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What is the single most useful thing about the Internet that you've found?

Started by HappyTree, November 27, 2010, 09:38:29 PM

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HappyTree

There are many things the Internet is useful for and it has undoubtedly changed our lives and the way we communicate, even offline. But if you could choose one aspect, one site or one feature that you've found to be the most useful what would it be?

I'm going to start by cheating my very own question and mention a few, but in passing. Internet Banking is very useful to me. I've had great use of being able to transfer money between my accounts in different countries and between savings and current accounts. It helps with birthdays too. Amazon.co.uk has also been indispensable in that regard, I've bought and sold all my Xbox games from their Marketplace, iPod, CDs, DVDs, etc.

Wikipedia and Google have transformed the way I work. I can now research casual background info for classes I prepare in the twinkling of a cursor. I have learned a lot from that. Last week I became a world authority on Dame Ellen MacArthur in the space of 2 hours. Well, enough to tell a bunch of cadets about her place in history anyway as supporting material for a DVD I had to show them.

But, for me, there is one feature I use that I think has changed the way I go about my life in a very useful way, one that I would really miss if it were no longer there. I don't use it all the time, but when I do it makes a big difference. Google Maps. It's quite simply brilliant. I can go anywhere I like in a flash and if I'm lucky can even zoom around the streets to plan exactly where I need to go. I like to wander around in there for hours, daydreaming, observing, learning and piecing together a very detailed idea of my place in the world.

What's your Best Internet Thing?

Without a shadow of a doubt, stealing art via torrents has changed my life for the better. Now I have more money and live in a developed country, I buy many records, books and comedy DVDs (Amazon One-Click is amazing, and amazingly dangerous) but piracy certainly opened my mind to cultural and artistic worlds I'd never have otherwise discovered.

BORING ANSWER

Pedro_Bear

Experimental proof of postmoderism as demonstrated by internet forums stripped me of any latent fears that being out of step is anything other than the absolute norm.

It also demonstrates that most people are far more fucked up than I get at my very worst.

It's either that or casual dating sites. Both changed very negative elements of my experience for the better by helping me accept the stuff I like is as valid as the stuff I reject, however deeply ingrained the latter.

Dead kate moss

Honestly, I'm adopted. Suddenly after 30 years having a wealth of information about adoption issues for the first time changed my life.


NoSleep


glitch

Firefox's quicksearch bookmark thing - go to somewhere like Google, right click on the search box and select "Add a Keyword for this Search"

I now have all my common search sites bookmarked in this way and it takes so much time out of searches. I can press alt+d and then search Google/Google Images etc. just by typing g/img and then my search term. Works great on torrent sites too.

Doesn't sound like a lot but it makes casual browsing/searching so much quicker. Invaluable.

HappyTree

Yes, I do something similar. I can't remember if it's a native function of Firefox or if it comes from one of the Add-ons I have, but I can go to any site with a search input box, right-click and add it to the list of browser search bar entries. It puts every search I'll ever need only one click and a text string away.

Willie Nelson

It educated me. If I hadn't started supplementing my comprehensive school education and A Levels from around age 15 I would have turned out a right thicko.

That was back when the Internet was good and had bookish information that served as a gateway to proper books, rather than just mass-produced video tutorials made by amateurs for 5p a vid.

alan nagsworth

I'd say the best thing about the internet is indexing, such as the wonderfully simplistic manner in which one can categorise music, facts, torrents, anything at all. Forums are particularly good for that, especially the ability to quickly and easily navigate between subforums catered to specific needs and subjects.

Oh wait, this thread is rather inconveniently placed in the Gaming subforum and I only stumbled upon it because it was the last-posted-in thread, as otherwise you'd never catch me perusing a forum based on a subject in which I hold little or no interest whatsoever. Never mind then, I guess some people will just never learn.

WINK!!!!!!

