The Web is a fascinating source of ideas and community. Our research staff has evaluated hundreds of Web sites covering publications, media and resources most pertinent for adults 50 plus, including magazines, best of Boomer news and blogs, online Boomer communities, and even radio and television sites designed for maximum Boomer appeal. We've selected the best sites–the most useful and comprehensive of the bunch–and provided concise descriptions of each.
Rate the sites and suggest others!
Books
Amazon
With its discount prices, mind-boggling catalog, and free shipping, Amazon has always been the online bookstore to beat, both for new and used books. Book lovers are strongly encouraged to share their own reviews and create and share their own lists of favorites in any category that catches their fancy. Endlessly interesting for bibliophiles.
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The New York Review of Books
Fanatical readers can keep up to date with reviews of the latest hot new releases alongside long, insightful essays from some of the world's best writers and deepest thinkers. This is where people like Joan Didion, Vaclav Havel, and George Soros come to share their views. Always worth a visit.
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The New York Times Book Review
As the media frets over the decline of book review sections in newspapers, The New York Times is still going strong, making 26 years' worth of reviews searchable here and adding podcasts and best-of lists to keep you interested. Have all the highlights e-mailed to you on a weekly basis.
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Boomer Blogs
As the Boomers Age
Penned by a 57-year-old woman in Florida, this blog does a great job of rounding up links to recent articles of interest to Boomers. Sign up for an RSS feed that will deliver postings directly to your browser to get the latest thoughts from this conscientious blogger.
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Boomers
This blog, a "trip into the heart of the Baby Boomer generation," is penned by Boomer marketing consultant Brent Green, who seems hellbent on proving that Boomers are a huge market worth, well, marketing to, in the face of critics and naysayers who would contend otherwise. His passion makes for interesting, if sporadic, blog entries.
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Contemporary Retirement
British blogger Anne Harrison is a "trained retirement coach and trainer" who explores Boomer issues while weaving stories of her own career experiences throughout the links and articles she collects. It makes for interesting reading.
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SeniorWebLogs
Building your own blog is easy and free at this site, which encourages Boomers and Seniors to join the blogging crowd by easily setting up a blog and then just typing away. Still fairly new, there's plenty of room for more bloggers to show up. If you're more of a reader than a writer, browse by category to see what's on people's minds.
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So Baby Boomer: Life Tips
Executive coach John Agno takes a self-help approach with his blog, encouraging Boomers to find ways to make and save more money while living full and interesting lives. He's also very good at recommending books of interest to Boomers looking to lead more well-rounded lives.
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The Savvy Boomer
Tech-savvy, that is. Here's a blog devoted to the light-hearted demystification of technology for Boomers who need to learn to be brave enough to embrace the kinds of gadgetry that could make their lives easier. Especially useful for anyone trying out a new life of self-employment from a home office.
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Boomer Communities
50Plus.com
This site breaks down Boomer life into logical category and delivers several useful articles for each area. If you'd rather have the info come to you, sign up for free newsletters on health, travel, money, lifestyles, or relationships. Looking for fresh ideas? Head for the blog section, where more than 200 people opine about Boomer life. Feel free to build your own.
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Boomer-Living.com
Not quite finished yet, this community nevertheless shows great promise, organizing Boomer life into 12 main centers of interest and providing articles, tips, and shopping for each. There's also a blogging section, and this one of only a few Boomer destinations that invites you to submit your own artwork and creative writing for possible inclusion in an online gallery.
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Boomer Women Speak
Here's a sort of catch-all site for everything related to women over 45. Much of the site is devoted to a fairly thorough directory of useful Web links for Boomer women, and there's also an essay section where anyone can contribute their deep thoughts, plus 39 fairly active discussion boards on every imaginable topic.
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BOOMj.com
Focusing its attending on the younger end of the Baby Boom spectrum (Boomers born on and after 1954), BOOMj delivers a mix of news feeds in eight categories, original articles and videos, and a nascent social network for like-minded visitors to seek each other out and meet. (You must sign up for free to take advantage of all of the site's features.)
