TECHNOLOGY
The powerhouse of the internet and the only place many people go for information. But if you thought Google was a still a mere search engine, look again. Click on 'more' at the top of the homepage to discover the work of 'GoogleLabs' - more than 50 free tools and web pages that could change your internet life.
GoogleDocs lets you create documents, spreadsheets and presentations, store them online, share them with others and access them from wherever there's an internet connection.
Googlemail is probably the best email program - it has virtually limitless capacity and you don't need to change your email address to use it. The Google calendar is a powerful searchable diary that you can allow others to access, so family members can make appointments together.
SketchUp could be just the tool you are looking for to design that conservatory extension and see what it will look like once the builders have gone. Add to that databases for searching academic journals and books in the public domain, the powerful GoogleMaps, with its engaging satellite imagery, a finance page with live stock quotes and an easy-to-use online messaging system, and you can see why some people say Google is taking over the world - and, with GoogleMoon and GoogleMars, the rest of the galaxy, too.
Surf the web without disclosing who or where you are.
Hints, tips and troubleshooting for your iPod and associated software.
If you use just a few websites, this lets you create a home page that has links to them all. Simple, free and practical.
A suite of free business programs. From word processing and presentation software to tools for taking notes in meetings, planning projects and creating databases.
To-do lists, notes, ideas and calendar. Excellent for juggling projects and much more versatile than a ring folder.
All you need to know about keeping the net safe - protecting children, preventing spam, avoiding viruses and stopping others accessing your personal details.
More than 7,500 free fonts (for Mac and PC), so you can at last stop using Copperplate for your party invitations.
The superfast way to send large files over the web. Don't attach that family video to an email, Pando it instead.
Turn your home videos into animated flip books. Much more appealing than another DVD.
ENTERTAINMENT
Entertainment, media and showbiz news. Plus, a surprisingly good forum for technology-related problems - a great place to sort out your broadband.
On-demand television and radio programmes from the BBC.
Events, attractions, openings and exhibitions from around the world. Enter a location and dates and the site will show listings.
What's coming on and what's making an exit in London's theatre world. Especially good for seating plans, so you can see where the box office staff are putting you.
The world's biggest (and still growing) reference for actors, directors, locations, plots...
A round-up of what the critics thought of films on general release.
The British Film Institute's definitive guide to the British film industry. Plots, features, statistics and news from the film world.
Expand your reading. Catalogue your books online and others make recommendations based on what you seem to enjoy.
News, features and listings for Britain's terrestrial and cable television. Customisable interface so your favourite channels are always at the top.
The authentic (and often tangential) voice of the Britain's 'real' football supporters.
Everything you want to know about the world of cricket.
The official Olympics site, with news, scheduling, features and a countdown to the games themselves.
From shock jocks to orchestral baroque, thousands of internet radio stations to listen to on your computer.
Expand your music and movie tastes. Enter the name of a song, band, movie, actor or director you like and Live Plasma will return some pretty intelligent recommendations for further investigation.
A clever way of searching for video clips on the internet - from uploaded episodes of your favourite soap to comedy home-video moments.
Self-publishing made smart again. Write, design and then print your own books - though you'll still have to persuade others to buy them.
Two great sites full of short videos showing you how to do almost anything, from the incredibly useful (exercises for diabetes sufferers, tying a Windsor knot) to the revelatory ('learn different kinds of kisses'), via the wonderfully obscure ('make a moving jaw for your werewolf mask').
DIY projects from zombie make-up to LED balloons. Excellent selection of rainy-day projects for bored children (and adults) at home.
Addictive series of Flash games including the hypnotically soothing Boomshine.
News, reviews, hints and tips for virtually every console game on the market. Essential if you are still up at 2am trying to find a way into the castle on Zelda.
Online anagram machine for Scrabble players and crossword enthusiasts. Also solves Sudoku.
ADVICE AND INFORMATION
A wonderfully graphical - and customisable - display of news stories from around the world. Click on an item to see the full story.
Continually updated guide to modern-day Malapropisms, misunderstandings and other manglings of language. From 'high dungeon' to 'wreckless driving', Eggcorn names the culprits and nudges them in the right direction.
