Good Useful Websites

[Over The Hill]

I am sure we all use this marvellous www thing to look up all sorts of useful things. Is it me, or are the sites now getting so crammed full of adverts, pop ups and a million bits that stop you seeing the thing you went on the site to see.
I use The Weather Channel for local weather but that now is unreadable with all the ads. Similarly, tvguide has bits popping up all over the place when I just want to check what is on TV.

I am happy with ads but really only if they just stay in one place and not with some advert about some woman who pees herself when she laughs starting to run when I am just trying to see what is on TV tonight.

Do you nice CCers have recommendations for nice reference sites for things like TV, Weather etc that are OK to use and not taken over by ads. Everyday reference and info sites we all use.

I know I can look them up on google but will that just bring the ones that have heavy advertising?

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

I go to the horse's mouth for weather - the Met Office

As for telly I have your problem

 

[Aperitif]

yr.no - cc riders reference point. No adverts. No rwegians either...whatever the weather.

 

[AndyRM]

adblockplus.org

 

[pplpilot]

http://www.radiotimes.com/tv/tv-listings

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/

https://adblockplus.org/

 

[SavageHoutkop]

Don't see any adverts - ad block plus plugin. Also - most new browsers have anti-popups on by default.

 

[IDMark2]

Another vote for Adblock but don't forget to white-list smaller sites on which you can stomach reasonable advertising if you get what you want from them and they only survive by ad money revenue. Pop-ups/unders and auto-play media is a no no even on those though, they can stay blocked as far as I am concerned.

 

[martint235]

Yup ad blocking software.

However, you need to bear in mind that without click through funding from adverts, some sites will disappear or hide behind a paywall. I agree that ads have tipped the balance the wrong way but once everyone has an adblocker there'll be other funding methods found.

 

[andyfraser]

I always said I'd never use an ad blocker but I've now installed Ad Block Plus. I want to support the websites I visit but I don't like the extreme lengths some advertisers will go to to show ads so I block all ads except the ones ABP allows.

AllMusic is one of the worst. I can't find another site as good for music but the ads make the site virtually unusable (some ads actually stop the search box working properly).

 

[Over The Hill]

Did not know ad blocking existed! Thanks for the info.

 

[mybike]

Did not know ad blocking existed! Thanks for the info.

An alternative to Adblock+ is uBlock Origin. I also run a script blocker, some scripts I allow & others I block. It's worth remembering that ads are often used as a means of getting malware onto your computer.

 

[speccy1]

Interesting, I will try these out, I find youtube one of the most irritating with adverts, it is absolutely dripping with them

 

[slowmotion]

Being a complete Luddite, I like DaftLogic's website for plotting distances on a map. You stick pins in the map and it does the needful.
http://www.daftlogic.com/projects-google-maps-distance-calculator.htm

If you need an answer to absolutely any engineering problem, CNCZone. The members are quite spectacularly polite and helpful.
http://www.cnczone.com/

 

[swee'pea99]

Surprised no-one's mentioned either Park Tools very good repair help section or Sheldon Brown's.

 

[Gravity Aided]

Intellicast for weather. Less ads, loads faster. Dunno if you have that in Britain. As for cycling, Global Cycling network is good, heavily YouTube based.