Quality over quantity - what's your favorite website to visit every day?

February 11, 2012 10:28 PM

What is the one website that you visit every day; that you can't live without?

I get overwhelmed by Google Reader - the blurbs are impersonal, incomplete, and repetitive. I want to go completely in the other direction and just have a handful of high-quality sites to visit every day. E.g. one high-quality tech news site, one awesome current events site, etc.

Any subject/genre - what is the one website that you get the most out of visiting each day?

posted by blahtsk to computers & internet (65 answers total)

www.metafilter.com
posted by taff at 10:34 PM on February 11 [36 favorites]

Ask.metafilter
Metafilter
nyt
anything gawker, gawker, jezebel, gizmodo, and lifehacker (not in any particular order)
posted by handbanana at 10:36 PM on February 11

New York Times.
posted by MoonOrb at 10:43 PM on February 11

Ars Technica for technology news and reviews. They've been the best for 10+ years and are going stronger than ever, IMO.
posted by alaijmw at 10:43 PM on February 11 [3 favorites]

Something Awful forums.
Live Journal.
Seattle Times and PI newspaper sites.
posted by spinifex23 at 10:48 PM on February 11

Metafilter (blue, green, gray) and Google News.

My local newspaper, but that's just to keep up with the local news...

--Language Log.
--Talking Points Memo for politics, since it's election season. (And FiveThirtyEight, but I'm annoyed that the NYT wants to charge me if I read too much, so mostly I don't check as often as I might otherwise.)
--Daring Fireball.
--Slacktivist.
--Chronicle of Higher Education (I check in every week or so, not daily)

(but honestly? Mostly metafilter, despite that I don't post much.)
posted by leahwrenn at 10:55 PM on February 11

Ravelry, but I'm a knitter/crocheter/spinner/etc.
posted by cabingirl at 11:01 PM on February 11 [3 favorites]

reddit
posted by Cosine at 11:10 PM on February 11 [14 favorites]

MFC
posted by johnstein at 11:10 PM on February 11 [1 favorite]

videogum -for the best of youtube, and pop culture stuff
posted by 2ghouls at 11:12 PM on February 11 [1 favorite]

ontd
metafilter
posted by nadawi at 11:22 PM on February 11

What do I actually read on my Google Reader?

Listverse
NYT
English Russia
posted by oxfordcomma at 11:27 PM on February 11

Daily Mail
posted by devymetal at 11:33 PM on February 11

I was just thinking of asking something like this.


Slyck.com is great for tech news
consumerist is great to check after a weeks worth of posts build up.
Fark
posted by murkywaters at 11:36 PM on February 11

Aside from the blue, gray and green, and email and tons of news sites? MetaChat and Health Month and my iGoogle page.
posted by bearwife at 11:43 PM on February 11

Besides this site, I look at FailBlog to get a laugh when I need one....
posted by BeastMan78 at 11:43 PM on February 11

I actually love Flipboard's topic feeds for this reason, because it seems to help curate the best-of types of blogs and recommends ones I might not have found otherwise.
posted by june made him a gemini at 12:08 AM on February 12 [1 favorite]

Pinterest.
posted by migurski at 12:28 AM on February 12 [5 favorites]

collegemisery.com
posted by Prof Iterole at 1:47 AM on February 12

When I first get on the Internet, in order:

Metafilter
Reddit / my interest
Foodgawker
Email
Various personal blogs
Hair forum (which has subforums for skin/etc.)
Youtube for meditations / self improvement video
posted by Ms. Moonlight at 2:00 AM on February 12

Grantland.com
Nypost.com
I check my twitter feed to see if any good links are posted
posted by JohnnyGunn at 2:24 AM on February 12

mlkshk
posted by nadawi at 2:26 AM on February 12 [1 favorite]

My Twitter is my current number one, or perhaps Facebook, especially now that Facebook acts as a catchall for sites I follow like...

