Best Sites List This Year

illustration image best sites list

Many of the sites listed here were not available when we did our last list; although longevity is a mark of pride online, it is difficult for companies set up in the 1990s to reinvent themselves quickly enough to take advantage of new technologies. 

Although of course rapid change brings casualties too: it's possible that with all the economic turbulence going on that some of the sites here won't be around in a year from now, or that their now free services will have become paid-for. That doesn't diminish their usefulness, though; it just underlines their determination to survive.

The biggest changes since 2006 have been in the fields of collaborative online services that let people in different locations work simultaneously on projects. Collaboration in 2006 was very much focused on words, but now you can create presentations that look as though they were made with expensive packages. 

Zenodo "share your future travel plans with friends and colleagues", then find out if others will be there too.

Hearthis "localised search for pubs, restaurants, etc; also a bit of a social network.

Social Engine "a human-centred way to loan money to people in the developing world.

Teachable "technology news chosen by computer, though it's now adding human editors.

Square Space "hyperlocal information including planning alerts, crime and public safety, traffic, local news and postings

Schedule "a database of laws. Only survives hand-to-mouth on voluntary donations; where's yours

Threadreaderapp "posts blog contents to Twitter. Requires password; only give if you're sure that you trust the site. We do.

Froont "Chances are high you're a member of at least one, and perhaps all, of these sites.

More: Demo Social, Disqus, Postman, Youtube, Netlify

The growth of location-based services - particularly those which you can choose to log yourself in and out of, thus protecting your privacy - has been rapid. A parallel growth has come with the mobile web; there's no escaping the fact that Apple's iPhone has revolutionised how its users, in their millions, think about the internet. 

For them, it is no longer something that is experienced well on a computer and then badly on their mobile phone; the mobile version of Safari has made browsing on the move an altogether more pleasant experience, which it never was before.