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BoomerTowne.com
Celebrity Boomers are the main draw here, with videos, Q&A pages, and periodic live chats featuring people like Dr. Bob Arnot, Gary Player, Denise Austin, Montel Williams, and Stephen Covey. Sign up for free to take part in the discussions, and stick around to have a look at the site's informative section on "Caring for Your Parents."
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Drumtable.com
Drumtable.com wants to hear your life story, or to be more specific, it wants you to write a story from your life, illustrate it with photos or videos, and post it either for a close circle of friends or the general public to view. Currently in pre-launch, the site is just getting going, but the stories posted so far are well done and may inspire you to indulge in a bit of autobiography.
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Eons
A totally free and engaging site and community for Boomers, Eons takes a kitchen-sink approach to catching your eye, with articles, blogs (create your own), a social network, a LifeDreams page where you can share your goals, a LifeMap builder that lets you create a visual timeline of your life, and a Travel section. It's also pretty much the only 50+ site that includes obituaries of famous people, helping to put everything into perspective.
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Growing Bolder
Packed with audio clips, videos, blogs, polls, and discussion boards, Growing Bolder is one of the most interactive of all the Boomer-oriented sites. Produced by TV and radio veterans who "got frustrated by the refusal of mainstream media to even acknowledge that the 50+ demographic is the real power in today's economy," it's an entertaining destination for new ideas on adding some verve to your lifestyle.
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LetLifeIn.com
"Explore. Express. Enrich." LetLifeIn.com lets its Boomer visitors post their own little articles on whatever aspect of life interests them. Other registered visitors can then rate the articles on a scale of 1 to 10 to help you find those which are most useful and interesting and avoid any clunkers.
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My Boomer Place
Another Boomer community that's hoping to ride on the coattails of the MySpace phenomenon, My Boomer Place has typical social networking features. You set up your own page with as much personality as you can muster and then invite others to become your online buddy.
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Second Prime
An up-and-coming online community that hopes to evolve into "MySpace for grownups" when it gets up to full steam in 2008, Second Prime is currently getting underway with news and lifestyle links, an invitation for users to set up and share their own home pages, and the rollout of discussion forums.
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Tee Bee Dee
That's TBD, as in "to be determined," as in what are you going to do with the rest of your life? Still in preview mode, this online magazine/community is filling up mainly with active discussion boards on all the usual lifestyle topics from work and love live to travel and tech. Feature articles are short, but expect more as the site comes to full fruition.
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ThirdAge
ThirdAge is the kind of female-oriented midlife site that exhibits intense interest in subjects such as menopause and bone health. Though its categories cover all the basic lifestyle topics, it's health, and women's health in particular, that seems most top of mind here. Worth a bookmark for women concerned about how aging may affect their health.
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Mashable
Highly used social networking news site. Provides all the best links to social related sites, as well as, the latest news about them.
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A Women’s Place
Top site for women who want to connect with each other for personal, professional & spiritual growth! Membership in www.awomensplace.org opens the door to one of the web’s fastest growing networks of knowledgeable, informed women. Opportunities you may not find elsewhere in the huge virtual world await you here at A Women’s Place.
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Eldr
Great site seeking to inspire people over 60 to celebrate the joys, navigate the challenges and discover the meaning of aging. With resources on retirement, aging, drugs and more, ELDR brings an enlightened, entertaining and sometimes edgy approach to aging through essays, stories, reviews, interviews and artwork. Regular columns include ELDR Law, ELDR Yoga and ELDR Tech and ongoing topics include Family, Caregiving and Brainpower, among others. ELDR offers fresh viewpoints on social issues and new ideas on health, travel, finances and activism!
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Active Authority
An online community for the active baby boomers. Find the latest information on health, fitness, nutrition, and more for the active senior lifestyle.
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eGenerations
Popular online community created exclusively for experienced adults ages 50-plus. Join and connect with other members from 10 to 10,000 miles away, learn from their experiences, and explore other environments around you.
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Funny Deli
Premiere comedy website created by baby boomers for boomers, hosting an array of daily content from well-known comedians on the topics of health, travel, romance, finance, entertainment and more. Drop by for a good laugh!
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Social Maturity
One of the fastest growing social networking sites for seniors on the web. Developed to give boomers and beyond a place of their own!
