There are plenty of lists out there that do a good job of telling you the best applications for whatever occasion you could come up with. I decided to avoid a list of what is “best” and instead put together a list of sites that I actually use. You can probably find better alternatives for most of these categories, but all the applications I’ve listed here I fire up at least once a week.

News and Bookmarking

1. Twine – Marketed as a semantic bookmarking site, Twine’s big draw for me is the community. If you are looking for a community less interested in the in and outs of Valley politics and more concerned about in and outs of technology, this is a wonderful alternative.

Runner Up: Del.icio.us – Still a must visit for anyone looking for a website or two to break up the monotony.

2. Reddit – If I had to put a Social News site on this list, Reddit is my obvious choice. Why? It’s the only one I actually read on a daily basis. It’s not perfect and it definitely suffers from some of the problems faced by all large, “democratic” news sources but it makes up for these shortcomings it with a strong, intelligent community that actually wants to see the very best news make it to the front page.

Runner Up: YCombinator – A well executed news site in it’s own right. It’s especially useful for anyone who only really cares about technology.

3. Stumble Upon – Stumble Upon is my Internet panic button and it’s the one site that everyone, no matter how little they subscribe to the whole Web 2.0 shtick, can get behind. Sure you have to install an extra toolbar, but who cares? If you set it up right, Stumble Upon can potentially provide you with hours and hours of entertainment, and will be sure to kill off all the productivity benefits of some of the other apps that I mentioned.

Runner Up: Digg – Oh Digg, if only you weren’t so frustrating. As Digg expands it is still trying to re-find its center. If you can get past the annoying parts, it’s still worth adding to your feed.

Conversation

4. Twitter – For me, Twitter is Social Media’s answer to instant messaging. It provides a great platform for almost real-time conversations with interesting people who I otherwise might only have contact with through blog comments. I know Twitter has problem, I know that it’s more frustrating than it’s worth a lot of times, but despite all of this I keep going back because a lot of times the measure of a community isn’t the platform but the people.

Runner Up: Plurk – It’s a much “cuter” version of Twitter with an innovative timeline interface. If you haven’t seen it yet, you should.

5. Friendfeed – Friendfeed is quickly becoming my leading source of news. The advantage it has over sites like Techmeme is that it gives me the option of choosing who I believe the tastemakers are. Add that to the fact that it provides a dead simple way to aggregate the rest of your digital identity and you have one of the most useful weapons in the arsenal of data workers and information junkies alike.

Runner Up: Social Thing! – It’s not quite as versatile as Friendfeed, but it’s much prettier. If you’re looking for an aggregator’s aggregator, this is worth looking at more deeply.

6. Summize – Tracking conversations on Twitter can be a pain, Summize makes it a little bit less trying. Summize allows you to search topics and then spits back all the Twitter conversations going on around them. It’s great for band managers wanting to track how their products are being talked about, and just as useful for anyone who wants to track down the latest news before it hits the blogosphere.

Runner Up: Tweetscan – Tweetscan used to be my favorite Twitter search engine, but the API caps have really hurt it. Hopefully as Twitter gets its act together, Tweetscan will join it.

Multimedia

7. Voxant – Voxant brings together content from the local news, BBC, Associated Press and dozens of other news sources and lets you watch clips and embed content free of charge. They have pictures, video and even embeddable text available. My biggest problem with the site is that their widget options are extremely limited, so depending on your blog’s format you might find most of them completely unusable. Otherwise, it’s a great source of additional content and entertainment for those of us without the time to keep up with the “real” news.

Runner Up: Red Lasso – It’s still in BETA but if you get a chance to peek inside you’ll find some good content from a host of mainstream providers.

8. VideoJug – My big problem with video sites is that despite the fact that I love to see clips from Comedy Central, funny Karaoke and cute kittens, sometimes I want my videos to come with a side of information. VideoJug combines humor with HowTos and does a great job at both. Problems? Some of their more “informational” videos fall a little flat and some don’t go deeply enough into topics to make them useful. That being said, it won’t take much looking for you to find something worth watching.

Runner Up: Vimeo – Vimeo is the Brookstone to YouTube’s Flea Market and it has all the problems associated with that. The quality and presentation of these videos are high, but what makes it close out is that the presentation could be better.

9. Grooveshark Lite – Disclosure – I work for them — that fact notwithstanding, Grooveshark Lite is a stellar option for anyone who wants to stream music. If you don’t know what you’re looking for, you might still be better off going to Pandora, but with over 6 million tracks, a beautiful interface and rock solid streaming, once you get into it, Grooveshark Lite will quickly replace your office radio.

Runner Up: Deezer – This was one of my favorite services before they updated their UI and made it harder to use. It’s still worth going to, especially if you live outside of the United States (many of the songs are blocked in the U.S.)

10. Flickr – Why did I choose this old work horse for the list? As a blogger, one of the touchiest issues I face is how to find interesting, copyright free images to use. The fact that so many fantastic photographers on Flickr make it a point to license their work under Creative Commons has made this task just a little bit easier. Show your support today — get yourself an account, find a picture that you like and leave a nice comment for someone.

Runner Up: 72 Photos – A new entrant into the market. A slick interface, cool editing features and an overall well designed site make it a great addition to the list.

