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Yesterday, the folks over at PCMag.com picked their annual top 100 Websites of 2009, including 50 classic sites and 50 (possibly) undiscovered sites, based on content quality, design and originality. And since Pixeldust is a fan of any creative, expertly-functional website, we decided to give you our “greatest hits” version of the list. Here, in the first of our three-part post, we give you 15 of the top websites to explore in 2009.

Meebo
With so many ways to communicate online these days, it makes sense to have one place where all your chat clients can incorporate into a single buddy list. Meebo allows users to chat across all different kinds of platforms, including AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, Google Talk, Facebook, MySpace and more. According to their website, 50 million people share over 5 billion messages and over 75 million links every month, so Meebo is a good organizational tool to keep it all in one place.

Picknik
Need a quick way to tweak your photos online? Picknik gives you that ability for free. It also works with Flickr, Photobucket, Facebook, MySpace, Picassa and a host of other photo sites. Users don’t need to register to use the wealth of photo editing options.

io9
Owned by Gawker Media, io9 is the web’s source for all things technology, sci-fi, time-traveling and geek-related. Basically, it’s a pop culture hub for nerds. Their home page features stories on fights against aliens, Comic Con and the “Future of Petticoats and Personal Airships.” This fun, interesting site satisfies everything a nerd could desire.

Kayak
One of the lesser-known travel booking sites is Kayak. Kayak searches the web to give travelers a wide array of choices of the cheapest flights for traveling and hotels. It also provides a Save Your Search feature to help users save time.

Mint
In this unstable economic climate, it makes sense to keep track of where your money is going. Mint categorizes and tracks your finances online, and can even help you create a budget. It’s also a top pick from Money Magazine and won an Editor’s Choice Award from PC Magazine.

Trulia
Trulia is a real estate search engine that provides more information on a local level for people looking to buy or sell a house. They also offer tools such as Heat Maps and real estate guides to help ease the strain of the real estate process.

Etsy
Etsy is the artsy site that allows users to buy and sell all things handmade, including jewelry, toys, clothes, bags, blankets and more. Etsy aims to help users try to make a living on their artistic creations.

Engadget
Engadget is a web magazine/blog devoted to all things new in gadgets and electronics. The site covers an impressive array of tech news and products to help readers get the inside scoop on the tech world.

Instructables
Instructables is the DIY web hub that helps people build random things from random household objects. It also features a large community platform to help users get project ideas, share finished projects and get instructions or tips for new projects.

Lifehacker
Lifehacker, the “social and productivity guide,” is a blog that tips and tricks to help readers get everything done in a more efficient way. They offer software downloads, websites, DIY projects, how-to’s, shortcuts, tutorials and more.

SourceForge.net
SourceForge.net is the world’s largest open source software development site with over 34 million visitors each month. They provide free services to help build cool stuff, exchange information, and distribute open source software and services. According to their website, over 230,000 projects have been registered on the site since February, so that number is probably much higher now.

Aviary
Aviary offers online Flash-based image, color and vector editing. It also provides image hosting and lets users capture images of websites (via a FireFox add-on) and instantly open them in the image editor.

GizaPage
Social networking sites are popping up all over the web these days and many users belong to more than one site. GizaPage is an online social network organizer that helps you manage all your social networking accounts in one safe, secure place. Use it to manage your Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, WordPress, LastFM and more.

Pagetweet
For those of you on Twitter, you know when you tweet a link the URL gets shortened (through TinyURL). Pagetweet takes it one step further by letting users assign a caption to your suggested page. So, when your friends click on your link, they see the web page you’re sharing along with your caption.

Tinychat
Tinychat is a video conferencing application that allows you to create your own chatroom. It works on Windows, Mac and Linux, as well as FireFox, IE, Safari and Chrome. Gather your coworkers or friends in a chatroom and chat over audio or video stress-free. Can’t get to a computer? There’s also a version available for the iPhone.