World-class articles from intellectual and influential journals around the world. Browse the day's selections. Like The Week for eggheads.
The academy comes to cyberspace. A panel of mainly American and British philosophy scholars answers questions sent in by the public. Search the database, from Abortion to War, or send in a question of your own.
Shows you the dates of Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu and American holidays from now to 2010.
For when the muse has gone, a rhyme and synonym generator to help you towards the perfect mot. You can also search for Shakespeare quotations, biblical references and other literary inspirations.
Giant but easily searchable database of statistics, maps and profiles for every country in the world.
The people's approach to news and features, Digg brings together items from across the net, ranked according to how many people have felt them worth recommending. Sometimes a little techie-heavy, but excellent for discovering what the cyberworld is getting worked up about.
A powerful way of keeping tabs on MPs and peers: attendance records, voting patterns, recent statements and more.
Volunteering opportunities for young people, sorted by region, interest, skills and need.
Controversial, democractic and sometimes error-strewn encyclopaedia that has brought Darwinism to the world of knowledge. Make it your first port of call for looking something up. Just be sure to check somewhere else that what you find makes sense.
Wikipedia's online multilingual dictionary. Immensely powerful and far less controversial than its encyclopaedic forebear.
The original - and still the best - personal finance site on the web (the American version is at www.fool.com). For savers, borrowers, stock spotters and day traders, sound, independent advice that cuts through the jargon.
From the arts, business, science and technology, a dry but authoritative conglomeration of data from around the world.
Free and authoritative database of more than 17 million medical research papers. Not always easy to understand if you are not a medic, but a far better place to look for information than the random sites that come up on Google.
The internet's version of that clever uncle who always seems to know the answer to your questions. There are few subjects the site doesn't tackle, though the coverage can be superficial. A good starting point for idle research.
Online information and advice about health and illness, run by Britain's National Health Service. The site includes a useful self-diagnosis tool that can reassure you that your hangover is not in fact meningitis.
General legal advice relating to housing, family law, employment, motoring, consumer issues and personal injury, plus wills, conveyancing and divorce. Good starting point to see where you stand. Will also, for a fixed fee, answer questions and put you in touch with a solicitor.
Engaging encyclopaedia of the modern (and not so modern) world, with good illustrations and clear text. Can suffer sometimes from an 'it's amazing!' tone of voice..
Currency converter covering every world currency. Azerbaijan new manats to Cayman Island dollars? Just a click away.
Find where you stand legally with the Citizens Advice Bureau's online information resource.
Advice and information for young people, including health and fitness, drugs, problems with bullying, how to study and applying for jobs.
Advice and suggestions from the world's leading gardening organisation. A good 'how-to' section and seasonal tips for the time of year.
Automatic translation to and from most European languages and Chinese. The results are sometimes a little strange, but you will usually get your message across.
How to do just about everything, from getting stains off curtains to buying a second-hand car.
Updated weekly, information, tips and recipe ideas on British seasonal food.
Website of Britain's leading charity for the elderly, packed with advice about maintaining an active life.
The queen of weather sites, with more information than you would possibly imagine you might need, from pollen counts to surf forecasts.
Spoof Wikipedia-style encyclopaedia where nothing is true, but a good deal is very funny indeed. Idle away an afternoon or, even better, hone your comedy skills by making a contribution yourself.
An easy way to lend small sums (from $25) to business projects in the developing world. Kiva keeps track of your investment, updates you on progress and repays your loan as the business grows.
From bad breath and piles to cold sores and beyond, Dr Margaret Stearn dispenses invaluable advice.
HOUSE AND HOME
Click on an area of the map to find out how noisy a street, or even a section of the street, is - handy for light sleepers planning a move. At the moment only London is mapped, but the rest of England will follow.
One of the best sites for finding property. It is UK-based but has a good international presence.
User reviews on local tradesmen. You describe the job you need done and how quickly and suppliers contact you with quotes - with previous customers rating them.
Possibly the most dangerous site on this list, Zoopla gives sale prices of recently sold homes and - the tricky bit - estimates the value of the rest. We dare you not to look.
