My Favorite Websites

I spend a lot of time online, both at my work and in my off hours, and find there are certain key sites who do a great job to help me stay up on business issues and personal interests. So I thought I would share some of my favorites, the ones that get me excited about work and life. I highly recommend checking them all out if you get a chance.

Daily Sites:

TED

If you haven’t visited here – you have been missing the best of the web. TED (Technology Entertainment and Design) is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, formed to disseminate “ideas worth spreading». All of their speakers and videos are online — I link to them often and their worth so much more time, than those stupid YouTube-Videos you watch.

Digg

Digg.com was one of the most frequent sites in my daily routine and a great internet success stories. A site so popular that when it pointed its users at your website, your servers would explode, – and then it started to fall, fast. But it relaunched in August (2012) after a frantic from-scratch rebuild – but it’s Digg in name only. The Digg we knew and loved is gone. Today, it’s goal is still to point to the most interesting and talked about stories, videos and pictures on the web. Breaking news on Technology, Politics, Entertainment, and more! It allows people to vote web content up or down, called digging and burying, respectively. And I hope it’s on it’s way back.

Lifehacker

Lifehacker is a weblog about life hacks and software. A great site delivering tips and downloads for getting life and business things done. Unfortunately, they just went through a horrible redesign making their site virtually unusable (owned by Gawker Media – all of their sites have the same architecture and navigation now, which is stupid and not easy to navigate through – I don’t like it). Still great info.

engadget

Engadget is a a multilingual technology blog network and web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics. Engadget currently operates a total of ten ‘blogs’—four written in English and six international versions with independent editorial staff. Engadget frequently ranks among the top five in the «Technorati top 100″ and was noted in TIME for being one of the best blogs of 2010.

Mashable

Mashable covers the top social media news on topics like Facebook, YouTube, Gmail, Twitter, Amazon, Pinterest and More. But the website also covers news and developments in mobile, entertainment, online video, business, web development, technology, memes and gadgets. With a reported 50+ million monthly pageviews and an Alexa ranking under 300, Mashable ranks as one of the world’s largest websites.

TechCrunch

TechCrunch is a leading technology media property, dedicated to obsessively profiling startups, reviewing new Internet products, and breaking tech news. The website’s Technorati rank is 8th, and is 7th in the Technology category.

SmashingMagazine

Smashing Magazine is an online magazine and blog for professional Web designers and developers, with a focus on useful techniques, best practices and valuable information. Smashing Magazine evaluates software, applications, and web-based tools that are targeted at web designers and developers, and publishes tutorials and how-tos on design and development. Smashing Magazine also offers free fonts, icons, and templates for download, as well as showcasing other things of importance to the web development community, such as HTTP 404 error page designs.

The Black and Blue

Whether you want to direct movies or work on the crew that makes them, The Black and Blue provides tips to help you look like a pro on set and is devoted to delivering useful knowledge about what it’s really like to make a movie. The Black and Blue is all about helping you: Become a better filmmaker, Learn how to act professional on set, Find more film work and Survive the industry.

No Film School

NoFilmSchool is a site for DIY filmmakers and independent creatives. The site focuses on tools and technology relevant to filmmakers, writers, directors, editors, producers, cinematographers, bloggers, designers, and entrepreneurs.  If you’re a multi-hyphenate — meaning, you’re more than one of these things — all the better. If you’re interested in cinematography or cameras, the first thing you should do here is get your free copy of the 100+ page eBook, The DSLR Cinematography Guide.

Tottenhams Venner (Norwegian)

Den Norske supporterklubben for fotballklubben Tottenham Hotspur, ble stiftet første gang i 1982, og gjenstiftet i 1987. De nærmer seg 3600 medlemmer, og til disse tilbys blant annet medlemsbladet Tottenhamsupporteren, billettpakker til hjemmekamper og supportertreff i de største byene. Tottenhamsupporteren er et magasin som kommer ut 5 ganger i året.

