10 Internet Sites You Should, But Probably Don't Know About

It's hard to imagine that just ten to twenty years ago, the world existed without things such as Facebook, Google, Wikipedia, Youtube and BBC iPlayer. Today, sites such as these serve as evidence as to how much the internet has revolutionised our world, making countless tasks easier and providing information on any subject imaginable.
We, as students, are one of the groups of people most affected by this revolution, as the internet has changed the way we do everything from carrying out research for assignments and accessing learning resources to recieving feedback on our work and maintaining correspondance with our tutors.
There are many, however who do not utilise all of the resources that the Internet revolution has to offer them, instead relying on outdated methods for tasks such as information retrieval. This list intends to provide such individuals with knowledge of ten web resources, (five of which could be classified as useful in aiding our university work, and five of which could be classified as sources of entertainment, or sources of information regarding our hobbies and interests) that in most cases, you will not have come across before, yet are highly useful and/or interesting in accomplishing tasks.


Digital Spy (www.digitalspy.co.uk) is the UK's largest media news site, featuring an array of articles on subjects such as television, films, music, gaming online media and comics, alongside one of the UK's most popular forums for discussion of said topics. Updated around the clock with news and interviews, the site also contains a number of useful resources, such as a television guide, price comparison across sites on a wide range of media products and tech reviews, and should be one of your first ports of call on screen-based media subjects.


One of the newest sites on this list, Funny Or Die (www.funnyordie.com) is a user-uploaded content site featuring humourous material. Founded by Will Ferrell, star of films such as Anchorman and Step Brothers, and Adam Mckay, who directed Ferrell in said films, the site is also regularly updated with content from other well-known faces in the world of comedy, such as Judd Apatow (Director of The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up, and mentor to stars such as Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill), Zack Galifianakis (Star of The Hangover) and Will Arnett (Star of sitcom Arrested Development). The presence of names such as these, as well as content submitted by users around the world (which is rated by users and removed if deemed 'unfunny'), is sure to ensure an enjoyable experience.


Video gaming is something that has greatly evolved over the last few years, and something that has grown with it is GameFAQ's (www.gamefaqs.com). The site offers a number of features, including the titular Game FAQs (user-submitted guides to accomplishing things in games), one of the world's largest gaming forums (which gives individuals from around the world an opportunity to discuss their hobby, as well as providing a platform for people to get involved with online gaming), and user-submitted game reviews, which give honest insights into which games you should spend your student loan on. With such dedicated content, GameFAQ's is a site that no game enthusiast should do without.


Need to send a file to your group work partner, but cannot be bothered to walk to their flat with a memory stick? The internet has a solution - Rapidshare (www.rapidshare.com) allows users to upload files for others to download. Whilst the majority of the sites content can only be accessed by premium users, the simple matter of uploading and downloading files is free for anybody to do, making the site an invaluable resource for sharing work/media/humour/whatever with your friends or complete strangers.


Predominantly a news site, Reuters (uk.reuters.com) offers a number of useful services to students alongside the provision of detailed news articles from around the world, particularly to business students. Featuring articles in subjects such as sport, technology, entertainment, science, health, lifestyle and weather, the site is far more comprehensive, and less costly/wasteful than any newspaper, and it's data regarding topics such as the stock market, currencies, the economy and research make the site ideal for anybody studying a business-related course.


The creme de la creme of film sites, Rotten Tomatoes (uk.rottentomatoes.com) is a database of nearly every film ever made in the history of cinema. The highlight of the site, however, is the percentage score given to each film, reflecting its perception amongst professional critics (of which the site collects reviews from hundreds of the worlds most acclaimed film writers) and site users (who can freely upload their own detailed reviews), such a wide collection of data offers an honest opinion of what films you should buy for nights-in, and the additional site features of forums, film news and cinema showtime listings allow for film discussion, a look into the cinema of the future, and a detailed resource for planning a trip to the pictures respectively.


One of the more random sites on this list, Snopes (www.snopes.com) makes for an interesting read on a day when you're bored of studying/drinking/lying around on the sofa doing nothing. The site collects myths, rumours, urban legends and the like, investigates, and then posts evidence either proving or disproving them, allowing you to once for all find out whether things you've wondered about for years are actually true or not - for example, school playground stories such as 'chewing gum taking 7 years to pass through your digestive system' or 'hair growing back darker and thicker after it is shaved'


Stumbleupon (www.stubleupon.com) has for eight years been doing to internet users around the world what this list is hopefully doing to you - providing them with links to things they most likely didn't know about, but may find interesting or useful. Operating as a website or Firefox extension, Stumbleupon allows users to share websites, pictures and videos from around the web with one another, with users able to access 500 popular items at a time when they indicate their needs to the site, and is a wonderful little tool for discovering the secrets of the Internet.


Gone are the days when finding out the meaning of a word meant searching through an enormous book. Today, the Internet offers thousands of dictionary sites offering definitions at the click of a button, so what makes The Free Dictionary (www.thefreedictionary.com) different? The answer is the depth of the site's content - not only is it a mere dictionary of English words, but also a thesaurus, encyclopedia and dictionary of words in 13 other languages. The most useful feature for students however, is the provision of subject dictionaries, featuring detailed descriptions of keywords in the subjects of medicine, law and business, and a literature reference library, which provides information (perfect for referencing in essays) on almost every subject imaginable.


Many of the features of The Student Room (www.thestudentroom.co.uk) are redundant for individuals like yourselves, such as a university guide, a-level revision notes and personal statement help, however, the sites other features are an excellent resource. These features include discussion and help forums for each university in the country, most of the degree areas offered by said universities, careers and placements, and aspects of university life, such as finance and accomodation, this is alongside information and resources for postgraduate study and careers, making the site a useful place to visit from the start of your time at university right until the end.

by Alex Antliff