Best sites for fun, learning, creating and much more
Best site for learning
Newsmap displays the top stories from Google news as simple to read icons. The bigger the icon, the bigger the news
Google is the internet surfer's best friend and worst enemy. If you know what you're after, just type it into the search engine's famous little box and – hey presto – you'll be given a list of related sites in order of relevance.
Such is Google's dominance that its name has become a synonym for search. And rightly so. When was the last time you Yahooed something? And good though Bing is, it's not ringing our bell just yet. There's a problem, though.
Searching for something implies you know what you're looking for. Gold prospectors search for gold; they don't scour the earth on the off-chance there's something which may or may not be of any value knocking around. So what happens if you don't know what you're looking for; if you just want to be amazed?
How do you ask Google for some brilliant sites, sites which will feed your mind, soul or just let you waste time in style? If you're in that kind of mood, you're in the right place. Welcome to PC Plus's directory of the best websites on the internet.
Our experts have put their thinking caps on and come up with a list of their favourite sites. So, do yourself a favour: forget Google for a while and put your trust in us.
Best sites for learning
Martin Cooper uncovers the best sites for discovering amazing facts and figures
When you're after something to feed your mind, body or soul, you'll be sure to find something on the internet that will make you think. From recipes to help us geeky types boil an egg to sites that help you track down the origins of slang, amazing discoveries are always only a few clicks away.
eHow
If you're ever in doubt about how to do something, visit eHow. As well as helping with everyday tasks such as how to polish your car or change ISP, the site isn't shy of difficult topics. You can learn how to politely turn down an amorous suitor, for example. The breadth of topics is staggering and the content sensible. Just be aware that it's an American publication, so don't follow its legal advice too closely.
Cooking for engineers
If you're scientifically minded, endless drivel about organic chickens, rustic honesty and sun-dried tomatoes can leave you nonplussed. This site is a great antidote to foppish gastronomic pomposity. Its instructions for soft boiled eggs are a triumph of analysis, and the end result looks tasty too.
The CIA World Factbook
If you're looking for a glossy travel guide with indulgent photographs, flowery descriptions of views and lists of chic little boutiques, look elsewhere. This site is all about hard facts. All nation states are profiled, and data about everything from infant mortality to population size is quoted.
www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html
Wikia
Even though printing out the whole of Wikipedia would result in a stack of paper about a kilometre high, it is somewhat exclusive in what it contains. If you're after outrageously detailed guides to popular culture, Wikia's various sub-sites will suck you in and never spit you back out. Take a look at Wookieepedia, the Star Wars wiki, for a perfect example: it features a whopping 70,000 articles, and all of them are obsessively maintained.
Dictionary.com
No prizes for guessing what Dictionary.com is. As the old clich̩ goes, it does exactly what it says on the tin. If you're looking for a dictionary definition of a word, it certainly returns a more detailed definition than Google's 'define' function. Dictionary.com does more just define things for you, though Рit also has a Word of the Day feature. Sign up, and you'll receive a new word, gift-wrapped and delivered by email, every day.
Newsmap
You can't beat Google's news homepage when it comes to getting a snapshot of the most important stories in the world. Or can you? It turns out you can. Newsmap presents Google's news feed pictorially, giving the most important stories proportionally more prominence on the screen.
Genuki
Genealogy has become something of a national obsession in recent years. If you fancy tracking down your antecedents and finding out whether your heritage is tied up with agriculture or aristocracy, Genuki is the place to start.
Brainy Quote
Only read a few Dan Browns but want people to think you've had your nose deep in tomes by Proust and Tolstoy? Just drop the Quote of the Day from this site into conversation to give yourself some instant intellectualism.
What Should I Read Next
Enjoyed a particular book or writer and want to find something similar? This site will recommend a good follow-up read for you to get your teeth into. Its suggestions rely on the magic of user-generated content, and the site isn't in the pocket of any publishing houses, so you should get a fairly unbiased recommendation.
Nation Master
This site is a statistician's dream. It's bursting with all sorts of numeric data about hundreds of nation states, from Burundi to Belgium. Did you know that 1.1 out of every million people in Turkmenistan is a chess grandmaster, for example? Didn't think so. Dive on in and see what else you can find out.
FFFBI
Cute and clever, The Fin, Fur and Feather Bureau of Investigation aims to teach kids about problem solving and critical thinking. Both are essential for life in this computer rich age, and what better way is there to learn such skills than by becoming a spy for a detective agency run by a plethora of friendly animals?
