The new top 100 sites: survivors and MIA

We've published our new list of 100 great sites on the internet - with the usual broad focus, taking in 22 categories.

The last time we did this, almost exactly two years ago in December 2006, mapping was starting to push its way into the consciousness; Google had released the useful version of its mapping API in June 2006, creating the potential for much better mashups. (And that was quite a change from the first list we did, the Cream of the crop in December 2004.

We chose the list by quizzing all the regular technology contributors to the Guardian, and doing a sort of super-merge of the list; at one stage our 100 contained 143. (At the editing stage we counted the same printout once as 99, once as 101, once as 102, but twice as 100 - so we settled.)

So, which sites survived from the last round? Taking the headings from the last list:

• Applications: none, although the category (this time called "Create/collaborate") has six entries this time.
  
• Blogs: reading: Bloglines. Still proving its worth.
  
• Blogs: writing: none. We did have wordpress.org, but wordpress.com is our choice this time (there are only two in the category) because it's free, spam-free, and you get security and other updates automatically.
  
• Email: no category this time; you can get sufficient free storage for life almost anywhere.
  
• Gaming: Pocket Gamer. Because it's still the place for handheld gaming.
  
• Maps: none. Google Maps is sooo 2007.
  
• News: mainstream: no category this time......