In partnership with

You can (easily) launch a newsletter too

This newsletter you couldn’t wait to open? It runs on beehiiv — the absolute best platform for email newsletters.

Our editor makes your content look like Picasso in the inbox. Your website? Beautiful and ready to capture subscribers on day one.

And when it’s time to monetize, you don’t need to duct-tape a dozen tools together. Paid subscriptions, referrals, and a (super easy-to-use) global ad network — it’s all built in.

beehiiv isn’t just the best choice. It’s the only choice that makes sense.

Start free today. No credit card required

Hello!

Welcome to a new edition of “On the Net Today”, the newsletter where every Friday we share a selection of useful and interesting resources to help you get the most out of the internet and make the best use of your browsing time.

This is our final issue of 2025 before we take a short break. We’ll be back in your inbox on Friday, January 9, 2026.

We want to thank you for reading and following us so attentively, and we wish you a very happy holiday season and all the best for the new year 2026!

Here are the topics we’ve prepared for today:

• 👩‍💻 Most Engaging Stories in 2025

• 🗓️ Cultural Advent Calendar by Google

• 🧰 Selection of free and paid AI Tools for work or business

• ⏭️ In brief

• 🤔 Express Quiz

• 💡Recommended by: María José Arrojo

👩‍💻 Most Engaging Stories in 2025

Each year at this time, the web analytics company Chartbeat offers a very interesting special feature in which it compiles the news and stories published throughout the year that have had the highest engagement among users. What is measured is "Engaged Time," understood as the total time users have been actively reading a particular piece of content.

To create this ranking, Chartbeat has analyzed more than 41 million pieces published by media outlets around the world that use its analytics services. 

The most engaging story of the year comes from Stephanie Giang-Paunon, Christina Shaw, and Lauryn Overhultz at Fox News for their reporting into the mysterious circumstances surrounding Gene Hackman and his wife’s deaths. The second most engaging story is The Atlantic’s The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans and the third is The New York Times’ She Was Ready to Have Her 15th Child. Then Came the Felony Charges.

The Chartbeat team says when analyzing the list that “Coverage of high-profile deaths, like those of beloved actors Gene Hackman and Diane Keaton, drove massive readership, as did reporting on violent flashpoints like the Charlie Kirk shooting. Audiences also flocked to investigations into Trump-era national security lapses, clashes inside the GOP, and the expanding web of stories tied to Elon Musk and Jeffrey Epstein. At the same time, deeply human narratives, from families navigating health crises to communities upended by extreme weather, showed how personal vulnerability also shaped some of the year’s most resonant stories.”

BBC had the most entries on the list among the top 110.

These are the top ten on the list:

1. FOX NEWS | Gene Hackman and wife’s deaths called ‘suspicious,’ bodies showed signs of ‘mummification’

2. THE ATLANTIC | The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans

3. THE NEW YORK TIMES | She Was Ready to Have Her 15th Child. Then Came the Felony Charges.

4. ABC NEWS | Officials release video, plead for public’s help in tracking down person of interest in Charlie Kirk shooting

5. BBC | Death of Hackman and wife ‘suspicious enough’ for investigation, police say

6. THE NEW YORK TIMES | Inside the Explosive Meeting Where Trump Officials Clashed With Elon Musk

7. THE NEW YORK TIMES | It’s Just a Virus, the E.R. Told Him. Days Later, He Was Dead.

8. CNN | A ‘bright star’ helicopter pilot, a daughter of immigrants and figure skating champions are among DC air collision victims

9. BBC | Isas, cars and pensions: How the Budget affects you

10. CNN | What we know about Charlie Kirk shooting suspect Tyler Robinson

And here you can browse the complete special feature with the 110 stories with the highest accumulated reading time this year: 2025 Most Engaging Stories

Links:

• The Most Engaging Stories of 2025 – Chartbeat press release

• 2025 Most Engaging Stories – Especial de Chartbeat special feature

🗓️ Cultural Advent Calendar by Google

Google Arts & Culture is publishing a cultural advent calendar during this month of December in which each day, until December 25th, it offers us a cultural surprise.

These were the surprises for the first three days:

• Winter through Bruegel’s eyes

• 11 Stops in a Journey Across Antarctica

• The Nutcracker and the Cuddly Mouse

We invite you to discover the rest.

You will find it by scrolling on the homepage Google Arts & Culture, a space offered by Google that houses a multitude of artistic and cultural creations and experiments.

