Top 25 Sites We Can’t Live Without

This is a list compiled by Time..People are now increasingly spending time online and being busy with work and a lot of personal commitments leaves most people with less and less time. I think these sites were selected based on the use and convenience it provides most people. I’ve

1. Amazon.com – from an online bookstore to a mega-retailer. Who hasn’t heard of Amazon? It is a great place to shop for anything and everything.
2. BBC.co.uk – World News. Sports. Radio. Articles and audio in 33 languages. PBS.org is content rich too; episodes of the series Expose: America’s Investigative Reports can be viewed even before its aired on TV.
3. Citysearch.com- Helps steer you to the right restaurants, bars, nightclubs, hotels and spas in dozens of cities, with editors’ picks and user reviews, and a Yellow Pages directory that includes shops and other services.
4. Craigslist.org – Free classified ads in every category, organized by locale.
5. Del.icio.us – An immensely popular place to share your favorite Web links and see what other people are bookmarking. Search the site by keyword (each link is tagged with descriptors both general and specific), create your own list of favorites to share with everybody else, or add to an existing collection. It’s all about the tags.
6. Digg.com – The leader in social news, where users determine what’s important and interesting by submitting it, “digging” it and posting a comment.
7. Ebay.com – The online auction powerhouse sells one car every minute on eBay Motors; at StubHub, which eBay acquired in February, you can buy tickets baseball games, Broadway shows, concerts and other events. And the charity auctions at eBay Giving Works have helped buyers and sellers raise $100 million for more than 10,000 nonprofit organizations since the program started in November 2003. Also, check out the eBay Wiki to read about —or chime in on — all things eBay.
8. ESPN.com – this site’s got everything a sports fanatic needs.
9. Facebook.com - This social network is not as popular as MySpace, but it also hasn’t been corrupted by marketers and fake friends. Once available to students only, Facebook has opened its doors everyone and has made dozens of third-party applications available for members to use on their pages, from iLike (music sharing) to Graffiti (lets you draw on your friends’ profiles) to Flixster (movie reviews) to Wis.dm (poll your friends!).
10. FactCheck.org – The Annenberg Political Fact Check, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, is an independent, nonpartisan effort to cut through the routine spin and dissembling of politicians and other public figures. Staff writers check speeches, TV ads, news releases and other public statements for accuracy, and provide clarification and context.
11. Flickr.com – More than half a billion images are now posted on Flickr, a superbly designed sharing platform and social network for photo enthusiasts.
12. Google.com – The world’s leading Web search engine.
13. HowStuffsWork.com – Easy-to-read explanations of how things work, from plasma converters to antibiotics to E-Z Pass.
14. The Internet Movie Database – The Internet Movie Database is not just the Net’s more extensive directory of films and TV shows of the past, present and future —it is also a stomping ground for film buffs who like to quote dialogue, share trivia and recommend favorite flicks to their friends. Or, before you head to the theater or pop in that DVD, go to Rotten Tomatoes to see what all the critics have to say.
15. YouTube.com – It’s amateur hour! And we love it. This monster video-sharing hub has more visitors than all of its many competitors combined. Upload your own footage or just watch and enjoy the weirdness. There is some truly good stuff here, if you can find it. Browse by channel or category, or click to view the clips that are Top Rated or Most Discussed or Most Linked.
16. Kayak.com – When planning your next trip, make this your first stop. The search engine works fast, scouring hundreds of travel sites to find the best airfares. You can compare rates on different travel dates, or check prices to several destinations at once. Create a profile so you don’t have to enter certain data every time you use it.
17. National Geographic.com – There’s a ton of great content here — about animals, world adventures, the environment, the sciences, space — plus educational stuff too.
18. Netflix.com – Digital movie downloads.
19. Technorat.com – This blog search engine now searches for social media too —photos, video and music posted on online sharing sites — and a tag cloud on the home page shows you the hot topics of the day. Blogs are given an authority rating, based on how many other blogs currently link to it.
20. TMZ.com – The best for celebrity and entertainment news.
21. USA.gov – The official Web portal for the U.S. government, with links to every branch, agency and organization involved in federal business, plus reports, guides, reference material and other resources to help you navigate the system, and, whenever possible, get things done online.
22. Television without Pity.com – Bitingly funny recaps of dozens of popular TV shows, plus forums for further discussion.
23. WebMD.com – A big portal packed with information about health and related issues.
24. Wikipedia.org – The people’s encyclopedia, with millions of articles written in hundreds of languages. It’s free, and anyone can edit. Its pages dominate Google search results, and the site is in the top 10 in terms of traffic. A vigilant group of volunteers helps maintain quality control. And now there’s Wikia, where you can create a wiki of your own and get help managing it.
25. Yahoo.com – We’ve already singled out a few of our favorites from Yahoo’s basket of goodies — Flickr, Del.icio.us, Bix — but the site is also number two in Web search.

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