Times 50 top / best websites of 2011

Times has just published the list of top 50 websites of 2011. The complete list is given below. Details are present for the first few while I am still exploring the others...

1. 8tracks - The site titles itself as "Handcrafted Internet Radio". True to its title, it allows users to submit handcrafted playlists which other users can vote and comment upon. Looks simple and easy-to-navigate, has all the latest social and 2.0 addons and overall has a nice "free" appeal to it.
2. HBO GO - I was unable to access this from an Indian IP as it caters only to US IPs for now. Thanks to my US proxy, I was finally able to see it. The site takes a while to load and remains mysteriously laconic about itself till it has completely loaded. In fact, I will move on to the next site in the list while it loads :) After it loaded, I realized it was an online version of the HBO channel in the US. Any content is accessible to only HBO subscribers and since I am not one, I am out of luck. However the look-and-feel of the website is much like any AV-heavy site out there (like hulu etc.)
3. Howcast - This is a supposed niche YouTube of How-To videos, a video incarnation of my all time favorite site howstuffworks.com. The content is unavoidably non-serious most of the time. I am still to find out whether there is any formal relationship between the two sites. There better be because of great potential in content synergy.
4. My Damn Channel - Empowers original video content owners and generators to directly participate on the ad/revenue side and makes the intermediary a truly open platform rather than a human controlled channel. Great Concept with Great Adoption.
5. Turntable.fm - Ok, the first thing it does is make you facebook connect. While I did it to get a dekko, this makes me-1, site+1 and hence makes the experience a little shady to start with. But what you find inside is definitely worth sharing a little privacy. This is a social listening experience where multiple users enter a room and take turns playing music. Others keep voting on the song and the turntable keeps rotating. Good Fun and Great UX.
6. CafeMom
7. Dear Photograph
8. PopTropica
9. Proust
10. WonderPolis
11. Bleacher Report
12. GrantLand
13. Jayski's Silly Season Lite
14. Onion Sports Network
15. SB Nation
16. Big Think
17. GetHuman
18. InstaPaper
19. ScienceDaily
20. TechMeMe
21. DuckDuckGo
22. EverNote
23. Join.Me
24. Kickstarter
25. LearnVest
26. Air BnB
27. GoGoBot
28. HipMunk
29. PolyVore
30. Retrevo
31. CalorieKing
32. HealthGrades
33. MapMyRun
34. Summer Tomato
35. Zen Habits
36. Google+
37. Klout
38. Pinterest
39. Quora
40. Storify
41. The Escapist
42. Giant Bomb
43. OnLive
44. Touch Arcade
45. RetroCade
46. Freerice - While I will review it later, some guy has already done it. The review is here
47. Khan Academy
48. Open Yale Courses
49. Smarthistory
50. Starfall

Overall I feel the Times top 50 websites 2011 list serves to create visibility for innovative websites which might otherwise be lost in an internet with just one big window - Google and one really dirty linen curtain on that window called SEO.

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