Nothing But Net: 171 Great Chicago Web Sites

Lost in front of the Web address bar? Search engines letting you down? We scoured the Web to find the sites that make the lives of Chicagoans better in the real world, winnowing the chaff from the wheat to give you the best real-estate search, the most active foodie forum, the top local news sources, and much, much more.

By Stuart Luman, Graham Meyer, and Dawn Reiss

Just defining the criteria for this list flummoxed us. Fantasy baseball? Too frivolous. A cocktail database? Not Chicago-specific. Svengoolie's blog? Uh, no. We settled on listing those essentially local sites we thought would be most useful or interesting to people who live right here. (And we left off the most obvious, such as ChicagoTribune.com and SunTimes.com.) Of course, there's no way we could ever have checked out everything. What'd we miss? Tell us in the comments below.

THE LIST >>

171 Chicago Web sites we love—and why—divided into categories including news, sports, arts & culture, shopping, real estate, music, parenting, and more.

MY FAVORITE SITES >>

Four local experts on music, politics, food, and design share the Web sites that keep them up to date in their fields.

TIME LESS WELL SPENT >>

Besides the useful sites listed in this article, local Web culture offers several others that are just good for leisurely browsing.

GET WIRED >>

Six spots that we think vie for the title of perfect neighborhood Wi-Fi café

JUST THE LINKS, PLEASE >>

A downloadable bookmark for quick access to all of these sites! PLUS: a list of just the links

NET PIX >>

Almost two million photos on Flickr have a Chicago connection. From an earthbound angel to an eerie nocturnal landscape, here are 13 local pix that click.

Illustration: Quickhoney

This article appears in the February 2008 issue of Chicago Magazine.

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Comments, page 1 of 5 1 2 3 4 Next »

Jul 12, 2009 11:08 am

Posted by seafalcon

UNFORTUNETLY UNTIL CHICAGO'S MORAL CHARACTER OVERALL,GLOBAL VALUES AND THE GREATER GOOD IS UPLIFTING, INSTEAD OF SPIRITUAL DESTRUCTIVE
AS POLITICIANS MORE CORRUPT THEN COSA NOSTRA AND PUBLIC AT LARGE CONDUSIVE TO GANGS/AND THUGS GONE XTRA BAD W/ NO REPRESENTATION AND JUSTICE FOR THE COMMON GOOD.SAY GOODBYE TO THE BEAUTIFUL OLYMPIC GAMES.

Jan 22, 2009 09:15 pm

Posted by nwipcexperts

You forgot about NWI PC Experts

Oct 24, 2008 12:08 pm

Posted by Anonymous

I nominate "Deep Dish poem-a-month" which features writers with literary ties to Chicago. http://chicagopoem.typepad.com/

Sep 9, 2008 06:51 pm

Posted by Anonymous

Umm...you forget couple of the most famous and popular Chicago based websites;

johnlocker.com
pitchforkmedia.com

Aug 5, 2008 01:30 pm

Posted by Anonymous

Check out Green Parent Chicago for eco-friendly and off the mainstream news, events and activities for green living and natural family living in Chicago

greenparentchicago.com

Mar 22, 2008 02:17 pm

Posted by rvgoddess

I just launched a new site you might be interested in... http://the-rv.com all about Roscoe Village!

Mar 18, 2008 02:56 pm

Posted by Anonymous

For a great webcomic about life in a midwestern office cubefarm, check out MyLifeInaCube.com Hilarious!

Mar 18, 2008 02:55 pm

Posted by Anonymous

For a great webcomic about life in a midwestern office cubefarm, check out MyLifeInaCube.com Hilarious!

Feb 28, 2008 08:02 am

Posted by Anonymous

http://weirdchicagoblog.com from the Weird Chicago tours guys, covering the history and mysteries of the city. Great tours, great new blog!

Feb 28, 2008 08:00 am

Posted by Anonymous

weirdchicagoblog.com from the guys who do the Weird Chicago tours - for the best stories on the history and hauntings - the REAL stories, not the made-up ones that are going around.

Comments, page 1 of 5 1 2 3 4 Next »