Alexa Top Global Sites

Since this is the time of year when annual performance reviews are given, it is time to review the top ten websites in 2012. The list is dominated by web giants that combine functionality with the widest variety of web services in one place. The top ten websites make it easy to find and manage web content in a way that meets individual preferences while handling massive amounts of traffic.

The most common complaints and concerns in 2012 center around personal privacy, censorship and site functionality. Other complaints about some of the top ten websites center around intrusive advertising, spam and new features that annoy more than they help.

Alexa is a web information company that collects data on the world's websites and distributes the information as a paid or free service. The public can visit the site to find trending topics, a detailed list of the most popular web pages and the hottest products for sale.

Alexa's Top 500 Global Websites was published on December 10. The site lists the websites in order, making it easy to find the ten best performers in 2012. The top ten are also expected to do as well or better in 2013.

Google tops the list for convenience, a wide range of free web services and a growing Google + membership.Google dominates in web and shopping search. The Google blog claims that Google + has 500 million members to give Facebook a challenge. Google + recently launched Google Community, were anyone can start a group. Google still has to deal with complaints about intrusive data gathering and personalized results that can be creepy and unsettling. Finally, the Adobe Flash conflicts need to be fixed for good.

Facebook took second place. The site introduced a host of new features in 2012, including shared music listening, a new Timeline interface and more games than ever. However, continuing privacy issues, annoying and unwanted new features and bad ergonomics, like uncontrollable pop up windows, are still a problem.

YouTube held its position as the most popular web video platform in 2012. With new video editing, content filtering and shopping features; expect YouTube to dominate during 2013.

Yahoo remains at the top with a strong mail platform and the best in customizable web content.

Baidu serves a large and rapidly growing Chinese language audience with features that are comparable to Google, Yahoo or Windows Live.

Wikipedia deserves a position in the top ten as the only free, open source people's encyclopedia.

Windows Live is a full featured system. With advanced mail, cloud storage and more, Windows Live is becoming a one-stop work tool.

Amazon.com is the largest online retail store on the web. By introducing reasonably priced Kindle Fire tablets and easy book self-publishing services, Amazon created an expanded portal to shopping and digital content.

QQ.com is China's most popular internet gateway on the lines of Baidu.

Twitter wins a place at the top for handling record-breaking real time news and discussion during the 2012 presidential election. Twitter is so powerful that the site has served as command and control for revolutions and major disasters. Expect Twitter to grow as more users discover ways to filter, organize and manage content.

The future looks bright for the top ten websites in 2012. Each site is a heavyweight in functionality, offers a choice of services and can adapt web content to individual consumer's preferences. 2013 will also bring new technology and development to keep the heavyweights at the top of the list.

Read More on : http://www.examiner.com/article/2012-review-alexa-releases-the-top-500-global-websites-2012