Subtitled 'Consumer Revenge', this is where you find the discounts, tricks and tips to save money. The weekly email is essential reading for canny consumers. It caters only for Britain, but every country should have one.
Practical guide to making your home more environmentally friendly, from low-flow showerheads to 12V lighting. US-based, but many of the products are available elsewhere.
For budding Laurence Llewellyn-Bowens everywhere, it provides the ability to redecorate your home in cyberspace. Choose colours, furniture, accessories and finishes and then publish the results online.
Neighbourhood information based on postcode: schools, shopping and, juciest of all, how much the house down the road sold for recently.
One of many sites where you can swap homes with someone else for a period. This is less cluttered than some of the others and has a good geographical spread.
The fast way to compare utility suppliers and other services, from broadband to home insurance. Enter your postcode and the site comes back with the best deals.
Enchanting recipe and foodie blog from a Californian cook who believes in good food. Subscribe to the email alert service and transform your cooking repertoire.
SOCIAL
The most grown-up (just) of the social-networking sites that are fast taking over the world. Excellent for staying in touch with far-flung friends, though pretty good too for re-establishing contact with those you hoped you had lost.
The quickest and easiest way to create a blog of your own.
Like an online Mothers' Union meeting (though sometimes a little more risqué), Ringsurf is a chatroom where people exchange ideas about anything from politics to relationships. The quality is not always high, but users have been known to discover new (real-life) friends with interests they thought no one would share. A tribute to the information-sharing capability of the net.
Organise your thoughts by creating mindmaps online and sharing them with others.
An intelligent, intuitive and inspiring way to read entries from some of the millions of blogs that dot the internet. You can browse by subject or area of interest, read the postings that are catching the world's attention and bookmark blogs that catch your attention. And if you want to join in...
The website you graduate to once you've discovered how to put your holiday snaps on the net. Here, everyone's photos are linked by using tags, such as 'Spain', 'beach' or 'happy', which sets you off on an exploration of others' uploads.
There are plenty of great parenting forums out there - Netmums, Mumsnet - but this is still the best source of considered, authoritative, often soothing advice on everything from colic to tax credits.
YouTube for debaters. Upload a short video about an issue close to your heart and others reply in kind or by text.
SHOPPING
Gift ideas for when you can't think what to buy someone. You enter their age, sex and interests and how much you want to pay and it scours the net for ideas.
Online shopping for (nearly) everything you might want to buy. The original auction formula is still going strong, but plenty more features have been added since it began. Take a look at non-UK sites, such as ebay.fr and ebay.de, too, for bargains others may have missed. The layout is the same even if you don't speak the language.
Fashion tips, advice and suggestions. Includes Ask a Stylist for those tricky co-ordination problems and a What Was She Wearing? inquiry service to help you track down your favourite celebrity's fashion choice.
Unabashedly straightforward classified ads site, for everything from new homes to online romance.
The Amazon of the second-hand book world. More than 13,500 booksellers selling 110 million books. If it's not here, it's not worth looking for.
There are plenty of price-comparison sites on the web, but this one seems to get it right more often than most. Type in what you want to buy and Kelkoo will come back with the cheapest prices it can find.
A (digital) finger on the pulse of the technology world. All the newest developments, discoveries, gadgets and toys - before they hit the shops.
Discover more about wine by reviewing what you've enjoyed and receiving tips and suggestions from others.
Find the right jeans for your fit before you even leave home. A cheeky but revealing 'body type' guide takes you straight to the brand you should be trying. Search by style, body type or brand. Women only.
TRAVEL
Monitors prices and destinations for all the low-cost airlines so you just type in where you want to go and when to find the best deal.
Routes, tickets, tips and advice - the only guide you need to travelling by train from Britain to Europe and the rest of the world.
Online pedestrian routefinder for London, Birmingham, Newcastle and Edinburgh that shows you the best route to walk from A to B. Includes calorie counter, CO2 savings and points of interest on the way. Other cities coming soon.
Indispensable and almost always spot-on guide to negotiating the capital's public transport system. You enter your starting point and destination and it gives you the best bus, tube, cycle and even boat routes to get you across town.
