Your Six Sites

Several articles on the behavior of the web-browsing public lately have mentioned that we read, at most, six web sites on a regular basis.

Clearly, one of yours is MadeByMark.com — and for that, I thank you! (Really. Your visits mean a lot to me.)

But what are your other five sites? What web sites do you visit again and again … and why?

Here’s my list:

1) Digg.com. I’ve just started reading digg.com, a “social bookmarking” site that allows people to recommend articles with a simple “thumbs up or thumbs down” system. As more and more people “digg” a post, it rises to the front page of the site. Digg’s the source for about 99% of all the links posted by bloggers … so why not read Digg.com first? (Runner-up: del.icio.us.)

2) MetaFilter. At its best, MetaFilter offers insightful, well-researched, and link-rich posts written by people who are passionate about finding “the best of the web.” At its worst, MetaFilter serves up lame, recycled news and one-link posts stolen from Digg.com. The left-leaning crowd and clever banter compensate a bit for the recent decline in the overall quality of posts … but if things keep going the way they are, MeFi will, after years of being a regular stop for me, will soon go the way of all flesh.

3) The Unofficial Apple Weblog. While I also skim the excellent (and email-centric) Hawk Wings and the MacRumors sites, TUAW is hands-down the best site for reliable, interesting, and engagingly written news on Apple hardware and software. Frequent posts from a team of consistently clever writers keep the goodies coming several times a day, every day.

4) Merlin Mann’s 43 Folders. Featuring articles on “personal productivity, life hacks, and simple ways to make your life a little better,” 43 Folders should be required reading for anyone who likes Getting Things Done. From emptying your email inbox to implementing a personal Getting Things Done system, Mann serves up plain-talkin’, insightful articles that have me constantly slapping my forehead and saying, “Why haven’t I always been doing that???”

5) MetaCricic.com. Once a week, I stop in at MetaCritic.com to help me pick the movies I’ll see this weekend. The site translates movie reviews into a number from 1 to 100, then averages hundreds of reviews together to compute a film’s MetaCritic store. Because the score is an average, MetaCritic’s recommendations aren’t overly distorted by check-cashing review whores and whiners who hate almost everything. Again and again, MetaCritic saves me a lot of research time and helps me find movies I’ll really enjoy.

How about you? What are the sites you return to again and again?