xenmaster's favorite web-services

I use this as my primary social network. It allows people to form private groups for their friends and family. It is pretty reminiscent of Google Plus for folks that used to use that service and many users are refugees from that service. It has some pretty significant backing as well, including from Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web!

I use this site exclusively for professional networking. Has a lot of spam, but a great way to keep in touch with old colleagues and to make new connections professionally. Use with care and always refuse invites from third-party headhunters!

I use Duolingo for most of my language learning, but they aren't as good as HelloChinese for learning Chinese. My only complaint is that while HelloChinese is very good, it will get you only to the basic level of learning the language - there are more specialized solutions that can take you to the advanced level, although I recommend having a tutor for that part of the process.

Useful for learning Spanish, I use Duolingo also for learning Thai and Vietnamese, which is pretty acceptable so far.

There are so many courses here - I primarily use it to self-teach on Design and Website Engineering. Some courses are better than others (Their Django course is extremely outdated) so proceed with caution.

A site specifically about web-design, it includes great articles, eBooks, and tutorial courses.

Hulu is my go-to for old school TV shows I know and love from my youth in the 80s and 90s. Holds awesome movies too. It has pretty good original series too, especially compared to Netflix, which has more flops than gems in the catalog.

Another great place to get awesome videos - it has some offerings that Hulu does not have. Also, you get bundled discounts, free shipping, and bonuses at Whole Foods, you cannot beat this deal!

Has great original series, although the platform is starting to turn its back on original creators in favor of corporate content. My favorite items here include the wide selection of independent music creators and online series like Freddie Wong's old videos and the WongFu selections.

Great entertainment center for free content. I use it specifically for South Park and the Simpsons (during the golden years).

A great resource for technology and business news.

Lots of cool websites, computer tips, and how-tos are featured here!

A good departure from clickbait news - Reuters generally tends to give you just the facts compared to hype machines like FOX, CNN, and MSNBC as well as the less reputable blogs like Vox, Vice, Slate, and Buzzfeed, which really only masquerade as legitimate news.

I use this almost exclusively in place of my messenger service. It's a fantastic app that everyone should use!

Useful for my people in Taiwan, The Philippines, Japan, Korea, and Thailand.

If you want to look up a domain name you are thinking of buying up, you can't beat DomainR! It will autopopulate similar names, possible domain hacks, and show you if they are available or not.

DuckDuckGo is the best search engine I've ever used. I proudly say I've only used Google a handful of times on purpose - DDG has always been good and is getting better and they don't track or bubble your search results!

Useful for sharing text notes between computers. Uses javascript based encryption to protect your stuff.

I use this as often as I can for getting around town. There are also mobile clients for this service, like OSMand.

Do you really have to ask? :D

A good catalog for relatively safe software and a good place to start for people looking for a way to host their own webservices.

Similar to above, but also includes basic tutorials about VPNs, E-Mail service providers, and gives information about how to configure Firefox to make it safer to use.