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Boomers International
Worldwide community for baby boomers. Chat and learn about others’ experiences on tons of topics and categories relating to boomers, such as oldie music love, history, hippies, veterans, love, friends, fun and much more.
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Judy’s Book
Judy's Book is an online community where smart shoppers find and share the best deals, sales and coupons - both from online and local retailers. Recent customer reviews of products, services and current deals. Get cash back on everyday purchases and commissions on deals you share. Browse their search engine with over 40,000 coupons from the best coupon sites on the Web.
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Women Of The Web
Free daily site brings a whole new way to talk culture, politics, gossip and more. Run and written by Lesley Stahl, Peggy Noonan, Liz Smith, Joni Evans, Mary Wells, Sheila Nevins, Joan Juliet Buck, Whoopi Goldberg, Julia Reed, Joan Ganz Cooney, Judith Martin, Candice Bergen, Lily Tomlin, Jane Wagner, and Marlo Thomas—who for years have been talking to each other about everything under the sun: their families, their work, their worlds. They’ve shared what they think, observe and experience each day. And now they want to share it with you.
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Better Than I Ever Expected
Celebrate the joys and discuss the challenges of older age sexuality. This useful site is presented by Joan Price, ageless sexuality advocate and author of Better Than I Ever Expected: Straight Talk About Sex After Sixty, a sassy, sexy book combining her personal story with tales from sexually seasoned women and tips from experts. Join her in speaking out and proving that our society's view of seniors as sexless is wrong, wrong, wrong. Please comment and ask questions. Welcome to the community!
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Retirement Revised
RetirementRevised.com is the companion website of Retire Smart, a column written by Mark Miller that appears in more than 30 newspapers each week. For millions of Baby Boomers, retirement is an opportunity for reinvention, rather than taking it easy. Mark is helping write the playbook for the new career and personal pursuits of a generation.
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Age Wave
This marketing/consulting firm positions itself as the leading expert on the Boomer Generation and its effects on overall American society as it ages. Of most interest are write-ups on eight books, most by consultant Ken Dychtwald. Check out "The Power Years: A Guide to the Rest of Your Life," first published in 2005.
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Boston College Center for Retirement Research
For deep thinking about trends in retirement and public policy, head for the freely downloadable reports that this think tank provides. Recent topics include the trend toward later retirement, the Dutch approach to old-age pensions, and the Medicare mess. Don't miss the downloadable "Social Security Fix-It Book" to learn about new ideas for funding the program far into the future.
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Bottom Line Secrets
They can't really be secrets if anyone can read them, but why quibble? This vibrant selection of tips and tricks for a better life is fun to explore whether you're into health, wealth, business, travel, or self-improvement. The advice isn't specifically targeted at a 50+ audience, but you can subscribe to Bottom Line Retirement magazine here to get the most relevant information for your future planning.
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MSN Lifestyle: Boomers
Microsoft's Bill Gates is a Boomer, so why shouldn't MSN have a site just for him and all the other 50+ people out there? A lively mix of articles, lifestyle guides ("Your Sex Life After Divorce"), videos, and message boards, this well-edited destination provides plenty of food for thought, plus all the MSN conveniences that put searching and shopping right alongside the articles.
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Newsweek's Boomer Files
Newsweek knows you're out there, and it wants to attract your attention with this special online collection of articles, op-eds, galleries, quizzes, and podcasts about the past, present, and future of the Boomer generation. Read about getting your kids through college, Carly Simon's new CD, trends in competitive poker, and anything else that appears in Newsweek and may be of interest to the 50+ crowd.
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The Savvy Senior
The most useful feature of this online resource for retirees and Boomers at the older end of the scale is its weekly newswire, which delivers links to a few dozen relevant news items to you e-mail inbox in a single message. It's pretty much the easiest way to stay current on all sorts of news and information about aging.
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Wired Seniors
This unattractive but somewhat useful grab bag of links and services for seniors is most notable for its included search engine, which is specifically oriented toward seniors and flags those results which it considers especially "senior friendly." You'll also find home exchanges, travel guides, senior dating, and even a guide to online radio stations of interest to the 50+ crowd.
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