2008 Favorites: fivethirtyeight.com

Though the internet may give all opinions (relatively) equal weight, it cannot disguise the fact that they are all not created equally. Following the election this year made separating the good online outlets from the bad especially important since it became clear that while the newspapers we're floundering and the TV networks were in a race to the bottom, the online community had finally achieved preeminence (in the zeitgeist if not the numbers, we'll have to do better than 15th in the world in broadband availability for that). Fivethirtyeight.com, though initially baffling to a numerical neophyte like myself, quickly set itself apart from the pack with its methodical calculations, thoughtful analysis, and clear-eyed, if not exactly non-partisan, view on the political landscape. Nate Silver, armed only with oceans of data, an elegant system for decoding it, and his dispassionate tone made a believer out of many a newsreader and blew away the conventional wisdom concerning polls and their use. If you followed fivethirtyeight you were always one step ahead of everyone else - two ahead of the tail chasing media - and after it was over you were left wondering how we ever made it through elections without Nate and crew. Only .7% off in their final projection! The thought of it almost makes me miss the election. Almost.