A to Z of my online world, revisited ten years after

This time ten years ago (see below for link), I posted a list of the websites that pop up for me after tapping just one letter into the browser's search bar, and letting autocomplete fill in the rest. Ten years later, I return to this, mainly to see what's changed (and what hasn't changed) in my online world. 

So – I type into Google Chrome just one letter, and the most frequently browsed page that comes up first (2024 vs 2014). I wonder how this compares to your online browsing habits...

[I rate the Frequency of my current use of each page from 5 (several times a day) to 1 (one visit a week or less). A rating of 3 means one visit a day.]

A

2024: autoscout.de Embarrassing. Rather than scouring the world's bookshops for rare tomes as I had been doing ten years ago, it seems that these days I'm fantasising about classic cars. But why the German website? Classic cars are more plentiful and cheaper than in the UK (and left-hand drive). And lots of motorbikes. Frequency: 1

2014: abebooks.com Best online secondhand bookshop, linking tens of thousands of secondhand bookshops around the world. Ideal for finding that 1967 edition of Observer's Book of Commercial Vehicles.

B
2024: bbc.com/news My number one source of world news, with a UK focus. Frequency: 4

2014: bbc.co.uk/news No change here, but note the address change 

Honourable mention then as now: Blogger.com, way in to write and edit my blog posts.

C

2024: ChatGPT  AI is changing everything. My latest question – how fast does an electron go as it circles an atom's nucleus? Frequency: 4

2014: cnn.com My number two source of world news ten years ago. Very rarely visit.

Honourable mention: Carandclassic.co.uk. To waste time dreaming about whether an MG Magnette ZB Varitone would be nice... Or a Vanden Plas Princess 4-litre R... Or a Humber Super Snipe... 

D

2024: de.wikipedia.org. Visited far more rarely than the English-language pages, but thanks to Google Chrome's translate feature, a useful adjunct to the Anglosphere worldview. I use this especially for reading in greater detail about the history of Polish towns and cities that had been German before 1945. Frequency: 1

2014: dailymail.co.uk Oh dear how embarrassing. Not somewhere I'll go today.

E

2024: en.wikipedia.org Once upon a time it was either the library of the bookshop for information. Now it's here. One of the greatest wonders of the IT era, a tribute to the generosity of spirit of all those knowledgeable people who contribute. The English language landing page. Frequency: 5

2014: en.wikipedia.org No change.

F 

2024: facebook.com Here for Dull Men's Club, New Topographics Photographers and the Aesthetic of the Liminal Space, Brits in Poland, Ealing Memories and Old British Cars. And anyone I've known for 40+ years. Frequency: 4

2014: flightradar24.com What's that plane or helicopter overhead? Find out, in real time. Now I've gone jet zero, no longer used to see if my plane is on time or not.

G

2024: gov.pl's daily Covid-19 update. For nearly four years now, I've been keeping a daily record of the waxing and waning of the (former) pandemic. Seven-day rolling averages of reported new cases and deaths; useful as an early warning of things going wrong out there. Frequency: 3 (exactly once a day, after 10:30 each morning)

2014: google.co.uk What else? The world changing search technology that's now become a verb. 2024 update: I no longer even need to tap in 'google', as the search engine opens directly from the browser.

H

2024: howmanyleft.co.uk – fascinating resource for classic-car nerds. If you want to know how many Vauxhall Ventoras or Humber Super Snipes are still registered on UK roads, and how many are laid up with statutory off-road notices, this website will tell you. The results are surprising (more cars seem to have survived from the 1960s than from the 1970s!) Frequency: 1

2014: Nothing immediate – Heathrow Airport would come up first, but it was never a site I visited regularly, now, not at all (Jet Zero) .

I

2024: ipko.pl My online bank. Excellent UX/UI, gets better with time. Thanks to this, I've not had to venture into a physical bank to make transfers for the past 18 years. Frequency: 3

2024: ipko.pl My online bank. Excellent interface, much better than UK banks. Thanks to this, I've not had to venture into a physical bank to make transfers for the past eight years.

J 

2024: jeziorki.blogspot.com Well someone has to put this page together! Welcome (especially to my regular readers). 'J' is also for Jakubowizna, but this blog's brand is too deeply entrenched to change. Frequency: 4

2014: jeziorki.blogspot.com Then as now, no change.

K

2024: Klub Kantar, market research organisation that pays money for completing online surveys. Was IBIS until 2019, when Kantar Group acquired the panel. Frequency: 1

2014: Nothing regular comes up, a couple of Polish cider sites come up first here

L

2024: linkedin.com use of this social-media platform had become mandatory over the pandemic; finding it very useful for work. Frequency: 3

2014: lotnictwo.net.pl's Polish language forum about the comings and goings at Warsaw's Okęcie airport. One for the spotters. What was that large, noisy, military plane that took just now? Here you'd have found the answer - the community has shrunk (mobiles, Covid etc), but still a good place for Polish aviation photography.

M

2024: maps.google.com An excellent resource. Tapping in on the power of Google Earth, augmented with Street View and tons of commercial information, and brilliant for navigation but... (see 'O'). Frequency: 4

 2014: meteo.pl The most accurate weather forecast for Poland – good for 60 hours ahead. Probably the only website that's not changed at all over the ten years (other than the increasingly desperate ads for an IT guy to refresh the site); replaced in my day-to-day life by apps in my phone which are accessible everywhere and almost as accurate.

