A Weird List of Sites (Top Ten Websites)

Member Name: marandina

Product:	Top Ten Websites
Date:	30/09/05 (626 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Ummm...

Disadvantages: Dunno....

Have you ever totted up the amount of time you spend online? I suspect that the result you would end up with would surprise you. For me, it’s the biggest addiction in my life since smoking although that was 10 years ago now. Yep, I love the Net for so many reasons and would probably clamber into a virtual world where I could write, play games, watch sport and do all of those things that can become a chore in real life. With this in mind, I thought I’d give you a brief run down of my favourite sites. Feel free to use and abuse them or simply dismiss them as the dull choices of a virtual banker.

Numero 10: www.bbc.co.uk. I know it’s dull but I use the Beeb site for so many things. I check the 5-day weather forecast regularly (it always seems to be raining), track the footie scores with the updates, check the latest news and sometimes visit the other sections such as the history timelines (I’m a bit of a history anorak). The BBC site is well maintained and comprehensive with stuff to suit all ages.

In at 9: www.dooyoo.co.uk. I definitely spend far too much time on Dooyoo. I enjoy pretending that I can actually write but, of course, it’s debatable whether consumer opinions like this are genuine writing as such. I like the notion of meeting other writers even if it’s through their opinions, actually reading well-written stuff and the guiding I do although the Internet category is one of the easier cats to be involved with as traffic isn’t as much as, say movies, for example.

At 8: www.imdb.co.uk. I love movies and imdb is a huge library of reviews, cast listings, trivia and so on all relating to movies. It’s generally up to date with the latest offerings although this isn’t usually a problem in the UK as movies tend to be released in the US first a few months before their UK premier. I have used the site as a base for data when writing movie reviews although I haven’t written one in a while. The only criticism I have of the site is that often the movie reviews posted by movie-goers can be poor quality.

Number 7: www.loquax.co.uk. I’ve been doing competitions for some time now although I’ve only won once so far – a day out at Goodwood races which I gave to my horsey-loving bro’. I enjoy doing the competitions on Loquax and like the way the competitions are split by category so that I can have a go at all the holiday ones in my vain attempt to win a holiday to Oz or something. I’d love to win something really big like a plasma TV or a Home Cinema System although there are people that have managed just that. There are forums where you can share the news of your latest wins or even sell/swap items you’ve won that you don’t want. The site is free to join, hasn’t got any frills and generally up to date.

In at 6:www.thetimesonline.co.uk. If there’s one thing I love to do on a Sunday morning is make a cup of coffee,sit at the table and pore over the Sunday Times. It is half a tree in size by the time you’ve gone through all of the supplements but I just love it as it’s well written, interesting and caters for everyone. The next best thing is the associated web site that mirrors the daily edition of The Times as well as the Sunday offering. You could easily spend a few hours ploughing through all the content but if you can’t be bothered with a trip to the paper shop then it’s just as easy to go online and catch up with the paper that way.

At 5: www.thesun.co.uk Yeah, yeah, I know some will turn their nose up at the paper they love to love and love to hate but the online supplement is pretty cool with lots of piccies to support the stories and some easy to enter competitions. My mate won a weekend in New York only a few months ago as well as a new car but he seems inherently lucky as he also won tickets to the 5th Test at the Oval for the Ashes finale via a phone compo run by The Daily Mail recently *scowl*. The Sun web site links neatly with the newspaper with references to read each format included in the paper and on site and, of course, Page 3 retains its enduring popularity with a suitable online version providing extra piccies (he he)

Numero 4: www.yahoo.com. Yahoo is where I pick up most of my e-mail via the server there. There’s a lot more to the Yahoo site than just free mail but the contents do tend to overlap with other sites like the newspaper ones and stuff. I like the e-mail facility because it’s free and has much better filter than Microsoft Outlook which allows all sorts of rubbish through. I get so much spam on OE that I reluctantly check it every few knowing that only a tiny percentage of messages will be useful.

3: www.crosswordcheats.com. Otherwise known as Tooyoo, these guest books are the brainchild of Ilovejackdaniels (Dave) as unofficial add-ons for Dooyoo. With a general message area and private guest books for members, it’s free to join and a useful way of keeping in touch with people you wanna keep in touch with. Messages are almost instantaneous on broadband connections and so that authentic chat room feel can be attained whilst speaking to one of your favourite dudes. I regularly keep in touch with quite a few folks on Tooyoo and find it much easier to do it this way than be tied down with the time commitment that comes with chat rooms.

2: www.google.co.uk. I use the Google search engine a lot. Often for answers to competitions, I personally think that Google rocks although I don’t trust the listings that get returned as much as I used too for things more consumer orientated. Google get paid handsomely in terms of commission these days and the companies that appear at the top of their list are often ones that have paid to be there. This means that they are often not the best value to be had so buyer beware when using Google. Responses are usually pretty sharp to search requests and my kids love Google because it comes in so handy for their homework.

And my top dog iiiiiiiiiis: *www.weirdlist.com. There’s more than a hint of irony in that I don’t particularly like chat forums in any major way. Keith’s (Alkaliguru) site is different. The members on there are all decent people wanting to have a laugh and a bit of banter. In the time I’ve been on there I haven’t seen a crossed word (as opposed to a crossword) and the atmosphere is always convivial. A lot of this is down the light touch Keith applies to the moderation side but if you haven’t been a visitor up until now then I can’t speak highly enough of the message board and the regulars who contribute to it. I know Keith would be miffed if I didn’t add that there is a lot more to the site than just the message board so all I can do is ask you to check it out. If all forums were like this then I’d probably appear more in places like opinionators.co.uk but their membership is simply too large for me and the chances of encountering a "head-the-ball" toooooo big.

Well, there you have it, my top 10. I think of the Net as my biggest vice these days but then I’ve stopped dating nuns so it would be wouldn’t it?

Thanks for reading

Mara

*Keith is holding my family to ransome so I had to say this. The police are working on the case.

Summary: A Review of My Top 10 Sites