Time Magazine has announced its top 50 websites for 2009 with popular internet services Twitter and Skype among the highest ranked, but internet giant Google has been knocked out of the top 10.
Time is vague about the criteria for its list, saying that the sites are ones which will “make your online life more efficient – or just more fun”.
Photo-sharing site Flickr took out the top spot, with its “collaborative tagging” increasing its popularity over the past few years. The site works by allowing all users to tag any photo on the site, allowing other users to search by tag maps on the front page.
The site has surged in popularity, with Apple now allowing iPhone users to upload their photos directly to Flickr. The US Library of Congress has even begun to use the site to catalogue its own photos.
California Coastline, a site that catalogues thousands of pictures of the state’s coast, and social bookmarking site Delicious took second and third place respectively.
Entrepreneurs also managed to gain a mention in the top 50. Kiva, a site that allows users to give a small loan to entrepreneurs based on a business idea, ranked 27th.
While social networking giant Twitter managed to reach sixth, and VoIP leader Skype at seventh, some smaller and more obscure sites made it into the top 10.
In a surprising move, Time placed Google and YouTube at 11th and 12th place respectively, beaten by sites that have managed to gain more news coverage and growth. Social networking giant Facebook only managed to reach 31st place, despite having a larger user base than rival Twitter.
Community weblog Metafilter, which allows users to share and discuss content found on the internet, came in fourth, with group blog Boing Boing taking out eighth place.
Academic Earth took ninth place, a site that offers full video courses and lectures from different universities for free, while restaurant reservation site OpenTable took out 10th place.
While some sites in the top 50 were to be expected, such as Wikipedia and online retail giant Amazon, some more recent business offerings made appearances.
Etsy, an eBay-like community that allows sellers to set up their own markets and sell unique clothing and goods, reached 22nd, while “answer engine” Wolfram Alpha managed to reach 13th.
Pandora, an internet radio station that allows users to create their own playlist by voting for or against different songs, came in at 32nd. Online DVD rental service Netflix, whose Australian counterpart Quickflix is gaining popularity, managed to reach 22nd.
The full top 50:
1. Flickr
2. California Coastline
3. Delicious
4. Metafilter
5. Popurls
6. Twitter
7. Skype
8. Boing Boing
9. Academic Earth
10. OpenTable
11. Google
12. YouTube
13. Wolfram Alpha
14. Hulu
15. Vimeo
16. For a TV
17. Craiglook
18. Shop Goodwill
19. Amazon
20. Kayak
21. Netflix
22. Etsy
23. PropertyShark.com
24. Redfin
25. Wikipedia
26. Internet Archive
27. Kiva
28. ConsumerSearch
29. Metacritic
30. Pollster
31. Facebook
32. Pandora/Last.fm
33. Musicovery
34. Spotify
35. Supercook
36. Yelp
37. Visuwords
38. CouchSurfing
39. NameVoyager
40. Mint
41. TripIt
42. Aardvark
43. Drop.io
44. Issuu
45. Photosynth
46. OMGPOP
47. WorldWideTelescope
48. Fonolo
49. Get High Now
50. Know Your Meme
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
