Top 5 Mac Web Sites

How many is that? Three? What’d I say this was, a Top 5 List?

OK, two more and maybe another. We Mac users are a generous lot.

Top Mac “List & Link” Site: This goes to MacSurfer.

This is a news compilation site. Basically, what MacSurfer does is collect headlines and links about news and happenings regarding Macs, Apple, iPods, and things related to Mac; all links to other Mac web sites, or other sites. A bunch of them.

If it happened in Mac world, it’ll show up somewhere, sometime on MacSurfer. It’s a top site and gets update multiple times daily. A second place finish goes to MacSurfer.

Top Mac Rumors Site: This was a tough one to figure as the accuracy of Mac rumor sites varies with the wind; so I chose the only site with a perfect score on rumors: CARS - Crazy Apple Rumors Site.

Perfect score? Yep. While all the sites reporting on Mac and Apple rumors do so with varying degrees of success, CARS is never accurate, hence the perfect score. Perfectly wrong. All the time.

Still, CARS is a good read from time to time; flex yourself, you’ll be reading some off-the-wall stuff on CARS.

What about other so-called rumor sites? They’re not a dime a dozen but predicting what Apple CEO Steve Jobs has up his sleeve is a major challenge. Besides CARS (the “C” = Crazy), these are rumor sites of note:

MacRumors: Steady, good, not updated as frequently as you might like. Rumors are hard to come by, you know?

MacDailyNews: Good interaction, and community. More of a news site than rumors but they’ll spread it around when it’s there.

SpyMac: More money grabbing, than rumors. Used to be good a telling you what’s going on in Macdom. Now it’s better at selling you stuff.

ThinkSecret: Good inside news items before the become news. Overall, a good record; better than most of us who’d like a crystal ball on all things Mac (UPDATE - Apple sued ThinkSecret, settled, and now the site is history).

AppleInsider: Disappeared for awhile, back again, good record now.

Another site of note is Mike Wendland’s two Mac journals: MikesEjournal and the newer web log MacMove. Mike’s a writer for the Detroit Free Press and MSNBC and elsewhere, AND, importantly, made a big noise about his switch from Windows to Mac (and he hasn’t looked back).

Another web site that used to provide good rumor information is MacOSRumors, or MOSR. As of today’s writing, they’ve been down for about a month and a half, and no one knows why.

In another edition, I’ll write about useful sites; those Mac web sites with something to make you come back for more.

Got a Mac site that you like? Click Comments below and let me know.

Off Topic Note: Here’s a few questions for Mac users: (1) What’s the world’s fastest browser? (2) What’s the best notebook for Mac users? (3) What’s a good back up strategy for your Mac?