The 101 most useful websites

EDUCATION | Full list of the best education websites

1. Make magazine’s videos and podcasts (blog.makezine.com/podcast) have dozens of weekend projects, some macho, some crafty, for the DIY-minded.

2. The Orwell Diaries (orwelldiaries.wordpress.com) publish George Orwell’s domestic and political diaries as a blog, exactly 70 years after they were originally written.

3. Everything on iTunes (apple.com/itunes) is free, amazing given that it offers recordings of lectures from some of the world’s most venerable institutions (Yale, Moma, Oxford, Tate).

CULTURE | Full list of the best the web has to offer for the arts

1. The Stage (thestage.co.uk) has all the latest theatre news and reviews – and the most comprehensive coverage of bickering among critics.

2. Io9 (io9.com) is a science fiction entertainment blog written from a female point of view. Sci-fi geeks leave the best comments.

3. Metacritic (metacritic.com) is an easy-to-navigate database of the combined wisdom of the leading (US) critics of music, television, film and games.

TRAVEL | Full list of the best and most useful travel websites

1. Tripadvisor (tripadvisor.co.uk) boasts more than 11 million members, clubbing together to rate and review hotels, B&Bs, restaurants and more throughout the world.

2. Travelsupermarket (travelsupermarket.com) covers everything from late package deals to insurance; one of the best price comparison sites.

3. Tripit (tripit.com) lets you use details from multiple travel sites to create one master itinerary, then furnish it with maps, weather reports and activities.

HOME | Full list of the most useful websites to make your house a home

1. Bob’s Books (bobbooks.co.uk) lets you turn video footage into a flick-book, design your own calendar and transform frumpy photo albums into glossy coffee-table books.

2. The House Directory (thehousedirectory.com) searches more than 3,500 companies to source the best furnishings for your home.

3. On Etsy (etsy.com) anyone can buy and sell vintage and handmade goods; quality varies (see regretsy.com for some of the less desirable items) but worth a scour.

FOOD AND DRINK | Full list of the best online sources for food and drink inspiration

1. Epicurious (epicurious.com) has a vast range of recipes, primers on baking bread and making pies, and Epicurious Recipes & Food Videos - Condé Nast Digital" target="_blank">an iPhone app to create shopping lists from recipes.

2. Supercook (supercook.com) is a recipe site with a clever twist: you enter the ingredients you have at home and the search engine finds recipes from food sites to use what you’ve got.

3. Jamie Oliver, Delia Smith and Nigella Lawson are all generous with recipes on their sites (jamieoliver.com, deliaonline.com, nigella.com); Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall puts the emphasis on seasonal produce on his (rivercottage.net).

GREEN | Full list of the best websites to help you live and buy green

1. Recycle Now (recyclenow.com) lets you find out about recycling in your area, offers tips on home composting and suggests ways to become greener.

2. What Do They Know (whatdotheyknow.com) is an online platform for individuals to query local government bodies and to put in freedom of information requests.

3. The Hunger Site (thehungersite.com) is an easy way to give to charity. Click on the site and its sponsors will then donate some money to one of several good causes, such as cancer research, literacy, hunger.

FAMILY AND KIDS | Full list of the best websites for parenting and family life

1. Mumsnet (mumsnet.com) is a tip-swapping, advice-proffering, review-writing, experience-sharing hub of parental activity.

2. You can search for your ancestors and build a family tree on Genes Reunited (genesreunited.co.uk), Britain’s most popular family history site.

3. If you’re searching for ancestors abroad, Family Search (familysearch.org), a free resource of international genealogy records, is a great place to start.

FUN | Full list of the most amusing sites on the internet

1. If you’ve ever lived with a food hoarder or neat freak you’ll appreciate the strained tones of the messages on Passive-Aggressive Notes (passiveaggressivenotes.com).

2. Smartkit (smart-kit.com) is home to all sorts of puzzles (jigsaw puzzles, sudoku, cryptograms) to help you train your brain.

3. Letters of Note (lettersofnote.com) is a stylish site with scans of letters, telegrams, faxes and memos: Einstein encouraging Roosevelt to pursue atomic research, the Museum of Modern Art turning down a gift from Andy Warhol in 1956.

1. If you’ve ever lived with a food hoarder or neat freak you’ll appreciate the strained tones of the messages on Passive-Aggressive Notes (passiveaggressivenotes.com).

2. Smartkit (smart-kit.com) is home to all sorts of puzzles (jigsaw puzzles, sudoku, cryptograms) to help you train your brain.

3. Letters of Note (lettersofnote.com) is a stylish site with scans of letters, telegrams, faxes and memos: Einstein encouraging Roosevelt to pursue atomic research, the Museum of Modern Art turning down a gift from Andy Warhol in 1956.

VIDEO | Full list of best archive footage and videosharing websites

1. Vimeo (vimeo.com) is a video-sharing site with playful, arty, HD content, supported by a friendly community of users, Kanye West, Lykke Li and Moby among them.

2. BBC iPlayer (bbc.co.uk/iplayer/) and 4 on Demand (channel4.com/programmes/4od) are still the big beasts for (legal) online television watching.

3. Visit the Viral video chart (viralvideochart.unrulymedia.com) to see the making of an internet sensation, be it a panda sneezing or Susan Boyle.

YOUTUBE CHANNELS | Full list of the best channels on YouTube

1. Chow’s channel (youtube.com/user/chow ) offers practical guidance for gourmands from cooking perfect rice to cleaning a rack of lamb with string.

2. Berkeley’s channel (youtube.com/user/ucberkeley) is packed with superb lectures. Among the most popular are Professor Marian Diamond’s on integrative biology: she looks like a Golden Girl but knows how to dissect brains.

3. At Cambridge (youtube.com/user/CambridgeUniversity) you can see David Starkey hold forth on Henry VIII or William Hague on William Pitt.

LIFE MANAGEMENT | Full list of the best websites to help you organise your life

1. Doodle (doodle.com) is a nifty tool that allows groups of busy friends to propose, vote on and schedule dates and times for meet ups. Sorted.

2. At drop.io (drop.io) you can upload pretty much anything – pictures, documents, audio/video – and share them with anyone, who can comment and collaborate within seconds.

3. Got a spare gig ticket? Want one? Seatwave (seatwave.com), an online marketplace, lets fans buy and sell event tickets safely and easily.