One of the most well-developed online resources used by anyone in the urban planning field is Planetizen, a website dedicated to all things related to planning, design, and development. It functions as a “one-stop source for urban planning news, commentary, interviews, event coverage, book reviews, announcements, jobs, consultant listings, training, and more.” I subscribe to Planetizen Newswire, their twice-weekly newsletter, and every time they do a great job of collecting and distributing a wide assortment of articles concerning a large variety of issues from a diversity of sources all over the globe.

Planetizen is considered to be “the world's most popular urban planning website.” As a self-described site of “public-interest information exchange,” you can find almost anything you need to know about planning, design, and development through their website. What’s unique about Planetizen is that it mostly points you in the right direction to millions of other websites, resources, opportunities, and guides rather than writing information on their own. They do have an Op-Ed and a Blog section of their website dedicated to articles and websites which may contain biased information, but it is clear that they keep the straightforward news information separate from the opinion pieces. It is all about organizing and distributing useful, practical information in one place with them.
Because of their role as an information exchange center, Planetizen was developed to be a very objective source. If there is a pertinent article that can be found relating to urban planning, Planetizen will distribute it, despite where it comes from or what “side” it takes. They update the site daily, and have the most current articles and links available. The site is simply formatted, and very easy to navigate and utilize, especially considering the amount of information it supplies to the public. Aesthetically Planetizen has a very basic layout with a solid blue border and a few advertisements for planning books, schools, and programs, but this plainness speaks to the fact that Planetizen’s main focus is on the information it provides.

The website is followed by “a diverse array of people interested in the built and natural environments, and their interaction…[including] professional urban planners, developers, architects, policy makers, educators, economists, civic enthusiasts and others from across the United States and around the world.” While a lot of professionals involved with urban planning utilize Planetizen as a resource for accessing news and other information, anyone can benefit from using the website as a resource for extremely relevant, compelling information about what is going on in cities across the world today.