This site takes a picture of you and asks a few questions – it then says how old you look and how long you will live. It’s fun trying to fool it – one 90 year old I know tried it and it said she was 79 and would live until she was 85.

You paste any text into this and it counts the frequency of every word in it. You might be surprised at how wedded you are to certain words – there is also a “phrase frequency counter” which can be an eye-opener if you are a cliché user.

The site promises to help you find reliable pet lovers and experienced home minders who are willing to live in your home and look after it while you're away (sometimes for free). You can also apply to be a house/pet sitter, which might be interesting.

Florence Nightingale digitisation Project. A joint venture between the Florence Nightingale museum and Boston University; it’s an attempt to create a comprehensive database of correspondence written by The Lady with the Lamp.

The Highways Agency site to tell us what’s happening on the roads. You can see all the delays, planned road works and so on, and live images from all the cameras that sit above all the main roads. Starngely addictive.

This is where you can watch all of the action in parliament – not just what happens in the Chambers, but also all the committees taking evidence from experts or calling people to account. You can search the archive back to 2009.

The very impressive Wolfam Alpha looks like a search engine but doesn’t search the web; it has its own vast collection of built-in data. It takes a little getting to know, but it’s a reliable source of facts and gives you the source as well.

There are lots of ways to listen to radio online, but this is one of the easiest to use, and lets you tune into masses of UK radio stations whenever you have an internet connection. It’s a not-for-profit backed by some big broadcasters including the BBC.

. This site on Romantic and Victorian literature is the first phase of a project to bring many literary treasures online, including original manuscripts, first editions, illustrations, newspapers, photographs, advertisements, maps, personal letters + more

This is the best alternative to Google, and has just been rebuilt. Critically, it doesn’t track what you do (unlike Google) and retains no information about you. This has made them very popular, and the search results seem fine to me, and easy to follow

The Royal Horticultural Society has re-launched its website, and it’s a corker. Everything is easier find, including what to do this month and instruction videos and fortnightly podcasts. If you are a member, you can access even more.

This site maps, live, where planes are all over the world. It takes a few moments to load, but you may be astonished to see how many planes are buzzing around. Click on a plane and you get all the details. Strangely compelling.

This is the site of the Bletchley Park Trust, with a huge amount of information about that extraordinary time. It includes a Roll of Honour which lists all those believed to have worked there.

Put your postcode in, and look at all the public information this site can find; housing, people, employment, education, culture and more. You might be astonished what they know about where you live.

This website is run and maintained by Christie Archive Trust where Agatha Christie's personal archives are held. A real enthusiast’s site, including information about the books and stories, and adaptations as well as as location maps, a forum and more.

The full text of the Pepys diary, plus thousands of pages of further information about the people, places and things in his world. The opening page is the entry from the same day 353 years ago. It’s run by a Pepys enthusiast

A British Library’s contribution to the WWI industry – but it’s very worthwhile. More than 500 newly digitised items, including contemporary maps, newspapers, diaries and more. Browse by theme, date and more. First rate.

NHS blood-donation site – if you do give blood, this makes it all easier to book or change an appointment and find out more about how the service works. You can also watch the famous Tony Hancock episode here: http://tinyurl.com/nu4d2mu

An excellent Government backed animated website that explains simply how best to keep yourself and your computers safe online. There is a lot of rather obvious advice, but it’s none the worse for that.

Radio search engine; you enter the name of a track, genre or artist you like and it will try to find you a site that is playing it somewhere in the world. If it fails it will offer alternatives. I've discovered some lovely music this way.

Part of the British Library site – it is videos and audio clips that document the development of British technology and engineering from 1940. Amongst many, listen to Conway Berners-Lee, father of Sir Tim, father of the internet.

For Choral Music enthusiasts. This tries to provide a list of choirs you could join, or choral concerts you can attend; run by two musical brothers since 2000. It’s also a good place for asking advice from other choirs, and even sharing scores.

This is an excellent Thesaurus and the site is recently much improved, and has a number of cunning features; for example you can filter results by length or complexity. It also offers Antonyms and related words, if you are struggling for the right one.

This absorbing site shows the health of Londoners from 1848 to 1972 through Medical Office of Health reports. Start by browsing the fascinating “Health of London Timeline” which shows just how well a website can be used to give information.

The National Archives website has been hugely improved, and it is now much easier to find your way around the 20 million records kept there. It’s not just for ancestor hunting; there are over 1,000 years of government and legal records.

London Symphony Orchestra; a glimpse at how all websites might be one day; it sits you right in the orchestra for a performance, or you can learn all about each instrument by clicking on the map. Masterclass videos, too.