Now I know this isn't exactly about knowledge management or network analysis, but it is interesting. Time has announced their top 50 websites . Sadly mine didn’t feature! The top five sites, in order, are:

• Mozy.com ; 
• StumbleUpon.com ;
• Last.fm ; 
• Weebly.com ; and
• Etsy.com .  

The only site I had heard of was StumbleUpon, and in any case I don’t use it. In fact the only sites in the top 50 that I have heard of are:

• StumbleUpon, 
• LinkedIn, 
• YouTube, and
• Twitter.

The sad fact is of these I only use YouTube, and then only to track bagpipe music!

I took the time to look at the top five sites, and some of the others. It’s an interesting exercise. The first thing I noticed were all the top sites have a clean look and feel. For example none of the sites I viewed had a black background, or even a dark background – some did have dark boarders.

Of course Time also another category – the 25 sites you just can’t live without. Now I recognised a few sites, Amazon, Del.icio.us, and Wikipedia being the most notable. Again all sites have a clean look and feel, and of course offer something useful.

Finally I took a look at the five worst sites. I am heartened by the fact my site didn’t rate a mention! My Space and SecondLife did. Now until today I have never looked at these sites, but I have to say I can with ease find far worse sites. A few of the Australian Government Department sites would rate at least an honourable mention!

I’m sure there are large populations of users who wouldn’t agree with Time’s assessments – I know I didn’t! However if you have a few spare minutes to aimlessly surf, Time’s top 50 websites is entertaining. The lessons I took away are keep the site clean, and content matters!

Regards, Graham