Guide • December 31, 2012

The 12 Best of 2012

Which sites and apps are we still regularly using come year's end?

12. A Better Queue

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This tool pairs Rotten Tomatoes rankings with Netflix content to help you make better streaming decisions. It might be the best-named site of the year.
11. Outgrow.Me

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Most Kickstarter and Indiegogo products are pipedreams, albeit attractive ones. This site collects only the ones that are actually available to purchase right now.

Go to Outgrow.Me
10. Bureau of Trade

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As far as inspirational figures go, we have Walter Cronkite, Steve Martin, and this daily email. Equal parts current world events, Americana, dry wit, and eBay shopping suggestions, it’s always welcome in our inbox.
9. News.me

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People share (and overshare) a lot of information on Twitter. The best way to digest it all? Ignore it, and wait for this email summary of the previous day’s most popular articles to read at your leisure.
8. Checkthis

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This tool for creating beautiful, shareable “social posters” provides four templates for four distinct purposes: tell, sell, ask, invite. It’s as easy as writing an email and about 100% cooler.

Go to Checkthis
7. The Silent History

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There are two sides to the Great American Novel debate. Some say there’s already a couple for every generation. Some say no one’s even come close. What’s not up for debate? This is the first – and definitive – Great American Digital Novel.

Go to The Silent History
6. Scoopinion

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This genius browser add-on learns your reading preferences and emails you articles it thinks you might like. The recommendations (much like the technology behind them) are pretty remarkable.

Go to Scoopinion
5. Sunrise

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Hook up your Google calendar and Facebook account and this service will send you an email each morning detailing the day’s birthdays, scheduled meetings, and local weather forecast.
4. Vizify

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The story of your life is buried somewhere in your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Foursquare, and Instagram accounts. This tool mines the information from those services and uses it to create a stunning graphical biography – all with just a few clicks.
3. Pixlr Express

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This photo-editing wunderkind has over 600 possible tools, filters, and settings. Comprehensive? Yes. Excessive? Absolutely not. In a few short weeks it has become our go-to camera app.

Go to Pixlr Express
2. Songza

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By pairing moods and activities with playlists, this addictive music site provides a truly turnkey listening experience. From last-minute party playlists to tunes for working, it covers all the bases.

Go to Songza
1. Pocket

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After featuring this app in its first iteration as Read It Later, we balked at covering its update to Pocket (we like to keep things fresh). Instead, we included it in our old-is-new roundup. Yet, when we sat down to discuss our most-used, most-beloved sites of the year, “Pocket” was the first word out of everyone’s mouth. It’s no understatement to say that this app, which bookmarks articles from across the Web for offline reading on any device, has changed how we consume content.

Go to Pocket