[last updated 11/2011]
This is a highly biased guide of websites that I think are the best for accomplishing different tasks. All the websites and their content are free unless there is a [$] next to the listing. I have only listed websites that have been around for a while (at least in Internet years), but keep in mind that the Web is a fast-changing place and yesterday's champions can be tomorrow's have-beens. There are three sections: for beginners, for everyone, for advanced users.KEEPING UP WITH THE NEWS
The easiest way to keep with all your online news sources, including my blogs, is to use an aggregator, such as Google Reader. If you don't know about aggregators, you can watch a 1-minute intro to Google Reader here, and then How to Subscribe to a News Feed with Google Reader a detailed 12-minute video tutorial on using Google Reader here, or a multi-part video here.
FOR BEGINNERS
Tutorials | These sites have great tutorials, especially for an adult just starting out with all this technology.
BBC Webwise - BBC's beginner's guide to the Internet LearnFree - short (1-3 minute) video tutorials explaining just about everything about using the computer and Internet Teach Parents Tech - 60-second videos explaining how to accomplish small tasks; for example, how to copy-and-paste, how to make text bigger, how to use bookmarks. |
News | Google News - aggregation of news articles from hundreds (thousands?) of newspapers and blogs |
Medical and Health | The amount of misinformation on medical- and health-related issues on the Web is unfathomable. These links are the reliable sources. National Institute of Health (NIH) WebMD Mayo Clinic Drugs.com Medicare |
Senior Citizen Resources | AARP USA Government Senior Citizens' Resources Senior Adults Guide to the Web - a good (one person's) guide to resources on the Web AARP's page on scams |
Accessibility | BBC's Accessibility Guide - "This site explains the many ways you can change your browser, computer, keyboard and mouse settings to make the web more accessible to you." -- this is THE resource to use; it's got everything. 7 Steps to Make Computers Accessible for the Elderly - guide to adjusting various Windows computer settings. |
NOT JUST FOR BEGINNERS
Web Search | Google - use it for everything, including weather, mapping an
address, people search, etc Baidu - Chinese language search Bing - Microsoft's bid at challenging Google search |
Encyclopedia | Wikipedia |
Maps | Google Maps Mapquest |
Dictionary | Free Online Dictionary - multilingual dictionary,
thesaurus Word Reference - translator for Spanish, French, English, Italian, German, Russian Netlingo - dictionary of Internet and Texting lingo |
People Search | First, try Google. If you do not find what you need, try Zaba Search or Pipl |
Hoaxes and Myths | Much of what shows up in forwarded emails is untrue.
Search these sites for the subject (or title) of the email before forwarding
anything on: Snopes Scambusters |
Images/Pictures | Google Image search World's famous photos |
Your Photos | Picasa -
software to install on your computer to organize and edit your photos Picasa Web Albums - website to to share your photos with others; integrated well with Picasa software; must have a Gmail account Flickr - website to share your photos with others; must have a Yahoo! mail account Minus - the simplest photo sharing site; great for quick sharing, but long term storage is uncertain Shutterfly Snapfish Winkflash - some (of many) good sites to print your photos. |
Music | Pandora Jango |
Videos | YouTube - videos put up by users Flixxy - "best of" videos from the Web |
Movies and TV | Netflix [$] (paid service for
movies) Hulu - watch TV shows online Clicker - aggregates TV shows from many websites Internet Movie Database - all movie-related info Rotten Tomatoes - movie reviews |
Consumer and Shopping | Consumer Search - reviews of consumer products Amazon - Web supermall Buy.com - another Web supermall Ebay - Person-to-person auction supermall Google Product Search or Nextag- aggregates prices from stores on the Web (for price-shopping) Dealnews or FatWallet - aggregates deals Eyeglass - online eyeglasses retailer reviews Better Business Bureau |
Financial | Google
Finance or MarketWatch or CNN/Money - financial data, news, discussions
IRS - if you pay your
taxes, you know what this is Bankrate - bank rates and ratings Social Security Administration PayPal - online payment service |
Recipes | Allrecipes - gazillion recipes with user reviews Myrecipes - gazillion recipes with user reviews Vahrehvah - Indian food |
Travel | Kayak - aggregates air/hotel/car deals from major travel
providers Trip Advisor - reviews from travellers |
Social Networking | Facebook - hundreds of millions users; most likely to have everyone you have ever known as a member Google+ - the new kid on the block and quickly becoming the favorite among the techies LinkedIn - "the" network for professional contacts |
Real Estate | Realtor.com - all realtor-listed properties Zillow - prices and estimates of property values |
Useful or Fun Information | TED
talks - amazing short talks by world's top brains StateMaster - all statistics on US States NationMaster - all statistics on nations Academic Earth - video lectures from the academia |
Microsoft Office replacement | Google Docs - Google's bid at making Microsoft Office software superfluous (Word, Powerpoint, Excel). Not as powerful as Microsoft Office, but likely sufficient for 90+% of any user's needs |
FOR ADVANCED USERS:
Online apps | Gizmos Best Free Online Applications and Services - best place to find great web apps; organized by categories. |
Where to find good software for your computer | Top 10 Places to Discover Good Software - good
starting place for overview of where to look. Gizmos Freeware Reviews - hands-down best place for free software-related information, and it includes many useful tutorials; organized by categories. CNET's software downloads - the biggest software download site (with some reviews); contains both free software (freeware) and for-pay software (shareware/commercial); has good software, junk, and everything in-between. |
Building a website the easy way | Google Sites, Weebly, Moonfruit, Webs
- all these enable you create a website in minutes. Wix - if you want to be fancy and use Flash (but keep in mind, Flash websites can not be seen on many mobile devices). |
Building a website from scratch | This section only applies if you want to develop
your own website from scratch and you want complete control over templates,
functionality, etc. This is not for the faint of heart. How to build and host a website for free - excellent tutorial, even if you want a paid host. Web hosting - review of inexpensive web hosts. |