A hi-tech hark-back to the days of leisurely motoring. ViaMichelin gives you maps, routes and directions throughout Britain and continental Europe with added panache. The maps have a pleasant printed quality about them and, naturally enough, your route is accompanied by gastronomic highlights to be found along the way. There's also information about destinations.
Information on your carbon footprint and how to cut it down. Includes an online calculator to measure your effect on the world.
Excellent all-round travel site. Use it for good prices on flights and holidays, but click on 'Destinations' for some well-researched and up-to-date travel guides.
Aircraft seating plans, showing you the prime seats, possible annoyances and seats you should avoid.
A consumer guide to what you can expect to eat on board. There are news and features from the airline catering world, but the best part is a gallery of photos of on-board meals sent in by passengers and listed by airline.
Travel writing with a twist. Click on the destination you have in mind and be prepared to be inspired. The site also offers tavelogues, news, books reviews, blogs and slideshows.
More essential websites
Here we go again … our latest list of the 100 best websites sees short attention spans, the rise of Twitter, more browser wars and celebrity gossip sites setting the news agenda
Illustration: Nigel Sandor/Illustration Works/Corbis
Andy Warhol talked of a time when everyone would be famous for 15 minutes. With hindsight, however, he might have wanted to revise that down to about five minutes. On today's web, phrases such as "here today, gone tomorrow" seem to involve ridiculously long timescales.
People who moaned that blogging represented a move to shorter attention spans – 250-to-350-word posts rather than 1,000-word stories – have now seen blog posts start to look big and, frankly, old-fashioned. Today's trendsetters are using "microblogging" sites such as Tumblr, Posterous and Soup.io, which are taking the opportunity for creative "borrowing" to new heights.
But the smash hit of 2009 has been (apologies: I know this will cause pain) Twitter, where 1,000-word stories are reduced to 140-character tweets. Short attention spans R us.
Major web players such as Facebook, Google, and Microsoft also got involved. Both Google and Microsoft signed deals for Twitter searches, while Facebook paid it the ultimate compliment of more or less copying its service. Or, perhaps, copying FriendFeed, which many users link to both Twitter and Facebook.
Facebook, while far from new, was another big player in 2009, reaching more than 350 million users. And through Facebook Connect, it has extended its presence across the web. Once you have a Facebook identity – and you must have one, mustn't you? – then you can use it to access a growing number of sites and services. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. The web might be a kinder, more polite place if people said things under their real names, which is what Facebook's about.
Those in search of their five minutes of fame or, more likely, five minutes of fun fun fun, headed for YouTube. Although it has been challenged by rivals such as Vimeo and Microsoft's Soapbox (RIP), its dominance has not been seriously threatened.
The BBC has made a huge impact with its iPlayer catchup service, and in the US, Hulu has enjoyed great success with TV series and movies. Of course, both sites are showing videos that YouTube would love to offer, at a profit, and it will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Music has been a significant player in the growth of the web since Napster, and its influence continues to grow. Spotify has made the biggest impact this year, gaining mindshare lost by Last.fm and Pandora. Meanwhile, Pitchfork has expanded its role as the web's authoritative music magazine, and The Hype Machine came to prominence as a source of instant erudition by tracking the music blogs.
Almost finally, it may be that we are seeing the return not just of the browser wars but of the search engine wars as well. Google still rules the world, but in Bing, it now has a competitor that does some things better and has, in Microsoft, an owner with deep pockets. Alas, Bing also does many things a lot worse.
Possibly the most contentious part of this year's list is celebrity gossip. The argument against would be summed up by a Wikipedian in two words: "not notable". The argument for is that sites such as Perez Hilton and AOL's TMZ are now helping to drive the news agenda. Even if you aren't interested in Michael Jackson's death, Tiger Woods's affairs or whatever, this stuff has become impossible to avoid. This is one case where many people would prefer the web's short attention span to be even shorter.
Blogging/microblogging
Now easier than falling off a log.
Tumblr Multimedia microblogging plus Twitter-style following.
Posterous Goes from instant microblogging into lifestreaming.
Soup A "super-easy" tumblelog for scrapbook keeping and lifestreaming.