N 

2024: Nothing!

2014: Nothing here either! Anyone thinking of staking some online property should think of a name starting with an 'n' as there seems to be a gap here. At least in my browsing.

O

2024: openstreetmap.org – some features are better than the Google product. Like Wikipedia, a crowdsourced project; I find it's much better at covering the countryside than Google Maps. 
Frequency: 4

2014: ons.gov.uk The source of all UK statistics, which I still follow with interest, in particular the macroeconomic and trade indicators.

P

2024: pl.wikipedia.org. The eleventh language of Wikipedia in terms of numbers of articles. 
Frequency: 2

2014: pl.wikipedia.org; Wikipedia in Polish. Ten years ago, only six languages had more pages than the Polish version.

Q

2024: quora.com. Battling Russian trolls and their useful idiots in the West who post questions such as "Why does Poland still intend to nuke Moscow despite knowing it would be suicide?" and the like. I'm surprised this particular online forum hasn't been wiped out by ChatGPT, but there you go. 
Frequency: 3

2014: quora.com. Russian trolls and their useful idiots in the West were only getting started on this platform. "Why isn't Britain holding a referendum to leave the despotic dictatorship of the EU run by unelected bureaucrats?

R

2024: rozklad-pkp.pl Polish railway timetables - also available in English. Hugely valuable to regular rail travellers and commuters. Frequency: 4

2014: rozklad-pkp.pl Back then, the only, today one of many; today only on my laptop; today on my phones too, along with Portal Pasażera and the Koleje Mazowieckie app, where I buy my local tickets.

S

2014: stooq.com Foreign exchange (pound/złoty), stock market indices, commodity prices.
Frequency: 2

2014: stat.gov.pl/gus Website of the Polish statistical office, Główny Urząd Statystyczny (Statistics Poland). I'm still a frequent visitor here looking for macroeconomic and demographic data.

[Honourable mention: Skyscrapercity.com Forum polskich wieżowców for all things related to Polish construction and transport infrastructure projects.]

T

2024: translate.google.com The second of three Google services (along with Maps and YouTube) on this list. No longer a joke ("The event will take place in the lake. English.") but an autodidact that has massively improved to the point where translators' work now depends on checking and polishing rather than endlessly consulting frayed dictionaries. Frequency: 5

2014: telegraph.co.uk Then, a decent, right-thinking British newspaper that wasn't behind a paywall. Today it is; and full of Brexit garbage spouting from ideologists funded by an off-shore billionaire.

[Honourable mention: Thesaurus.com – invaluable resource for writers.]

U

2024: Urbandictionary.com. Language is constantly evolving, new slang terms appear on social media – this site tells you what it means, scro. Frequency: 1

2014: ukti.gov.uk British government's trade and investment arm, with whom I closely cooperate

V

2024: Vimeo.com: the site for erudite film-makers and archivists. Here, I can find John Betjeman's Metro-land in its full glory without having to work out how to watch it from a DVD. As well as content by film-makers who want their work treated better than by the YouTube algorithm (see below). Frequency: 1

2014: Nothing here at all!

W 

2024: westwiltsradio.com Tune in between 7pm and 10pm (UK) or 20:00 and 22:00 (Continent) for Yours Sinsouly, the best in soul, funk and R&B from MJDJ, and if you miss it live, you can always play again using the play again function and catch up with old shows. I've not missed a single one since the first show was aired in January 2022! Frequency: 2

2014: wizzair.com Low-cost carrier of choice between Warsaw Okęcie and much of Europe. No need to go via Modlin. 2024 update: I have stopped flying (Jet Zero - climate and Brexit)

X

2024: x.com, formerly Twitter, since it was messed up by the narcissistic space Karen, Ego Skum (anag). Still visit daily, but my attraction has waned considerably since it was smashed up. Frequency: 4

2014: A blank. Google helpfully suggested 'xbox' back then. No thanks.

Y 

2024: Youtube.com (premium). I have become an avid watcher of podcasts on subjects focused mainly on science, philosophy, economics and geopolitics. And UFOs. The only online service I subscribe to. Frequency: 5

2014: Youtube.com. Access to film, music, humour... one reason I've stopped watching television. The other being that Polish TV is terrible.

Z

2024: zoom.us/pl/join. Used for work and for staying in touch with my brother. Better than Microsoft Teams, because it's not a Microsoft product. Frequency: 3

2014: ztm.waw.pl Warsaw's bus, tram, Metro timetables by route, by stop, minute-by-minute. Essential. 2024 update: ZTM has changed its name to WTP; the WTP app is now in my phone so I hardly ever check it from my laptop or desktop computers.

This time last year:
Intensity of Consciousness

This time two years ago:
I have measured out my life in coffee spoons

This time eight years ago:
Make do and mend

This time ten years ago:
The A-Z of my online world

This time 12 years ago:
Life and Death in the Shadow of the El - A short story, part I

This time 13 years ago:
Transwersalka in midwinter

This time 14 years ago:
Work starts on the S79/S2 (completed autumn 2013)

This time 16 years ago:
Crazy customised Skoda