In a recent edition of Time Magazine, they released their annual review and list of top global websites. The magazie article titled ‘25 Websites we can’t live without’ is worth a look. Each year here at Internetrix, we look to the list from a design, content and user perspective. We like the list as it allows us to ask what are the best websites out there doing in terms of layout, aesthetic, navigation, default size, how much white space do they have, how do they handle long pages, new media and so on.

So to the list, and to save you clicking through one by one, here are the top 25 as anointed by Time.

1. Amazon.com - online selling
2. BBC.co.uk – global news
3. Citysearch.com – directory covering US and International cities including Wollongong
4. Craigslist.org – free online classified ads
5. Del.icio.us – social bookmarking
6. Digg.com – social news and collaboration
7. Ebay.com – online auction
8. ESPN.com – sports
9. Facebook.com – social networking and collaboration, like MySpace
10. FactCheck.org – Political
11. Flickr.com – social networking and photo sharing
12. Google.com – search engine
13. HowStuffWorks.com – educational, with explanations on a wide range of topics
14. The Internet Movie Database imdb.com – movie/television show directory and collaboration
15. YouTube.com – video sharing
16. Kayak.com – travel search engine
17. NationalGeographic.com – education, travel and environment
18. Netflix.com – online movie rentals
19. Technorati.com – blog search engine
20. TMZ.com – entertainment news
21. USA.gov – official US government portal
22. TelevisionWithoutPity.com – television show recaps and forum
23. WebMD.com – health
24. Wikipedia.org – encyclopaedia and collaboration
25. Yahoo.com – search engine

Here at Internetrix, we conducted a quick survey of the websites that staff can’t live without. Our top 16 including the number of votes that the site received is listed in brackets.

1. Google Suggest – search engine that searches and suggests while you type (6)
2. SMH.com – news (3)
3. Banking, e.g. netbank.com.au, anz.com – (3)
4. ebay.com – online auction (2)
5. BBC.co.uk – global news (1)
6. maps.google.com.au – (1)
7. time.com – news and opinions(1)
8. digg.com and slashdot.org – technology news (1)
9. w3schools.com – web tutorials (1)
10. YouTube.com – video sharing (1)
11. MySpace and Facebook – social networking and collaboration (1)
12. Yahoo.com – search engine (1)
13. Entertainment tonight – entertainment news (1)
14. Seriouswheels.com – classic cars (1)
15. somethingawful.com (1)
16. whiteninjacomics.com (1)

It’s likely that there are a number of sites in amongst that lot that you don’t know. Plus the obvious American slant of the Time list comes through. We’d encourage you to have a look through, and check them out with an eye to general interest, but also as an opportunity to review your online presence and see if it’s time for some improvement in features, usability or even simply adding some new content and pages to get the search engines to update your website’s last modified date.