The Top 100 Web Sites of 2010 - Undiscovered: Info
Atlas Obscura
The tagline for Atlas Obscura is, "A Compendium of the World's Wonders, Curiousities, and Esoterica." If that abstract made your spine all tingly, read on. If you fell asleep before "Esoterica," it's probably best to move on to the next site on the list. Atlas Obscura is a truly wonderful collection of the world's most oddly fascinating exotic locales, from raining fish to ancient churches to mummies right in your own New England backyard. If this site doesn't make you want to get out of the house, it's time to check your pulse.
Calcmoolator
Financial calculators aren't necessarily fun, but they're a necessary evil as you navigate the waters of credit, mortgages, and more. Calcmoolator aggregates many, including tools to figure out if it's best to rent or lease, auto loan estimates, how to pay off debt, lifetime earnings, and more. Spend some time figuring out your finances for a better tomorrow.
EveryScape
Google Maps' Street View is a great technology, but, much to the insistence of privacy advocates everywhere, it tends to stop at the front door. EveryScape takes you inside businesses, restaurants, and hotels, in a number of U.S. cities and locations in Poland, China, and the U.K. I spent a good chunk of my afternoon exploring the Great Wall of China and a thrift store in San Francisco's Mission District.
LyricRat
Remember the game show Name that Tune? This is like that, but with lyrics: You type in some you've heard, click "find the song," and the rat tells you the title and artist. And if the song is for sale on Amazon, you can play a sample. (You can also send a message via twitter to @LyricRat and it'll message you back with the same info.)
Quora
Crowd-sourced answer sites are a great idea that has never really taken off in a lasting way. The problem with sites like Yahoo Answers is the quality of responses, which often tend to be lacking. Quora, the latest Silicon Valley buzz site, is all about quality responses from quality responders. Many of the users are some of the brightest minds in the tech industry. Naturally, the questions are quite often tech-centric, but hey, what do you do, PCMag reader?
RiskyRoads.org
A Google Maps mashup no one should leave home without, RiskyRoads does exactly what you'd expect. It takes traffic accident and safety data and maps it, so you know exactly which spots to avoid. Some of the data is older, but the roads are unlikely to have changed. If you see a big cluster of dots, you'd do best to steer clear of that area.
SeeClickFix
It's not just a name, it's a call to action. This site is all about communities getting involved. If you see something out of the ordinary, report it online, so the government and media and watchdog groups can do something about it. Make sure your neighborhood is on the list.
SepiaTown
SepiaTown lets users upload images of historical locations. The result is a terrific mashup of Google maps and thousands of faded photos showcasing days gone by. Navigate the Google map and click on the image to see it close up. SepiaTown is located on the border of technology and nostalgia.
SiteJabber
This National Science Foundation-funded site aims to "make the Internet a better place for consumers" through user-generated site reviews. The site's reviews are largely devoted to shopping sites, but they also cover a number of other categories, including blogs, dating, finance, and more. The biggest problem right now is a lack of user reviews, but with increased reader participation, SiteJabber can grow into a really fantastic resource for cautious Web surfers.
Starfall.com
PCMag's hardware Managing Editor Laarni Ragaza swears by Starfall for her two young children. This educational site offers interactive learning for young readers created by a dedicated staff of educators, designers, and musicians.
This We Know
How much do you really know about the place you live? This We Know aggregates U.S. Government Data-good and bad-for U.S. zipcodes. Plug in your location and find out how your area rates on the list of pollutants, unemployment, demographics, and more. You can tweet your results, should you decide to broadcast them.
WaterLife
Learning about the state of doom of our planet never looked so beautiful. In a Flash-based animated interface that is nothing short of stunning, this companion site to the documentary film about the Great Lakes's decline shows information in a way that's far more interesting (albeit time consuming) than the average Web site.
We Choose the Moon
NASA celebrated the 40th anniversary of the moon landing with this expertly-crafted multimedia site. The site was launched back in July (pun intended), as a "live" recreation of the Apollo 11 mission. While the updates are far less frequent, the site is still a great resource for students looking to experience that now-famous giant leap.
You Are Not So Smart
You might think you are, but this site has news for you. This site, a "celebration of self-delusion" likes to spell out common misconceptions (such as "opposites attract" or "your opinions are the result of years of rational, objective analysis") and then uses science and research to tell you why that's not the case…at all. Dummy.