NASA TV
If you've got a curious mind, a look at NASA TV is a must. You can watch space walks and all the rest live, giving us on Earth an insight into the life of an astronaut.
www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html
Acronym Finder
There's nothing any industry likes more than an impenetrable acronym. If you're presented with a particularly cryptic one, Acronym Finder will decrypt it for you instantly.
Flash Earth
This fantastic site lets you explore Earth using multiple sources of mapping data, all controlled through a single interface. A must for all geographers and high-altitude voyeurs.
PopURLs
PopURLs gives you a snapshot of what's being said on the biggest social news websites, neatly displaying a grid of headlines in (almost) real-time. If you have to be cutting edge, this is for you.
All play and no work: Richard Cobbett lists his favourite media sites
Hulu
It's not yet in the UK, but it's definitely one to watch. The only shame is that once it does arrive in Blighty, we won't get the same shows as our cousins across the pond.
Magnatune
Almost endless music to listen to. Whether you want to buy it for your iPod or recreate the soundtrack of a motion picture, you're only one click away from the perfect licence.
Riff trax
This site makes movies even funnier with downloadable commentaries to play alongside your favourite movies. Make sure you download the PAL versions, though.
That Guy With The Glasses
The hub for almost every YouTube reviewer and comedian you've ever heard of, plus plenty of top-quality comedy you haven't. Specialises in gaming, movies and sketches.
Revision3
Hours of geek-friendly programming, from meeting the weirdos behind the strangest websites around to full Photoshop tutorials and advice on defeating padlocks.
4oD
It's not as hyped as the BBC iPlayer, but now that Channel 4 has released huge chunks of its back catalogue for free, it's the perfect place to waste some time.
The Agony Booth
One of the best places to see bad movies and TV shows get what's coming to them. Full of snarky, detailed recaps of everything the original creators got wrong.
Last.fm
The best way to track your listening habits and find out which artists you should be checking out next. The site's huge archive of free tracks and music videos on tap doesn't hurt either, and with one of the biggest music communities around, even the most obscure tastes should be well covered.
Demoscene.tv
See the best demos – programs written to show off what top-grade programmers can do – without having to download them. It's not quite the same as seeing them for real, but it's good for browsing and finding those worth downloading at a later date.
12Seconds
Proof that online video doesn't always have to be polished to be engaging, the idea behind 12Seconds is in the name – short, bite-sized comments about anything and everything. It's mostly intended for friends and family rather than mass audiences, but you never know how things might take off in the future – just look at Twitter.
WeGame
There's plenty of places online to upload videos, but not many provide a downloadable client to help you record your finest gaming moments and share them. WeGame is also useful for seeing how the experts play, enabling you to learn some great new moves in your favourite games by their example.
Justin.tv
From one man lifestreaming his day-to-day happenings to a full video portal where anyone can set up a channel, Justin is well worth exploring. If you decide to try it for yourself, though, a word of advice: turn the camera off in the loo.
Podcast Alley
One of the best sites for finding podcasts you might be interested in before downloading them, Podcast Alley covers a vast range of subjects.
Netlabels
What do you do if you want to make your own podcast, but don't have any musical flair? That's where 'podsafe' music comes in – tunes that you can use for the cost of a shout-out to the artist. Netlabels is a great place to start hunting for the right theme.
SecurityTube
If general video content doesn't appeal to you, don't forget that the internet always has something for every niche. SecurityTube is a YouTube-style site that's specifically for computer security videos, with uploads offering a level of depth you simply won't find elsewhere.
Apple Trailers
If you're looking for trailers for the latest movie releases, you rarely need to look further than this site. Apple Trailers is especially good if your bandwidth can handle the highest resolutions.
Best sites for troubleshooting
PC misbehaving? Mike Williams delivers a collection of the best online tech resources
You've mastered the Windows basics, and that's great. To really optimise your PC, keep it secure and quickly troubleshoot problems, you need to go further: learn how Windows works, discover the best free software and fully understand the threat from hackers. Here are 16 essential sites to help you along the way.
MakeUseOf
Tired of tech sites that just aren't updated frequently enough? MakeUseOf has around 20 experienced contributors, so every day sees several new posts recommending essential new software and websites, along with interesting articles on ways to improve your PC and internet life. The best are compiled into free guides on topics like networking, iTunes, Linux and Photoshop.
Black Hat
Black Hat Briefings are the most substantial security conferences in the computer world, where top researchers deliver fascinating demonstrations on the very latest vulnerabilities. Can't get to one? Don't worry – the site includes an archive where you can download each speaker's presentations and materials, usually within a couple of weeks of each event.
Freewaregenius
Freewaregenius trawls the freeware world, and regularly comes up with extremely useful programs that similar sites miss. The selections cover a very wide range: Windows extensions, full apps, games, specialist tools for small businesses, web developers and more. There are also regular articles on interesting topics, such as the best free antivirus software.
