Most Useful Information on the Web

[QCzar]

It occurs to me that 99% of what I've seen on the world wide web (does anyone still call it that? ) is utterly useless to me. Mind you, it's interesting and occasionally enlightening. But most of it seems just...kinda...there. I'm sure some of it is useful to someone.

Even when it's information related to my work or hobbies, 99% of that is useless to me. Yet, for some reason, I occasionally find myself wasting irrecoverable time on it. Let's face it. I'm never going to bake those blueberry cookies, so why am I now checking out the origin of macadamia nuts, before I go back to my tab about Lei Chen (who the hell is Lei Chen)?

What do you think is the most useful information on the internet to you or in general?

 

[RJDiogenes]

Information is an end in itself for me. I wish I could know everything. I could easily get lost for days following link to link in Wikipedia or something.

 

[Holdfast]

I could easily get lost for days following link to link in Wikipedia or something.

That happens to me whenever I stumble back upon TVTropes.

 

[data_lover]

the wiki thing happens to my husband all the time! for example, he'll start with something relevant and end up reading about totally random things. the funny thing is, he can get caught up for HOURS doing this. me, not so much. find my answer, move on kinda gal.

 

[WillsBabe]

Most useful thing: pictures of pretty men from sci-fi... No, seriously, postcode finder and phone numbers. I use them all the time at work. Boring, but true.

 

[Eleanor_zhDarjel]

Cinema hours. When I want to see a film, I check it out on the internet.

 

[trekkiedane]

Propaganda dressed up as useful information -most useless shait anywhere!

Edit: Useful was the question... the weather forecast I suppose... but I could just get that from text-TV (teletext, videotext whatever it's called where you are) -and it would be much faster and easier to switch on a TV than to boot up a computer

 

[Captain Shaw]

Information is an end in itself for me. I wish I could know everything. I could easily get lost for days following link to link in Wikipedia or something.

I do that all the time i am surprise i have not crashed my laptop with all the new tabs i keep opening.

 

[RJDiogenes]

^^ I know it. My tabs often scroll way off the screen. I sometimes forget what my original question was.

I could easily get lost for days following link to link in Wikipedia or something.

That happens to me whenever I stumble back upon TVTropes.

Yeah, I've done that, too.

 

[LaxScrutiny]

the wiki thing happens to my husband all the time! for example, he'll start with something relevant and end up reading about totally random things. the funny thing is, he can get caught up for HOURS doing this. me, not so much. find my answer, move on kinda gal.

I do that all the time. The interesting thing is, it has little to do with the interweb. All my life I've kept a dictionary beside my bed and just browsed through it looking at interesting words when I had nothing else on my mind. When I was a kid we had an old encyclopedia from the 50's that my parents had bought for my older siblings, I used to sit and pick out a volume at random and read a page from the middle.

 

[RJDiogenes]

^^ Yeah, I love browsable books, too-- from Encyclopedias to books of lists to GURPS.

 

[ITL]

I like to Google for examples of whatever Photoshoppy concept I'm currently trying out. Tutorials, too. And the same goes for musical stuff - guitar tab, general theory, etc. Thanks to an Internet I can now circle a fifth. Or two.

 

[Finn]

Obviously, it all depends on what's important to you and whatever you utilize the most. There are the teaching websites, weather.com, some of the newspaper/media sites and education programs in my case.

 

[M'Sharak]

I like to Google for examples of whatever Photoshoppy concept I'm currently trying out. Tutorials, too. And the same goes for musical stuff - guitar tab, general theory, etc. Thanks to an Internet I can now circle a fifth. Or two.

Ah, but can you circle fourths?

 

[Captain Ice]

^^ I know it. My tabs often scroll way off the screen. I sometimes forget what my original question was.

I could easily get lost for days following link to link in Wikipedia or something.

That happens to me whenever I stumble back upon TVTropes.

Yeah, I've done that, too.

Me too. Though I'm even worse with Hulu.

What is TVTropes?

 

[scottydog]

I love wikipedia and many educational blogs. But there's so much information of dubious quality, and the scary thing is that it's often packaged to appear credible. I try to teach my students to be critical consumers of information on the internet, but it's a daunting challenge.

 

[ITL]

I like to Google for examples of whatever Photoshoppy concept I'm currently trying out. Tutorials, too. And the same goes for musical stuff - guitar tab, general theory, etc. Thanks to an Internet I can now circle a fifth. Or two.

Ah, but can you circle fourths?

That's the interesting thing about the "circle" charts - you don't so much as learn from them, as figure out from them that you've been following those sequences for ages...

 

[ALF]

Useless info existed before the web. It was known as trivia.

The web should be uncensored... I hope it stays that way. It's the only way our culture will ever learn responsibility and accountability.

 

[RJDiogenes]

^^ I know it. My tabs often scroll way off the screen. I sometimes forget what my original question was.

That happens to me whenever I stumble back upon TVTropes.

Yeah, I've done that, too.

Me too. Though I'm even worse with Hulu.

What is TVTropes?

A hilarious website dedicated to all the cliches and trends and fads and fashions of Pop Culture.

 

[jamestyler]

News. I don't buy newspapers or watch much news these days as all the good sources are online for free. I can keep up to date with everything from the comfort of my laptop.

Failing that, I just google my name and find out things about myself.