It is well worth taking a look and enjoying the multimedia creations it contains.

Link: 

• Google Arts & Culture

🧰 Selection of free and paid AI Tools for work or business

Today we recommend downloading a free guide published by the company HubSpot (basic registration data is required) in which more than 40 free and paid AI tools are analyzed and compared across numerous categories.

We found it to be a very valuable resource as it allows you to discover a long list of tools that can be very useful for any professional or business.

The tools are organized into five major groups: productivity, marketing, sales, creation, and AI assistants. For each of them, numerous specific categories are mentioned, each with its recommended paid tool and free tool.

For example, for the productivity tools group, there are categories such as learning, online meetings, or project management, among others. Or for the marketing tools group, there are categories such as analytics, content optimization, email marketing, keywords, SEO, social media management, or presentations, among others.

You can download the guide from the following link:

• 40+ AI Tools: Find the Best Free & Paid Options

⏭️ In brief

• Artlist AI Trend Report 2026: Based on insights from 6,500 creators across 140 countries and creative industry experts, these five trends reveal the biggest growth opportunities in 2026.

• A piece of news that demonstrates the growing relevance of audiovisual streaming platforms is the agreement signed by the Oscars with YouTube: starting in 2029, the awards will be broadcast exclusively on YouTube: The Academy partners with YouTube for exclusive global rights to the Oscars® and other Academy content starting in 2029

• These are the winners of The Game Awards 2025, held at the Peacock Theater on Dec. 11 in L.A. This year, Sandfall Interactive and Kepler Interactive’s “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33” received top honors as the 2025 Game of the Year award recipient. 

• Last weekend, The New York Times published an incredible story in the form of an interactive multimedia feature that we invite you to view through the following free link, courtesy of "On the Net Today":

  • How Did the C.I.A. Lose a Nuclear Device? A plutonium-packed generator disappeared on one of the world’s highest mountains in a covert mission that the U.S. will not talk about.

    

• Google has announced improvements related to real-time translation on Android mobile devices:

  • Bringing state-of-the-art Gemini translation capabilities to Google Translate
    We’re bringing Gemini’s most powerful translation capabilities to Google Translate for text, launching a beta experience for live speech-to-speech translations with headphones, and adding new languages to the app for practice and skill building.

• 14 Big Ideas for 2026. 14 investors and operating partners from a16z speedrun share their ideas about what 2026 will bring in the business world.

🤔 Express Quiz

Email is one of the oldest and most essential tools on the internet. In 1971, a computer engineer developed, within the ARPANET project (the precursor network to the internet), a system that allowed messages to be sent between users of different computers connected to the same network.

This system introduced a key element that is still used today: the @ symbol, which was used to separate the user's name from the machine or domain name. The choice of this symbol was due to various reasons: although it was present on keyboards, it was rarely used; moreover, it clearly separated user and machine; and in English, the name of the symbol, "at," which means "at," fit its function perfectly.

A technology had been born that, years later, would move billions of messages daily and has become an essential element for personal and professional communication.

In last week's quiz, we asked about the meaning of Yahoo's acronym. The correct answer was "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle"

💡 Recommended by: María José Arrojo

• Recommended resource: Runway

• Why?

I would like to recommend the AI image and video generation tool Runway, especially suited for creating animation and moving shots. Its ability to generate video from text or images allows for the construction of dynamic sequences, with smooth transitions and coherent visual language. It excels in smooth camera movements, cinematic-style shot changes, and animations with a strong aesthetic quality, making it a very interesting option for storytelling projects, marketing, and creative exploration. Additionally, Runway offers a free plan that allows users to explore some of its basic features at no initial cost, generate small video clips, and become familiar with the platform before opting for a more advanced subscription plan.

In partnership with:

Want to get the most out of ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a superpower if you know how to use it correctly.

Discover how HubSpot's guide to AI can elevate both your productivity and creativity to get more things done.

Learn to automate tasks, enhance decision-making, and foster innovation with the power of AI.

Download the free guide.

Build AI agents with your voice. Automate in minutes.

With Lindy, you can build AI agents and apps simply by describing what you want, like:

"Create a booking platform for my business."
"Automate my sales outreach."

From inbound lead qualification to customer support, Lindy has tons of agents to streamline your workflows.

Get $20 Worth of Free Credits

If you're visiting the newsletter directly on the web or it's been forwarded to you and want to receive it directly in your inbox for free, click below:

That's all for today. See you in a week!