Bruce Schneier
Security expert Bruce Schneier's site, blog, books and newsletter provide important and highly readable insights on everything from basic techniques you can use to protect your network, to high level discussions on political power and national security. Don't miss the Essays and Op-Eds section of his site, where you'll find articles of his that have appeared in major publications around the world.
VistaX64
The hundreds of straightforward tutorials at VistaX64 will help all Vista and Windows 7 users speed up, customise, troubleshoot and generally get more from their PCs. Each guide is easy to follow, thanks to a step-by-step approach and frequent use of screen grabs. And despite the site name, most of the advice works just as well on 32-bit Windows as its 64-bit big brother.
Sysinternals forums
Even Windows experts get lost occasionally, but the Sysinternals forums will quickly point you back in the right direction. They're packed with helpful people who are happy to cover technical topics beyond Sysinternal's own utilities. They're knowledgeable, too: ask about processor affinity masks, DPCs or paged pool memory and they'll know what you mean and exactly how to help.
Ask the Performance Team
This Microsoft blog regularly posts detailed advice on how to tune your PC, manage memory properly and troubleshoot crashes. And unlike similar sites, the authors don't assume you're a software developer – most of their articles are easily accessible to knowledgeable home users.
http://blogs.technet.com/askperf
4sysops
Don't be put off by the banner saying this site is for Windows administrators. Its mix of reviews, recommendations on useful free Windows tools and news on the latest security issues will appeal to any knowledgeable PC owner.
OSNews
There's more to the computing world than Microsoft. This busy news site will keep you up to date with the latest on Mac OS X, Linux, Palm, AmigaOS, the iPhone and more, as well as all of the big Windows, PC and hardware developments.
CyberTerrorists
Learn about the latest bots, keyloggers, trojans and other nasties by paying regular visits to this site. Be careful, though: don't download any malware samples to try out unless you know exactly how to protect yourself.
Engineering Windows 7
A must-read for anyone interested in Windows 7, this Microsoft blog provides regular, detailed and exclusive looks at Vista's successor.
Mark Russinovich
He's an expert programmer and true Windows guru, yet Mark Russinovich's blog on Windows troubleshooting is still accessible to experienced home users. It's an essential read if you want to know more about how Windows works.
http://blogs.technet.com/markrussinovich
Istartedsomething
Long Zheng's influential tech blog delivers interesting analyses of the latest happenings in the PC world. And these aren't just reprints of other people's work: Zheng's posts often include original research, interviews and other information that isn't available elsewhere.
Nirsoft
Have you ever wanted to find your Windows or Office product key? Recover email passwords? List all the Windows shell extensions on your PC, and disable the ones you don't need? The Nirsoft website is packed with compact, useful free tools for carrying out a wide range of PC maintenance functions just like this.
Dancho Danchev
Security consultant Dancho Danchev regularly produces fascinating reports exposing the mechanics of malware and internet scams: what hackers are doing, how they're doing it and who's making money from their efforts. A must-read for anyone interested in security issues beyond their own PC.
NTdebugging
Microsoft's Global Escalation Services Support Team blog has invaluable advice on crash analysis and low-level troubleshooting that will soon have your PC running smoothly. Be careful, though: you'll need some expertise to keep up.
http://blogs.msdn.com/ntdebugging
Gary Marshall expands on how to find friends and advertise yourself
Vimeo
Upload video and share it or embed it in your blog. Free accounts give you 500MB of storage and one HD video per week, while paid accounts offer unlimited HD.
SmugMug
Best described as Flickr for professional photographers, SmugMug's service isn't free – it starts at £20 per year – but it's a superb way to showcase photography.
Scribd
Microsoft Office, OpenOffice.org and PostScript files are reproduced online with formatting intact. You can then embed the results in your own site or blog.
Ning
Can't find a social network dedicated to your specific interests? Ning enables you to create and customise one in a matter of minutes without costing a penny.
FriendFeed
FriendFeed brings all your social networks together into a single feed. The service supports Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, del.icio.us, YouTube and various blogs.
Funny Or Die
Will Ferrell's site is YouTube for comedy: users upload whatever they think is funny, with everyone voting for the best comic clips. If it isn't funny, it dies.
SnagFilms
Designed for documentary makers and viewers, SnagFilms provides a portal for over 700 movies and the ability to create custom movie theatres for any website. Filmmakers who contribute get an equal share of the advertising revenue.
Issuu
If you've seen the embedded articles on our website, you'll know that Issuu does an excellent job of displaying print documents in a web browser. Basic accounts are free, and you can share your documents on the usual social networks or embed them in your own site.