Diskusjon (Norwegian)

Diskusjon.no er et norsk IPB-basert diskusjonsforum, som brukes til artikkediskusjon for sidene i Mediehuset Tek-nettverket. Dette inkluderer blant annet Hardware.no, Akam.no, Amobil.no og Tek.no. Diskusjon.no har (pr. april 2011) over 200.000 medlemmer, som totalt har skrevet over 19 millioner innlegg siden oppstarten i 2001. Dette gjør forumet til et av de 100 største i verden. Av norske fora er de bare slått av VG Nett sitt diskusjonsforum, når det kommer til antall innlegg. På Alexa ranking rangeres siden blant Norge sine 100 mest trafikkerte nettsider, og er det mest trafikkerte diskusjonsforumet i Norge og Mediehuset Tek sitt største nettsted.

Akam (Norwegian)

Akam er resultatet av en sammenslåing mellom Digitalkamera.no og Videokamera.no, de største sidene i Norge om henholdsvis digitale kameraer og videokameraer. Akam.no er med i Tek-nettverket, og har over 120 000 unike brukere og 1,5 millioner sidevisninger i måneden.

Social Networks:

Facebook – Twitter – Tumblr – Google+

I don’t find any reason to go into depth about the Social Networks sites I frequent, because if you haven’t heard them yet, you’re probably not on the internet.

Sites I Occasionally Visit:

Philip Bloom

Philip Bloom is a British filmmaker known for his DSLR filmmaking, blog and workshops. He has worked as a cinematographer for Lucasfilm, Sky and the BBC.

Gizmodo

Gizmodo is the go-to authority for gadget news and digital culture (Also owned by Gawker Media – with the same stupid architecture and navigation.)

Kotaku

Kotaku is the definitive digital hub for video game news, reviews, cheats, design, and entertainment. (Also owned by Gawker Media – with the same stupid architecture and navigation.)

Gawker

Gawker is the definitive news and gossip sheet for followers of entertainment, media, and business. (Yepp, Gawker Media – think I have told you about the same stupid architecture and navigation now.)

Amirite

This is a great site with a wonderful community. The people here tell it like it is and take no BS. It’s basically where you post your opinions (a lot of people type jokes too) and you’ll find an amazing blend of many different topics and points of discussion here. I’d definitely recommend you make an account and go here regularly.

Where Cool Things Happen

F*** My Life

Entertaining if you find humor in other peoples misery. Here are thousands of users sharing awful anecdotes and personal venting.  How a boyfriend ruined someone’s day, or how a teacher crushed a young person’s esteem; how the mechanic shafted someone on a repair job, or how a beautiful girl destroyed a person’s self concept. Pitiful? Yes. Addictive to read this stuff? Absolutely.

Failblog

Funny sites to read when you have free time.

The Daily Beast

A smart, speedy take on the news from around the world, combined with the depth and investigative power of Newsweek Magazine. The Daily Beast is an American news reporting and opinion website founded and published by Tina Brown, former editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker as well as the short-lived Talk Magazine. The name of the site is derived from that of one of the fictional newspapers in Evelyn Waugh‘s novel Scoop.

Not Always Right

Great entertaining stories about stupid people, but will sometimes have you shaking your head about the fate of humanity and it’s stupidity.

Cracked

A hilarious and interesting place where you can check out articles that are guaranteed to catch your interest.

Good Reads

This site is great for reading enthusiasts. They have pretty much every book ever written so you can keep track of everything you’ve read and find other great books to read. All books are rated and other users post numerous reviews.

Cool Tools

My favorite gadget site by Kevin Kelly. A cool tool can be any book, gadget, software, video, map, hardware, material, or website that is tried and true. All reviews on this site are written by readers who have actually used the tool and others like it. Items can be either old or new as long as they are wonderful.

Bubbl.us

I use this site for mind maping .i.e. brainstorm ideas in my browser itself.

Sxc.hu

I use this site to download free image for my blog.

Buzzfeed

Don’t miss any internet viral videos or internet meme, just head over to Buzzfeed.

Deviantart

A great art site where you can showcase and show off your writing or art creating ability; you can post up basically anything you’d like as long as it fits into one of their categories. Also great for checking out awesome work, many of which include hilarious comics.

BONUS:

Have you ever wondered what a normal Internet user do? How do people spend their time online. What are the most popular Internet activities. What are the most visited websites? Or on What websites People Spend most of their time.