Arts Letters Daily, The Browser and 3quarksdaily - for longreads
Joystiq, The Verge and Engadget - for tech crap

Try out Popurls, it's great for a quick fix. And if you want to replace/upgrade your Google reader, you should definitely try Feedly out. Superb
posted by 0bvious at 2:52 AM on February 12 [3 favorites]

Slashdot
Boing Boing
Fark
AV Club
Daily Dish
Hack-a-day
posted by Marky at 2:59 AM on February 12

First thing every day? Metafilter and the BBC News world website, followed by the Guardian and my customised Google News feed.
posted by tavegyl at 3:55 AM on February 12 [1 favorite]

ffffound
posted by bunglin jones at 4:15 AM on February 12 [2 favorites]

TheChive.com

KCCO
posted by burlsube at 4:40 AM on February 12

kottke.org never disappoints
posted by Mchelly at 4:48 AM on February 12 [2 favorites]

Goodreads. It satisfies my compulsion to browse books with less risk of impulse buy, or of running into someone I know and having to have a conversation at the library. :)
posted by houndsoflove at 5:21 AM on February 12 [1 favorite]

- Local news sites
- Grantland
- MakeUseOf
- Marcus Bachmann's Gayness (it's a Facebook page)
posted by reenum at 5:26 AM on February 12

Well, my e-mail is through gmail.com so if it is only one answer, that is it.

www.boardgamegeek.com, www.rpggeek.com
www.metafilter.com
, also ask and talk.
www.nytimes.com front page as I don't want to pay $20/month for it.

Used to include fivethirtyeight.com but they moved onto nytimes and then behind the paywall.
posted by meinvt at 5:47 AM on February 12

Since we can only have one, I offer my guilty pleasure: gofugyourself
posted by carmicha at 7:27 AM on February 12 [1 favorite]

The Globe and Mail
posted by Snazzy67 at 7:31 AM on February 12

Popurls is fantastic. It gives you a clean simple interface to access the content you want to see on one page from many sources . I highly recommend it.
posted by CoinOp at 7:33 AM on February 12 [1 favorite]

Rock, Paper, Shotgun
posted by coralium at 7:37 AM on February 12 [1 favorite]

Apart from this one:
Astronomy Pic of the Day
Earth Sciences Pic of the Day
Atmospheric Optics Pic of the Day
The Irish Times (covers most of the territory that the UK dailies do but has a less OMG CATASTROPHE! tone)
BBC News
... in about that order.
posted by Logophiliac at 7:44 AM on February 12

I can live just fine without visiting any sites at all.

But I generally rely on BBC News to keep me up to speed with what's happening in the world. They have subsites for Tech and Soccer where I expect to get a heads up of anything really major, without having to wade through too much that isn't of interest.
posted by philipy at 7:48 AM on February 12

I've been an advice column junkie from when I was small and read Dear Abby every day. So one site I can't live without would be ask.metafilter.com . Best $5 I've ever spent. And that includes the Blue and MetaTalk, too!

But listing only one site makes me seem very one-dimensional. So here are the other 4 I visit daily...

DrudgeReport for my news aggregation. Yes, there's spin, but combined with the Blue here, it's a good and fast-loading visual roundup.
Nobody beats TMZ for celebrity news.
My local newspaper's website.
And weather.com.
posted by ladygypsy at 7:51 AM on February 12

cnn.com
msnbc.com
espn.com

Then I usually stick to my Google Reader and twitter.
posted by punkrockrat at 8:26 AM on February 12

Metafilter
Pinterest
Tumblr
ONTD
Gizmodo (even though lately it sucks)
Yahoo (begrudgingly)
posted by These Birds of a Feather at 8:41 AM on February 12

NY Times, Huffington Post, Salon, Slate.
posted by fivesavagepalms at 8:41 AM on February 12

Like so many others, I don't think I can pick just one, but after the various metafilter sites, I most consistently at least look at longform.org and I like csmonitor.com for the way they report news. For thought provocation and news that's sometimes relevant to my work and general interests, I have a fascination with Retraction Watch.
posted by gubenuj at 8:46 AM on February 12

Sites I check several times a day, almost through muscle memory, even though I was just there an hour ago:

ask.metafilter
reddit.com
news.ycombinator.com
posted by cgg at 9:30 AM on February 12 [1 favorite]