Bit.ly
Long URLs can be a real pain when you're trying to share a link both online and via SMS. Bit.ly is a brilliant way of shortening internet addresses to manageable links. The site also features advanced options that allow you to do things like track how many people have accessed your bit.ly link.
Pipebytes
Pipebytes gives you the ability to send files of any size through your web browser. The real beauty of the service is that the recipient can begin downloading the file while you're still uploading. Speeds aren't guaranteed, but the service is free and delivers secure and private sharing.
Slideshare
If you're still handing out printed notes after presentations, it's time you checked out Slideshare. This presentation sharing website enables you to publish Powerpoint and Word documents and add audio to your files. You can also use privacy settings to make the presentation either public or contacts-only.
JayCut
JayCut enables you to edit and mix audio and video clips. You can then either download the results to your PC or share the footage on YouTube, Facebook or MySpace.
Digg
So popular it can bring down entire web servers when its users visit en masse, the social news site enables you to share interesting links and see what everybody else is reading. A great way to find interesting stories.
Google Docs
Google Docs isn't really a Microsoft Office rival: it's designed for quick and simple document collaboration rather than attempting to be all things to all men. It's a particularly good method of working on projects where inputs from many different people are needed.
Windows Live SkyDrive
The storage bit of Microsoft's revamped online offering is pretty decent, delivering 25GB of online storage for free. You simply drag and drop each file across, and each folder gets a unique URL so you can send the link for others to access.
DropSend
We're big fans of DropSend, a service that enables you to share files of up to 2GB via its browser interface or desktop icon. Free accounts also come with 250MB of online storage.
It takes a lot to get Alex Cox's attention. Here are a few sites that managed it
Uncyclopedia
Wikipedia's oft-questionable content has inspired a site that does away with the factual element entirely and instead goes directly for the fictional jugular.
Project Gutenberg
Set up in 1971, Project Gutenberg now encompasses over 100,000 public-domain titles. If you're hunting down the classics, this is the only place you need to look.
Cockeyed
Cockeyed is full of facts gleaned from creator Rob Cockerham's rudimentary science experiments. Just how much gold is inside the liqueur Goldschlager? Find out here.
The Easter Egg Archive
There are hidden extras nestling in a huge number of entertainment products. Named 'easter eggs', the directions to these secret nuggets of goodness can be found here.
Atlas Obscura
The Atlas Obscura, 'a compendium of the world's wonders, curiosities and esoterica' can take you from Lenin's Mausoleum to the Hanging Temple of Hengshan.
Text Files
Jason Scott has collected a ludicrous amount of old data, from an exhaustive collection of bulletin-board text files to whole CDs full of archaic shareware.
Kongregate
Playing Flash games online doesn't get much classier than this; Kongregate has a massive selection of great online games, and an Xbox-esque achievement system that will track your progress over multiple titles.
Kingdom of Loathing
This stick-figure-illustrated MMO-lite may be ugly, but it is a witty and altogether nutty take on the genre that gracefully expels keyboard mashers with a clever exam – you must complete the tasks set at the Altar of Literacy to communicate with others.
Quake Live
The seminal shooter goes browser based – sort of. There's still a hefty download involved, and it's only really playable full screen, so you may as well be playing a standalone app. But as the latest incarnation of what is still one of the best arena FPS around, Quake Live is not to be missed.
Off world
This recent spin off of venerable blog Boing Boing is already one of the cleverest and most respected gaming portals out there. If it's beautiful or clever, you'll find it posted here.
Rock, Paper, Shotgun
No-one is closer to the cutting edge than the RPS boys; Rock, Paper, Shotgun sees four respected writers collaborating on a site dedicated to the best and quirkiest in PC gaming.
Virtual NES
Treat yourself to a little old-school gaming action with Virtual NES. The official homepage of the Nintendo Entertainment System emulator vNES has a selection of games available to play right in your browser, including the original Mario Brothers trilogy.
World of Spectrum
The mere mention of the ZX Spectrum sends us into nostalgic fits of glee – thank goodness the community has banded together and backed up what appears to be every single thing ever released for the venerable home computer, along with a bunch of magazines.
Let's Play!
Can't be bothered to play games through yourself? Need to virtually try before you buy? The community behind Let's Play often records full playthroughs of the most classic (and the most frustrating) games of all time with an amusing (and sometimes extremely coarse) commentary. It's just like being part of the action yourself.
Independent Games Source
This site does just what its title suggests – it's a blog covering the best games churned out by the best independent authors. If you're looking to keep abreast of the latest wacky Gamemaker masterpieces, this is the place that you need to be.
