My brother Patrick suggested that I do a post like this when we were on vacation together about a month ago but I forgot to do it until now. Below are a list of websites I visit every day or frequently enough that I find them of equal value as the ones that I hit each time I sit down at the computer.
Digg.com – I browse digg every day for news, humor and news that doesn’t hit my television. I also get a healthy dose of geek culture. If you have never visited this site, I highly recommend you check it out. Users submit stories that are ranked and promoted to the front page of the site by “diggs,” which are basically a digital thumbs up for the article. Using the power of a huge network of social users, only the best stuff tends to float to the top. That’s not always the case, but its true often enough that I get a lot of quality content every day by checking digg first.
Facebook.com – I tried MySpace but never really got into it. The page layouts full of animated gifs, songs, picture galleries and other nonsense are just too annoying for me. Facebook is a much simpler format and I can control what comes at me through my personal feed. I’ve found a lot of old friends there and I even like some of the little game applications.
Wikipedia.org – The bane of teachers all over the globe, I happen to be a huge fan of wikipedia. It’s the power of social knowledge that makes information free to everyone. Studies have shown that wikipedia is every bit as accurate as traditional encyclopedias and are able to contain far, far more information. Don’t believe me? Try looking up an obscure comic book character like Thunderstrike in your Encyclopedia Britannica.
Google.com – I use Gmail as my email provider, link up with other writers using google docs and search for information using the main google webpage. Google is also one of the most innovative and socially conscientious companies on the planet, giving me good reason to support them on many levels.
Penny-Arcade.com – the beating heart of the gaming world online, Penny-Arcade has a hilarious comic, an insightful blog and hosts the best consumer gaming convention in the country. They only update on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but I never miss a day.
Infendo.com / Gonintendo.com – for my Nintendo news and information
Smashboards.com – Super Smash Bros is my favorite gaming series and it helped me launch my career in the gaming industry. I am still active with this massive forum of fans and tournament players and I visit just about every day.
Comicbookresources.com – I have always been a closet comic geek and this is the best site on the net for comic-related news and information. One of the goals I have set for my life is to write a comic book and have it published. I hope that when that happens, what I write is worthy of a mention or two on their site.
ihasahotdog.com – because I like dogs and I don’t like cats. I don’t really check this every day, but its good for a laugh when things are slow at work.
I use a ton of other sites as well, but none of them as regularly as the list above. I have truly become an information junky over the last few years, being constantly connected to the web and these sites satisfy my cravings.
August 28, 2008 at 10:42 am
[...] I had a conversation back in May about what websites we check every single day. He posted his list here. Maybe Dan and Mark will make their list and post them [...]