HappyTree

Yeah, I didn't know where to place this thread. I put it in Gaming as it says "Computers and consoles" in the description, but then on second thoughts that probably means "gaming on computers and consoles". I didn't really see where else gereral computer discussion could go. It's not music, nor about pictures, nor comedy. I suppose the general forum would have been best. Oh well.

alan nagsworth

Picture Box has the Techy Thread pinned at the top and is the usual place where discussions about websites and all that gubbins go, innit? Sorry, don't mean to come off like I'm being a cunt, I've just woken up in ten times worse a mood than when I fell asleep.

I would have put it in General Bullshit.

Edit: You fucking prannets.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

For me, the main advantages in use have been the information; the sheer ease in which you can find out about things you didn't know- communication, communities for everyone's needs, and the ability to find shit that's out there in real life (the locations of things).

The free art and the free porn are luxuries I've taken advantage of and could easily do without.


Ginyard

The ability to video chat to and work with people abroad so easily. That really changed my life professionally.

And finding out ways to make the world a better place via the strategic promotion of peace and harmony.

And BDSM porn. That stuff was lame before but now, as quickly as you can whip your tallywacker out, you can dial up a vid of a robotic prong dildo thunking 120bpm into a strapped down masked hooker.

easytarget

Quote from: Willie Nelson on November 29, 2010, 10:17:20 AM
That was back when the Internet was good

The internet is not as good as it used to be? (well, someone misses Geocites...)


knight123

Quote from: easytarget on November 29, 2010, 09:18:41 PM
The internet is not as good as it used to be? (well, someone misses Geocites...)

of course in those days the internet was in black and white

MjjW

An idea which, as far as I'm aware of, doesn't exist. Using the same technology of "which celebrity do you look like" websites you input a picture of your current crush and it finds a Pornalike(tm.) The professional pornmeisters can add links to their product and unimaginitive perverts can find a lookalike which they can palmbang to. Everyone wins!...except the poor unwitting subjects of degredation. If anyone has the knowhow to make this possible you're very welcome to the idea, as long as the website is called Pornalikes.org. Must be .org. Don't pretend you wouldn't use it, that lollipop lady keeps giving you the eye doesn't she?


Bennygaylord

Information at the click of a mouse's button. And pornographic pictures. And videos.

ThickAndCreamy

Without the internet there is no doubt my life would be duller, I would be a lot less intelligent and I would be more of an introvert. Bullshit you call?

Let's just take a look at something easy then, music. Now without the internet there is no doubt my musical taste would essentially come from my collection of friends and general experiences in life. This would be awful as my general encounters with music on a daily basis is essentially chart pop, and many of my friends tastes pre-internet (and even now to some extent) is chart rock / pop. Now onto the grovelling, romanticized view of downloading;

Yet, now I can choose any music I want to ever listen to, I can easily discriminate from good and bad and can get the opinion of millions on the internet, choosing those I trust to recommend what to listen to. I can try music to see if I enjoy it, I can experiment with my tastes and with genres without having to pay, I can listen to albums just minutes after wanting to. It's absolutely incredible, astonishingly so in fact. Not only does it completely stop me from succumbing to a single genre or recommendations from a magazine, it completely opened my mind to music I never knew existed. It completely changed my perspective on music, what it should be and what I enjoy. Everyone in life seems to progress (and then regress) in musical taste, but with the internet it's so easy to do and without it I would honestly be too lazy to bother.  Then there's the ease of going to gigs, and searching for gigs. On LastFM I can search for gigs in the future solely for every band I listen to and then buy the ticket online immediately. It's so quick and effortless and I'm certain without the internet I wouldn't bother.

If this isn't enough, here's a small list of a few other ways (there are incredible amounts if you truly think about it) how the internet has improved my life;

  • Cycling forums and blogs gave me the sense and balls to ride a bike and go cycle touring.
  • Films. Without it I would probably only be watching blockbusters and television and have a poorer taste in general.
  • Comedy and television. I didn't know who Chris Morris was until I read about him on the internet. I would have to suffer watching all UK comedy on television and TV in general without the easy ability to only watch what I know will be great and when I want to watch it.

I find it hard to explain just how much the internet has helped me change as a person, mainly due to art: music, films, television and even books choices. The ability to just guide you away from popular culture really is something that should be cherished.


NoSleep


El Unicornio, mang

The ability to share my music with people all over the world easily.