The Interactive Fiction Archive
You are visiting a website. The design is clean and functional, and all of the words around you appear to be delicately strung together with the finest thread. You can see here: thousands of text adventures. Thorin sits down and starts singing about gold.
Gary Marshall lines up his favourite sites for artists, snappers, designers and dabblers
The web is a blessing for creative types: instead of starving in a garret, you can discuss your work with like-minded people, discover new techniques and learn the secrets of getting your novel, art or movie out there for others to see.
Manga University
The distinctive visual style of Manga is everywhere, from comic books to adverts and videogames. If you fancy creating your own manga-style creations then Manga University is the place to start. You'll find tutorials on drawing hands, bodies and clothes, as well as a dedicated section showing you how to draw manga eyes.
www.howtodrawmanga.com/howtodraw/tutorials.html
Shooting People
Morgan Spurlock of Supersize Me fame describes Shooting People as "a necessity for anyone who works, loves and breathes independent film". More than 37,000 members share advice and information, recruit cast and show off their films on this enormous movie-making website.
Digital Webbing
Digital Webbing isn't just a great site for comic book fans: its talent search section is where writers, artists and publishers look for work, while its forums are an excellent resource for anybody who's interested in creating comic content. Whether you're trying to break into the industry, recruit collaborators or just discover what inspires your favourite writers and artists, you'll be able to satisfy yourself here.
I Love Typography
As the name suggests, I Love Typography is a website for people who really care about type – both in print and on-screen. Here you'll find free fonts, interviews with designers, advice on type design and articles covering subjects such as whether Arial is something more than just a Helvetica clone. The site has spawned www.welovetypography.com, a spin-off which is a kind of Delicious for type-related content.
Arts & Letters Daily
Literary criticism, sociology, philosophy, essays, opinions, blogs and columns: if it's interesting and it's been written down, posted or published, you'll probably find it somewhere in this regularly updated collection of the world's best brain food. Arts & Letters Daily comes from the Chronicle of Higher Education, and its mission is to find and link to anything interesting. Just bookmarking the site increases your IQ by 50 points – or so we've heard. On Arts & Letters Daily, funnily enough...
Anne Mini
She goes on a bit Рdeliberately Рand repeats herself a lot Рagain, deliberately Рbut if you're an aspiring novelist, Anne Mini's blog is one of the best resources that you'll find online. It's particularly good when it comes to the business side of writing, covering everything from finding a publisher to avoiding the clich̩s that guarantee nobody will ever buy your book. Take a look to get your novel rolling.
National Novel Writing Month
They say everyone has a book in them, and every November the National Novel Writing Month encourages people to get it on paper in just one month. The site's a great resource for would-be writers, with interviews, Q&As and advice.
Screenwriting.info
All kinds of websites offer screenwriting advice, but few of them are as straightforward as this one. Here you'll find step-by-step advice on creating and formatting a film script, including the rules you must follow if you want to be taken seriously.
Art Crimes
There's more to graffiti than teenagers tagging trains, as fans of Banksy will tell you. Art Crimes is an online gallery of graffiti art from around the world that also links to upcoming events and interviews with top graffiti artists.
Authonomy
The selling point here is that the most popular writers will get their books read by HarperCollins publishers instead of languishing in the slush pile. Even if you don't catch the editors' attention, Authonomy is a kind of MySpace for novelists, with writers submitting their work, critiquing each other and offering advice on all aspects of fiction writing.
MusicRadar
If you're performing or recording music, MusicRadar is a must: it's a huge resource site featuring technique tips, gear reviews, interviews with musicians and extremely busy discussion forums. It's not a luddite site either: electronic music making gets as much attention as guitar, bass and drums.
DeviantArt
DeviantArt aims to provide a place for any artist to display and discuss their work. You could spend weeks browsing it: the site has more than 10 million members, many of whom are incredibly talented.
ArtGraphica.net
From pen and ink to acrylics and charcoal, ArtGraphica's free online tutorials take you step-by-step through the processes of sketching, drawing and painting.
RolandLee.com
Acclaimed landscape artist Roland Lee is a generous man: on his site he provides lengthy tutorials showing exactly how he takes a blank page and turns it into something superb.
Watercolor Painting and Projects
It looks like it was designed in 1991 and the navigation is appalling, but the tutorials provided on the Watercolor Painting and Projects site are excellent. If you're new to using watercolours, this is a good place to learn the essentials.
www.watercolorpaintingandprojects.com
Photo.net
Part social network and part how-to guide, Photo.net is an enormous collection of articles, galleries and forums where amateur and professional photographers share advice and critique each other's work.