This is a list of ten webpages that I frequently visit, and that I would miss if they were to suddenly disappear. They are in no particular order, except that the last three are the most important. If you think I have forgotten something important, or if you want to share a page you find important, don’t hesitate to share.

Deviantart.com

deviantART (dA) allows people to share their artworks, be it paintings, computer art or photography. Released in 2000, it is today rated as the 100. most important website by AlexaAlexa Top sites. With 11 million members and over 100 million submissions it contains everything from masterpieces to random junk. This is one of the problems with dA; any person can upload as many images as he or she wants. dA is aware of this, and lets you easily sort the submissions by categories, popularity and by time.

I discovered dA about 3 years ago, and since then I have added several photos. Some have gotten good feedback, and this is to me the strong point of dA: the good community. People are really kind, give good critique, and behave. This is different from many other online communities of this size (*cough..youtube..cough*).

Facebook.com

I know people have very different meanings about Facebook (FB), but I like it and if it were to suddenly disappear I would miss it. FB lets me easily keep in touch with current and past friends, either through active conversation or by information they post. I can easily share photos, events or almost any content with my contacts. Ranked at number 2., it is clear that the user base is huge, and most people are on FB, and many of them checks in daily.

FB has gone through several phases of design- and layout-changes, but I think the current version is good. It is easy to navigate, and I find the information I want quickly. In the beginning many believed that FB would be a short trend, but it has proved resilient, and today it has over 350 million active users. The commercials can be very annoying, and stupid, but you quickly learn to ignore them.

Imgur.com

Imgur is one of those pages that offer a service so useful that I can’t remember not having them around. It is a simple way to upload images to the web, in a fast and simple way, where you quickly can link to thumbnails and large versions of the image. If you register (free) you can even make a smart album to organize your files. So this is my image host for this webpage, except for some photographs that I host on flickr. Imgur is currently ranked number 381 on Alexa.

PHP.net

This one is perhaps a little boring for many, but very important to me. Php.net is the webpage of the PHP group, who are responsible for developing and hosting the scripting language PHP. The page contains an overwhelming amount of information, but the most important is the manual. It details everything you need to know about PHP, from functions to the basic syntax. When I need to know something I simple google "php my question", and the first hit is always on the PHP site. A cool feature with this site is the Show Source page, where everyone can access the entire PHP code that the site uses. Talk about sharing knowledge. PHP.net is ranked number 448.

reddit.com

Reddit is the newest site for me on this list; I only discovered it about a year ago. It is a result of the (so-called) Web 2.0, where interactive information sharing and collaboration are important topics. In few words reddit allows users to share links to content on the internet. Other users can vote on these links, and make some popular, while others disappear. These kinds of news aggregation sites became popular some years ago, and there are several similar to reddit, like Digg or StumbleUpon. Reddit is an open-source project, so the entire source is available on Fixxit, which I think is awesome! Reddit is currently ranked 314.

W3.org

W3C (WWWC (World Wide Web Consortium)) is the international standard organization for the World Wide Web. Today the web has some problems with many different browsers interpreting code in different ways, and while it has become a lot better the last years, there still is some work to be done. W3C wants to help the Web grow to its full potential. Their principles are Web for all, on everything.

They offer a very useful service, online validation of web sites. Their validator can check markup code for errors, and report back where these errors are. I use this service often while creating a web site. W3C is ranked number 511.

WordPress.org

This is really one of the big boys. An open-source (GNU-license) blog publishing application, which can easily be deployed on any target, or be used for free on their domain Wordpress.com. This site is the winner of 2009 Open Source CMS award CMS award, ranks at 18. on Alexa's most important web domains, and is the most popular blog software today. While I don’t actively write on Wordpress (WP) myself, I do read many blogs that are, and I recognize the importance of the service WP offers. Seeing how popular the site is, I have been inspired by their design and functions.

3. YouTube.com

YouTube doesn’t need any introduction, we all know it, and we all love it. The way YouTube has allowed people to share information was revolutionary, and still continues to amaze me. One of the problems with YouTube is that users don’t follow copyright law, or uploads inappropriate content. Also, the YouTube community is one of the worst I know, and reading comments about videos are best avoided. It is ranked as the fourth most important website, and I think it deserves all the attention. I also think that it will continue to expand in the future, with more LIVE broadcasts of sports and other events. YouTube is one of my favorite time-wasting activities.

2. Wikipedia.org

I just love Wikipedia. There really is not a better site when it comes to content, and we know: content is king. From the few posts in this blog, you should by now be aware that I really like free, Creative Commons, open projects; and Wikipedia is as big as they come. With 14 million articles, it is the largest and most popular encyclopedia on the internet and off. It is ranked as number 6 on Alexa.

Wikipedia's greatest strength is also its weakness: that every user can edit the articles. This allows for extremely fast updates to current situations, but also submission of information that could be erroneous, or simply a joke. Vandalism is a continuing problem, but the watchful eyes of moderators are usually quick to roll back any wrong changes. Studies have concluded that the content on Wikipedia is both reliable and reasonably well written. While I would never use Wikipedia as a source in an school paper, I do not mind doing research on it.

1. Google.com

Google is not only number one on my list; it also is the number one most important website according to Alexa. Starting in 1998, it now has about 20.000 employees, and generates enormous amounts of revenue. Through the years, Google has become very much more than just a search engine, and Gmail, Google Reader, Google Earth, Google Maps, Picasa and Google Chrome are some of the successful projects developed by the Google team.

Many are worried about their privacy in regards to the search engine, and using Google software. Personally, I think their software is so useful, that I would miss those most of all. I daily use Gmail, Google Reader, Google Documents and Google Maps. The search engine is great, and usually hits the spot. Google is my favorite website.
Check out my post on the Google search engine.

Sources:
My own head
Wikipedia
Alexa