Blogger Fast way to start blogging; training wheels for Wordpress.
Bloglines For reading web feeds. Smart and clean.
Wordpress Free, and most importantly spam-free, blogging.
Browsers
Do we all need five browsers nowadays?
Chrome Now here for Mac, and anticipating future world domination via Chrome OS.
Firefox Everyone's favourite is under attack from all sides.
Maxthon Based on IE code. If it stays "hip in China" it could reach a large global audience.
Cartoons
Everyone needs some relaxation. This is a visual one.
Dilbert It wouldn't be so funny if it wasn't so true.
XKCD Stick-figure strip poking fun at geek topics and relationships.
Celebrity gossip
No one needs this stuff, but it's starting to drive world news and web traffic.
TMZ Rose to fame when it broke news of Michael Jackson's death.
Perez Hilton Among the bitchiest of goss sites and often involved in 'interesting' celeb baiting.
Gawker New York-based media alert and gossip blog network, with fingers in many pies.
Create/collaborate
With all of us now living more of our lives online, these sites just scratch the surface.
Netvibes Your to-do lists, news, weather and photos on one page.
Scribd Shares 35bn words online: they can't all be wrong.
Slideshare Like YouTube for PowerPoint decks.
Zamzar Useful: converts files from one format to another.
Film
Sites to see before heading for the latest blockbuster at your local multiplex.
IMDb The most authoritative site about all things film and TV, which is why Amazon bought it.
Rotten Tomatoes Collects online film reviews, aggregates a score out of 100 and rates the film "fresh" or "rotten".
/Film Said to be the favourite film blog of directors Jason Reitman and Darren Aronofsky, /Film features news, reviews, interviews and a special UK update each Friday.
Cinematical Terrific film blog with a Hollywood focus.
Gaming
A field where handheld, bedroom and Flash games are becoming mainstream
Eurogamer Reportage, with breadth, if not always depth.
The Independent Gaming Source A great place to pick up on tomorrow's breakthrough Xbox Live Arcade, WiiWare and PSN hits.
Pocket Gamer Still by far the best site on handheld gaming.
Gamasutra Where professional games creators hang out, and sometimes get jobs
Geek squad
Here be programmers …
Stack Overflow Where programmers gather to try to solve their problems.
The Daily WTF Daily dispatches from the coding warzone.
Joel On Software Essays by a former Microsoftie, now head of Fog Creek Software.
Government/public services/politics
Recycle Now Winner after a slight false start of the government'sShow Us A Better Way competition. What can you recycle close by?
British and Irish Legal Information Institute A database of laws. Only survives hand-to-mouth on voluntary donations; where's yours?
What Do They Know? Makes filing a Freedom Of Information request as easy as sending an email. Too easy, some in power think.
Upmystreet All the detail on your area you could ever want.
They Work For You A site set up by volunteers to keep tabs on our elected members of parliament – and our unelected peers.
Link economy
With millions of links on the web, we all need sites for sharing the best ones.
Digg Still the reigning champion of where the latest internet memes are though not always polite.
Delicious The thinking person's link aggregation site. We use it.
Popurls Aggregating the aggregators: the web in a window.
Metafilter Living if isolated proof that a site can be successful without pictures or video, and can also host thoughtful conversations.
Slashdot Now looking venerable and old, but "News for nerds" site with a jokey name (/.) still attracts a big, and often knowledgable, audience.
Techmeme Technology news chosen by computer, though it's now refined by human editors.
Location, location
Services like these blossom with a mobile phone that can access the internet.
Dopplr "Share your future travel plans with friends and colleagues", then find out if others will be there too.
Qype Localised search for pubs, restaurants, etc; also a bit of a social network.
Loopt "Transforms your mobile phone into a social compass".
Brightkite A "location-based social network".
Maps
The flipside of location-based services: seeing where you are.
OpenStreetMap A rights-free map created by people like you. Remarkably detailed and precise.
Google Maps Street View Virtual tourism with practical applications, too.
Money/finance/consumer fightback
We all need someone on our side.
Money Saving Expert Does what it says on the tin.
Say No to 0870 Direct-dial numbers, not expensive national-rate ones.
