http://news.google.com

Their blurb: Google News is a computer-generated news site that aggregates headlines from news sources worldwide, groups similar stories together and displays them according to each reader's personalized interests.

Why I love it: Keeping up with the news, globally, is important to me, and Google News is where I usually start the day.  It lets me compare the coverage of an item by a large number of sources.  It’s easy to customize to monitor topics, key words, or names, and it sends me an email when they appear.  And I can orient it to the perspective of other countries.   I also visit the New York Times and the Washington Post daily and always check their most frequently emailed lists, to pick up important stories I might otherwise miss.  At least weekly, I check The Economist’s site.  It’s arguably the best source for international coverage, including a lot of technology, though much of it requires a subscription.

www.realclearpolitics.com

Their blurb: Chicago-based RealClearPolitics.com (RCP) has become one of America’s premier independent political web sites. Updated every morning and throughout the day, RCP culls and publishes the best commentary, news, polling data, and links to important resources from all points of the political compass and covering all the important issues of the day.

Why I love it: Within the news category, I especially try to follow government and politics.  Real Clear Politics is a good political news aggregator.  It’s often described as right-leaning, but I don’t find balance to be an issue.  I also like the political coverage of Politico.com and TheHill.com.  For technology policy issues, check out the National Journal’s techdailydose.nationaljournal.com, which provides daily summaries.

 http://pandora.com/

Their blurb: When was the last time you fell in love with a new artist or song? At Pandora, we have a single mission: To play only music you'll love.

Why I love it: I like to listen to music while I work at my computer, and Pandora has become my favorite source.  It lets me define a style by choosing multiple artists, songs, or classical works and then creates a playlist based on that input.  I modify the input until I like the result, and save it.  I also use publicradiofan.com, which provides a program guide for a large number of public radio stations (and the BBC) that stream their content.  You can browse for something interesting or, if you are looking for a specific program, you can see which stations are currently broadcasting it.

http://academicearth.org

Their blurb: Academic Earth is an organization founded with the goal of giving everyone on earth access to a world-class education.

Why I love it: This is one of my recent discoveries.  Many universities are now making classroom lectures available on the web.  Academic Earth aggregates content from seven prominent ones, organizes it into about fifteen subject areas, links it, and provides the opportunity to grade it.  There is a good mix of technical and non-technical subjects.   The video quality is not great, but the lectures I’ve watched have been informative and interesting.  Let’s hope their catalog continues to grow.

http://en.wikipedia.org

Their blurb: Wikipedia is a multilingual, Web-based, free-content encyclopedia project based mostly on anonymous contributions. The name "Wikipedia" is a portmanteau of the words wiki (a type of collaborative Web site) and encyclopedia. Wikipedia's articles provide links to guide the user to related pages with additional information.

Why I love it: This obviously won’t be new to anyone’s bookmarks or favorites list, but I have to say that I’ve evolved from a Wikipedia skeptic to a huge fan.  Hardly a day goes by that I don’t use it.  In its current mature state it is incredibly comprehensive and up to date, and almost unfailingly helpful.  And it usually provides linked references to its sources, so I can dig deeper if I want.