In 2000, Web sites disappeared as quickly as they cropped up in 1999. Users share a huge trove of songs, and the site is far easier to use than rival approaches such as Gnutella's and Freenet's. A settlement with the music industry, beginning with a deal in which Napster accepts an investment from Bertelsmann in exchange for enforcing copyrights, will change Napster, but it's a lot of fun as it is. Web hipsters derided it as the Internet on training wheels, but AOL didn't become the Web's behemoth by accident. In areas from health and personal finance to news, we thought AOL more than held its own with the Web's best.
Excellent design helps, too.
Before we all were thoroughly sick of the Presidential election, this site served up news, commentary, and services such as issue questionnaires and campaign-finance records that let smart voters evaluate their candidates in ways TV or magazines can't. Legendary Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein is its executive editor. Look here to watch a generation explain itself. A new upgrade earns this restaurant-review site the only repeat mention from last year's list. The new version is easier to search and lets people organize their socializing with online invitations to friends and the ability to make table reservations.