Productivity

11. I Want Sandy – Lets look at productivity for a second. I am one of those people who can’t keep a calendar for more than three days on a stretch, which is why it was surprising how quickly I Want Sandy grew on me. Basically, it allows you to send yourself reminders through email and “Sandy” reminds you when they are coming up. I really like how customizable Sandy is. You can have it send reminders to your email, telephone or even your Twitter account. If you always wanted to try a productivity app, but couldn’t find the time — this is a perfect place to start.

Runner Up: Memo To Me – A more cumbersome version of I Want Sandy. Send memos to yourself, get emails to remind you.

12. Remember The Milk – Remember The Milk is an interesting take on the ToDo list, but that’s not why I choose it. What really impresses me is their Gmail plugin for Firefox. Between RTM, I Want Sandy and GTDInbox, I have been able to set my mailbox as the dashboard for my day. The hardest part of sticking to a productivity regimen is finding tools that work well together, RTM puts your to-do list right in front of you all day long, which is where it needs to be if you’re ever going to get anything done.

Runner Up: Tada List – I like Tada List a lot, if it had better integration with other services it might have beaten out RTM.

13. GTDInbox – No real magic here but useful nonetheless. It takes the bare bones of GTD (labels, actions etc . . .) and adds it to your Gmail box. I don’t use anywhere near enough of the features available in GTDInbox but it does provide the backend infrastructure for keeping your email organized.

Runner Up: MeeTimer – Another program from the guys at Productive Firefox, it will help you cut off your procrastination at the legs.

Blogging

14. Sitemeter – If you have a blog or run a website, do yourself a favor and get Sitemeter. Sure they force you to put a little widget on your site, but they also give you one of the easiest, most “consumable” methods of visualizing your blog traffic that I have ever seen. The entire suite of analytics is great, but my favorite part has to be referrals which gives you a way to track whose coming to your site, from where, in real time.

Runner Up: Google Analytics – There is so much you can do with Google Analytics, I just wish that it didn’t have such a long delay.

15. Disqus – Other than some minor troubles with the widget and some lingering questions about the idea of offshoring your commenting, Disqus has been a great addition to the blog. One of my favorite features is the ability to reply to comments by email. Especially when you are on the go, this really helps to keep the conversation moving along without the stress of finding your way back to the site. If you haven’t tried it out yet, take a few days to — it won’t take you long to figure out whether it’s right for you.

Runner Up: Intense Debate – A little too heavy from my tastes, but it is still a really cool piece of software.

Feeds

16. Google Reader – For most of the day I have absolutely no time to try to guess which of the dozens of sites that I like to read will have something interesting enough to look at. Google Reader lets me scan through dozens and dozens of articles from the same page. Add to the fact that Google Reader also lets you share stories you find interesting with your friends, and that it integrates with the rest of your Google Universe and you have a feed reader that’s a step above the rest. I only wish they had a better way of dealing with thousands upon thousands of unread articles.

Runner Up: Bloglines – Bloglines organizes data better than Google Reader, my only problem is that it feels a little heavier than Google Reader so I never got into using it.

17. Alltop – Before you say anything, I suggest that you find one of your less web savvy friends and try to explain the concept of RSS feeds to them. After you are done with that ordeal, come back here. Alltop makes it really easy for people who don’t have time to find the best and brightest new blogs to cheat. Sure it’s little more than a glorified directory, but useful is as useful does and for anyone new to the web Alltop is much easier to understand than just about all of the alternatives.

Runner Up: Truemors – While we’re at it, I just wanted to remind you that Truemors is still alive. It’s an interesting little experiment, and is definitely worth taking a look at.

General Interest

18. TextOnPhone – I had to throw a mobile app onto this list. TextOnPhone lets you read hundreds and hundreds of books from the comfort of your iPhone/iPod Touch. Searching could use some serious work, but flipping through page after page of novels is part of the fun. It also caches pages as you read, so that you aren’t interrupted if your wireless suddenly cuts out. If you happen to have a mobile device that is compatibility with this service, it will make those long trips to the airport a lot more bearable.

Runner Up: Audible – If you like audio books, this is where to find them. If you listen to TWiT, I think you can finagle a free book or two out of them.

19. Kayak – Kayak wins on practical merit alone. Kayak lets you find cheap plane tickets, rental cars, hotels and just about all the detritus you need to plan your next trip. I picked this one because, in general, it has given me the best prices. Like everything else relating to travel, buyer beware, it’s always better to check all the prices and all the engines if you are trying to find your perfect rate.

Runner Up: Side Step – If you’re not really picky about your airports, I’ve found that Side Step can actually get you there for cheaper than Kayak.

20. Mint – I was a late adopter to Mint, but now that I am on it I like it a lot. It’s kind of like Quickbooks but easier to manage. The budgeting features or simplistic but effective, and the system generally updates itself with few problems. My big issue with it so far is that it has yet to find any “savings” for me, even after I have labeled all my transactions. Otherwise, it has been working like a charm.

Runner Up: Wesabe – Wesabe is more of a budgeting community than anything else. If you are more interested in getting advice about how to save, and don’t really care too much about the account aggregation, this is the place for you.

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