati表示人们正在写着什么。
youtube.com
flickr.com
google.com/trends
digg.com
technorati.com
来源：青年记者2007年第5期，以下是英文原文。
The new 100 most useful sites
Two years ago most Britons didn’t have broadband and Web 2.0 was barely a twinkle in a developer’s eye. Things have changed - as our cream of the crop for 2006 shows
Thursday December 21, 2006
The Guardian
In 2004, the internet was a different place: there was, for example, no YouTube, and most Britons online didn’t have broadband. That’s changed dramatically: now, more than 75% of users have broadband, and the arrival of Web 2.0 has brought sites where the interaction is as fast as if it were on your machine. So we’ve revisited the “cream of the crop” that we brought you two years ago.
Some of the crop is brand new; some has stood the test of time. As before, we have 100 sites in 20 categories. That of course means that your favourite might not be here (even if you suggested it on our blog). Email us with your suggestions for the ones we should have included.
Many of the categories here are new since the last crop. Many of the sites from that time still exist, of course - and are still hugely useful.
One category that’s missing is mobiles, where data speeds haven’t kept up with broadband. Maybe in 2007?
Contributors: Charles Arthur, Kate Bulkley, Michael Cross, Bobbie Johnson, Vic Keegan, Jack Schofield, Keith Stuart
Applications
Why have an application to run in your browser? Because for tasks shared between people at different locations, it makes sense to access password-protected sets of work. 37signals offers Backpack (note the domain is backpackit) for simple tasks and the bigger Basecamp for grown-up projects. Tadalist is simpler, being just to-dos (but isn’t that what it’s about?), while Google’s Documents & Spreadsheets requires a Google account (they’re free) and doesn’t try to compete with Microsoft Office. Wikicalc is a free online spreadsheet, and developing smartly.
Blogs: reading
There are millions of blogs out there; you need to pick the best. Step forward RSS (aka web feeds) and blog search engines to simplify things. Technorati is occasionally flaky, but generally a reliable indicator of what’s being blogged about. Icerocket runs it close. And you’ll need an online aggregator to keep abreast of the feeds you’re most interested in: Newsgator and Google Reader are good choices. Bloglines is an excellent alternative feed reader.
Blogs: writing
To do it rather than read it, you need a good set of tools. The open-source and free software project Wordpress has risen to prominence, elbowing aside many rivals with its blog creation, management and (importantly) spam-beating tools. Wordpress.org is the free software; wordpress.com offers paid-for, managed versions of the free package. Blogger is the best of the rest; Vox is neat, easy and free, and plugs into lots of social applications. Statcounter counts, well, statistics for your site; the free Google Analytics (if you can get an account) is good too.
Google’s Gmail has become the web-based email system of choice for those who can get access. Its main drawback is that it’s still an invitation-only system in the UK. However, Yahoo’s free email service is a decent competitor, and Microsoft has Live Mail. Unlike Microsoft’s old Hotmail service, none will delete all your old emails if you fail to log on every 30 days. Among the dozens of free alternatives, Bluebottle is a decent option for its focus on spam filtering. The free version offers 250MB of storage and supports the POP3 and SMTP standards, so you can use a proper email program as well as web access. There’s also TempInbox, which provides free, temporary, throwaway email accounts with no registration.
Gaming
There are far too many videogame news sites on the internet today; you need an aggregator like Gametab to filter through to the best. Pocketgamer specialises in handheld games, while Gamasutra is absolutely unmissable. Gamesfaqs has FAQs and walkthroughs (plus cheats, reviews and previews) for loads of games. And the ESRB lets you search by age rating.
Maps
Maps matter, but once you’re past Google’s maps and satellite detail, everyone’s thrown back on the Ordnance Survey’s data, which means there’s little to choose between them. Ordnance Survey has improved its site, and can at least now tell you which map to buy for an area; its placename search is nifty. Meanwhile, the New Popular Edition site shows how the country looked in the 1940s. Delightful.
News: mainstream
The BBC marches on, adding more media forms while also letting users add their comments. The New York Times site is vast (though it has shut off some of its content behind a “paywall”). Both sites’ (short) RSS feeds can be read on a mobile at bbcriver.com and nytimesriver.com. Google News extends its reach, though the top headline is still whichever site last updated rather than the one which is most accurate. Nowpublic is a US rival to OhMyNews and claims 52,000 (and counting) “mojos” - amateur journalists with mobile phones whose location can be figured out from GPS or phone triangulation.
News: recommendation
One thing that Web 2.0 is really good at is letting lots of people vote on things. It can be (and is) abused, but generally the system works. That’s seen the rise of sites which let people vote stories up, or which news stories (and how) bloggers are talking about (at memoerandum).The biggest is Digg, which overtook Slashdot earlier this year. Reddit was recently bought by Wired magazine. Findory is slightly different, learning what you like the more you use it.
Offbeat
Snopes checks out unbelievable tales, scams and urban legends and debunks (or confirms) them. Slightly less useful is the 100-strong webring of Unusual Museums of the Internet. These include the Virtual Toilet Paper Museum, the Old Calculators Web Museum and Signalfan’s museum of traffic control signals. You can find links to lots of other offbeat sites via the Weird Site’s Other Weird Links page. The Onion is the web’s leading satire magazine, though with an American bias. Otherwise, for five minutes of fun, try browsing B3ta. This UK site sends out a weekly newsletter of cool links and runs a message board where people post amusingly manipulated pictures. But be warned: it’s often offensive - that’s part of the point - and most definitely rated NSFW (Not Safe For Work).
