In all, our research revealed that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Some of last year's picks couldn't keep pace. Others, such as MSN MoneyCentral, just keep getting better, rolling out a host of upgrades and improvements. The final decisions were tough, but in the end we narrowed our favorites down to the top 50.

If you're looking for a Web directory a tad more expansive than our list of 50, head to Superstar Investor, an obsessively detailed guide to virtually every significant investing site on the Web. Unbelievably, for a site so comprehensive, it's the labor of one man, Terry Silver of San Ramon, Calif. He spends around 17 hours a day scouring the Internet, and his formidable collection of over 20,000 well-organized links is enough to satisfy any investor's needs. Silver writes brief reviews of his top picks and clearly marks subscription-based sites so you can quickly identify those you're looking for and those you'd rather avoid.

We had to click through its various sections and subsections numerous times before we got our bearings. But our patience was worth it. The site does something we think is unique: When you select a category to view, like Daily Market Commentary, the displayed links don't just dump you on to a site's home page. Where appropriate, the link for a specific site is subcategorized by the relevant pages within that site. For example, the Bloomberg.com link has subcategories for Stock Market Update, Stocks on the Move and U.S. Markets. Clicking on one of those takes you directly to that page within Bloomberg.com. Furthermore, when you click on one of the main links at the top of the Superstar Investor home page, you'll see all of the primary sections of those sites, along with a brief description and a link to each section.

Superstar Investor does more than simply categorize sites. It takes editorial responsibility for its picks and pans, especially in its Q&A section, making recommendations and offering caveats when needed. Some questions answered here are things like, "What is the best site for technical analysis?" and, "What are your favorite stock message boards?" In response to that question, Superstar Investor writes: "The information you obtain from these boards should be thoroughly researched. The Raging Bull and Silicon Investor boards are more sophisticated and better managed than those at Yahoo! Finance." We agree.

Superstar Investor also picks its top 100 investing sites, as well as what it calls the best in individual categories, like quotes and charts, market commentary and stock picks.

Terry Silver of San Ramon has assembled a site that within a year has grown to include more than 10,000 links. His devotion to the site is gaining national attention, with Money magazine's December issue ranking his site among the top 50 financial sites on the Web and complimenting its smart organization.

In the end, we emerged with the websites that no person who cares about money can afford to ignore. They are a diverse collection. Some, like Microsoft's MSN MoneyCentral, are backed by the richest corporations in the world. Others are the passion of one person, like the Superstar Investor directory that Terry Silver runs from his home in San Ramon, Calif. But they all have this in common: They are the very best financial sites the Internet has to offer.

If there's an investing destination worth your time, you'll probably find it at Superstar Investor, which contains 7,500 links organized by topics ranging from annual reports to technical analysis and provides thumbnail reviews of leading sites in key categories. Other directories may rival Superstar in size, but many are cluttered with paid links and none are so smartly organized.

To get an idea just how comprehensive this service is, ponder this: When you click on the "Investor Supersites" button, you will find more than 60 links devoted just to different parts of CBS MarketWatch.com. Similar detailed tours are provided for the other listed "supersites" -- Bloomberg.com, Briefing.com, CNNfn, The Motley Fool, MSN MoneyCentral Investor, Quicken.com, Silicon Investor, SmartMoney.com, TheStreet.com, Wall Street City and Yahoo! Finance.

Silver spends about 17 hours per day at his personal computer assiduously researching each and every link. Silver estimates that he spent 2,600 hours researching and verifying the links listed on Superstar Investor as well as writing the capsule reviews that he provides on the site. "I believe I have built the highest-quality financial guide on the Internet," Silver said. The site is already receiving rave reviews from visitors who learned about the site after Silver tried to promote it on the investment discussion boards operated by ClearStation, Yahoo! Finance, Raging Bull and Silicon Investor.

Silver, who holds an M.A. degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Michigan, worked on the floor of the Chicago Board Options Exchange in the 1980s and was an Associated Person with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.