I’m going to list a few of my favorite sites (at this point in time) and why they’re so good to me. They won’t be in any particular order. I know most of you have heard of these, but this is for those that haven’t, because you should really check them out.
Flickr – Easily share photos online. The UI is awesome; from what I’ve heard, much better than other services. The website speaks for itself if you go to the homepage (and you’re not logged into an account). It especially rocks because I’m into taking a lot of pictures with my cameraphone, and it’s so simple to email it to a Flickr email address. My photo can either show up just in my photostream, or I can blog it as well. Speaking of blogs…
WordPress.com – WordPress is to blogging software as WordPress.com is to a hosted blogging service. As of now, it’s free and very slick. You don’t have to maintain it, so just sign up, pick a template, and start writing. It’s bleeding edge stuff because the developers are constantly improving it. One of the Blogsome sites that a friend has is still on WordPress 1.5.1-alpha. That one doesn’t load as quick. I haven’t used TypePad, but I’m assuming it’ll go that route eventually. (Oh yeah, Movable Type is to blogging software as TypePad is to a hosted blogging service.)
Bloglines – Subscribe to almost anything web-related, and keep track of it all in one website. News, blogs, comics, email newsletters, weather forecasts…it’s amazing! You don’t need to be a genius to use this [free] service, either. I don’t really surf the internet anymore, so it saves me that much time (unless I get behind in unread feed items.) I really love that I can keep my email account clear of newsletters and just setup email address aliases within my Bloglines account. Firefox, Greasemonkey, and some Bloglines userscripts make it that much better. (I haven’t tried FeedLounge yet.)
Last.fm – Install some plugins to keep track of your music listening habits [on your computer], then it’ll recommend music you’ll like. There’s a radio player, too. You can pay for additional features in the service (as a whole). The free account isn’t that crippled in the first place, so that’s awesome. The plugin is friendly with the major media players (not all are listed):
- Yahoo! Music Engine
- Yahoo! LaunchCast
- Winamp
- Windows Media Player
- iTunes
Upcoming.org – “Upcoming.org is a social event calendar, completely driven by people like you. Manage your events, share events with friends and family, and syndicate your calendar to your own site.” This service is free. It’s how I tell people about the concerts that are coming up; I’ll just link them to my profile.
Digg – “Digg is a technology news website that combines social bookmarking, blogging, RSS, and non-hierarchical editorial control. With digg, users submit stories for review, but rather than allow an editor to decide which stories go on the homepage, the users do.”
Wikipedia – a free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. There’s so many languages supported it’s not even funny.
Los Angeles Gas Prices – find the lowest regular gasoline prices in Los Angeles. There’s other areas of California supported, too. There’s also a fuel logbook you can use for your vehicles.
Dig and Wikipedia are my top preferences!!