Politics
The MySociety team remains unbeatable for turning Hansard inside out with Theyworkforyou and Publicwhip, but bloggers have begun to expose the unwritten workings of politicians to greater public scrutiny too. Guido Fawkes’ blog has the inside gossip from Westminster, while NO2ID agitates on arguably the most important political and technological issue around, while NHS 23 is a wiki outlining the problems with the political, technological and medical drama of the NHS computer- isation programme.
Public action
Now, it’s time to bug someone in power. The idea that the web can make a difference is growing; politicians are on the web and there’s an online petition site at No.10. Pledgebank and HearfromyourMP are both part of the excellent MySociety (mysociety.org) family of sites enabling citizens to connect to decision-makers - and, one would hope, vice versa. Netaction includes The Virtual Activist, a manual for anyone looking to build and promote a cause online. Those interested in helping out in their area might try Timebank, which finds organisations to which to donate spare time.
Radio
Radio now travels over wires, at least to our homes. The BBC dominates here, but there are thousands of stations to choose from. AOL’s Shoutcast is interesting: find whatever’s on right now (you can tune in via iTunes or any internet radio-enabled player.) Radio-locator and Live-radio list broadcasters worldwide, so you can find something new to listen to. Reciva does the same, but if you buy its internet radio you can add your own favourites online and they show on the gadget; or just listen online.
Recommendation: music
Another new category: being able to find stuff that’s similar to music you like is increasingly important, both to listeners and to record companies trying to profit from niches. Last.fm requires an application that runs on your machine, and shows what other people with the same music like. Pandora says you need a US postcode; so give it one, then enjoy its expert-chosen stations. Liveplasma can search relationships in films as well as music. Tuneglue is a relatively new venture between last.fm and EMI, using data from Amazon and last.fm. Goombah requires a small download and only works on music in an iTunes library, but has been at it for some time.
Reference
Wikipedia now dominates the reference side of the web, partly because its pages are ranked so highly in Google. User-written, it’s not always reliable, but is usually a good place to start. It competes with the Encyclopedia Britannica, which isn’t free. However, another traditional alternative is the HighBeam Encyclopedia, which searches more than 57,000 articles from the Columbia Encyclopedia. Otherwise Jim Martindale’s Reference Desk, started in 1994, provides an astonishing collection of links to reference sources. For words, try Onelook, which indexes more than 7.5m words in 931 dictionaries. It also has a reverse lookup to find words from their meanings. Finally, Teldir (on the infobel site) has links to the world’s online phone books.
Science
Alphagalileo gives a view of public-facing science in Europe and is a counterpart to eurekalert, the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s press announcements forum. Space.com remains fascinating for all things spacey. Nasa contains a wealth of information. The growing importance of climate change makes the RealClimate blog written by climate change scientists important.
Search
Google continues to tighten its grip on our hunt for information (it now gets half of all searches) but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best. Search can now encompass your hard drive, blogs (a separate category - see above), images, peer-to-peer and even what used to be out there. Blinkx remains unique with its focus on video, while Ask (now without Jeeves) has made great strides recently, though it only gets a tiny portion of searches.
Social software
The browser has grown up: now it’s the path to meeting people of similar interests and creating your own personal space online in a shared area. Social networks have become a cliche, but that hasn’t stopped MySpace becoming the biggest site online. Bebo is popular, Habbo is more tuned to the kids, while Friendster and LinkedIn will appeal to the older user.
Video
The crowds are all over at YouTube, the poster child of online video (a category too niche to merit mention two years ago; YouTube was founded in February 2005). But it’s not the only place to find video. Revver offers a revenue-sharing system (people pay to watch your video, you get some cash). You can also start your own TV station at brightcove and currenttv. And Videojug has demonstrations of how to do lots of possibly useful tasks.
Virtual worlds
The key distinction from social sites like MySpace is that virtual worlds give you an avatar - your representation of yourself in the online world. The advent of broadband allied to faster machines has made them usable. When the BBC held a concert in Second Life, it seemed like an anomaly; then IBM’s chief executive got an avatar, and suddenly everyone’s there. Habbo Hotel is booming with teens. World of Warcraft has millions of users; Everquest, its own culture. Or you can play the Sims online. Whether an influx of new users will make these worlds more antisocial remains open.
eqplayers.station.sony.com/index.vm
Zeitgeist
It’s what everyone’s talking about. Some of these sites appear above because they’re the places to go to find out whatthe webworld is thinking. Watch them whizz by, but don’t forget to breathe. YouTube is the moving picture of the web; Flickr the static one. Google Trends shows what the world’s looking for; Digg, what it’s found. And Technorati shows what it’s writing about. youtube.com flickr.com google.com/trends digg.com technorati.com
Readers’ suggestions
VideoJug (videojug.com). Videos on how to do everyday stuff such as tying a tie etc. (HiddenAway)
Slideshare (slideshare.net) . For sharing presentations; Best Tech Videos (bestechvideos.com). Very techie tutorial videos; TechXtra (techxtra.ac.uk). Has a long enough ‘tail’ to answer real queries. (RoddyM)
Online apps and desktops: Zoho (zoho.com); Cosmopod (cosmopod.com); eyeOS (eyeos.org). Online video editing: jumpcut.com. (hakluytbean)
Reevoo (reevoo.com) is a very handy site for people looking for honest feedback on products, as it only publishes reviews known to come from customers. (TechMonkey)