Essentials

Everyone has those sites and tools they just can't live without. Head buried in other things leaves me with this rather uninspiring but, hopefully, useful post. My top 5 essential tools, sites I visit at least once a day (or once an hour in some cases).

• Cambridge Dictionaries - the cornerstone of daily work for me
• Webcredible - these guys really know their stuff: accessibility, usability, writing for the web...
• Excess Voice - Nick Usborne's blog; a man who knows about putting one word in front of another
• Contentious - Amy Gahran, Communications guru
• Out-Law.com - Legal issues and advice on technology law. Good podcast every week and a good set of resources on the ins and outs of Privacy, Data Protection , Disability Discrimination....and much more
  

Google: a great 'context dictionary'

I often use Google as a dictionary, not so much in the strictest sense of the word, but you look up a word in the dictionary and, fine, you get the official line. If I want to know how and where a phrase or word is used in context, Google, or indeed any search engine I guess, is great for doing this.

It especially helps me if I'm working on technical documents and I'm reading something saying 'did they REALLY mean to say that/what the hell does that mean/is that really a word...' etc.

I just find that article from 'paint manufacturer machine mixer monthly' journal and away I go.