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Video website YouTube and social networking site MySpace are among the 50 "coolest websites" of the year as chosen by US magazine Time. The magazine breaks its choices down into categories including entertainment, shopping and news. "We evaluate hundreds of candidates - some suggested by readers, colleagues and friends," said Time reporter Maryanne Murray-Buechner. The magazine has kept an annual list since 2003. Three years ago websites such as Ebay, Hotmail, Paypal, Google and the Internet Movie Database made the list of honour. "It's the place where web stars are born, music and film careers are launched and some single people manage to find mates," said Time of MySpace. Registered users The social networking site now has 100 million registered users, according to Time. Pandora creates a personalised radio station Digg, the website which lets people rank news items from other parts of the web, was one of the magazine's pick of 2005 as was Kevin Sites' chronicle of conflict zones around the world which is hosted by Yahoo. "Veteran war correspondent Kevin Sites, known for his deft use of digital newsgathering techniques and compelling narrative style, continues his w**k covering conflicts in all parts of the globe," wrote Time. Many of the websites chosen for 2006 are examples of so-called web 2.0 sites, which give users tools to create and share content online. They are "next-generation sites offering dynamic new ways to inform and entertain, sites with cutting-edge tools to create, consume, share or discuss all manners of media, from blog posts to video clips," wrote Maryanne Murray-Buechner. Other sites to make the list include music service Pandora, which creates a personalised online radio station based on music preferences, Meebo, an online instant message service, Google spreadsheets, smart search engine Accoona and Pixsy, a visual search engine combining video and stills. |