Consumer Direct Government site for consumers.
Music
Last.fm British-made, now CBS-owned, music recommendation station.
Amazon Now has its own MP3 store in the UK as well as the US.
Hype Machine Picks up the latest news by tracking the music blogs.
Pitchfork The magazine of the music web, now with video, and lots of great lists.
Offbeat
The Onion Still the satirical newspaper of record. If it's not in the Onion, it's probably happened.
B3TA Beyond classification; its forum has spawned many memes … and more than its fair share of trolls.
Lolcats respite from stress with daft cCaptioned cats and other animals.
News Lite respite from stress with daft cGreat source of news that's much too trivial to print.
Oddee Setting an internet standard for sets of curious and mildly amusing pictures, not cats.
PostSecret Notes of secrets sent by people who want them posted. So they are.
Passive-Aggressive Notes Would it be too much trouble for you to have a look?
Photography
Flickr The granddaddy of photo-sharing sites.
Picnik Photo editing in your browser.
Picasa Google's photo organisation and editing tool.
DPreview The web's best guide to cameras. Now Amazon owned.
Reference
CIA Factbook All the data you need on pretty much anywhere.
Wikipedia en.wikipedia.com the gradually growing user-edited encyclopaedia is Still a first port of call on most topics.
Internet Archive/Wayback Machine The web in aspic. Useful for research into how the web used to look.
Metacritic Aggregates reviews of movies and DVDs, TV programmes, music and games
Wikileaks Anonymous source of a huge range ofleaked documents. If you dig, there's something important there
Search
Google dominates but Bing is challenging, and Yahoo and Microsoft are left in the dust.
Google So good it's become almost synonymous with search.
Bing Microsoft would like you to bing it, but its "decision engine" still has a long way to go.
Wolfram Alpha An "answer engine"that delivers when it has the data, but not that easy to use.
Social software
Two years ago it was nascent; now it's embedded in our culture. Chances are high you're a member of at least one, and perhaps all, of these sites.
Facebook Still changing and growing to become not just your home on the web, but your ID provider.
LinkedIn Contact sports for business users.
Ning One place to start your own social network – just as Madonna did – though it has yet to really take off.
Travel
Expedia Still the daddy when it comes to travel sites, and particularly good if you can bundle a flight with a hotel and other services.
TripAdvisor Essential reading for the user reviews of hotels, but it now covers much more.
Laterooms Specialises in hotel discounts.
Twitter, and associated
Twitter has proved itself over and over this year, from the Chinese earthquke to the Mumbai attacks to the Madoff fraud as a vector for news.
Twitter The ur-site, where you can create an identity (or several).
Twitter Tim.es Creates your personal newspaper based on your friend's tweets.
Twitterfeed Posts blog contents to Twitter.
TwitterCounter Graphs the growth in your followers.
Twitterfall Tracks trending topics; enables custom searches.
Listorious Twitter lists make it simple to follow large groups of Twitter users, and Listorious makes it easy to find the best lists.
Video
YouTube Dominant provider of video content online.
Vimeo Better rights control than YouTube and a cleaner interface
BBC iPlayer The king of the online catchup services.
Hulu The networks fight back with their own video site, which may make the UK in 2010. We hope.
Videojug The motherlode of instructional videos, all in one place.
Second Life Continues to exist and is, apparently, still popular, but not the media darling it was.
Entropia Universe Set in a distant future on the untamed planet of Calypso.
Club Penguin Minigame-tastic virtual world for youngkids.
Moshi Monsters "Educational" virtual world for kids.
Visual arts
Saatchi Gallery Gallery, listings and artworks for sale.
Art Daily The first "art newspaper" on the net.
Culture 24 Everything about UK galleries and museums.
Profile of Sir Tim Berners-Lee
Inventor of the World Wide Web. By Andrew Pierce. 2009.02.12.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the World Wide Web, could potentially have become as rich and powerful as Bill Gates the Microsoft founder.
Instead he chose not to patent his creation ion 1990 as he was determined that it would be free for all. He works for an academic's salary at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, and until recently drove a 20-year-old Volkswagen.
