The Web’s Most Useful Sites

Sholom Sandalow, Monday, January 22, 2007 @ 10:16 am

Although I consider myself a savvy web user, I'll admit I wasn't familiar with many of the web sites featured in the cover article of this month’s issue of PC World, "The Webs Most Useful Sites".  It's a well-written, well-researched and useful bit of journalism.

The article presents what PC World considers the best sites in each of 14 categories, ranging from Word Processing, and Spreadsheets, to Calendars and Mapping.  Below I go through some of the more interesting and potentially useful sites the article uncovered for me.

Word Processing: Zoho Writer.
PC World rates this tool better than Google Docs primarily due to the easy-to-use interface.  It has all of the same tools Google Docs provides, including find/replace features, Microsoft word compatibility, and blog publishing.  It's an interesting find.

Password Manager: JustKey.
I don't use a password management tool, but after reading the article, perhaps I should.  For less than  $3 a month JustKey provides encrypted, secure password management so that you don't have to remember the password to every web site you've registered with.

User Review Sites: Yelp
According to the blurb on it’s home page, “Yelp is the fun and easy way to find, review and talk about what's great - and not so great, in your area.”  The web site automatically sends you to the area you are located in, so there’s no typing zip codes, or selecting cities from a map, which is nice.  The integration with Google maps is also done well.  However, like other user generated sites, the key to it’s utility will be the amount of content.  The idea is great, but currently there’s not enough content to provide me with an alternative to the more traditional city guides like CitySearch, and Metromix.

Event Calendars: Upcoming.org
This is, again, a great idea in need of content.  “A social events calendar, driven by people just like you”, Upcoming.org is a social networking site with listings from around the world, the ability to view who is planning on attending events, and integration with calendaring and blogging.  However, it needs to be more extensive and content laden to be useful.

To do list: Remember The Milk
My introduction to web based to do lists was 37Signlas’ Ta Da List. RememberTheMilk.com blows it away with features such as configurable categories, calendar synchronization, recurring tasks, and email reminders.

Web Operating Systems: You OS
This category is totally new to me, but the concept is intriguing.  In a nutshell, You OS is an operating system that runs in your browser window.  It’s slow, and not very feature rich, but with server farms and Pcs getting ever faster, and broadband more ubiquitous, according to PC World, Web OS’s “may well be computing’s future”.  For now, it’s a curious anomaly.

user experience design

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