Useful Websites

I'm often asked for a list of useful websites so at last I've compiled the best 100 or so. I’ve kept the commentary to a minimum as it is long enough and website users generally know what they want and move on if they don’t see it! Apologies it is UK / Irish centric but there is enough US stuff elsewhere!

Activism

www.faxyourmp.com
www.netaction.org
www.timebank.org.uk
www.allaboutgiving.org
http://act.greenpeace.org
www.amnesty.org

Art

The second last two sites are two wonderful and little known collections in my home town of Dublin - The National Gallery of Ireland and the Chester Beatty Library, a wonderful collection of Islamic and Oriental Art and manuscripts. Lily Allen is here because I'm one of her 54,000 close friends on MySpace!

http://us.imdb.com
www.operabase.com
www.nationalgallery.org.uk
www.abebooks.co.uk
www.allmusic.com
www.nationalgallery.ie
www.cbl.ie
http://www.myspace.com/lilymusic

Blogs

The first one is a favourite!

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/
www.typepad.com
www.statcounter.com
www.technorati.com
http://blogdex.net
www.ipodder.org

Buying and selling

www.ebay.co.uk
www.amazon.co.uk
www.kelkoo.co.uk
www.apple.com/uk/itunes/store
www.joshrubin.com/coolhunting/

Community

www.slashdot.org
www.orkut.com
http://craigslist.org
http://del.icio.us
www.flickr.com

Education

www.skoool.com
www.nrich.maths.org.uk
www.stagework.org.uk
www.learningcurve.gov.uk
www.britkid.org
www.ratemyteacher.com

Email

www.bluebottle.com
http://mail.yahoo.com
http://gmail.google.com
www.hotmail.com
www.walla.com

Gaming

http://ign.com
www.spong.com
http://games.slashdot.org
http://gamefaqs.com
www.esrb.com/esrbratings.asp

Health

These are all official sites with objective advice and are not pushing product or crank theories.

www.nelh.nhs.uk
www.hpa.org.uk
www.food.gov.uk
www.bmj.com
www.avert.org
www.stroke.org.uk

News

Journalism net is a great site which brings the media of the world together and makes searching much easier. Ireland.com is the Irish Times site.

http://journalismnet.com
http://news.bbc.co.uk
http://nytimes.com
http://news.google.co.uk
http://ohmynews.com
http://scotsman.com
www.ft.com
www.ireland.com
www.independent.ie

Offbeat

www.snopes.com
www.theweirdsite.com/Otherlinks.htm
www.b3ta.com
www.ringsurf.com/netring?ring=museum;action=list
www.easilyamused.com
www.theonion.com

Phones

www.mobileburn.com
www.gsmarena.com/
http://wgamer.com
wap.yahoo.co.uk
http://cellphones.engadget.com/

Politics

The search engine on the CIA site is limited with no results for "South America Torture" or "Extraordinary Rendition". Don't they believe in their product? Oh, and one more thing - your computer doesn’t register a cookie when you go in - Yeah? The Whitehouse site on the other hand is full of hilarious material such as "President George W. Bush's message to the Muslim's of America for the feast of Eid." Priceless!
Namebase is the site the CIA would like to shut down devoting itself to publishing information released under FOIA Laws in the US - Put in the right name and it will even draw you a diagram of their CIA connections!

www.number-10.gov.uk/
www.theyworkforyou.com/
http://electoralcalculus.co.uk/
www.voidstar.com/ukpoliblog/
http://directory.google.co.uk
www.cia.gov
www.whitehouse.gov
www.namebase.org

Public services

www.direct.gov.uk
www.nhs.uk
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk
www.parliament.uk

Radio

Shannon community radio is run by friends of mine!

www.bbc.co.uk/radio
http://radio-locator.com
www.live-radio.net/
www.last.fm
www.traffic-island.co.uk/
http://www.shannoncommunityradio.org

Reference

Airport City Codes is a mine of information for aviation heads and can give you the great circle distance between any two airports. Wunderground.com is a great weather site but my favourite feature is the night sky for years ahead from any point on the globe. The last two are the UK National Archive and the British Library - two user friendly resources with an amazing range of material accesible.

www.martindalecenter.com
www.onelook.com
www.multimaps.com
www.infobel.com/teldir
www.encyclopedia.com
www.yourdictionary.com
www.airportcitycodes.com/
www.wunderground.com
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
www.bl.uk

Science

http://dir.yahoo.com/Science/news_and_media/
www.eurekalert.org/
http://space.com/
www.nhm.ac.uk
www.palaeos.com/Timescale/
www.nasa.gov/home/

Search

www.google.co.uk
http://search.yahoo.com
http://beta.search.msn.co.uk
www.blinkx.com
www.searchenginewatch.com

Sport

www.soccerbot.com
www.cricinfo.com
www.bluesq.com
www.onemickjones.com
www.tigerwoodsisgod.com

Travel

Fleetway Travel is the only non biased travel search engine I've found which works well. Opodo, Expedia et al all have a bias as they are owned by airlines or push you to providers who pay for the privilege. ITWG and AccorHotels are an Italian and French hotel booking websites. ITWG is an Italian company whose site I’ve found easy to use and reliable, Accor are the French company whose brands range from Etap, Ibis, Mercure to Sofitel. They both have the advantage that you don’t pay up front and can cancel your booking without penalty up to the day of arrival.

www.ryanair.com
www.visitdublin.com
www.traveljungle.co.uk
www.viamichelin.com
http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk
www.internet.xephos.com
www.seat61.com
www.fleetwaytravel.co.uk
www.accorhotels.com
www.itwg.com
www.thetube.com
www.davros.org/rail/culg./

And finally ..................

http://www.linkedin.com/Fin/davidcaldwell
http://www.digg.com/users/daithaic
http://www.facebook.com/people/David
http://daithaicaldwell.bebo.com
http://www.myspace.com/daithai
http://www.tripadvisor.com/members/daithai