Twitter. There are so many interesting and hilarious people to follow, it never ceases to be a source of entertainment.
posted by Lobster Garden at 9:55 AM on February 12

everlastingblort.com. They have an extensive collection of contributors, who are all listed below the dancing banana. Above the dancing banana, you will only click once.
posted by halfbuckaroo at 10:00 AM on February 12

Tom & Lorenzo. Especially for the recaps.
posted by oflinkey at 10:04 AM on February 12 [4 favorites]

Ugh. iPad bork. Tom & Lorenzo.
posted by oflinkey at 10:09 AM on February 12 [1 favorite]

Metafilter, Reddit, sometimes Pinterest.
posted by cp311 at 10:55 AM on February 12

Metafilter/Ask Metafilter
Gmail
Facebook
Daily Kos
Media Matters for America
Twitter
Indiana Daily Student (I like to keep up with my alma mater)
Chicago Tribune
Television Without Pity

...among others.
posted by SisterHavana at 11:53 AM on February 12

The Mefi side blog is a nice condensed awesome mefi comments feed.

Lifehacker has highlight feeds. One post a week covering the highlights. But I guess i stopped subscribing around the time that they did that goofy redesign that firefox hates.
posted by pwnguin at 12:13 PM on February 12

Metafilter, Facebook, Twitter.

The latter two aren't really for keeping "in touch" with people. I have lots of friends who pretty much just use status updates as a link blog like I do.

Twitter is actually more suited to that, or rather, facebook is kind of bloated if all you want to do is share links. I have friends there that don't do twitter though, so I keep it. I keep friend lists so I can with a click, only see the interesting stuff, and not the fwd:fwd:fwd:LOL! passed-around picture of the day yet again.
posted by ctmf at 12:20 PM on February 12

Came back in the add FlyerTalk.
posted by cabingirl at 12:34 PM on February 12

I think you'd enjoy Longreads if you're into quality over quantity.
posted by Blandanomics at 12:49 PM on February 12

MetaTalk and MetaChat.
posted by deborah at 1:06 PM on February 12

No absolutely essential ones but I check reddit most days mainly because interesting internet-style stuff breaks there first, most of the time. Mefi generally catches up between a day and a week later. :-)
posted by Decani at 2:28 PM on February 12 [1 favorite]

It's hard for me to pick one, but out of all of them I would have to go with Zite - it's an app, but its recommendations are fantastic, and pretty much how I read everything now. As a consequence, I end up on Slate, Salon, NYT, random blogs, pretty much anywhere online with my interests. It's amazing how much fresh content it can pull that suits me so well.

I'm going to cheat a bit by adding a second site, but I really like AppShopper as an RSS feed to get news of iOS apps that have had price drops. Sometimes a hidden gem will pop up and it's a nice surprise. (I'm not a cheapskate, I promise...)

In the interest of avoiding an Apple device bias, I also check Reddit (Reddit.tv and Reddpics.com) and Tumblr more than I should.
posted by tatma at 3:57 PM on February 12

Youtube, askmetafilter, and Gmail
posted by dean_deen at 9:36 PM on February 12

All the mefi sites, pinterest, facebook
posted by like_neon at 2:02 AM on February 13

Google News / GMail
Metafilter
Popurls
posted by cwarmy at 8:37 AM on February 13

Unequivocally, Lifehacker and BBC News. The only things I read daily.
posted by inbetweener at 10:00 AM on February 13

I go to three places regularly, everyday and then... maybe... to others (if they're linked in those three places)

Facebook (don't judge! my friends are interesting and long distance)
ask.metafilte & metatalk (I consider this one site)
and my google reader where I read all of my web comics and news.
posted by patheral at 12:11 PM on February 13

marginalrevolution.com
realclearpolitics.com
hotair.com
memeorandum.com
google news
posted by AdmiralAdama at 9:10 AM on February 14

I usually find myself checking in on Jezebel or Gawker.
posted by poolsidemuse at 1:12 PM on February 14

Wonkette for snarky left-leaning political news.
posted by girlmightlive at 7:37 PM on February 15

I'm surprised noone's mentioned instructables.com
posted by nondescript at 8:21 PM on February 15