Inspired by the list of
Web 2.0 Companies I Couldn't Live Without by
TechCrunch's Michael Arrington, I'd like to compile my own. I'll split this post into two. This one will be about international sites, and the
next one (in Russian) will be dedicated to Ukrainian ones.
Completely agree with TechCrunch on the following websites:
- Delicious
- GMail
- Google Reader
- Skype (not really a website, but an Internet application)
I am also impressed by TripIt; if I traveled in the US, I would use it, and Kayak or Farecaster for flight booking.
Now my own picks.
VoipDiscount
Skype is great for PC-to-PC calls, and probably for PC-to-phone calls in the Western world. Unforunately, here in Ukraine Skype has a severe limitation: for reasons that are hard to comprehend, Skype doesn't allow to buy Skype credit with a credit card from Ukraine, essentially making SkypeOut service unavailable for Ukrainian users. Given how expensive international calls from Ukraine are, there seems to be a great market for VoIP, yet Skype chose to ignore it. Luckily there are others to fill in the void.
VoipDiscount readily takes payments from Ukraine, has reasonable sound quailty, is actually cheaper than Skype, what else could you wish for? Once you make a 10 euro deposit to your VoipDiscount account, you are given 120 days of free calls to major developed countries, and quite cheap to the rest of the world. Once your 120 days expire, normal rates apply to all destinations, but still this is really cheap, cheaper than Skype.
Picasa Web Albums
Flickr may be great, but I prefer
Picasa Web Albums by Google.
Last.fm
Last.fm is the single best site to discover new music and do datamining on your music tastes.
Slashdot
Digg and
Reddit are so popular, but I prefer good old
Slashdot. I mostly read it via
Google Reader though.
Blogger
Since I am writing this on
Blogger, I definitely must add it to the list.
Almost on the list
I joined
LinkedIn and
Facebook this year, but I'm yet to see their merits for a user like me.
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