Surf the World-Wide Web!

Directories

If you’re looking for a place to start surfing, you could do worse than dipping into a curated directory of personal writing.

Blogroll.org

A small directory of blogs, with Manu as the resident librarian.

i.webthings directory

A monumental collection of personal websites, magazines, other directories, and other things. Joe Jenett is the curator (of sorts). You can also subscribe (via RSS) to a “dailywebthing” link log (it’s not quite daily) of updates.

Indieseek.xyz Indie Web Directory

A human-edited, Indieweb^[1] directory.

Internet Phone Book

It’s like a directory, but on paper.

ooh.directory

Categorised directory of user-submitted sites on many topics.

PersonalSit.es

Collection of personal sites only.

Weblog renaissance

The original social feeds. People creating their own unique spaces on the Web. Here are a few I enjoy, in no particular order. I actually subscribe to a lot more blogs^[2] than this, but most of them are tied to my particular hyper-specific interests. The following, while probably still quite niche in many cases, are things I think most people in my Web-surfing milieu might enjoy.

Tracy Durnell’s Mind Garden

Among the blogs I look forward to reading the most. A mixture of really thoughtful writing, and slice-of-life updates from “sci-fi writer, graphic designer and urbanist” Tracy Durnell. Everything from essays on the nature of meaning, to weekly notes on what she cooked, books she read and pretty suff she saw. Just wonderful. Everything I look for in a personal website.

Maggie Appleton

A well-tended digital garden, like a mixture between a blog and a personal wiki. Doesn’t update so much recently, probably because of her other priorities (I sympathise).

Geoff Manaugh’s BLDGBLOG

BLDGBLOG describes itself its remit as “architectural conjecture; urban speculation; landscape futures”. I would say that covers it. Infrequently updated these days, but take a browse through the archives if you have an interest in the built environment.

A Stick a Dog and a Box With Something In It

Bill Thompson is an elder statesman of the Web (I hope he doesn’t mind me saying so) and has always had a prescient perspective on it and wider technology. Infrequently updated.

Mighty Vision

Michael Brough is in my view one of the greatest living game designers, and if you like his games, his writing about them is worth reading.

TTRPG Kids

This counts as an intersection of two of my special interests: Steph Campbell writes about (1) tabletop role-laying games which are (2) quality art with children as the intended audience. I have found a lot of my enduring favourites here.

It’s All Good Stuff

Brilliant writer and stage actor Natasha Hodgson, responsible for The Sink: A Sleep Aid, also does a monthly round-up of all-good stuff. It’s a newsletter, but you can also subscribe via RSS.

Manuel Moreale

A personal blog of my favourite kind — somebody just talking about the things that interest them. Manu has done a lot of work in service for the Web of personal sites, and is also an extremely approachable guy.

Kottke.org

Jason Kottke, blogosphere grandee, has maintained this high-quality linkblog and upheld the glory of hypertext since last century.

Pluralistic

Cory Doctorow must be among the most prolific writers of all time, and a large chunk of that writing is represented by this daily essay and link dump.

Robin Sloan

I first encountered as the author of app-essay Fish in the early 2010s. Interesting words to be found on Robin’s blog and newsletter^[3].

The Spirits

I saw this funny essay about snacking pop up somewhere and subscribed not really knowing what to expect. What this turned out to be is a newsletter (RSS) about cocktail crafting. I barely drink these days but in my youth I liked a good cocktail, and Richard Godwin’s particular writing style makes me smile.

But she’s a girl...

A lovely slice-of-life blog from eponymous author bsag, biologist and old-school computer geek. Another blog I am always particularly pleased to see updated.

Unsung

Thanks to my upbringing in a house of experimental multimedia digital artists and musicians, I have a fondness for old-school MacOS software, and in particular the thoughtful interaction-design paradigms which were developed there. Marcin Wichary continues that tradition with frequent in-depth analyses of the mechanics, dynamics and aesthetics — successful and otherwise — of computer GUI interactions.

I can’t afford this but maybe she can

I saw coauthor-designers Malika Favre and George Wu give an entertaining talk at Birmingham Design Conference 2025 about this newsletter^[3:1]. It’s a run-down of various objets matching the coauthors particular aesthetic sensibilities. Not always shared with mine, but the curation is careful and I like seeing weird designy stuff.