It was 14 years after he received a £ 40,000 grant from a Swiss research centre to develop his big idea to allow us to share information through the network of cabling and computers that already spanned the Earth, that he was knighted by the Queen.
A modest man he is also a member of the Order of Merit, which was founded in 1902 by Edward VII, as a special mark of honour from the Sovereign for people who have made outstanding achievements in their field. "I am very proud to be in the Order," he said.
He was one of four children born to computer mathematician parents and raised in East Sheen, southwest London. The young Berners-Lee occupied himself by building computers out of cardboard. He studied Physics at Oxford. He is married to an American, Nancy Carlson, who is a computer programmer. They have two children.
"I feel like quite an ordinary person, " Sir Tim said. "So, the good news is that it does happen to ordinary people who work on things that happen to work out, like the Web."
Time magazine named him as one of the 100 greatest thinkers of the 20th Century.
Internet ad tracking system will put a 'spy camera' in the homes of millions, warns founder of the web By Sean Poulter 2009.03.12
Sir Tim Berners-Lee: Entire integrity of the internet at risk
The inventor of the world wide web has launched a damning attack on plans to spy on the internet browsing habits of millions of households. Sir Tim Berners-Lee warned such technology was even more sinister than allowing companies to install TV cameras in our homes, and said the details revealed could be used by stalkers or foreign agents wanting to blackmail British politicians.
Internet providers BT, TalkTalk and Virgin Media are all considering a system known as Phorm, which would track the web pages that their 11million customers look at. The potentially lucrative system creates an anonymous profile of a surfer's interests which is then used by retailers to target them with relevant adverts.
However, Sir Tim, 53, told a Parliament summit on privacy laws: 'It is very important that you can use the internet without a thought that, when we click, a third party will know what we clicked on in a way that might affect how our insurance premium changes, whether we can get life insurance or another job.'
Sir Tim said this kind of activity provides unprecedented information on an individual.
'It reveals huge amounts about people's lives, their loves, their hates and fears. People use the web when they are in a crisis.
Sir Tim described firms that want to develop and use the technology as the 'villains in the middle of the network'.
Hilarious web addresses revealed in new book
A list of the internet's most inadvertently amusing
web addresses – such as the home page for celebrity agent database Who
Represents, or www.whorepresents.com – have been compiled in a new book.
By
Nick Collins 30.05.2010.
WARNING: Some readers may find this mildly offensive, or completely un-intelligible .
The compendium of ill thought out web addresses, largely from
companies who naively slurred their innocent-sounding names into a
single word without noticing the resulting double entendres, lists more than 150 "slurls", or slur URLs.
One example of what can go wrong when choosing web addresses is
Big Al's bowling alley in Vancouver, which presumably did not notice
when naming its site that "I love Big Al's" with spaces removed could
equally be read as "I love bi gals".
Also included in the list is the Mole Station Nursery, a business
in Australia selling gardening goods which adopted the web name
"molestationnursery" before changing it to "molerivernursery".
Andy Geldman, author of Slurls: They Called Their Website What? said: "In a world without spaces we mentally insert out own. And you might not stick yours where I stick mine."
Among the 150 web pages featuring in the book are Pen Island's
home page, www.penisland.net, and Les Bocages, a British firm of tree
surgeons working in France who are named after the French word for
"groves" but also have the unfortunate web moniker "lesbocages".
The potential for amusement has also led to a number of spoofs,
notably the website purporting to be the Italian home page for energy
company Powergen – powergenitalia – which is really unaffiliated with
the company.
For the firms affected, however, the errors are not always taken
lightly. A spokesman for Choose Spain, a holiday company found at
choosespain.com, told the Sunday Times: "It was too late to change it once we realised".
Five of the funniest web URLs
La Drape – a British company selling high-end quilted bedspreads – is listed at www.ladrape.co.uk
American Scrap Metal – a scrap metal recycling firm – has its website at www.angelfire.com/alt/americanscrapmetal
Speed of Art – a collective or art designers – are online at www.speedofart.com
Therapist Finder – a directory for therapy services – can be located at www.therapistfinder.com
Profile of Sir Tim Berners-Lee 
