A place where critics can rave

Metacritic.com has become one of the Web’s busier entertainment sites. It offers quick links and summaries of the vast universe of commentary and reviewing taking place online.

Its menu starts with six main offerings: film, TV, DVD, Music, Books and Games. Nicely organized in each column are listings of titles linking to full-text and multi-media reviews of that movie or book or DVD. Top-rated titles, nicely enough, lead each column. The reviews are generally from legit sites. Another section allows Metacritic users to add their own comments.

It’s hosted as part of the family of CNET sites, so it’s nicely done and simple to navigate. There’s a mobile version – at www.metacritic.com/wireless – that works pretty smoothly on cell phones and PDAs.

www.last.fm

Music is another consumer-driven Web universe, with hundreds of sites competing for attention. Among the better ones is Last.fm, one of the first streaming stations that allow people to build their own “station.”

Beyond making preset music lists based on artist or genre, Last.fm gives users the option of tagging songs and then creating a stream based on tags.

In terms of URLs worth remembering, Last.fm is one of the simplest to remember.