My browser alphabet

Type a single letter into your browser’s address bar. What URL does autocomplete suggest?

If you try this for every letter in the alphabet, you get a neat little snapshot of your favorite Internet hotspots.

Here’s my alphabet.

A — [redacted] — Contains personal/family information.

B — briandbuckley.com — No surprise there.

C — Chicago Manual of Style — Yes, I’m a word geek.

D — dictionary.com — I don’t go there too often, though. Merriam-Webster is where it’s at.

E — etymonline.com — Online etymology dictionary. Amazing website. Yes, I’m a word geek.

F — FiveThirtyEight — Political analysis and commentary with an emphasis on using past data to predict outcomes. Their team is led by the brilliant Nate Silver, who was one of the few analysts to give Trump a (relatively high) 25% chance of winning on election night.

G — Gmail — Yep.

H — hoaxes.org — I was doing some research here for a nonfiction book I might finish writing someday about truth, lies, and how to tell the difference. Fascinating reading, regardless.

I — Imgur — Yep.

J — [redacted] — One of Betsy’s top visits, not mine.

K — [redacted] — Ditto.

L — [redacted] — Ditto.

M — merriam-webster.com/thesaurus — The M-W thesaurus is my favorite thesaurus. Yes of course I’ve tried other thesauri, what do you take me for? (Although curiously, this URL now seems to redirect to the M-W homepage/dictionary.)

N — New York Times — Alternates between this and Netflix, depending on how news-obsessed I am. NPR is also high on the list.

O — [redacted] — One of Betsy’s top visits, not mine.

P — [redacted] — Ditto.

Q — quackwatch.com — Totally forgot about this one, only went here a couple of times. Info on health-related pseudoscience, fraud, and other quackery. Also research for the aforementioned nonfiction book.

R — Reddit — Currently just the Reddit homepage. At various other stages in my life, it’s been reddit.com/r/politics and reddit.com/r/buffy.

S — smile.amazon.com — Adding the “smile” prefix means that Amazon donates a bit of money to a charity/nonprofit of your choice for each purchase you make. (We picked Doctors Without Borders.) Yes, it’s a really tiny amount. But it’s also no charge whatsoever to you, so there really isn’t a downside.

T — Twitter — I just reached the 1,000-tweet mark (@buckleyeditor) yesterday. What an odd mixture of pride and shame.

U — unabridged.merriam-webster.com — Now we’re talking. Paid-subscription, ad-free, unabridged M-W goodness.

V — verificationhandbook.com — Completely forgot about this one too. Haven’t been here in a long time.

W — Washington Post — My #1 source for news. Paid subscription, but worth every penny.

X — [no suggestions] — Huh. Guess it’s been a long time since I checked out xkcd.

Y — YouTube — Yep.

Z — [redacted] — One of Betsy’s top visits, not mine.

The browser alphabet: A journey of self-discovery. Any surprises in yours?