Newley

My Favorite Sites

J.D. Lasica, writing in Online Journalism Review, asks “net luminaries” where they turn for online news. It’s an excellent article–these people know the Web, and their commentary is thought-provoking.

And Lasica’s article got me thinking: for a while, I’ve been meaning to compile a list of my favorite sites. The ones I visit most often: the news sites and Weblogs I consider essential reading. (Note that I don’t consider myself a “net luminary” in any way, but I do spend a lot of time online, both vocationally and avocationally.) So here goes:

–While it doesn’t necessary tell you which headlines are most important, Google News is tremendously comprehensive, and, true to the Google ethos, user-centered. And its search feature is exceptional. For example, let’s say you want to find some recent reviews of Michael Moore’s new flick, “Bowling for Columbine.” Search Google News and you get this.

–The New York Times site , let’s be honest here, sucks. Its pages are slow-loading, it throws obtrusive pop ups at you all over the place, and it requires registration (it’s free, but still). But it’s the paper of record. Its depth and breadth of coverage is simply unparalleled. Instead of going to the site every day, though, I subscribe to their email news bulletins, so headlines from the sections I’m interested in appear in my in-box every morning. that way I only have to visit the site if there’s a particular piece I want to read.

—Metafilter is a tremendously entertaining, informative Weblog. Its members are smart and opinionated, and they post tons and tons of great links, day after day. In addition, the site’s come to assume an interesting role in delivering important news, as people often post big stories as soon as they break. See they way the sad events of September 11th were disseminated via the site.

–Other Weblogs and miscellaneous sites I like: Nick Denton has interesting opinions on international politics, journalism, technology, publishing, and more. BoingBoing is a highly amusing blog; although the subject matter’s sometimes too technical for me, it often contains links to some really funny, obscure stuff. The material that shows up on Memepool, a very quirky blog, is always fun to read. Part traditional broadsheet and part blog, The Morning News is well-written, cerebral, and humorous. SportsFilter (which got its name from Metafilter) is a great place to go for sporting news from a variety of outlets. John Barger’s RobotWisdom is a delightfully no-nonsense Weblog. Arts & Letters Daily is a wonderful source for serious academic and cultural coverage. And for a glimpse at the most popular links in the blogging community, I like Blogdex and Daypop (though the latter’s currently out of commission for a few weeks). For odd stories and funny (often titillating) photos, Yahoo News’s Most Popular section can’t be beat–it offers a peak into the collective Web browsing psyche.

–Tuesdays wouldn’t be Tuesdays with The Onion. It’s the gold standard for online satire, and it has been for years. A couple complaints, though: they don’t let you link to some of their old articles anymore–if you call up some old URLs, you’re taken to their front page. Kind of annoying. And man: their advertising is really getting out of control these days–instead of being subjected to their awful Flash ads, I’d rather pay a small yearly subscription fee and get, say, complete access to their archives and email alerts when new editions are posted.

–And, finally, other sites that appeal to me because of my peculiar interests: Soccernet is a great source for soccer news, particularly from England and the continent. BankOfAmerica.com is essential just because it’s a lot easier to check my account balances and transfer funds online than by phone (and they do a great job of making the site easy to use). Nonprofit Online News, by nonprofit technology guru Michael Gilbert, contains links to the most important news stories in the world of public interest Web communications. (By the way, his “Gilbert Email Manifesto” should be required reading for anyone who works in online PR–or in any facet of communications, for that matter.)

How do we definine the geographic boundaries of the American South? The Mason-Dixon line really isn’t accurate: it stretches too far North (Maryland, we all know, is not a Southern state), and it includes too much of Florida (one word: Miami). So how about this: the South is the part of the country in which people say “y’all.” Although I think it’s a relatively good measurement, I prefer to think of the South as the place where kudzu grows. It’s perfect: the South, which is an organic concept rather than a clearly-defined place, is represented by the meanderings of its own unique plant. For more information on defining the South, check out “The South: Where is it? What is it?”